n8n: The Most Powerful Free Automation Tool
Self-hostable, open-source, and capable of building real AI workflows.
Lesson Notes
n8n is the most capable automation tool — it has 400+ integrations, supports code nodes (JavaScript/Python), can call any API, and runs AI/LLM steps natively. Unlike Zapier and Make, n8n is open-source and can be self-hosted for free (you only pay for cloud hosting). The UI is a canvas like Make but the data model is more explicit — every node receives "items" (an array of objects) and outputs "items." Understanding this items model is the key to unlocking n8n's full power.
Your Challenge
+15 XPGo to n8n.io and start a free cloud account. Build a workflow: when triggered manually, fetch the top 3 posts from a subreddit using the Reddit node (or HTTP Request node), format the titles into a bulleted list, and send it to yourself via email. Activate and run it.