head to head · open source
n8n vs cadence
n8n has 209,375 GitHub stars, 61,361 forks, 1,143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cadence has 9,535 stars, 931 forks, 205 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. n8n leads on adoption by 2,096% (209,375 vs 9,535 stars). n8n is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; cadence is written in Go under Apache-2.0. n8n has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, cadence 10%. n8n was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| n8n | cadence | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 209K | ★ 9.5K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 61K | ⑂ 931 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick n8n if
- You weight community size — 209K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cadence if
- You want the cadence feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and cadence fits your workflow better
About n8n
n8n – The Platform for AI Agents and Workflow Automation Fair code platform to build and deploy AI agents and workflows. Combine a visual canvas with custom code, run it self hosted or in the cloud, and connect to 1500+ integrations. AI automation you can trust with real work, from prototype to production. Key Capabilities AI Native Automation Platform : Build and operationalize AI workflows and multi step agents using your own data, models, and tools Model Flexibility, No Lock In : Connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or open source models and switch providers without changing your architecture From Prototype…
About cadence
Cadence Cadence Workflow is an open source platform since 2017 for building and running scalable, fault tolerant, and long running workflows. This repository contains the core orchestration engine and tools including CLI, schema managment, benchmark and canary. Getting Started Cadence backend consists of multiple services, a database (Cassandra/MySQL/PostgreSQL) and optionally Kafka+Elasticsearch. As a user, you need a worker which contains your workflow implementation. Once you have Cadence backend and worker(s) running, you can trigger workflows by using SDKs or via CLI. 1. Start cadence backend components…
read the full cadence overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is n8n or cadence more popular?
n8n has 209,375 GitHub stars and cadence has 9,535. n8n has the larger community by that measure.
Are n8n and cadence free?
Both are open source. n8n has no licence declared in this registry, and cadence is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between n8n and cadence?
n8n is written in TypeScript and cadence in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, n8n or cadence?
Choose n8n if you want the larger community (209,375 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose cadence if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.