head to head · open source
n8n vs local-deep-research
n8n has 204,887 GitHub stars, 60,739 forks, 1,143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. local-deep-research has 9,099 stars, 821 forks, 889 open issues and last shipped yesterday. n8n leads on adoption by 2,152% (204,887 vs 9,099 stars). n8n is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; local-deep-research is written in Python under MIT. n8n has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, local-deep-research 9%. 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 | local-deep-research | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 205K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 61K | ⑂ 821 |
| 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 local-deep-research if
- You want the local-deep-research feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and local-deep-research 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 local-deep-research
Local Deep Research is an MIT licensed, Python based AI research assistant that performs deep, agentic research with proper citations across any local or cloud LLM and more than ten search engines, built for researchers, developers, and privacy conscious self hosters who want both the workload and the data to stay on hardware they control.
read the full local-deep-research overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is n8n or local-deep-research more popular?
n8n has 204,887 GitHub stars and local-deep-research has 9,099. n8n has the larger community by that measure.
Are n8n and local-deep-research free?
Both are open source. n8n has no licence declared in this registry, and local-deep-research is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between n8n and local-deep-research?
n8n is written in TypeScript and local-deep-research in Python. 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 local-deep-research?
Choose n8n if you want the larger community (204,887 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose local-deep-research if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.