Comparison
n8n is the right tool when your problem is connecting APIs in a flow, and it now builds agents next to its workflows. Pinchy is the right tool when a team member should get an AI colleague whose tools an admin grants one by one. Here's how the two actually differ.
The Core Difference
You draw the workflow: trigger, steps, branches. Each step is a node, and an AI Agent node can pick its tools at runtime. n8n also has Agents in preview: standalone agents with a model, instructions, tools, MCP, memory and channels such as Slack and Telegram. The workflow remains n8n's centre of gravity.
You describe a role: what the agent is for, which tools it can use, which data it can see, including document folders in the knowledge base, indexed locally, with answers that cite their source. The agent decides what to do in each conversation, and no agent has tools beyond its own workspace until an admin grants them.
You can run both. n8n handles scheduled, deterministic integrations. Pinchy handles interactive, judgment-heavy work in chat. They are separate systems with no built-in connection between them.
Side by Side
Figures as of 16 October 2026, taken from n8n's public pricing, product and documentation pages. Check n8n for current details.
| n8n | Pinchy | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary primitive | Workflow (visual graph); agents as a second primitive (preview) | Agent (role + tools + scope) |
| Who decides the steps | You, at design time (workflows); the agent, at runtime (agents) | The agent, at runtime |
| Best fit for | Deterministic integrations and scheduled automation | Inbox-type work & judgment |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes (first-class) |
| Pre-built Docker images | Yes | Yes (GHCR) |
| Fully offline (local models) | Yes, via Ollama nodes and the self-hosted AI Starter Kit; paid licence keys ping a licence server daily | Yes (Ollama); licence validated offline, never phones home |
| Role-based access control | Owner/Admin/Member plus project roles; custom roles on Enterprise | Admin/Member; groups in Pro |
| Per-agent permissions | Tools chosen per agent; access through project roles | Allow-list per agent: no tools until an admin grants them, plus directory scope |
| Audit trail | Execution history; audit logging and log streaming on Enterprise; signing not documented | Every row HMAC-SHA256-signed and hash-chained, built-in verifier, CSV export |
| Chat interface for users | Yes: Chat Hub, plus hosted and embedded chat | Yes, per agent |
| Chat channels | Telegram nodes; agents can publish to Slack, Telegram and Linear | Web UI plus one Telegram bot per agent (no Slack yet) |
| Human approval for tool calls | Yes: a person approves or denies each call via Slack, Telegram or n8n Chat | No approval step. Control comes up front: grant email_draft without email_send |
| Usage & cost dashboard | Execution metrics | Token & cost by source |
| License | Sustainable-use / Enterprise | AGPL-3.0 open source |
Being Honest
n8n lists over 500 integrations. If your goal is "move data from A to B on a schedule", n8n gets you there faster.
You can see exactly which step of a workflow ran, with which data. For deterministic pipelines, that transparency is hard to beat.
Cron triggers, polling, batch jobs, nightly reports. n8n is purpose-built for recurring, predictable work.
An n8n agent can pause before a specific tool runs, and a person approves or denies it through Slack, Telegram or n8n Chat. Pinchy has no such step: it limits what an agent can do in advance, but does not stop a granted call midway.
Where Pinchy Wins
Messy inputs, judgment calls, varied formats — invoices, quote requests, support drafts, applications. The agent decides per message; you don't branch for every edge case.
"Quote drafter", "support assistant", "onboarding guide" — each agent is a role with bounded authority. Easier to reason about than a growing graph of nodes.
Which tools an agent may use, which directories it sees, whether it can send or only draft: first-class configuration per agent, not a convention. Every tool call lands in an HMAC-SHA256-signed, hash-chained audit trail with a built-in verifier and CSV export. n8n's audit logging is Enterprise-only and does not document signed entries.
Users chat with agents in a web UI or Telegram, one agent at a time. No workflow to launch, no form to fill. The agent asks follow-ups as needed.
Pinchy does not pause to ask; it decides up front what exists. Grant email_draft but not email_send, and the agent writes the reply but a person sends it. Grant Odoo read tools without write tools, and it can look but not change. Where n8n approves a call as it happens, Pinchy settles which calls are possible at all.
Pre-built GHCR images, one-command Docker deploy, local models via Ollama. The Community edition is free (AGPL) with no user limit; Pro adds groups, agent visibility and usage analytics (€1,188/yr for up to 10 users). In return, Pinchy asks you to run one Docker Compose stack and pick a model: an API key or a local Ollama model.
Decision Guide
The work is predictable and repeats. You can draw the flow on a whiteboard. You mostly want to connect APIs on a schedule or on a webhook, or you want agents and workflows in one tool, with human approval per tool call.
The work takes judgment. Inputs are messy or conversational. Users want a colleague, not a form. What each agent may do must be settled up front: tools granted one by one, nothing by default, and a signed record.
You already run n8n for integrations and also want chat agents for a team. Use n8n for scheduled, deterministic automation and Pinchy for conversational, judgment-heavy work. There is no built-in connection between the two.
FAQ
They solve different problems. n8n is a workflow automation platform where you visually describe the steps a process should take, and it now also offers agents. Pinchy is an AI agent platform where you describe the role, grant the tools, and the agent decides which steps to take. If your problem is 'connect API A to API B on a schedule', n8n is the right tool. If your problem is 'give a team member an AI colleague with tools an admin controls', Pinchy is the right tool.
Yes. Both can be self-hosted via Docker. n8n runs under its Sustainable Use License, Pinchy under AGPL-3.0. Both work with local models: n8n through its Ollama nodes and the self-hosted AI Starter Kit, Pinchy through Ollama for fully offline operation. One difference: paid n8n licence keys must ping n8n's licence server daily, while a Pinchy licence key is validated offline and Pinchy never phones home.
Yes. n8n has an AI Agent node for workflows and, in preview, Agents as standalone artifacts with a model, instructions, tools, MCP, memory, a knowledge base and channels such as Slack and Telegram. Tool calls can require human approval. Pinchy's difference is governance: agents get no tools until an admin grants them, and every tool call lands in an HMAC-SHA256-signed, hash-chained audit trail.
Use n8n when your problem is deterministic integration — sync records between SaaS systems, schedule recurring data pipelines, glue together webhooks — or when you need its 500+ integrations or human approval per tool call. Use Pinchy when your problem involves natural-language input, judgment, or varied inputs that don't map to a fixed flow — drafting replies, reading documents, qualifying leads, handling inbox-type work.
Yes, for different jobs: n8n for scheduled, deterministic automation, Pinchy for the interactive, judgment-heavy work in chat. There is no built-in integration. Pinchy has no tool that calls an n8n workflow, and n8n cannot call Pinchy through an API, because Pinchy has no public API in v0.9.1.
Self-host Pinchy yourself in minutes, or book a call to talk it through. Your choice.
Or email us: info@heypinchy.com