Research
Background research ported from earlier work (2026-10-29) and sanitized for clean-room use. Details learned from the source code of n8n, Kestra, Windmill or Activepieces have been removed. What remains comes from license texts, public docs, pricing pages, legal sources and community discussion. Nothing here is legal advice.
Reports
- reports/n8n-gated-features-reimplementation.md: n8n's licensing (SUL and Enterprise License), the legal paths for rebuilding its paid features, and why an independent clean-room product is the viable commercial route.
- reports/kestra-windmill-activepieces-comparison.md: licensing, free versus paid features, operations and community health of Kestra, Windmill and Activepieces compared with n8n.
Notes
- notes/n8n-licensing-legal.md: n8n license clauses, case law, anti-circumvention, trademark and enforcement history.
- notes/n8n-feature-feasibility.md: feature-by-feature feasibility of providing n8n's gated features (SSO, RBAC, audit, Git sync and others) from documented behaviour.
- notes/kestra.md: Kestra licensing, OSS versus Enterprise features, pricing, operations and community.
- notes/windmill.md: Windmill licensing and its history, CE versus EE features, pricing, self-hosting and community.
- notes/activepieces.md: Activepieces MIT and Enterprise split, plans and pricing, self-hosting and community.
Intentionally excluded
The original research also contained architecture notes produced from a source-code read of n8n, covering how its feature gating is implemented. They were left out on purpose and must not be brought into this repository. STaurtomation contributors must not read the source code of n8n, Kestra, Windmill or Activepieces, or of forks of them such as the sreent/n8n "tuflow" fork, and must not read descriptions derived from that source.
Link check (2026-10-30)
All 151 links were checked with an automated HTTP request. Dead or unreachable links are marked inline. These returned 403/429/999 to scripted requests (bot blocking; likely fine in a browser, not verified): axios.com, linkedin.com, funding.tech.eu, lumadock.com, neura.market, news.hada.io, repos.ecosyste.ms (402), trademark.justia.com, dorsey.com, fieldfisher.com, g2.com, jenner.com, vondranlegal.com. A mintlify.com mirror of n8n's repository docs was replaced with the official docs.n8n.io page, and a third-party Authelia mirror with authelia.com.