Compare
n8n vs an AI SDR: assembling a workflow against buying a finished agent
n8n is a workflow automation platform with more than 500 integrations and AI agent building blocks. You assemble the outreach yourself, and you own every part of it. An AI SDR is already assembled for one job. The cost of n8n is the subscription plus the build and upkeep, and the sensible split is often both: n8n for your internal automation, an agent for the conversations.
Published by Sellinger AI. Numbers and settings checked on 19 October 2026 against the fact register. Report an error.
- n8n Starter per month on the annual view, 2.5K workflow executions (Pro 50€ for 10K)
- 20€
- integrations n8n says it has, with AI agents, human approvals and code in one workflow
- 500+
- n8n Community Edition, self hosted; the page links to its licence terms
- Free
What each one is, from its own pages
n8n cells come from n8n.io, read 19 October 2026. The fetch showed the annual billing view only, so n8n prices below are annual view prices.
| Point | n8n | Sellinger, an AI SDR |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A workflow automation platform, built visually with code available, self hostable or managed cloud | Sellinger is an AI SDR: it finds the right buyers, writes to each one on LinkedIn, email or WhatsApp, answers the replies and books the meetings |
| What you get | Building blocks: triggers, nodes, AI agents with multi agent setups, human approvals and 10,000+ workflow templates | A working agent plus the surrounding product: inbox, CRM, approvals, limits and reporting |
| Price | Annual view: Starter 20€ per month, Pro 50€, Business 667€ (self hosted only), Enterprise by quote | LinkedIn $198 per agent per month for 1 to 2 agents, $168 at 10 or more agents; bundles from $249 |
| What the price counts | Workflow executions: Starter 2.5K a month, Pro 10K, Business 40K | Per agent or per module per month, not per execution |
| Sending to prospects | Through the nodes you connect and your own accounts; the sales page mentions lead discovery through MCP connected services | LinkedIn, email, WhatsApp and Instagram replies, live chat, from connected accounts with daily limits |
| Hosting | Self host, including on premises, or n8n's cloud | Hosted by Sellinger |
| Trial | Free trial on Starter and Pro with no card, 1,000 executions; Business trial 14 days with a card | 30 days free on messaging modules and bundles, no card |
| Limits to know | Starter allows 5 concurrent executions and a 5 minute maximum duration; Business overage is 4,000 EUR per extra 300,000 executions | Per account pacing and quiet hours set in the product |
Sources: n8n.io, read 19 October 2026; n8n.io, read 19 October 2026. Sellinger from the facts page and pricing.
Where n8n is the stronger choice
- Anything that is not outreach: syncing tools, moving data, internal alerts, reports and approvals, across 500 or more integrations.
- Full control. You choose the model, inspect every step and keep humans in the loop where you decide.
- Self hosting, including air gapped setups, when data must not leave your network.
- A free Community Edition and a low entry price, when you have an engineer and want to build.
- Unusual workflows that no sales product anticipates.
What you would still build and run yourself
n8n gives the blocks. These parts of an outreach system are yours, and each is something Sellinger lists as built in.
| Part | With n8n | In Sellinger |
|---|---|---|
| Opt out handling | You build detection and a suppression list | When a contact replies with an opt out such as STOP or unsubscribe, in English, Bulgarian or German among other forms, the contact goes on the team's suppression list, the agent stops and the lead is closed out. A weak or unclear phrase never writes the permanent record: the agent stops and a person decides |
| Send limits and quiet hours | You build per account pacing | Every connected account has daily limits that the agent cannot exceed, set per account. LinkedIn defaults are 20 invitations a day and 150 a week. Email defaults to 50 sends a day per mailbox, with an optional warm up that starts at 5 a day and doubles every 3 days up to the limit |
| Approval and takeover | A human approval step you design | A campaign can run in approval mode, where every message waits for a person to approve it, or send automatically. A person can take over any conversation, and the agent stops on its own when it cannot answer, for example a price it has no answer for |
| Memory of each lead | A table or CRM you connect and maintain | A built in CRM with contacts, deals and the full conversation history across channels, and a two way sync with HubSpot |
Detail on each is in build vs buy an AI SDR. The n8n column describes work to be built, not a missing feature: the platform can do each of these.
How to choose
Choose n8n if
- you have an engineer who wants to build and own the workflow,
- outreach is one small part of a larger automation job,
- you must self host or keep full control of every step.
Choose an AI SDR if
- you want outreach running this week without building it,
- you want replies answered and meetings booked in the thread,
- you want limits, opt outs and approvals handled by the product, with a person able to take over.
Sellinger lists a REST API, webhooks and a hosted MCP connector, so an n8n workflow can call it for the parts that are yours. See the API and MCP page.
Common questions
Can n8n build an AI SDR?
Its pages describe AI agents, multi agent setups, human approvals and 500 or more integrations, so the parts exist. What you assemble and maintain is up to you.
Is n8n free?
The Community Edition is free to self host, and the page links to its licence terms. The cloud plans start at 20€ per month on the annual view.
What does an n8n execution mean for cost?
n8n prices by workflow executions with unlimited steps: 2.5K a month on Starter and 10K on Pro. A long outreach sequence runs many executions, so estimate before choosing a plan.
Can I use both?
Yes. Sellinger lists an API and webhooks, so a workflow can start campaigns or react to replies.
Sources and method
n8n cells from n8n.io, read 19 October 2026 and n8n.io, read 19 October 2026. Sellinger from the facts page and pricing.
Related: Build vs buy an AI SDR, Claude vs an AI SDR, Sellinger MCP connector, Integrations.
