Popular workflow automation platform with a large node ecosystem.
Building on it: what may you do?
Short answers based on the licence, for the version in the catalog.
- B1 Change the code for internal use in your company Yes, with conditions Usually, for internal use. Check the terms.
- B2 Build your own product or service on top and offer it to customers as SaaS No Usually no for a service that competes with the vendor, without an agreement.
- B3 Make a closed-source derivative and sell or distribute it No No, not without an agreement with the vendor.
- B4 Use the project's name and trademark No No, not without permission. The licence covers the code, not the name or logo.
Keep in mind
- Open core: parts of the project (often an ee/ or enterprise folder) are under a separate commercial licence and may not be changed or used freely.
- There is a licence note for this product (e.g. parts under another licence or version-specific terms): read it and check the licence of the exact version you use.
This is guidance, not legal advice. Check with a lawyer before deciding.
Verify with a lawyer. Not verified: check the following in the product's own documentation before deciding: sso.
The licence in brief
Sustainable Use License (LicenseRef-Sustainable-Use)
Source-available. Limited to internal business purposes; offering it to customers as a service needs a vendor agreement.
What does LicenseRef-Sustainable-Use mean?
Sustainable Use License plus '.ee.' files under the n8n Enterprise License. Internal self-hosting is OK; offering it hosted to customers needs an n8n agreement.
This is guidance, not legal advice (inte juridisk rådgivning). Check with a lawyer before deciding.
Facts
- Licence
- LicenseRef-Sustainable-Use
- Licence type
- Source-available (not OSI)
- Open core
- Yes – some features need a paid edition
- GitHub stars
- 207k
- Latest activity
- Unknown
- Deployment
- Docker
- Login/SSO
- Unknown
- API
- REST
- Multi-tenant
- Unknown
- EU vendor
- Yes
- Source code
- github.com/n8n-io/n8n
- Source
- GitHub API, fetched 2026-10-03
Licence analysis per use case
Sign in to see what the licence means for eight use cases – from internal self-hosting to offering the tool as a service.
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