Pick Activepieces Cloud if you don’t want a server: there is a permanent free plan with 1,000 credits a month, then flat-price paid plans. Pick self-hosted Activepieces if you can manage a server and your volume outgrows those quotas, or if your data has to stay on your own infrastructure: the Community Edition is free and has no credits. Watch which edition you install, though. It may not be that one.
What Activepieces Cloud gives you and what it bills
Activepieces bills in credits: one flow run costs 1 credit, however many steps it has. AI steps on the models the vendor provides cost more.
| Plan | Monthly price | Monthly price, billed annually | Monthly quota included | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freesource | $0 | $0 | 1,000credits | Up to 5 users, unlimited flows, agents, chat, tables, MCP, API and SDK; community support. Beyond the quota, runs wait for the credits to renew. |
| Plussource | $20 | $16 | 10,000credits | Flat price per month, up to 5 users, 10,000 credits per month reset every month, then per-credit billing. Personal AI keys, community support. 10 concurrent runs per project on Cloud. |
| Teamsource | $200 | $166 | 50,000credits | Flat price, 25 users included, 50,000 credits per month, then per-credit billing. Unlimited projects, SSO and standard roles, global connections, email support, payment by ACH or wire transfer possible. 20 concurrent runs per project on Cloud. |
| Ultimatesource | custom pricing | custom pricing | — | Custom pricing ("Talk to sales"). Credits sized to order as an annual allowance, unlimited users, dedicated workers, execution priority, SCIM and custom roles, Releases and Git Sync, audit logs, secret managers. Custom branding, custom billing, dedicated support. |
Key points:
- The free plan doesn’t force you to self-host. That is a difference from n8n, whose Cloud only has a trial. Past the free quota, runs wait for the credits to renew.
- Paid plans don’t stop at the quota. On Plus ($20 per month for 10,000 credits) and Team, flows keep running and each extra credit is billed by usage; the rate is in the box below.
- Technical limits apply on the Cloud: up to 10 minutes per run, a number of concurrent runs per project that depends on the plan (5 on Free, 10 on Plus, 20 on Team), and run data kept for 30 days. Activepieces docs, “Limits” (accessed )
- Data is hosted in the EU: Cloud hosted in the EU, in Frankfurt by default; another region on request; self-hosting in the region of your choice source.
Two points where the vendor’s own pages contradict each other:
- How the free plan renews. The plan card announces a monthly quota, while the table on the same page refers to a daily reset. The quota used here is monthly.
- What AI steps cost. The pricing page gives a fixed scale per model, while the docs, in their change notes, describe billing at the provider’s actual cost. If your flows call an AI model, check this before you count.
Self-hosted Activepieces: two editions you should not mix up
The docs distinguish two self-hosted editions, and “free” does not mean the same thing in each.
| Community Edition | Enterprise edition | |
|---|---|---|
| License | MIT (core software) | Commercial |
| Credits | None | Those of the plan you subscribe to; by default, the free plan’s limits |
| How you get it | Third-party templates and hosts; an install without the Enterprise setting | Installed by default by the Docker Compose script and the Helm chart |
| Paid plans | Can’t be activated | Plus and Team from inside the app; custom plans with a license key |
| Multiple projects | No | Depends on the plan |
Activepieces docs, “Self host (Docker)” (accessed ); Activepieces docs, “Install Options” (accessed )
On what exactly the Community Edition contains, the vendor’s pages contradict each other: the free plan card lists agents among the included features, while the pricing page FAQ places running agents and chat among what paying adds to the Community Edition. The docs also state that this edition no longer supports multiple projects.
On the license side, the text is simpler than n8n’s: the MIT license allows you to use, modify and distribute the core, as long as you keep the license notice. Enterprise features, kept in separate folders, require an Activepieces license. Activepieces docs, “License” (accessed )
What self-hosting really asks of you
According to the Docker install page:
- A server with Docker Compose v2, at least 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM (WSL2 on Windows). What it costs depends on the hosting company. It is not a fact published by the vendor, so we don’t put a number on it.
- Four containers: the app (UI and API), a worker that runs your flows, PostgreSQL for data and Redis for the job queue.
- A public address to receive webhooks. The tunnel suggested for first steps is not suitable for production: you need a real domain name.
- Backups of two things: the PostgreSQL database, and the
.envfile, which holds the encryption key. Without that key, stored connections can no longer be decrypted, even from a full database backup. - Upgrades: back up first, read the breaking changes page, then rerun the script with its upgrade option.
For production, the docs give a starting size: one worker with 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB per concurrent flow, an app with 1 vCPU and 1 GB, a managed PostgreSQL with 2 vCPU and 4 GB, a Redis with 1 vCPU and 1 GB, and S3 object storage, which they present as required. Activepieces docs, “Production Setup” (accessed ) That is more than one small server.
In return, the Cloud limits (run duration, concurrency) can be set with environment variables when you self-host.
Activepieces vs n8n for self-hosting
n8n also offers a free self-hosted edition. Here are the two tools on the rows that matter for this choice.
| Criterion | ActivepiecesAutomation tool | n8nAutomation tool |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosting | Yes: free Community Edition with no credits; every plan on the pricing page is also available self-hostedsource | Yes: free Community edition, no license key; paid self-hosted plans Business and Enterprisesource |
| License | MIT ("MIT Expat") for the core; commercial license for the Enterprise edition folderssource | Sustainable Use License 1.0 ("fair-code"); ".ee." files under the n8n Enterprise Licensesource |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits per monthsource | Nosource |
| Billing unit | creditssource | executionssource |
| Lowest paid plan | $20 per monthPlussource | €24 per monthStartersource |
| Data residency | Cloud hosted in the EU, in Frankfurt by default; another region on request; self-hosting in the region of your choicesource | Hosted plans: EU, servers in Frankfurt (Germany); self-hosted: wherever n8n is installedsource |
| Vendor | Visit Activepieces (opens in a new tab) | Visit n8n (opens in a new tab) |
Data recorded from the official pages: Activepieces (), n8n ().
Three gaps stand out:
- The license. The Activepieces core is MIT-licensed; n8n uses the Sustainable Use License, which forbids, for example, hosting the tool as a service for customers. See Is n8n free and open source?
- Free hosted use. Activepieces has a free Cloud plan; n8n does not.
- The unit. Both count one complete run of an automation, not its steps; Activepieces adds a credit surcharge for AI steps on its own models. The guide to billing units explains why that changes the comparison with tools billed per step.
The math to do
Take three common automations: 200 form submissions, a monitoring flow that runs every hour (720 times a month) and an email triage flow that fires 900 times. That is 1,820 runs a month, so 1,820 credits with no AI step.
- On the Cloud, that is more than the free quota of 1,000: you need the Plus plan, whose quota of 10,000 leaves room.
- Self-hosted with the Community Edition, no credits are counted: the limit is your server.
- Self-hosted with the edition installed by default, the free plan’s limits apply just as they do on the Cloud.
The cost calculator redoes this math with your volumes and compares it with other tools.
Which one fits your situation
- You are starting out and your volume is low: the free Cloud plan, no server.
- Your volume is above the free quota and you have no server skills: the Cloud Plus plan.
- You can manage a server and want volume without credits: the Community Edition, accepting its limits (a single project, agent scope to verify).
- Your data must stay on your infrastructure and you need SSO or multiple projects: self-hosting with a paid plan.
- You want to build the tool into your own product: the MIT license on the core allows it; white-label embedding features, however, belong to commercial plans.
To go further: the Activepieces profile, the guide n8n Cloud vs self-hosted, the n8n profile and the n8n alternatives.
Visit Activepieces (opens in a new tab)Data recorded from the official pages: Activepieces (), n8n ().
CalculatorAutomation cost calculator: Make, Zapier, n8n and moreFrequently asked questions
Is Activepieces free?
Yes, in two ways. On the Cloud, a permanent free plan includes 1,000 credits a month with no credit card required. Self-hosted, the Community Edition is free and has no credits. Paid plan prices are in the plan table, with the date they were recorded.
Is Activepieces open source?
The Activepieces core is released under the MIT license, a permissive license, according to the license page in the docs. Enterprise edition features, kept in separate folders, fall under a commercial license.
Do credits apply when Activepieces is self-hosted?
It depends on the edition. The Community Edition has no credits. The Enterprise edition, installed by default by the Docker Compose script and the Helm chart, runs without a key on the free plan, with its credit limits.
What do I need to self-host Activepieces?
The docs ask for Docker Compose v2 and at least 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM. The recommended install starts four containers: the app, a worker, PostgreSQL and Redis. On Windows, it runs through WSL2.
Activepieces vs n8n: which is better suited to self-hosting?
Both have a free self-hosted edition. The clearest difference is the license: MIT for the Activepieces core, the Sustainable Use License for n8n, which limits commercial use. The table on this page puts them side by side.