head to head · open source
n8n vs huginn
n8n has 205,086 GitHub stars, 60,753 forks, 1,143 open issues and last shipped today. huginn has 49,969 stars, 4,299 forks, 698 open issues and last shipped today. n8n leads on adoption by 310% (205,086 vs 49,969 stars). n8n is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; huginn is written in Ruby under MIT. n8n has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, huginn 9%. n8n was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (automation), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | huginn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 205K | ★ 50K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 61K | ⑂ 4.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick n8n if
- You weight community size — 205K 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 huginn if
- You want the huginn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and huginn fits your workflow better
About n8n
n8n is a visual workflow automation platform built in TypeScript that combines a drag and drop editor with custom code execution. It lives in the integration and automation ecosystem, positioned as an open alternative to proprietary services like Zapier. Users design multi step workflows—called “n8n flows”—that connect apps, services, and custom logic to automate repetitive tasks.
About huginn
Huginn is an open source system for building agents that perform automated tasks online, written in Ruby and released under the MIT license. Its agents read the web, watch for events, and take actions on the user's behalf. Internally, agents create and consume events that propagate along a directed graph, which means one agent's output becomes another agent's input and a chain of small steps can be composed into a larger workflow. The project lives in the Ruby ecosystem and is distributed as an official Docker image or installed locally from a forked repository.
read the full huginn overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is n8n or huginn more popular?
n8n has 205,086 GitHub stars and huginn has 49,969. n8n has the larger community by that measure.
Are n8n and huginn free?
Both are open source. n8n has no licence declared in this registry, and huginn is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between n8n and huginn?
n8n is written in TypeScript and huginn in Ruby. 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 huginn?
Choose n8n if you want the larger community (205,086 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose huginn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.