OpenClaw vs. n8n: Which AI Automation Tool Is Right for You?

What is OpenClaw: an AI agent that actually does things

OpenClaw is a free, open-source AI agent framework originally created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger in November 2025. The project started as a weekend experiment called Clawdbot, was briefly renamed Moltbot after trademark discussions with Anthropic, and finally settled on OpenClaw in January 2026. In the weeks that followed, the GitHub repository exploded past 220,000 stars, making it one of the fastest-growing open-source projects in history. Steinberger announced in February 2026 that he would be joining OpenAI, with the project transitioning to an independent open-source foundation.

So what's OpenClaw AI, exactly? At its core, it's a local-first gateway that connects large language models (Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, and others) to your operating system, messaging platforms, and external services. The key difference between OpenClaw and a standard chatbot is autonomy. Rather than waiting for a prompt and returning text, an OpenClaw AI agent can proactively execute tasks on your behalf, including sending emails, managing calendars, running shell commands, browsing the web, and controlling smart home devices.

How OpenClaw works under the hood

The architecture is built around 3 layers. The gateway runs locally on your machine and acts as the control plane for all agent activity. It connects outward to your chosen LLM provider via API key and inward to your preferred messaging channels, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, Slack, Signal, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, and more. You interact with your OpenClaw agent the same way you would text a colleague.

The third layer is skills, which are modular plugins installed from ClawHub, the community-driven skill registry. Skills extend what the agent can do, from managing GitHub pull requests to scraping web data with Decodo's OpenClaw scraper skill. The agent also maintains persistent memory across sessions, meaning it learns your preferences and context over time.

What OpenClaw can do

The practical applications are (almost) limitless. Developers use OpenClaw to automate debugging, manage pull requests, and run cron jobs. Personal productivity use cases include inbox organization, calendar management, note-taking across tools like Obsidian and Notion, and even smart home control. Some users have configured their agents to handle research tasks, drafting summaries from web sources, and delivering them via Telegram or WhatsApp.

Because OpenClaw is model-agnostic, you can connect it to frontier models like Claude Opus, GPT-4o, or open-weight alternatives through Ollama for fully local inference. The community has also adapted the framework to work with DeepSeek and domestic messaging apps in China, reflecting the project's global reach.

Getting started with OpenClaw

Installing OpenClaw requires a terminal and a few minutes. The CLI-based setup works on macOS, Linux, and Windows (via WSL2), and the onboarding wizard walks you through gateway configuration, channel pairing, and skill installation. You'll also need an API key from your preferred LLM provider. The recommended installation command is simple:

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

curl -fsSL https://openclaw.ai/install.sh | bash

For a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough, including how to install OpenClaw, pair it with Telegram, and set up the Decodo scraper skill, see the full OpenClaw and Decodo setup guide.

What is n8n: Visual workflow automation for teams

n8n is an open-source workflow automation platform that takes a fundamentally different approach from OpenClaw. Instead of a chat-driven AI agent, n8n provides a visual, drag-and-drop canvas where you build workflows by connecting modular nodes. Each node represents a specific action, such as fetching data from an API, transforming JSON, sending a Slack message, or updating a database row.

The platform has been around since 2019, growing steadily into a mature ecosystem with over 1.3K built-in integrations, an active community, and thousands of pre-built workflow templates. n8n supports both a managed cloud service and self-hosted deployment, giving teams flexibility in how they run their automations.

How n8n workflows work

Every n8n workflow starts with a trigger node that defines when the workflow runs, whether that is on a schedule, via webhook, or based on an event in a connected app. From there, data flows through a chain of action nodes. The HTTP Request node is one of the most widely used, allowing workflows to fetch data from any URL or API endpoint. Additional nodes handle HTML parsing, data splitting, conditional logic, and output to destinations like Google Sheets, MySQL databases, or file exports. There are also web scraping nodes, like Decodo's, that allow n8n to connect n8n to the web, helping the agent to get the latest data.

For teams that need a hands-on tutorial on using n8n for web data extraction, including proxy setup and pagination handling, the n8n web scraping guide guides you through the whole process.

n8n AI capabilities

n8n has invested heavily in AI features over the past year. The AI Agent node uses LangChain-powered reasoning to make decisions and call external tools autonomously within a workflow. You can connect it to LLM providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or HuggingFace, add memory nodes for multi-turn conversations, and attach tool nodes for web search, database queries, or custom API calls.

Recent updates also introduced human-in-the-loop controls, allowing teams to require manual approval before an AI agent executes high-impact actions like deleting records or sending emails.

OpenClaw vs. n8n

Both tools are open-source and capable of serious automation, but they approach the problem from opposite directions. Here's a quick comparison of all features:

Architecture and design philosophy

The most fundamental difference comes down to what each tool treats as the primary driver of automation. 

OpenClaw puts the LLM at the center. You describe what you want in natural language, and the agent figures out which tools to call, what sequence to follow, and how to handle edge cases. The agent can even write its own code to create new skills when no existing plugin covers the task.

n8n puts the workflow at the center. You define the logic explicitly, connecting nodes in a visual canvas. The AI Agent node can add reasoning to specific parts of the workflow, but the overall structure is static and predictable. This makes n8n workflows easier to audit, debug, and hand off to team members who didn't build them.

Here's an example: monitoring competitor prices. In n8n, you would build a workflow with a scraper node connected, then schedule triggers, a comparison node to detect changes, and an output node to send alerts via Slack or email. Every step is visible, testable, and reproducible. In OpenClaw, you would need to add a scraper skill, message your agent, and ask it to check competitor prices and notify you of changes. The agent figures out the execution path on its own, makes a request to an API, and returns data, which is faster to set up but harder to audit or guarantee consistency across runs.

Security considerations

Security is an area where the 2 tools have differences. OpenClaw's power comes with risk. Because the agent can access email accounts, calendars, file systems, and shell commands, misconfigured instances have been flagged by security researchers at CrowdStrike and Cisco for prompt injection vulnerabilities and data exfiltration risks. One of OpenClaw's own maintainers has publicly cautioned that users who aren't comfortable with command-line tools should approach the project carefully.

n8n, having been in production use since 2019, offers a more mature enterprise security model. Self-hosted deployments keep all data within your infrastructure, and paid plans include SSO, role-based access control, encrypted credentials, and audit logging. While no automation platform is immune to misconfiguration, n8n's governance tooling is a better match for projects with strict compliance requirements.

Pricing comparison: OpenClaw vs. n8n

Both tools are free to self-host, but their cost structures scale differently depending on how you use them.

OpenClaw pricing

OpenClaw itself is completely free and open-source under the MIT license. There's no subscription, no execution limit, and no feature gating.

However, running OpenClaw requires an API key from a large language model provider, and those API calls are where the real costs accumulate. Estimates based on community reports suggest costs of roughly $0.50 to $2.00 per 100 tasks when using Claude Sonnet, though this varies by model, context length, and task complexity. You'll also need infrastructure to keep the gateway running 24/7, whether that's a personal machine, a Raspberry Pi, or a cloud server.

n8n pricing

n8n offers a free self-hosted Community Edition with unlimited workflows and unlimited executions, making it one of the most cost-effective options for teams comfortable managing their own infrastructure. For the managed cloud service, n8n pricing breaks down as follows:

• Starter: $24/month for 2.5K executions
• Pro: $60/month for 10K executions
• Business: $960/month for 40K executions, with SSO and enterprise features

One critical detail about n8n pricing is the execution-based billing model. An execution counts as a single run of your entire workflow, regardless of how many nodes or steps are involved. A workflow with 5 steps and a workflow with 50 steps both count as one execution. This makes costs more predictable compared to platforms like Zapier, which charge per individual action.

The key difference – n8n's cost scales with execution volume, while OpenClaw's cost scales with LLM API usage. If you run a handful of complex AI tasks daily, OpenClaw may be cheaper. If you run thousands of structured automations monthly, n8n's self-hosted tier is hard to beat.

When to choose OpenClaw vs. n8n

The right tool depends on what kind of automation you need. Both platforms aren't direct competitors, and in many cases, they complement each other.

Choose OpenClaw when you need a personal AI assistant

OpenClaw excels as a proactive, always-on assistant that works through the messaging apps you already use. It is the stronger choice when your automation needs are:

• Conversational and ad hoc when you want to describe tasks in natural language rather than building explicit workflows
• Proactive when you need an agent that monitors your inbox, triages messages, and surfaces issues before you ask
• Privacy-focused, so the local-first architecture keeps all data on your hardware
• Developer-oriented when you're comfortable with CLI tools, API keys, and managing a local gateway

Common OpenClaw use cases include email monitoring, calendar management, code review automation, research tasks, and DevOps monitoring. The agent can also write its own skills to handle tasks that no existing plugin covers. OpenClaw also has its very own Skills and community ecosystem, so users can cut time thinking about the workflows from scratch and grab an idea from the active community.

Choose n8n when you need structured workflows

n8n is the better fit when your automation needs are:

• Repeatable and predictable when you need workflows that run the same way every time, on a schedule, or in response to specific triggers
• Team-oriented, so multiple people can view, edit, and maintain the same automations
• Managed or cloud-hosted, so you don't need to set up your own server
• Integration-heavy if you're looking to connect dozens of apps, APIs, and databases into multi-step data pipelines

Common n8n use cases include scheduled data extraction, CRM syncing, eCommerce price monitoring, lead generation pipelines, automated reporting, and content workflows. The visual builder makes these automations transparent, auditable, and easy to modify.

n8n templates and community ecosystem

One of n8n's practical advantages is its template library, which offers thousands of pre-built workflows submitted by the community. These templates cover everything from simple data syncing to advanced multi-step AI agent pipelines.

You can import a template into your workspace with a single click, add your own credentials, and adjust the flow to match your specific requirements. This dramatically reduces the time needed to go from idea to working automation.

The n8n community also maintains n8n Arena, a showcase of contributed workflows sorted by popularity. Combined with the official documentation and active forums, the ecosystem provides strong support for both beginners and advanced users.

Can you use OpenClaw and n8n together?

These tools are at different layers of the automation stack, and there is nothing stopping you from running both. A practical setup might look like this – use n8n for your scheduled, production-grade workflows (data pipelines, CRM syncs, price monitoring), and use OpenClaw as your personal AI assistant that handles ad hoc tasks, manages your inbox, and runs quick research queries via chat.

You could even connect both of these AI tools. n8n supports webhook triggers, meaning your OpenClaw agent could kick off an n8n workflow when certain conditions are met. For example, OpenClaw might detect a request in your Telegram chat, then trigger an n8n pipeline to scrape a list of URLs and deliver the results to Google Sheets, all without you touching either tool's interface directly.

Scalability and business use cases

How well each platform scales depends on the type of work you need to automate and the size of the team using it. Both tools can grow with your needs, but their scalability profiles look very different in practice.

n8n is purpose-built for business automation at scale. Its suite of features, including unlimited users on all plans, unlimited workflows, role-based access, and Git-based version control on the Business tier, makes it a natural fit for growing teams. Whether you are routing customer interactions to a CRM, running forecast accuracy checks against a database, or monitoring inventory levels across warehouses, n8n’s deterministic workflow engine handles repeatable processes reliably. The platform also supports queue-mode scaling, which lets you distribute executions across multiple worker nodes to handle traffic spikes without downtime. For enterprise features like SSO, audit logging, and dedicated support, the Business and Enterprise task tiers deliver what larger organizations expect.

OpenClaw’s scalability story is different. It was designed as a personal AI assistant, and its architecture reflects that. Each OpenClaw instance runs a single gateway on a single machine, optimized for one user. That said, the open-source community has found ways to scale horizontally, deploying multiple instances across a team with separate configurations and API keys. For small teams and solo operators, OpenClaw’s user-friendly interface through messaging apps makes it easily accessible. However, organizations that need centralized workforce optimization, coordinated workflows across different teams, or unified monitoring dashboards will find n8n’s team-first design more practical.

Platform matching matters here – if your use case is personal productivity, OpenClaw scales as far as one person’s needs go. If your use case is business process automation, n8n provides the infrastructure to grow.

Control and data ownership

Data ownership and infrastructure control are critical factors for developers and organizations operating under privacy regulations or strict compliance frameworks. Both OpenClaw and n8n offer self-hosted deployment, but the way they handle data processes and governance differs.

OpenClaw takes a local-first approach where all data, including conversation history, memory files, credentials, and tool outputs, stays on your hardware unless you explicitly configure external services. This keeps developers in control of every piece of information the agent touches. There is no cloud dependency and no vendor lock-in. If you decide to stop using OpenClaw, your data remains on your machine. For privacy-conscious users and teams handling sensitive data processes in regulated environments, this model is compelling. However, because OpenClaw relies on third-party LLM APIs for inference, the prompts and context you send to those providers are governed by each provider’s data policies, not OpenClaw’s.

n8n also supports full self-hosted deployment, giving teams the option to run on their infrastructure with complete data sovereignty. Advanced workflows, credentials, and execution logs all stay within your environment when self-hosted. The cloud option, naturally, involves hosting on n8n’s servers, but even there, n8n provides encrypted credentials, SOC 2-compliant infrastructure, and GDPR-aligned data handling.

For organizations that need to meet strict compliance audits or operate in environments where complex logic and data processes must remain on-premises, n8n’s self-hosted edition with its enterprise governance features (SSO, RBAC, audit trails) offers a more turnkey solution than OpenClaw’s DIY approach. The trade-off is straightforward – OpenClaw gives you raw control with limited ownership guardrails, while n8n provides structured control with built-in compliance tooling.

Suitability and limitations

No automation tool is universally ideal, and understanding where each platform falls short is just as important as knowing where it excels. Here’s an honest look at the scenarios where OpenClaw or n8n may not be the best match.

Here are situations when OpenClaw can be more frustrating than helpful:

• Mission-critical finance workflows. Because OpenClaw relies on LLM reasoning, which is probabilistic rather than deterministic, it is not suitable for workflows where predictability and stability are non-negotiable. Automated trading, compliance reporting, and financial reconciliation require exact, reproducible outputs every time.
• Regulated environments with audit requirements. OpenClaw doesn’t provide built-in audit logging, role-based access, or formal compliance certifications. Organizations subject to SOC 2, HIPAA, or similar audits will need to build that layer themselves.
• Teams without technical capabilities. The CLI-based setup, API key management, and sandboxing configuration require comfort with command-line tools and DevOps fundamentals. Non-technical teams may struggle without dedicated technical support.
• Customer support tools at scale. While OpenClaw can handle individual support tasks, it lacks the multi-agent orchestration, ticket routing, and SLA tracking that dedicated customer support platforms provide.

However, n8n also has use cases when it falls short:

• Autonomous, proactive automation. n8n workflows are reactive. They run when triggered, not proactively. If you need an agent that monitors your environment and acts without explicit prompting, n8n’s architecture does not support that pattern natively.
• Budget constraints on cloud plans. While the self-hosted edition is free, n8n’s cloud pricing can escalate quickly for high-volume use cases. The Business plan at €800/month is a significant commitment for startups and small teams.
• Complex AI reasoning without structure. n8n’s AI Agent node is powerful within a workflow context, but it requires you to define the workflow structure upfront. Ad hoc, open-ended tasks that require creative problem-solving are better handled by a dedicated AI agent like OpenClaw.
• Automation complexity requirements beyond the visual building. For extremely complex data transformations or custom logic that goes beyond what nodes can express, you may end up writing JavaScript or Python inside Code nodes, which reduces the low-code advantage.

The honest opinion – OpenClaw is best treated as a powerful personal tool that you configure carefully and monitor regularly. n8n is a great choice as production infrastructure that you build once and rely on for repeatable execution.

Bottom line

OpenClaw and n8n represent 2 different visions for automation in 2026. OpenClaw is an AI-first agent that thrives on autonomy, natural language interaction, and proactive task execution. n8n is a workflow-first platform that excels at structured, repeatable, team-friendly automation with a visual interface.

Neither tool replaces the other. The right choice depends on whether you need a personal AI assistant (OpenClaw), a scalable workflow engine (n8n), or both.

Ready to get started? Explore the full OpenClaw and Decodo setup guide or dive into the n8n web scraping tutorial to see each tool in action.