Customer support
n8n
Depending on your issue, there are multiple ways to contact n8n. However, n8n users always mention the forum support as the best way to address questions regarding nodes creation, workflow templates, or feature requests.
With n8n’s engineers constantly answering topics on the forum, plus a large active community of n8n experts, you can be sure you will be assisted quickly. It usually takes up to 8 hours to get replies on forum.
Also, n8n’s documentation gets updated every day with the last release updates so you can navigate there to find the solutions you might need.
Make
The support is reported not to be consistent, therefore users can’t rely 100% on communities. The documentation is not always up to date, that makes users guess how some modules work and/or find user-made documentation. Therefore the learning curve is a bit steep.
Self-hosting
n8n
Self-hosting is a faster way to start and it gives more control and data security. Easier to comply with internal regulations and data privacy laws. You can choose how to set up your n8n instance:
- npm is a quick way to get started with n8n on your local machine. You must have Node.js installed;
- Docker installation that allows setting up n8n in a clean environment. It also offers an easier setup for your preferred database.
Make
All Make’s plans provides you with AWS to host your data and the Enterprise plan offers Celonis AWS environment.
Create your own integrations
n8n
n8n can interface with any service in an easy way (with a little bit of effort). A good thing is that you can start developing a node independently without the need to contact anyone. All you need is:
- some familiarity with JavaScript and TypeScript;
- ability to manage your own development environment, including git;
- knowledge of npm, including creating and submitting packages;
- familiarity with n8n, including a good understanding of data structures and item linking.
Make
With Make you have to wait until their customer support accepts your request and puts it under development. Whereas with n8n you can either ask for community feedback and help on your own integration or hire an expert by filling in this form.
UI built for developers
n8n
n8n is closer to a developer’s own workflow:
- You can directly write Javascript as a code block and use it to transform data;
- Error handling: in n8n, you can set up an error handling workflow that is triggered whenever a workflow fails;
- Array/string manipulation in n8n is as simple as using vanilla Javascript (https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_array_methods.asp);
- n8n’s nodes functionality and UI are more like a flow diagram (more natural for developers).
Make
- In Make, you need to use learn their own expression language - it’s harder to get help on this when you’re stuck;
- Error handling: extra steps in Integromat to catch errors and error handling is time-consuming to set up;
- Some features have been massively voted (like a merged path) and years later, it's not there yet;
- Arrays and collections work differently, which is always a headache to convert to the format your need in my experience.
Bonus: Nodes only n8n has
- Merge node: There’s no merge node in Integromat. Once you branch, you can never bring them back together;
- There are two places where you can use code in n8n: the Code node and the expressions editor;
- The Set node allows you to set workflow data. This node can set completely new data as well as overwrite data that already exists. This node is crucial in workflows that expect incoming data from previous nodes, such as when inserting values to Google Sheets or databases;
- The Split In Batches node saves the original incoming data, and with each iteration, it returns a predefined amount of data. This node can be used to loop through the data;
- Sticky Notes allow you to annotate and comment on your workflows. n8n recommends using Sticky Notes heavily, especially on template workflows, to help other users understand your workflow.
