n8n automation, done properly.

What is n8n?

n8n is an open-source workflow automation platform: a visual canvas where you connect your mailbox, CRM, spreadsheets, databases and AI models into flows that run on their own. Think "when a quote request lands in the inbox, extract the details, check the calendar, propose a slot and draft the reply". It connects to 400+ tools out of the box and, unlike most alternatives, you can self-host it, which matters if you want your data to stay in the EU under your own control.

The five n8n workflows we build most for Belgian SMEs

1. Intake to planning: request in inbox, address checked, free slot found, confirmation sent by SMS and calendar. From 28 minutes of handling to under a minute.
2. Quote follow-up: quotes that chase themselves politely after 5 and 12 days, with the status visible for the whole team.
3. Invoice processing: incoming PDFs read by AI, matched to orders, booked as draft in your accounting tool for human approval.
4. Reporting: the Friday-afternoon Excel ritual replaced by a report that assembles itself from your systems every Monday at 07:00.
5. AI mail triage: incoming mail classified, urgent items flagged, routine replies drafted for one-click review.

n8n vs Power Automate vs Zapier

• Power Automate wins when your whole world is Microsoft 365: licensing is often already covered and governance is built in. Read more on our Power Automate page (Dutch).
• Zapier is the fastest for simple two-step zaps, but gets expensive and rigid as flows grow.
• n8n wins on flexibility, AI-native workflows, cost at volume, and self-hosting for data control. It asks more engineering discipline: error handling, retries and monitoring do not come free.

Cloud or self-hosted?

n8n Cloud is fine for most teams and starts around €20 per month. Self-hosting (on your own VPS or Azure) gives you full data control, no execution limits and lower cost at scale, in exchange for keeping the server updated and monitored. For GDPR-sensitive flows (HR, health, finance) self-hosting in the EU is usually the safer default.

Doing it yourself: an honest starting path

1. Pick one painful, repetitive process with a clear trigger and outcome.
2. Start on n8n Cloud with the free trial; sketch the flow on paper first.
3. Build the happy path, then spend just as much time on the failure path: what happens when the API is down or the PDF is unreadable?
4. Add error notifications to a channel someone actually reads.
5. Run it in parallel with the manual process for two weeks before trusting it.

Where teams get stuck is rarely the first build. It is reliability: silent failures, API changes, edge cases. That is the difference between a demo and infrastructure.

When to bring in help

We build n8n workflows for organisations across Brussels and Flanders: scoped fixed-price builds from €3.999, and ongoing monitoring and fixes under Care from €495 per month. We also audit and rescue existing n8n setups.

Frequently asked questions