n8n vs Todoist Comparison 2026
Both cover project management. Here is what separates them on price, billing, what you can take with you, and coverage.
Automation you can host on your own server
A task list that survives being ignored for a week
At a glance
- Todoist starts cheaper, at $5.
- Only Todoist has a free tier.
Side by side
n8n | Todoist | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $20 | From $5 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Not stated | Not stated |
| Their cut | None | None |
| Runs on |
Shaded rows are where the two answers disagree and both listings have answered. A row where one side has not stated a fact is left plain, because silence is not a difference.
n8n
Automation you can host on your own server
n8n is a workflow automation tool whose source is public and which you may run on your own machine, which matters when the data passing through is a subscriber list or a client's files. Nodes cover the usual services and a code node covers everything else, so a workflow does not stop dead at the first thing nobody built an integration for. Cloud plans are billed by workflow executions rather than by task, so a long chain costs the same as a short one. Self-hosting is free under its own licence.
Only on this side
- Covers dm & comment automation
Todoist
A task list that survives being ignored for a week
Todoist takes a typed sentence like "post the newsletter every Tuesday at 9" and turns it into a scheduled recurring task, which is the feature the whole product is built around. Five projects on the free account is enough for one person running one operation. Paying raises the limits, adds reminders and calendar layouts, and opens filters that make a large list usable. Teams get their own tier above that, and none of it tries to be a project management suite.
Our note
Treat the five-project free limit as the decision point rather than any feature, because a creator usually needs one project per channel and hits it in a month. At $5 the upgrade is not the question; whether you want a task list at all rather than a calendar is.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.