May my agency host n8n for customers? Fair-code, resale, gray area customer access

Yes, but with one important restriction: under the n8n Sustainable Use License, you may use n8n freely for your own internal purposes and for consulting services, but you may not offer the software as a paid hosting service where customers log into your n8n instance. What matters is who operates the instance and whose credentials reside there. If each customer builds and maintains their own n8n instance, whether as a cloud workspace or self-hosted, and you only provide consulting and workflows for it, you are within the permitted scope of the license. If, on the other hand, you host and manage the workflows and credentials of several customers together in your own n8n instance, n8n explicitly states that this requires a commercial Enterprise license. As of: July 2026.

What the Sustainable Use License permits

n8n describes itself as "fair-code", not as classic open source in the sense of the Open Source Initiative. The source code is openly viewable, but commercial use is deliberately restricted. The full license text grants you the right to use, copy, modify the software and create derivative works, but only under two conditions at the same time.

• Internal purpose: You may use or modify the software "only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use", meaning for your own business operations, not as a product for third parties.
• Free distribution: Distribution to others is only permitted if it is "free of charge for non-commercial purposes"; paid access for third parties is thereby excluded.
• Prohibited examples according to n8n: n8n explicitly names, among other things, whitelabeling the software for payment and hosting n8n with subsequent billing for access as clearly impermissible.

Pure services around n8n, such as building workflows, training, or ongoing support, are explicitly not the problem. The problem only arises when the economic value of your offering consists at its core of access to n8n itself rather than your consulting service.

The decisive difference: who operates the instance

n8n has clarified this boundary in an official support article. If you intend to host and manage the workflows and credentials of your customers in your own internal n8n instance, an Enterprise license is required according to n8n. If, on the other hand, your role is limited to supporting customers in setting up and operating their own internal n8n instances, no commercial license is required on your side for this. You can find this distinction in the support article on license use cases from n8n itself.

In practice, this means: a model in which each customer has their own n8n cloud workspace or their own self-hosted instance, and you as an agency build and maintain workflows there, is the cleanest approach from a licensing perspective. A model in which all customers run on a shared n8n instance operated by you and receive their own access there corresponds to what n8n itself describes as not covered by the Sustainable Use License.

Consulting model versus managed hosting model

In the n8n community this question is discussed regularly, among others by agencies that set up either their own n8n cloud workspace or their own self-hosted instance for each customer and work in it themselves only as consultants. This approach is considered acceptable there, because the agency never itself passes on n8n as commercial access to third parties. Answers in a community forum are, however, not a binding statement from n8n, even if they align with the official support position.

The situation is somewhat less clear when you operate your own instance with your own credentials and run workflows there on behalf of several customers, without them ever being logged in themselves. Whether this still counts as internal use of your own business operations or already as commercial provision to third parties is not conclusively regulated in the license. For such borderline cases, n8n offers direct clarification by email at license@n8n.io before you build an offering on it.

What happens in the event of a license violation

According to the contract text, the license ends automatically as soon as you violate the conditions. After a warning from n8n, a period remains for correction; otherwise the license lapses permanently. For an agency, such a violation means in the worst case that it operates an automation solution built for customers without a valid license basis, with corresponding risk for ongoing customer contracts. Anyone who, like NordFlux as a digitalization consultancy, relies on clear, verifiable foundations anyway should clarify this question before signing a contract, not only when a customer asks about it. You can find more about our approach to using n8n at n8n automation.

Frequently asked questions about n8n and customer hosting

May I, as an agency, build n8n workflows for customers and bill for them?

Yes, consulting and workflow creation are explicitly permitted under the Sustainable Use License, as long as you do not pass on n8n itself as paid access to the customer.

May I operate an n8n instance jointly for several customers?

If customers log into this shared instance and manage their own workflows and credentials there, n8n provides for this an Enterprise license. If, on the other hand, you only run workflows yourself on your own behalf, without customers gaining access, the classification is not conclusively clarified as of now.

What is the difference between the Sustainable Use License and the Enterprise license?

The Sustainable Use License applies free of charge for internal use and for consulting on customer instances. The Enterprise license is a commercial agreement that n8n provides for cases in which you pass on access to n8n itself as part of your business model to third parties.

Who do I contact for a binding assessment of my specific model?

n8n itself refers licensing questions to license@n8n.io for the Sustainable Use License and to sales@n8n.io for commercial licenses.

This article is a general classification based on publicly available n8n license texts and community discussions and does not constitute legal advice. Especially in borderline cases and before you build a business model on it, a binding clarification directly with n8n and, in case of doubt, a legal review is recommended.