20 Entrepreneurs Share Their Experience Using n8n

We research digital businesses every day, if you're building in this space, get our market clarity reports

We dug through Reddit threads, Indie Hackers posts, Dev.to articles, GitHub discussions, Medium blogs, and founder case studies to find authentic n8n experiences from real entrepreneurs.

These founders shared their exact workflows, time savings, cost reductions, and honest opinions about using n8n in their businesses.

We filtered out generic testimonials and focused on stories with concrete numbers, specific implementations, and actionable advice you can actually use. If you're building a product and need clarity on your market before investing time in automation tools, check out our market clarity reports first.

In our market clarity reports, you'll always find a sharp analysis of your competitors.

Real Founder Experiences: What Actually Happened When They Used n8n

• 1. Portuguese relocation service used n8n to scale from side project to six figures

  Who:

  Bordr helps foreigners move to Portugal by handling Portuguese tax ID applications. Richard Lo and Kathleen started this as a side project in 2020, partnering with a local law firm.

  What they did and what results they got:

  They built automated workflows connecting Paperform, Postmark, Stripe, and Airtable. The workflows automatically add orders, send status emails, create tasks for their law firm, generate Power of Attorney PDFs (18-node workflow), and send completed NIF PDFs (9-node workflow). They scaled from side project to six-figure business in just months while maintaining excellent customer service through automated status updates.

  ROI and Advice:

  Richard prefers n8n over Zapier because it's "a lot more powerful" for complex workflows. His advice: "Zapier is really good if you do one-two steps, for very simple tasks" but for anything complex, "n8n is a lot more flexible in terms of maintenance over time." Use n8n as "the bigger piece that connects everything."

  Source: n8n Case Studies

• 2. Global recruitment platform cut data integration time from 2 weeks to 2 hours with n8n

  Who:

  The Stepstone Group is a large global recruitment platform handling data from job listings, analytics, and CRM systems across multiple countries.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Luka Pilic's team built 200+ mission-critical workflows connecting 50 internal data sources. They use n8n to integrate employer data in different formats, sanitize and standardize it, then integrate into Stepstone's platform. They set up two AWS instances with PostgreSQL and enhanced workflows with AI. Result: reduced integration time from 2 weeks to 2 hours (25X faster), saved 200 sprints worth of work, running 200+ workflows for 18+ months.

  ROI and Advice:

  Luka calls n8n "a Swiss Army knife in my daily work" and says "Using n8n, we can speed up the integration of data sources 25X. You cannot do this in code this quickly." His advice: "Everything is so logical with n8n. If you have basic knowledge about how your workflows run, you are able to achieve a lot in a short time. You also save money by freeing up your engineering team to focus on more complex work."

  Source: n8n Case Studies

• 3. French solopreneur built €25k LinkedIn scheduler using n8n for 70% of backend

  Who:

  Scheduled.so is a LinkedIn scheduling tool built by French solopreneur Julien. It publishes posts directly from Notion, eliminating the need to maintain content on multiple platforms.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Initially, 70% of Scheduled's backend was managed by n8n. Julien built a parser to fetch content from Notion, then workflows trigger to publish content, post comments, update Notion status, and refresh stats. Uses n8n's cron-triggered jobs for scheduling and API calls to LinkedIn and Notion. Launched August 2023, reached €25k revenue in first year (70% from lifetime deals). Uses n8n cloud at €20/month while only utilizing 30% of plan capacity.

  ROI and Advice:

  Highly positive. Three key advantages: open-source and deployable on Docker, affordable cloud pricing at €20/month, strong community support. His advice: set up proper error management. "The major effort is in building the right workflow, but once it's running, maintenance cost is very low." To deploy on another platform like Instagram or Twitter, just create a new workflow with a few connectors.

  Source: Indie Hackers

• 4. World's largest lyrics platform saved 47 days of engineering work with n8n automation

  Who:

  Musixmatch is the world's most popular lyrics provider with over 80 million active users and 1.2 million artists using Musixmatch Pro. They provide lyrics services to Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google, YouTube, Instagram, and other major platforms.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Martino Bonfiglioli (Senior Product Manager) and team built an automated data request system. They invested 2 weeks creating custom modules to access internal APIs, building internal/production environments, and a custom internal library. Non-technical users now select modules from a library that run operations, with n8n automating data fetching and analysis behind the scenes. They created 27 custom workflow modules including a complex data switch workflow that converts lyrics between different alphabets. They saved 47 days of engineering work across 4 months since production release and reduced client data request time from hours or days to 15 seconds. The alphabet conversion workflow took 1 week to build but now processes requests in 15 seconds versus manual processes.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive ROI. "With n8n, we invested in the future. We've been able to streamline daily tasks and are now so much more efficient. It's also been an investment in knowledge and improving our skill sets because n8n's low-code platform enables all of our teams to participate." Their advice: track your workflows and estimate time savings (they estimate 1 minute per simple query manually), empower non-technical staff to be autonomous with data, build a library of reusable modules, and plan to explore AI agents and combine existing modules for more complex workflows.

  Source: n8n Case Studies

• 5. Global delivery platform saves 200 hours monthly with n8n employee account recovery automation

  Who:

  Delivery Hero is the world's leading local delivery platform, operating in over 70 countries with over 53,000 global employees. They handle massive IT operations across their global workforce.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Dennis Zahrt's IT service delivery team built a workflow to automate employee account recovery. Previously, when employees got locked out (around 800 requests per month), IT had to verify identity and restore access manually. The new n8n workflow has the employee's direct manager approve recovery instead, then automatically triggers API calls to Okta, Jira, and Google Workspace to restore access. They reduced average lockout time from 35 minutes to 20 minutes, saved 200 hours of employee downtime per month, eliminated IT as a bottleneck in the recovery process, and now process approximately 800 requests per month automatically.

  ROI and Advice:

  Highly positive. "We have seen drastic efficiency improvements since we started using n8n. It's incredibly powerful, but also simple to use." Success with this single workflow inspired them to identify and automate other manual processes including account offboarding and software license assignments. Their advice: start with high-impact, repetitive manual processes. Look for workflows where you can eliminate bottlenecks by redistributing approval authority (like from IT to managers), then once you prove value with one workflow, expand to other processes.

  Source: n8n Case Studies

• 6. IT service provider used n8n to reduce workflow development from 2 days to 30 minutes

  Who:

  Deda.Tech is one of the leading fully Italian-owned IT companies, serving more than 4,000 customers across 50 countries. They provide IT services including ISP, development, AI, managed services, cybersecurity, and IT compliance.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Antonio Zambon (IT Architect) and team implemented n8n as middleware between their internal ITSM software and customers' external tech stacks. They run two n8n instances on single servers, one for public services and one for internal requests. Their ITSM system publishes JSON payloads to RabbitMQ queue, n8n receives requests and runs provisioning automations. Initial workflow automated VM creation on VMware, which evolved into sophisticated workflows automating server lifecycles without giving external access to their hypervisors. They reduced workflow development time from 2 days to 30 minutes, workflows reach production in just 30 minutes, and they've been running workflows for 18+ months with "astonishing performance" on single VMs.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. "We like to think often of n8n as our super glue, it's something you have always in your toolbox because it is always useful," said IT architect Giuliano Lesa. Their advice: look for truly low-code tools where you don't have to code everything from scratch. When evaluating products and markets, our market clarity reports help you understand what features actually matter to customers. Find event-driven, visual tools that can decouple data flows, ensure the tool has native connections to your essential services, and use n8n's visual interface to help non-technical colleagues understand workflows.

  Source: n8n Case Studies

• 7. Product consultancy saved 300 hours migrating platforms with n8n in just 2 days

  Who:

  Kunai is a product development and consulting agency from the Bay Area building digital products for Fortune 500 companies and fast-growing startups in financial services.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Ruan Pethiyagoda built two migration workflows: migrating applications and recruitment data from JazzHR to Lever internally, and creating an onboarding workflow to send new hire data to their client's Greenhouse ATS. Workflows were set up in less than 2 days total. Saved over 300 hours of software development work and reduced migration timeline from 12 weeks to 2 days. The client's migration moved from their February roadmap to completion in one afternoon.

  ROI and Advice:

  Highly positive. Ruan stated: "If you're not using such a workflow automation tool, you're losing time and money building and maintaining all those integrations. It doesn't pay off." He considered Zapier but needed more autonomy for structuring data flows. His advice: look for alternatives to manual coding when facing integration challenges, and consider tools that offer customization flexibility beyond basic automation platforms.

  Source: n8n Case Studies

• 8. Automation consultancy helps enterprises successfully move from Zapier to n8n

  Who:

  Scalevise is an automation consultancy building smart AI-powered automations and web apps, specializing in Laravel, React, Flutter, Make.com, n8n, and Airtable.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Ali Farhat helps enterprises transition to n8n for automation. They audit existing workflows, identify governance gaps, implement enterprise-grade n8n deployments aligned with security and compliance requirements (GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2), and train teams to innovate within guardrails. Client testimonial: "We tried moving some of our compliance workflows from Zapier to n8n, and the audit logging plus versioning was the dealbreaker." Scalevise has helped enterprises standardize on n8n because it avoids the "black box" limitations of other platforms.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. Ali states n8n provides "a rare balance: open-source flexibility with enterprise-grade governance features" and positions it as superior to SaaS platforms for compliance-driven industries. For enterprises: define governance policies early, decide who owns automation and who signs off, create workflow libraries with standardized automations, build observability through logging and monitoring, establish change management using GitOps-style practices, and enable business units safely with clear guardrails rather than full admin rights.

  Source: Dev.to


Each of our market clarity reports includes a study of both positive and negative competitor reviews, helping uncover opportunities and gaps.

• 9. Translation platform built peak management system in weeks using n8n instead of months

  Who:

  Unbabel is an AI-driven, human-refined translation solution delivering translations to businesses including Microsoft, Logitech, and easyJet.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Delphine Pessoa's team built an advanced peak management system. The system detects translation delays and demand peaks. Every hour, n8n checks the translation backlog and sends Slack notifications to Community Managers and email notifications to editors if there's excess workload. Built from conception through production in just weeks. Reduced by 55% the peak-related emails Community Managers had to send, cut by 50% the Communities with time-consuming translations (1 hour+), and none of the primary language pairs had more than 10% of translations taking over an hour.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. "n8n opened up numerous possibilities of running exciting R&D projects, which wouldn't be possible due to lack of engineering resources." They noted: "This wouldn't have happened without n8n, especially in the timeframe we were able to achieve it... Without n8n, it most likely would have taken half a year at minimum." Their advice: use n8n for R&D projects when engineering resources are scarce, and consider n8n's UI as essential for operations that would be "extremely manual and time-consuming" otherwise.

  Source: n8n Case Studies

• 10. Senior designer saved 95% manual time building custom n8n PageSpeed node

  Who:

  Jose Hurtado is a Senior UX/UI Designer with 19+ years of experience who also does full-stack development, managing portfolios of websites for various clients.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Jose built a custom n8n node to automate Google PageSpeed Insights testing across multiple client websites. The recurring challenge was "the laborious process of website performance analysis" when managing a growing portfolio. He created a custom node that integrates directly with Google's PageSpeed Insights API, allowing automated, scheduled performance testing across all client websites. The node automatically fetches and logs performance scores, identifies bottlenecks, and generates reports without manual intervention. Saved 95% of manual time spent on website performance analysis.

  ROI and Advice:

  Highly positive. The 95% time savings directly improved productivity and client service quality. His advice: when n8n lacks a specific integration you need, build a custom node. The n8n framework makes it accessible even for non-traditional engineers. Focus on automating recurring challenges that "consistently chip away at productivity." For portfolio management, automated testing across multiple properties is essential for maintaining quality at scale.

  Source: Medium

• 11. Incident response team built zero-cost smart system with n8n and AI

  Who:

  Bubobot provides smart incident response and monitoring solutions, helping development teams avoid getting woken up at 3 AM for non-critical alerts.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Built a complete incident response workflow using n8n with Prometheus monitoring and AWS Lambda. The system checks time of day and severity with JavaScript code, routes alerts to Slack during business hours or SMS for critical after-hours issues, uses AI agents to analyze Prometheus alerts and decide if EC2 instances should be auto-restarted based on CPU usage, and parses CPU metrics from alert descriptions. Total cost: $0 (free/open-source tools). System handles common issues automatically and auto-resolves issues when CPU exceeds 80% outside business hours.

  ROI and Advice:

  Very positive. Free implementation with significant time savings. They actively encourage others to use their solution. Their advice: check their blog for detailed setup instructions at bubobot.com/blog. The system can be customized for different criteria and thresholds, use conditional logic in JavaScript nodes to make smart routing decisions, and share workflows with the community to help others solve similar problems.

  Source: Indie Hackers

• 12. WhatsApp API platform built entire no-code automation layer with n8n technology

  Who:

  Wassenger is a comprehensive WhatsApp API and multi-agent team chat platform providing WhatsApp automation, team inbox management, CRM integration, and AI-powered customer service solutions.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Wassenger built their entire "Flows" feature, a visual no-code automation builder for WhatsApp, based on n8n's technology. They created an official n8n-wassenger plugin and provide extensive tutorials for building AI WhatsApp agents, customer service bots, and business automation workflows. Implementation includes webhook integrations, multi-modal AI capabilities (text, audio, images), real-time customer data syncing with Google Sheets, and OpenAI integration. Case study with Sweet Success Bakery showed 70% reduction in time handling repetitive inquiries, 98% message open rate versus 20% for email, and small business owner implemented the system within hours.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. Wassenger built their entire automation infrastructure on n8n. Their advice: WhatsApp automation is essential for modern businesses. Most businesses see positive results within the first month. Start with simple automations like FAQs and gradually expand to complex workflows. Use real-world data from past customer interactions to build better automation logic. For local development, use ngrok to expose webhooks for testing.

  Source: Medium

• 13. Developer created LinkedIn tools directory in a day with n8n automation pipeline

  Who:

  BestLinkedInTools.com is a curated directory of 100 LinkedIn tools built to drive traffic to the founder's SaaS product and serve as a monetizable side hustle.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Used n8n to automate the content creation pipeline. Generated list of 100 LinkedIn tools with Perplexity AI and fed data into Google Sheets. Set up n8n workflow that pushed each entry to GPT, scraped the tool's website, populated pre-defined fields, output in markdown format, and sent directly to GitLab. Created 80 tool entries automatically in about 1.5 hours, "a process that would have taken days without AI." Built complete directory in one day using Cursor AI, n8n automation, and Netlify deployment.

  ROI and Advice:

  Very positive. Calls the n8n pipeline from Sheets to processed data "really eye-opening." Hit Claude rate limits during the build and had to switch to GPT, noting "the quality drop was noticeable." His advice: use n8n to create automation pipelines from data sources through AI processing to output destinations. High-quality AI tools maintain workflow efficiency better than alternatives. Anticipate rate limits when using AI APIs in automated workflows.

  Source: Indie Hackers

• 14. Web agency saves $500+ per year migrating from Zapier to n8n

  Who:

  MC Starters is a web development and design agency providing WordPress templates, web development services, AI automation services, and IT support.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Migrated entire automation infrastructure from Zapier to self-hosted n8n. Built comprehensive client onboarding workflow that captures form submissions, creates Notion records, generates welcome PDFs, sends automated emails, posts to Slack, and schedules tasks in ClickUp. The workflow handles complex multi-step processes with branching logic that were cost-prohibitive in Zapier. The switch took one weekend. Previously paying Zapier $75+/month, they now self-host n8n on a $10/month VPS with unlimited workflows. Annual savings: $500-780. Consolidated what used to take 3-4 separate Zaps into single comprehensive workflows.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. "I don't just automate tasks anymore, I build systems. That's the difference n8n made" and "switching to n8n is a no-brainer." Their advice: start with simple flows and progress to complex automations within days. Use the cloud version first to test before self-hosting, try YouTube walkthroughs or n8n's blog for learning, test everything in small steps, and if automation is key to your workflow, choose n8n over Zapier for long-term flexibility and cost savings.

  Source: MC Starters Blog


In our market clarity reports, for each product and market, we detect signals from across the web and forums, identify pain points, and measure their frequency and intensity so you can be sure you're building something your market truly needs.

• 15. Bootstrapped SaaS founder eliminates all automation costs with self-hosted n8n

  Who:

  ScrapeNinja is a bootstrapped SaaS API for web scraping that helps developers and businesses extract data from websites. Anthony Sidashin also runs PixelJets, his development consultancy.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Deployed n8n self-hosted on a Hetzner server (€3/month) using Docker. He automated workflows for ScrapeNinja customers and internal operations. Built an official n8n integration node for ScrapeNinja. Setup took 30 seconds for basic Docker installation, then 20 minutes on nginx reverse proxy and domain setup. Achieved "exactly zero dollars of recurring cost" by self-hosting. Understanding your market deeply, like what our market clarity reports provide, helps you build integrations customers actually need. Got immediate value helping customers integrate his API with n8n.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. Anthony states: "I enjoy using n8n so far, it has great UX, and it seems to be a very stable, mature product which is a great addition to my self-hosted toolbelt." He notes the Community Edition provides roughly 95% of Enterprise Cloud functionality for free when self-hosted. His advice: self-hosting is the way to go if you know Docker, you get immense value for zero recurring costs. Expect to spend 10-20 minutes setting up Google OAuth if you need Google services integration.

  Source: PixelJets Blog

• 16. Automation consultant built entire business practice around n8n workflow design services

  Who:

  Tugui Dragos is an automation consultant who designs clean systems that automate sales and scale businesses, specializing in GoHighLevel & n8n automation. He's a verified n8n Creator with 5 published workflow templates.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Tugui uses n8n daily for his business and client projects. When someone fills out a form on his website, n8n instantly sends data to GoHighLevel. He's built workflows for instant lead alerts with automated follow-ups using AI, automated calendar booking, file organization in Google Drive, automated invoice creation triggered by project milestones, and AI-powered lead scoring. Integrated ChatGPT into n8n workflows for lead profile summarization. His inbox management workflow that previously took an hour now takes "only a couple of clicks." His first workflow saved "8+ hours in the first week alone."

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. Tugui has built his entire consulting business around n8n and GoHighLevel integration. He states that "everything changed when I decided to add ChatGPT into the mix" with n8n. His advice: start with automating your biggest time-waster, most people pick email follow-ups or lead management. Write good prompts when using AI, telling ChatGPT to "act like a sales assistant" gets much better results. Break processes into smaller steps rather than asking AI to do everything at once.

  Sources: Medium, n8n Creators

• 17. IT services company builds multi-agent AI consulting systems using n8n

  Who:

  Ciphernutz is a global IT services and consulting provider from India with 40+ skilled professionals, specializing in web and mobile app development, SaaS solutions, generative AI, and UI/UX design.

  What they did and what results they got:

  A consulting firm needed to automate customer service, document processing, and application tracking. Ciphernutz built a complex multi-agent AI system using n8n that separates "thinking" (AI agents) from "execution" (n8n workflows). The system contains five specialized AI agents. n8n handles data exchange with external systems, authentication and API calls, data flow, and executes operations based on agent decisions. Successfully automates 24/7 customer support, document parsing, and application tracking. Key achievements: implemented conversation state management in stateless n8n workflows using custom database code, built complex relevance scoring for RAG using Python, and created task orchestration with Redis queues.

  ROI and Advice:

  Positive. Author states: "By combining the decision-making capabilities of AI agents ('brain') with the system integration capabilities of n8n ('arm'), we can create a system that is both intelligent and practical." Their advice: clearly distinguish between tasks that require "thinking" (AI) and tasks that require "execution" (automation). Choose the most appropriate tool for each type. For teams considering similar systems: have internal DevOps capacity to manage infrastructure, understand that n8n isn't designed for high concurrency, separate complex business logic into a rules engine.

  Source: Dev.to

• 18. Developer uses n8n cron jobs for cryptocurrency tracking and AI image polling

  Who:

  A developer running Einfachcrypto.de (lists top 250 cryptocurrencies as a static GatsbyJS site) and Illostration.com (an AI-powered image generation platform using Stable Diffusion via Replicate.com).

  What they did and what results they got:

  For einfachcrypto: uses n8n cron-triggered jobs that fetch latest cryptocurrency information from CoinGecko API every X minutes, checks timestamp for outdated coins, normalizes data with JavaScript node, and updates Supabase database. For illostration: uses n8n to poll Replicate.com API every second to check prediction status, retrieve generated images, and update Supabase predictions table. Also handles monthly credit resets for subscription users. Automated data updates that would otherwise require manual intervention. Successfully manages both production and staging environments.

  ROI and Advice:

  Positive. Chose Supabase and n8n as "two great options" for background jobs. The combination is described as a "powerfully combination for background tasks." Successfully deployed both on Railway using templates, which made setup straightforward. Their advice: either use the cloud version of n8n or host it on Railway using their template. Connect Supabase by creating credentials entry in n8n. Use n8n's cron triggers for regular data updates.

  Source: Indie Hackers

• 19. Developer replaces custom backend application with n8n RSS workflow system

  Who:

  Individual developer yeshan333 maintains a personal blog and builds automation tools. They previously built an Elixir-based application for tracking and using AI to summarize RSS subscriptions, pushing summaries to Telegram.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Replaced their custom-built Elixir backend application with n8n workflows for RSS feed management. Built two main workflows: RSS Link Subscription Processing (receives messages from Feishu robot via webhook, uses AI Agent to extract RSS Feed links, stores links in Feishu multi-dimensional tables), and AI RSS Article Processing (runs every hour, retrieves RSS subscriptions, fetches newly published articles from last 3 days, uses AI to summarize content, sends refined summaries to Telegram and Feishu groups). Successfully replaced buggy custom application with n8n workflows that run more reliably. The AI consolidates blogs/podcasts in various languages into concise summaries that are "easier to digest."

  ROI and Advice:

  Positive overall. The developer found n8n's "single-step debugging experience and powerful third-party plugins really impressed me." They value that it's self-deployable and open-source with 100k+ GitHub stars. Their advice: install the community plugin n8n-nodes-feishu-lite for operating Feishu/Lark data. Apply for proper developer application permissions in Feishu. Note that n8n enables origin validation, use "proxy_set_header Origin http://127.0.0.1" in reverse proxy to avoid WebSocket Connection Lost issues.

  Source: Dev.to

• 20. Developer goes from overwhelmed to building three prototypes daily with n8n

  Who:

  Alex Dunlop is a developer working at Popp AI (a leading AI company) and is Co-Founder of Cub (an Olympic AI company). He helps engineers build with AI.

  What they did and what results they got:

  Previously, Alex created 37 empty/boilerplate GitHub repositories, ideas killed by feeling overwhelmed by implementation scope. After discovering n8n, he shifted from "code first thinking" to "starting with outcomes." He built working prototypes by focusing on results rather than getting bogged down in implementation details. Transformed from making 37 failed repository attempts to building 3 working prototypes in a single day. The previous month he built 1 working prototype, after adopting n8n, he built 3 in one day. Before getting into implementation, consider if you're solving the right problem by checking our market clarity reports for validated market insights.

  ROI and Advice:

  Extremely positive. The article is titled "How n8n Transformed My Developer Workflow" and describes n8n as "the solution" that "changed everything." He went from ideas being "killed by implementation" to "I'm getting results!" His advice: stop "code first thinking" and instead "start with outcomes," focus on the result you want rather than immediately diving into code. When scope feels overwhelming during free time, automation tools like n8n can help you actually ship projects.

  Source: Medium

Our market clarity reports contain between 100 and 300 insights about your market.