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p/n8n-ioWorkflow automation for technical people
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Kevin William David

n8n desktop app - Powerful low code workflows on your desktop

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n8n is the automation platform you never outgrow. With it, you can create complex workflows, insert code snippets where needed, and stay in control by auditing the source code and storing data locally. Our desktop app can be installed with just a few clicks.

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Jan Oberhauser
Maker
Hey Product Hunt! Thanks to @kevin for hunting us. I am very excited to finally launch a new n8n product: the n8n desktop app! Ever since I started n8n, the mission has been to give everyone who uses a computer technical superpowers. While ever more people are using n8n self-hosted or n8n.cloud, we wanted to make it even more accessible and easy to use. That’s why we created an n8n desktop app that you can simply download and run on your computer. The desktop app is the ideal option if you: - want to try out n8n quickly before investing more time in setting it up - don't want to create an n8n.cloud account, or use the command line - need pretty much all the features of our existing deployment methods - need to create desktop automations easily - want it all **for free** I hope that the n8n desktop version will enable and inspire more people to get started with workflow automation for business or personal tasks. Looking forward to seeing the amazing workflows that you will build with it! Your feedback is highly appreciated! Thanks a lot!!
Lucian Mămăligă
@kevin @janoberhauser congratulations, I am closely following the n8n development and I am amazed each time a update is posted
Scott Bowler
@janoberhauser Where is the download link by the way? Might be worth updating your comment or the description as I can't find the apps anywhere on the site
Max Tkacz
@janoberhauser @scotty_bowler here is a direct link to the different ways to start with n8n (Desktop app is in the middle): https://n8n.io/#get-started
Mirela Fioresy
@kevin @janoberhauser Amazing to see there is a desktop version now. And also that there is a MacOs version.
Levi Gleb Raskin
@kevin @janoberhauser Hi, sounds interesting. Does it need anyway to code something or it could be used even by marketer?
Mutasem
Yesterday in 20 minutes I whipped up a complex integration with Beeminder and Airtable that would have taken me an entire weekend to code and deploy... ❤️
Daniele Packard
Very very cool to see this - bringing together a fragmented world of apps and services - what's the main difference between this and Zapier?
Max Tkacz
@daniele_packard in two words: Easy (Zapier) vs. Powerful (n8n). With Zapier, UX is a bit more optimized for someone without any technical experience. With n8n, you can automate rather complex processes but it helps to have some technical chops - definitely don't need to be a dev, but helpful to know what an array is etc. In n8n, can have dozens of logical flows/ branches, execute JS (+ npm packages) - I've seen people model out entire deployment/ orchestration flows, or complex KYC processes. Another big difference would be the self-hosting option - so data privacy and customization comes to mind. I've seen some teams build custom nodes (integrations) on their company n8n instances to make it easier for marketing/ growth folks to build flows (like a node for their own SaaS app with special actions intended for internal team only). Or add HIPPA compliance since they can control the infrastructure. Or even embedding n8n in their own product. For a really specific example: I built a workflow that can be consumed as an API endpoint. I send it a domain name and it scrapes trustpilot for reviews for that site. Next it runs it through Google sentiment analysis and filters out only 5star and very positive reviews. It then formats that all nicely into a JSON response and returns that. That took me ±40 mins the first time around and next time will be 15min. I don't think I would be able to do that in less than a few days bumbling around in native code. Lastly - Zapier will be WAAY more expensive if you're using it for anything beyond a few zap runs here and there. Zapier charges for each item of data in each step. So pulling in 100 contacts and moving them somewhere = 200 tasks. On n8n's cloud product, that would count as 1 workflow execution. On n8n self hosted or desktop, it would be free other than hosting costs. Hope that helps!
Ben
n8n made my life so much easier! I have automated my newsletter signups, broadcasting and multiple syncs of my DBs with Notion. I just fckn love it! Having now a native app in my Dock is just amazing. Way easier to access and I can even show it to my parents and not so tech-savvy friends so they understand my excitement and may give it a spin as well :) thank you @janoberhauser and team for creating this!
Jonathan Napitupulu
Honestly such an underrated product. Would double vote if I could. Thank you, @janoberhauser for creating such an awesome app.
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@nap_jon Thanks a lot. Having people like you in the community and providing feedback like this is really amazing! Have to however say, that it was less myself, more the whole n8n team.
Wilson Hipolito
I find n8n the easiest no-code workflow software I ever used. Congratulations in lauching the desktop app! Looking forward for a Linux version.
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@wilson_hipolito Thanks a lot. Honestly I am also looking forward to the Linux version as none of the two versions are currently usable for myself either ;-) . There were sadly a few problems so we were not able to get it released today with the others but should be able to add it within the next week.
Max Tkacz
I've been running n8n locally - I can script a little but really want to avoid mashing buttons on the command line just to update it etc. So I can definitely get down with a desktop version that simplifies all that. Thanks 🙏
Mike
Congrats @janoberhauser ! Applause to you and your team for what you have created so far and still pushing the limits with n8n I have used n8n for the following - twitter and telegram bots - automating business processes with trello, gsuite etc - alerts
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@mike_riss Thank you! Really looking forward to see what new use-cases our desktop version enables. Hope also you find even more! Have fun!
David Roberts
Very cool that I don't have to use the command line to install n8n on my computer any more! Makes things so much easier
Claudia Bates
Using n8n makes me feel like a wizard. Totally worth the time investment to learn - it's a tool I expect to continue to use my whole life. My personal favourite use case so far: creating dashboards using n8n as a backend and Retool as a frontend.
Claudio Balbino
Congratulations for the initiative, excited with so many good news about this incredible tool. This will certainly contribute to the popularization of n8n, I've already released the news to my network here in Brazil.
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@claudio_balbino Thank you very much for you support and helping with growing the n8n community in Brazil!
Leoni Bruch
Amazing work @janoberhauser and the whole n8n team! This makes n8n even more powerful 💪!
Lakshmi Yaddanapudi
Super cool, we. love using this!
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@lakshmiy That is great to hear! Keep on having fun with n8n!
Lorena
Since I discovered n8n, I replaced so many tedious scripts with no-code workflows, for example for data analytics and processing pipelines. Now the desktop app makes everything even easier! Thanks @janoberhauser and the n8n team!
Omar Ajoue
I have been using n8n for a while already and this product will make my life even easier. Docker setup is fine but it requires some maintenance. Way to go n8n! Amazing job!
Ivan Arnaudov
No-code automation is the next big thing. Soon it will be common to each of us the way online shopping or using our smartphones for navigation is right now. n8n is well on the path of making it free and accessible to anybody. Self-hosting and local deployment was easy before, but required access to the command line and knowledge of Docker. With the desktop app, ease of access to this great tech is improved even further. Really amazing!
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@ivan_arnaudov Thanks a lot for your support! We also hope that automation becomes much more mainstream and we are working every day to make that happen!
Artur Mkrtchyan
Great to see the desktop version live! Is the desktop version wrapper around the web or is it build from scratch, would be cool to know the tech stack.
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
Thanks! The code of all our versions are identical. So n8n Desktop is more or less default n8n wrapped with Electron and some tweaks to make it run in there properly.
Sandoche
Sounds amazing. I love the selfhosted version. Need to try this!
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@sandochee I hope you do! And please provide feedback, always eager to learn how to improve.
Sandoche
@janoberhauser Actually I just installed it to check. I saw that I can read / write files, but is it possibble to execute script locally or command lines?
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@sandochee Yes, that is possible with the Execute Command Node (https://n8n.io/integrations/n8n-...).
Honza Páv
Honestly, I love Integromat . But the more I work with n8n , the more it's becoming my default – especially when it is easier to use Javascript.
Jan Oberhauser
Maker
@honzapav Then hope with the other updates we have planned the next months we are able to convince you switch totally ;-)
Laurits Just
We currently use integromat - how is n8n different? Maybe I misunderstand the product but it looks like a Zapier-type workflow automation tool.
Max Tkacz
@lauritsjb I'd say n8n is more akin to Integromat than Zapier, but more powerful for tech-savvy folks. At a high level, n8n let’s you stay closer to the data in your flow - for me, it’s more intuitive. Here’s an example: the Jira node’s “Get all tickets” outputs an array of tickets in JSON format - each of these are considered an “item” in n8n (any top-level element in that output array is an “item”). By default, each node performs it’s operation on each item of input data. So when I route that Jira node output into a Trello node set up to “Add card to board”, each Jira ticket is added to Trello automatically. There’s no “loop” step - it’s just built into n8n’s take on automation. A lot of the workflow experience feels like that - it’s designed around you efficiently working with data and abstracting away the 😠 😤 steps like auth, boilerplate code... or banging your head over a crappy API doc for hours. On top of that, the Merge node is super powerful for 2-way syncs and I don’t believe Integromat has this. You can also self-host it for free, or use cloud product. I use cloud, and my flows would cost more on Integromat and a lot more on Zapier.