head to head · open source
n8n vs Lightpanda
n8n has 209,375 GitHub stars, 61,361 forks, 1,143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightpanda has 40,882 stars, 1,999 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. n8n leads on adoption by 412% (209,375 vs 40,882 stars). n8n is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Lightpanda is written in Zig under AGPL-3.0. n8n has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, Lightpanda 5%. 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 | Lightpanda | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 209K | ★ 41K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Zig |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 61K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 Lightpanda if
- You want the Lightpanda feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You evaluated both and Lightpanda 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 Lightpanda
Lightpanda Browser The headless browser built from scratch for AI agents and automation. Not a Chromium fork. Not a WebKit patch. A new browser, written in Zig.   Benchmarks Requesting 933 real web pages over the network on a AWS EC2 m5.large instance. See benchmark details. Quick start Install Package Managers Latest nightly from Homebrew: Latest nightly from Arch Linux User Repository: Download from the nightly builds You can download the last binary from the nightly builds for Linux and MacOS for both x86 64 and aarch64. For Linux Verify the binary before running anything: Linux aarch64 is also available…
read the full Lightpanda overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is n8n or Lightpanda more popular?
n8n has 209,375 GitHub stars and Lightpanda has 40,882. n8n has the larger community by that measure.
Are n8n and Lightpanda free?
Both are open source. n8n has no licence declared in this registry, and Lightpanda is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between n8n and Lightpanda?
n8n is written in TypeScript and Lightpanda in Zig. 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 Lightpanda?
Choose n8n if you want the larger community (209,375 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Lightpanda if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.