anything-llm vs n8n
n8n is much bigger: 208.1k stars against 67.3k. Over the days we have tracked them anything-llm moved +5.7% and n8n +5.3%, so anything-llm is growing faster right now.
anything-llm leads on context depth. n8n does not take any axis by a clear margin.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
An all-in-one, local-first no-code agent platform that bundles chat, agents, vector DBs, desktop and web deployments, and dynamic model routing—beyond libraries that only provide primitives.
- Stars
- 67.3k
- Tracked growth
- +5.7%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 10h ago
- Language
- JavaScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Self-hosted (free); external LLM API costs apply.
Provides a visual low-code canvas plus custom code and 1,500+ integrations to build production-ready multi-step AI agents with self-hosting and no provider lock-in.
- Stars
- 208.1k
- Tracked growth
- +5.3%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 12m ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- NOASSERTION
- Cost to run
- Self-hostable; cloud offering available
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | anything-llm | n8n |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis | ●●●●● Workflow-level |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● Basic routing & filters | ●●●●● Human approvals |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Rich rules & plugins | ●●●●● Highly extensible |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Runs fully local | ●●●●● Self-hostable |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Any provider or local | ●●●●● Provider-agnostic |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● Quick start / one-click | ●●●●● One-command start |
Which one to pick
Pick anything-llm if…
Privacy-first — runs locally by default with support for local LLMs and full self-hosting while still integrating cloud providers when needed.
- Context depth: Whole-repo analysis (5/5 against 3/5)
Pick n8n if…
Model flexibility — pick OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or open-source models and self-host the platform while composing agents visually and adding custom code.
What people want from each one
Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm
Hacker News: Show HN: AnythingLLM – Open-Source, All-in-One Desktop AI Assistant drew 368 points and 77 comments.
Questions people ask
Is anything-llm better than n8n?
anything-llm leads on context depth. n8n does not take any axis by a clear margin. anything-llm is worth picking when privacy-first — runs locally by default with support for local LLMs and full self-hosting while still integrating cloud providers when needed.
Which of anything-llm and n8n keeps my code private?
anything-llm: Runs fully local (5/5). n8n: Self-hostable (4/5).
What does each one cost to run?
anything-llm: Self-hosted (free); external LLM API costs apply.. n8n: Self-hostable; cloud offering available.
Full profiles: Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm and n8n-io/n8n. Everything else in Low-code builders.