What is n8n? A how-to guide for business owners
What is n8n? It is open-source automation software: it connects the tools your business already uses — Zalo, Google Sheets, Facebook, your bank — and moves data between them according to a predefined script called a workflow, so a machine handles repetitive tasks on a server your business controls.
How n8n works: triggers, nodes and workflows
n8n builds a process from three basic building blocks. A trigger is the starting event — a new order arrives, an email comes in, or the clock hits 7 a.m. A node is a single processing step — reading data, checking a condition, sending a message, writing to a spreadsheet. A workflow is the whole chain of one trigger plus several nodes linked together, running automatically every time the trigger fires, with no one pressing a button.
A concrete example many online shop owners recognise: a customer fills in an order form on a landing page (trigger) → n8n writes the order details to Google Sheets (node 1) → n8n sends a Zalo message to the sales team with the customer's phone number (node 2) → n8n sends the customer an automatic thank-you email (node 3). From the moment the customer submits the form to all three steps finishing takes only a few seconds, with no one copying data between places by hand.
n8n's interface lets you drag nodes onto a canvas and wire them together, more like a flowchart than writing code. For a simple process, someone with no programming background can build it after watching a tutorial; a complex process — with several branching conditions or error handling — usually needs someone with technical experience to get it right from the start.
What Vietnamese small businesses automate with n8n
n8n fits best where a task repeats, follows a clear rule, and currently eats up staff time every day. A few common groups of tasks:
- Customer care over Zalo OA: a customer who just bought something automatically gets a thank-you message, usage instructions and a reminder to reorder on schedule
- Cross-platform posting: write content once in Google Sheets and the machine posts to Facebook, TikTok and Threads on schedule
- Bank-transfer matching: money arrives via SePay or Casso, the machine matches it to the order and pings Zalo, so no one has to scan bank statements
- B2B lead filtering: a customer who fills in a form is automatically scored by budget and urgency, and the hottest leads are flagged to sales right away
- Gathering orders from several landing pages into one Google Sheet, automatically catching duplicate phone numbers
- Sending an automatic marketing report every Monday morning, pulling ad and website figures into one short update
How n8n differs from Zapier and Make
All three connect software and run automatically on a schedule, differing mainly in pricing and where the infrastructure sits. Zapier and Make charge by the number of tasks or runs each month — the more you use them, the higher the bill. The self-hosted version of n8n has no licence fee for internal use and sets no run limit at all, so the real cost is just a virtual server (VPS).
In exchange, self-hosted n8n needs someone to install, update and back it up — work that Zapier and Make already do for you, since that is the service they sell. n8n also has n8n Cloud, run by n8n itself and billed by monthly plan, which suits anyone who wants to start right away without managing infrastructure — more on cost below.
For a detailed comparison of price, ease of use and the number of ready-made integrations, see n8n versus Zapier and Make.
Cost of running n8n: self-hosted on a VPS or n8n Cloud
There are two ways to run n8n, and the cost and who is responsible for operating it differ sharply:
| Criteria | Self-hosted on a VPS | n8n Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed cost | VPS around VND 100,000–200,000/month, no run limit | Monthly plan (checked 09/2026): Starter plan around EUR 20, Pro plan around EUR 50, billed annually |
| Who manages infrastructure | You or your technical staff install, update and back it up | n8n manages the server, updates and backups |
| Where the data sits | On a server your own business rents and controls | On n8n's own infrastructure |
| Run limit | No limit under the licence, capped only by the server's own capacity | Capped by plan (checked 09/2026: Starter plan around 2,500 runs/month); exceeding it requires an upgrade |
| Who it suits | A business with technical staff, or one that hires help to install and maintain it | A business that wants to start right away with no one to handle the technical side |
n8n's licence: what is free, and where the limits are
Self-hosted n8n ships under the Sustainable Use License — not a full open-source licence by the Open Source Initiative's definition, even though the source code is public. This licence lets you use, modify and self-host it for free for internal business purposes.
Allowed: using n8n to automate your own company's internal processes; building workflows on your own server and running them for clients, as long as clients cannot create or edit those workflows themselves; charging clients for building, installation, maintenance and training.
Not allowed: packaging n8n and reselling it as your own hosting service (white-labelling it), or charging people to directly access an n8n instance you run on their behalf. In short, n8n is a tool for automating your own work and selling services built on top of it — not a product meant to be repackaged and resold as-is. Anything outside this scope requires a separate commercial licence from n8n.
How to use n8n: getting started in 5 steps
If you want to build your first workflow yourself, follow these five steps in order:
- Pick one specific repeating task that currently costs the most time — the clearer the rule for when to do what, the easier it is to automate first
- Choose where to run n8n: self-host on a VPS if you already have someone to handle the technical side, or sign up for n8n Cloud if you want to start right away
- Build the workflow: add a trigger as the starting event, then drag in each processing node and connect them in the order the task actually needs
- Connect real accounts through n8n's Credentials section — Google, Zalo OA, your bank — never paste a password or API key straight into a node's parameter field
- Run it alongside the old manual process for a few days, check the results match, and only then switch the manual process off
Risks and limits of running n8n yourself
Self-hosting gives full control, but it also shifts all operating responsibility onto the business:
- Ongoing maintenance: outside services such as Facebook, banks and Zalo change their APIs over time, and a workflow that has run fine for months can stop without warning — someone needs to watch for that and fix it promptly
- Version updates: self-hosted n8n needs regular updates to patch security issues; leaving it too long risks compatibility problems when new features are needed
- Server security: firewalls, regular backups and SSH access keys are all the business's own responsibility, with no 24/7 operations team standing behind it the way a paid service has
- Single-person dependency: if only one person understands the whole workflow setup, that person leaving means the business loses the ability to fix issues — operating documentation should always be kept alongside it
When to do it yourself, and when to hire it out
Doing it yourself fits when the process to automate is simple — one or two steps — you or your staff have time to learn, and you can live with a few early rounds of trial and error.
Hiring it out makes more sense when the process has several branching steps, needs to connect to poorly documented APIs such as a bank or an internal system, or you need it working correctly right away so the business is not disrupted while you experiment. See more on weighing this up in do it yourself or hire out automation.
AdSys Team takes on full n8n implementation: surveying the process, building the workflow, connecting real accounts, running it alongside the manual process, and handing over full administrator access to you.