Gumloop vs n8n: pick the right one, or the open-source third route

Three ways to automate, and how to choose

The fastest way to choose is to name the job. If the job is a fixed flowchart, the same steps in the same order every time, pick n8n. If the job is open-ended work you would rather describe than draw, and you are happy for it to run in someone else's cloud, pick Gumloop. If the job is open-ended and you want the whole system in a repo your team owns, pick Kortix.

n8n is the flowchart tool. You draw a workflow once and it runs the same path on a schedule or a webhook, with every execution traceable step by step. You can read its source on GitHub and self-host it for free, and the cloud version is billed by executions. It is built for the case where the steps are known in advance. n8n says as much on its own site: build visually, connect to anything.

Gumloop is the hosted no-code builder. You describe a task in plain language, an agent picks the tools, and it signs in to the apps your team already uses. There is no install and no server to run, which is the point, and also the limit: Gumloop runs in Gumloop's cloud and is not offered for self-hosting. It is billed by credits, and the pricing breakdown covers the shape.

Zapier connects apps on a trigger, one step at a time, and every step uses a task. It reaches 9,000+ apps and starts free, which makes it the lightest setup for the narrowest jobs. Zapier's pricing page shows the task tiers.

Kortix is the one you own. It is open source, and the agents, skills, memory and connectors live in a git repo rather than in a vendor's database. Each session gets its own isolated machine and branch, and work reaches main through a change request a person reads. That is a different unit of work from a workflow or a Zap: an agent does open-ended work on a real cloud computer and hands back a result, instead of replaying a path you wired in advance. The alternatives page compares the hosted tools in more detail.

The decision comes down to the shape of the work and who holds it: a fixed flowchart (n8n), a described task you are glad to rent (Gumloop), or a system your team owns (Kortix). Choose n8n for the flowchart, Gumloop for the rental, and Kortix when the answer to "who owns this" has to be your team.