Both draw automations on a canvas, and both are built for different people. Gumloop is aimed at business teams building AI agents. n8n is aimed at technical users who want control and the option to self-host.
These two rarely lose deals to each other. They tend to be chosen by different people in the building.
The first two columns answer the question in the title. The third is the same work written rather than drawn.
| Feature | Gumloop | n8n | Aisle |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you build | A node graph on a canvas | A node graph with expressions | A Python program |
| Built for | Business teams | Technical users | Teams with a developer |
| Hosting | Hosted only | Self-host or n8n Cloud | Managed only |
| Multi-model | Yes | Yes | Yes, per step |
| Prompts | In the node | In the node | Versioned, called by slug |
| Model output | Not constrained | Not constrained | Constrained by an output schema |
| Change history | Canvas history | Workflow JSON you export | A revision on every save, with a diff |
| Rollback | Undo, or rebuild | Re-import an older export | One click |
| Tests | Not included | Not included | A tests.py in the same revision |
| Retrying a partial run | The flow runs again | The workflow runs again | Checkpoints skip finished items |
| Follow-up questions on a result | Slack threads | Chat Trigger | Output as a chat |
| Non-developer run surface | Interfaces | Forms | Typed inputs render a form |
| Multiple accounts per provider | Workspace credentials | Chosen per node | Named, selectable per call |
| Browser automation | Yes | Via community nodes | Not included |
Whichever canvas you pick, prompts live inside nodes with no version history, and neither constrains the shape of what a model returns. Those are the two that hurt once an AI automation runs on every record.
In a task the prompt is a platform object with version history, and it carries an output schema that constrains the model to JSON matching it. Edit a prompt and every task calling it runs the new version, with no code change and no redeploy.
score = aisle.ai.run_prompt( slug="score-lead", variables={"lead": lead}, ) if score["tier"] == "hot": aisle.integrations.slack.create_message("#sales", text=score["summary"])
Gumloop, if AI is the point and the builders are not engineers. Its interface, credential handling and Slack surface are designed around that. n8n fits better when the AI step sits inside a larger integration flow and you want self-hosting.
Self-hosted n8n is usually cheapest on paper, because you pay for a server rather than per unit of work, but you also pay in maintenance time. Compare on your own volume: credit and execution pricing behave very differently once an automation runs on every record.
No, Gumloop is a hosted product. If self-hosting is a requirement, n8n, Activepieces and Windmill are the realistic options.
Neither surfaces prompt versioning. In both, the prompt text lives inside the node it belongs to, so there is no history, no rollback, and no way to reuse the same prompt across automations.
Write them as code on a managed runtime. Aisle is one option, where a task is Python and the model is called at the steps that need judgment. Temporal, Inngest and Trigger.dev are alternatives if you would rather have durable execution as a library inside an application you already run.
Competitor details reviewed . Vendors change plans and features without notice, so check theirs before deciding.
The two things both canvases leave to you, built into the platform.