# n8n vs Rivet.dev

n8n records 4,522,449 monthly visits with -7.4% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. Rivet.dev records 21,359 monthly visits with -44.3% growth and Freemium, Contact for Pricing pricing.

| Metric | [n8n](https://openaitools.app/tool/n8n) | [Rivet.dev](https://openaitools.app/tool/rivet-dev) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://n8n.io | https://rivet.dev |
| Categories | AI Workflow, AI Agent, No-Code&Low-Code, AI Developer Tools | AI Agent, AI Workflow, AI Developer Tools, AI App Builder |
| Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium, Contact for Pricing |
| Monthly Visits | 4,522,449 | 21,359 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -7.4% | -44.3% |
| Primary Market | India | United States |
| Direct Visits | 1,565,199 | 10,710 |
| Review Score | 4.7 | 4.5 |
| Saved Count | 4 | 0 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## n8n

n8n is a workflow automation platform built for technical teams who want automation they can actually read and audit. Rather than hiding logic behind opaque configuration, every step stays open: you can see what a node does and explain the whole flow to whoever runs it. It combines a drag-and-drop visual builder with the ability to drop into code at any point, so simple tasks stay simple while complex ones remain possible.

A major focus of the current product is AI agents. You can connect any model, watch an agent work step by step in the same workflow view, open past runs, and constrain behaviour with structured inputs and outputs, rule-based automation and human-in-the-loop approval gates. That makes it practical to put agents into processes like refund handling, alert triage, lead qualification and security investigation without losing control.

n8n is open source and can be self-hosted on-prem or with Docker to keep data in your own environment, or used as a hosted service. Enterprise capabilities add SSO with SAML and LDAP, RBAC, encrypted secret stores, audit logs, log streaming to SIEM systems, isolated environments and Git-based control. Integrations span 500+ native services, arbitrary HTTP APIs and MCP connections to agents and coding assistants.

**Pricing & Plans:** n8n offers a free self-hosted open-source edition, a paid cloud service with a free trial, tiered paid plans, and enterprise pricing on request. Feature limits scale with plan tier, so check the official pricing page for current details.

- **Visual builder with code escape hatch:** Build automations with a visual node editor, then insert JavaScript or Python code nodes when you need custom logic.
- **500+ integrations and any API:** Connect to 500+ native services, any REST API via HTTP nodes, and any agent or coding assistant through MCP.
- **AI agents you can follow and trust:** Run agents alongside regular steps, inspect every decision, and add structured inputs, guardrails and human approval steps.
- **Observability and reproducible runs:** Watch workflows execute live, open past runs, replay a run with mocked data and re-run just the step that failed.
- **Self-host or cloud with governance:** Deploy on your own infrastructure with Docker or on-prem, or use the hosted cloud product, with version history and RBAC.

**Strengths:** Open source and self-hostable, keeping data in your own environment; Visual builder plus full code access for complex workflows; Strong observability: live runs, past-run inspection and step-level retries; 500+ integrations and generic HTTP nodes cover almost any service

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/n8n.md)

## Rivet.dev

At its core Rivet replaces the container per agent with an in-process primitive. An Actor runs inside your existing Node.js or Bun backend rather than in its own container or VM, which is why Rivet reports cold starts measured in single-digit milliseconds and a footprint of tens of kilobytes per Actor instead of hundreds of megabytes. Each Actor carries a SQLite database for memory, can access a filesystem and shell, sleeps when idle, and wakes with its durable state ready for the next request.

The platform handles the operational pieces teams usually build themselves: fault tolerance that reschedules Actors when a node goes down, multi-region placement that routes requests to wherever an Actor currently lives, end-to-end type safety where Actor definitions generate client types, and scheduling via cron or self-set timestamps. Storage is pulled apart into two tiers — a fast SSD for instant writes and object storage that settles writes at a fraction of the cost — so running many small databases stays affordable.

Rivet positions itself as infrastructure for the "agentic era" and can be deployed as a managed cloud, inside your own VPC through a bring-your-own-cloud model, or fully self-hosted down to air-gapped networks. It is open source under Apache 2.0, backed by Y Combinator and a16z Speedrun, and integrates with popular coding agents and frameworks.

**Pricing & Plans:** Rivet Cloud uses a plan-plus-nodes model. The control plane is Free ($0) for prototyping, Hobby at $10/month, Team at $120/month, and Enterprise at $900/month, each raising control-plane redundancy, Actor Node caps, and support. Actor Nodes are billed per month on top, from $4.20 (R-5) to $94.50 (R-160). Self-hosting is free and open source under Apache 2.0, and startups from Y Combinator or a16z Speedrun get 50% off the Team plan for 12 months.

- **Durable actors with persistent state:** Every Actor gets a SQLite database and a filesystem, so an agent's memory and progress survive restarts and idle periods without a separate database.
- **Lightweight secure sandboxing:** Run untrusted or AI-generated code on your own infrastructure with fine-grained control over network access, filesystem permissions, and resource limits.
- **Fault tolerance and workflows:** A node failure reschedules its Actors elsewhere with state intact, and multi-step work replays after a crash — with no checkpointing harness to build yourself.
- **Realtime and multiplayer:** Address an Actor directly over HTTP or hold a live WebSocket, and use the React SDK to subscribe components to an Actor's state in real time.
- **One-binary deployment and observability:** Ship with a single stateless Rust binary, embeds storage in S3-compatible buckets, and emits OpenTelemetry traces, metrics, and logs to your existing collector.

**Strengths:** Four-digit millisecond cold starts and a very small per-Actor memory footprint let a single server host far more agents; Open source (Apache 2.0) with a single Rust binary, so it can be self-hosted, run in a VPC, or air-gapped; Durable state via per-Actor SQLite plus object-storage-backed tiers keeps agents restart-safe and cheap; Strong developer ergonomics: typed SDKs, a React SDK, WebSocket networking, and OpenTelemetry baked in

**Limitations:** Requires Node.js or Bun and a working Rust-based control plane deployment for self-hosting, so it favors backend engineers over no-code users; Advanced durability and sandboxing concepts (Actors, WarpDrive storage) carry a learning curve; Managed cloud cost scales with Actor Nodes, which can climb for many mid-sized/sized nodes; Enterprise features like multi-tenancy and hardened compliance guidance sit behind sales conversations

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/rivet-dev.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do n8n and Rivet.dev compare in monthly traffic?

n8n has 4,522,449 monthly visits, while Rivet.dev has 21,359. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

n8n has a month-over-month growth rate of -7.4%; Rivet.dev has -44.3%.

### How does pricing compare?

n8n: Freemium. n8n offers a free self-hosted open-source edition, a paid cloud service with a free trial, tiered paid plans, and enterprise pricing on request. Feature limits scale with plan tier, so check the official pricing page for current details. Rivet.dev: Freemium, Contact for Pricing. Rivet Cloud uses a plan-plus-nodes model. The control plane is Free ($0) for prototyping, Hobby at $10/month, Team at $120/month, and Enterprise at $900/month, each raising control-plane redundancy, Actor Node caps, and support. Actor Nodes are billed per month on top, from $4.20 (R-5) to $94.50 (R-160). Self-hosting is free and open source under Apache 2.0, and startups from Y Combinator or a16z Speedrun get 50% off the Team plan for 12 months.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [Zapier](https://openaitools.app/tool/zapier-com) | 5,065,248 | +0.4% | Freemium, Free Trial, Paid | Unmatched ecosystem of app connectors and reliability, but significantly more expensive and lacks n8n's self-hosting freedom. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/zapier-com.md) |
| 2 | [MindStudio](https://openaitools.app/tool/mindstudio) | 1,793,337 | +14.2% | Contact for Pricing | No-code builder for custom AI agents and workflows | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/mindstudio.md) |
| 3 | [Dify](https://openaitools.app/tool/dify-ai) | 819,691 | -15% | Freemium | Outstanding open-source visual canvas for RAG pipelines and LLM agents, but less suited for general API integrations. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/dify-ai.md) |
| 4 | [Dust](https://openaitools.app/tool/dust) | 547,217 | +1.8% | Contact for Pricing | Multiplayer AI where people and agents work side by side | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/dust.md) |
| 5 | [Taskade](https://openaitools.app/tool/taskade) | 539,714 | -9.4% | Freemium | Turn one prompt into live business apps, AI agents and automated workflows | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/taskade.md) |
| 6 | [Gumloop](https://openaitools.app/tool/gumloop) | 379,557 | -21.1% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | Powerful visual builder specifically tailored for complex AI agent workflows, but less mature for traditional enterprise automation. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/gumloop.md) |
| 7 | [Mastra](https://openaitools.app/tool/mastra) | 318,954 | -5% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | The TypeScript framework for building, deploying, and observing AI agents | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/mastra.md) |
| 8 | [Pipedream](https://openaitools.app/tool/pipedream) | 312,216 | -14.3% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | Developer-first integration platform with granular code control, but lacks n8n's visual node-based workflow builder. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/pipedream.md) |
| 9 | [Tines](https://openaitools.app/tool/tines) | 273,260 | +24.4% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | Enterprise-grade security and robust workflow automation, but less focused on open-source self-hosting and consumer use cases. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/tines.md) |
| 10 | [Activepieces](https://openaitools.app/tool/activepieces) | 258,553 | +1.5% | Freemium | An open-source no-code automation tool with a clean interface, but fewer native app integrations than n8n. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/activepieces.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/n8n-vs-rivet-dev

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)