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n8n vs Restate

n8n scores higher on the AgentReady, 60/100 against 59/100. They differ on 2 of the 41 signals. Which ones decides whether an agent can adopt them without a person watching.

What each one is

n8n. AI Workflow Automation Platform - the world's most popular workflow automation platform for technical teams

Restate. Restate is a lightweight runtime to turn AI agents, workflows, and backend services into durable processes.

Where n8n is ahead

n8n passes agent-compatible signup flow, and Restate does not. That is adopt, whether an agent can get a key and make its first successful call without a human in the loop.

Where Restate is ahead

Restate passes retry behavior documented, and n8n does not. That is operate, whether an agent can run against it in production and recover when a call fails.

What neither does

Both fail structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented, no mandatory sales call, programmatic credential creation, structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified. If your agent needs any of those, you will be building it yourself either way.

Score, pillar by pillar

The AgentReady splits into four pillars, scored separately, because a product can be easy to find and still impossible to adopt.

Understand. Both sit at 23/100 here. n8n misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Restate misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented.

Adopt is whether an agent can get a key and make its first successful call without a human in the loop. n8n leads 80 to 70. n8n misses no mandatory sales call, programmatic credential creation; Restate misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation.

Operate. Restate leads 41 to 35. n8n misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified; Restate misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified.

Pricing

n8n starts at $20/mo and has a free tier. Restate starts at $0/mo and has a free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

Signal counts are level here, so fit and price decide it. Full profiles: n8n and Restate. Alternatives to each: n8n, Restate.

An agent can fetch this as data: POST /v1/compare {"slugs": ["n8n", "restate"]}