Huginn
Automation
Build agents that monitor and act on your behalf.
Actively maintained
Real momentum
MIT
Free node based Workflow Automation Tool. Easily automate tasks across different services.
n8n is an open-source automation project positioned as an alternative to Zapier, with 201k GitHub stars and a health score of 100/100. It committed 7889 times in the last twelve months across 12 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: Apache-2.0, Commons-Clause. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.
| Status | Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days. |
|---|---|
| Last commit | 2026-08-15 |
| Days since last commit | 2 |
| Commits, last 3 months | 2855 |
| Commits, last 12 months | 7889 |
| Months with activity | 12 of 12 |
| Last release | 2026-08-14 |
| Archived | No |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, Commons-Clause |
| Category | Automation |
| Positioned against | Zapier |
Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.
Source-available (BSL, SSPL, Commons Clause): readable but not open source. Commercial use is usually restricted — read the licence before building on it.
This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.
n8n is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.
Assume every prospect can find a free version in five minutes. Your wedge has to be something open source structurally cannot deliver: compliance, support SLAs, managed hosting at scale, or a workflow the maintainers refuse to build.
Actively maintained. n8n recorded 7889 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 12 of those months and 2855 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-15. Last release: 2026-08-14. Committed within the last 45 days.
n8n is published under Apache-2.0, Commons-Clause. Source-available (BSL, SSPL, Commons Clause): readable but not open source. Commercial use is usually restricted — read the licence before building on it.
n8n targets the same job as Zapier and is actively shipping. Adoption sits at 201k stars. Whether it is a good replacement depends on your deployment constraints: self-hosting adds infrastructure, upgrade and security work that a commercial subscription absorbs for you.
34 open-source implementations, 15 of them actively maintained, led by n8n at 201k stars. Saturation score 64/100 — Crowded. Free, maintained alternatives already dominate this category.
Automation
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