Gumloop or n8n? Start with who will build it.
Gumloop lets anyone at the company build AI agents under IT's rules. n8n gives technical teams a workflow canvas they can run on their own servers. Cedric is a third answer, with nothing to build. Checked on gumloop.com and n8n.io on 25 September 2026.
- Gumloop is an agent builder for the whole company. The person who knows the job sets up the agent, and IT sets the limits.
- n8n is a workflow canvas for engineers. They wire each step, write code where they need it, and can host the whole thing themselves.
- Pick n8n for fixed processes, high volume, or data that must stay in-house. Pick Gumloop when many non-technical people want agents of their own.
- n8n bills one execution per full run. Gumloop bills the list cost of models and tools, plus 8%.
- Cedric takes the job as a request in chat. You say what you need in a sentence, and he plans the steps himself.
What each one is
Gumloop calls itself "the multiplayer AI agent builder", where anyone can build agents "with any AI model, any integration while IT controls access". An agent has instructions, connectors, skills and triggers. A new one starts from a single question, what it should take care of, and the builder then connects the apps, writes the instructions and offers a trigger. People reach agents by mentioning them in Slack or Microsoft Teams, or in their inbox, where agents draft and triage.
Governance fills much of Gumloop's homepage. It is SOC 2 Type II, with spend caps per agent, team or organization, audit logs, SAML SSO and SCIM. Rules written in plain English can block, tag or log an action before it runs. The pricing page adds 35+ models, your own API keys, a Company Brain and, on Enterprise, a deployment inside your own AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
n8n's headline is "AI agents and workflows you can see and control", and it is written for technical teams. Where a Gumloop agent chooses its own steps, an n8n workflow runs the steps someone drew, with AI agent steps placed among them. Engineers can write JavaScript or Python anywhere, send custom API requests, and re-run one step instead of the whole flow. The site counts over 500 integrations, more than 10,000 templates and 205.9k GitHub stars.
Cedric takes a third path, with nothing to build. He is one AI teammate for the company, reached in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, Telegram or the browser. You ask for the job the way you would ask a colleague, and he plans the steps across the tools you connected. When a step would send an email, change a record or spend money, he asks first.
Side by side
Gumloop details were read on gumloop.com and n8n details on n8n.io, both on 25 September 2026.
| Gumloop | n8n | Cedric | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | An agent builder: instructions, connectors, skills, triggers | A canvas of fixed steps, with code where needed | A teammate the whole company can ask |
| How work starts | A trigger, a schedule, or a mention in chat | A trigger you set: schedule, webhook, queue | A sentence, a schedule in words, or a tool event |
| Before the first run | Someone builds the agent; the builder drafts instructions | Someone designs every step | Connect your tools once |
| Who builds | Anyone at the company, with IT setting access | Technical teams | People ask; Cedric plans the steps |
| Where it runs | Gumloop's cloud, or your own cloud on Enterprise | n8n Cloud, or your servers, air-gapped if needed | Hosted; you work with him in chat |
| Apps | 300+ connectors, plus MCP servers | 500+ integrations, plus custom API requests | 3,200+ apps, 15 with playbooks, plus your MCP tools |
| What you pay for | List cost of models, compute and tools, plus 8% | One execution per full run, any step count | Pooled team credits, no seats |
| Before it acts | Spend caps, approvals, plain-English policies | Approval steps you add to the workflow | He asks in the thread before sending or spending |
Read 25 September 2026. Gumloop lists Pro from $37 a month with 20,000 credits and a 14-day free trial, and Enterprise at custom pricing. n8n lists Starter at 20 EUR, Pro at 50 EUR and Business at 667 EUR a month billed annually, for 2,500, 10,000 and 40,000 executions. It adds a free self-hosted Community Edition. Both list unlimited seats or users.
Gumloop or n8n: how to choose
Start with who will build. n8n expects someone at home with nodes, API requests and the odd code step. Gumloop expects the person who knows the job to build the agent: the sales lead, the support manager, the recruiter. If thirty people in sales and support will make their own agents, Gumloop's owner, editor, viewer and use-only roles were made for that.
Then ask how fixed the process is. An n8n workflow runs the path you drew, every time, which is right for syncing records, routing tickets or enriching every lead the same way. A Gumloop agent picks its own steps within its connectors and skills, which suits research, drafting and questions about company data.
Hosting settles it for some teams. If data may not leave your network, n8n runs with Docker on your own servers, down to an air-gapped install, and the Community Edition is free on GitHub. Gumloop's answer is an Enterprise deployment inside your own cloud account. If nobody wants to run a server, n8n Cloud, with data in Frankfurt, and Gumloop's cloud both work.
One message
A job that runs for days, with nothing built first
Lucia Moreau9:14 AM
@Cedric onboard Hotel Aare: kickoff, intake form, folder, welcome note.
CedricAPP9:15 AM
On it. Kickoff is booked for Thursday at 14:00, and the intake form went to the four people at Hotel Aare. The folder and the Notion page are under Clients › Hotel Aare, and the welcome email is drafted for you. I'll keep the run open and nudge anyone who goes quiet.
In Gumloop
You would build an onboarding agent first, with its connectors, instructions and trigger. Worth it if you onboard a client every week.
In n8n
A workflow can model this once someone designs every branch: who replied, who gets a nudge and when, what if nobody answers by Thursday.
In Cedric
One sentence started it. The run stays open until all four have answered, and it stops at the one step that reaches the client.
Why that job is a good test
Client onboarding looks like a workflow until you try to draw it. Four people answer the form at different speeds, one of them in a direct message. The kickoff moves because the client's manager is away. Each of these is easy for a person who is watching and tedious to encode ahead of time.
Cedric keeps the run open for days in the workspace, so it does not depend on a chat window staying open. He knows who still owes a reply, and he files the folder and the Notion page where the team looks. The client onboarding page shows the whole run, and workflows that wait explains how a job lasts across days.
If you onboard a hundred clients a month the same way, build it in either tool, and the build pays for itself. If you onboard two a month and each is a little different, asking is faster than building.
Three meters
n8n is the easiest to forecast, because you count runs. An execution is one full run of a workflow, and every plan includes unlimited users, workflows and integrations. A ten-step workflow that runs 2,000 times a month uses 2,000 executions, inside Starter's 2,500. Business runs self-hosted only, Enterprise is on request, and companies under 20 employees can apply for half off Business.
Gumloop meters in credits worth $0.005 each. Every agent run bills the list price of model tokens, compute and paid API calls, plus an 8% orchestration fee. Bring your own model keys and the tokens leave your credit bill, but the fee rises to 16% of what the run would have cost. Credits do not roll over, and at the limit agents stop until you switch on pay as you go.
Cedric's credits are pooled for the whole team, with no seats to count. Starter is $19 a month for 40,000 credits, Max starts at $99, and unused plan credits carry over for a month. A new workspace starts with 100,000 free credits, worth $50, and the pricing page has every size.
None of these converts into the others, so price the shape of the job. A fixed pipeline at volume is cheapest on an execution meter. Many small agents built by many people fit a pooled budget with caps. Irregular work that someone now does by hand fits a teammate you can ask.
Where Gumloop or n8n is the better choice
Choose n8n if the data has to stay with you. It goes further than any cloud deployment: Docker on your own servers, on-prem or air-gapped, with the source on GitHub.
Choose n8n for fixed pipelines at volume. One execution per run keeps a busy ten-step workflow cheap, and engineers can version it in git and test it in separate environments.
Choose Gumloop if many people want to build agents of their own. Sharing roles, spend caps and plain-English rules let IT say yes to a hundred builders and still keep track of them.
Choose Gumloop if you want to pick the model for each agent. It lists 35+ models and your own API keys, and admins can limit which models each team uses.
FAQ
They suit different builders. Gumloop fits when non-technical staff build agents and IT wants central control over models, spend and access. n8n fits when engineers build fixed workflows, want code in the steps, or need to self-host.
Yes. The Community Edition is a standard self‑hosted version, free on GitHub. n8n Cloud has a free trial with no card required, and paid Cloud plans start at 20 EUR a month billed annually, checked on 25 September 2026.
Its pricing page, read on 25 September 2026, lists two plans: Pro from $37 a month with a 14‑day free trial, and Enterprise at custom pricing. It lists no free tier.
One run of a whole workflow, from trigger to last step. n8n's pricing page says neither the number of steps nor the amount of data processed changes that.
Yes. Split the work by who starts it: machine events go to the workflow or the agent, and requests from people go to Cedric in chat. A tool that speaks MCP can also join Cedric's toolbox, as bring your own tools shows.
Weighing more than two tools? The n8n alternatives page sets Zapier, Make, Activepieces, Power Automate, Workato and Gumloop next to each other.
Hand Cedric the next client onboarding.
100,000 free credits, no card. Try it on your next new client.
100K credits ($50) through Slack, Teams, Discord, Telegram or WhatsApp, 50K ($25) with Google. No card needed.