A toolkit for building workflows yourself, an employee that comes trained. The facts side by side.
n8n is first and foremost a toolkit for workflow automation: on a visual canvas, nodes connect apps and interfaces, now including AI agent building blocks1. Every workflow is built, maintained and owned by your company or a contracted service provider. n8n therefore remains a tool that someone sets up, runs and controls themselves.
An AI employee from bee-hub.ai is not another toolkit. It takes over a defined workflow in your business, works in the background in your ERP and inbox and presents results for approval. bee-hub.ai is responsible for setup, operation and maintenance.
| n8n | bee-hub.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Visual toolkit for workflow automation; nodes connect apps and APIs, plus AI agent building blocks1 | AI employees, trained on a defined workflow in your business |
| Who does the work | The workflow that someone in-house or a service provider built beforehand1 | The AI employee; a person reviews and approves |
| Pricing | Cloud priced by workflow executions: Starter €20, Pro €50 a month billed annually; self-hosted Community Edition free1 | Per AI employee; AI chat for all staff at no extra cost |
| Where the data lives | Cloud in the EU (Frankfurt) or self-hosted in your own environment1 | Your server, private cloud or a German hosting provider; language model from a European provider7 |
| Training on your data | Depends on the language model the customer connects with their own API key1 | Excluded by contract7 |
| Work in the ERP | Via existing nodes, HTTP/API or database access; systems without an API only with additional tools1 | Works inside your existing ERP, DMS and email, like an additional employee |
| Who is in control | The logic built by whoever created the workflow1 | An agreed workflow with rules, approvals and a log, set up by bee-hub.ai |
| Setup and operation | Every workflow built and maintained by the customer or a service provider; when self-hosted, also servers, updates, backups and security1 | Onboarding, operation and maintenance by bee-hub.ai |
They all follow the same principle: the tool provides building blocks, the customer builds and owns the workflow.
For companies with their own automation team, these tools are powerful. The question stays the same: who builds the workflow, who maintains it, who is the expert for that in your company?
The real difference lies in who sets things up, who maintains them and who is responsible.
Set it up and maintain it yourself, or have it set up and maintained.
Who is the expert for that in your company?
At bee-hub.ai, every AI employee is limited to one purpose and works mostly by fixed rules. We only deploy fully autonomous agents when explicitly commissioned.
The toolkit gives your IT tools.
The AI employee comes trained and looked after.
No. n8n is a toolkit for workflow automation: every workflow is built, maintained and owned by your company or a contracted service provider1. bee-hub.ai provides AI employees that take over a defined workflow, such as entering orders from the inbox into the ERP. bee-hub.ai takes care of onboarding, operation and maintenance.
That can be the right choice, especially for many rule-based processes. The question is who maintains the workflow over time when formats or interfaces change. And who is the expert for that in your company. At bee-hub.ai, that responsibility lies with us.
Not in the sense of an OSI license. n8n is published under the “Sustainable Use License”: use is limited to your own internal business purposes or non-commercial or personal use2. The Community Edition can be self-hosted free of charge1.
If the ERP offers an interface: via existing nodes, HTTP/API or database access1. Systems without an API need additional tools1. An AI employee from bee-hub.ai works inside your existing ERP; bee-hub.ai handles the connection, and we clarify the technical requirements before you commission us.
30 minutes, one process from your business.