How much does n8n make?

n8n reports $40M ARR as of August 2025. n8n ~$40M ARR August 2025, up from $7.2M ARR June 2024. 10x revenue growth in 2025 after AI automation pivot. Source: arr.club.

Open-source workflow automation platform that connects apps, APIs, and AI agents with a visual node-based editor — self-hostable alternative to Zapier. It operates in Productivity.

How long did it take n8n to reach $100k arr?

Jan Oberhauser took 7 years to reach $100k arr with n8n.

Was Jan Oberhauser a solo founder?

Yes. Jan Oberhauser built n8n as a solo founder.

What marketing channel did n8n use to grow?

n8n grew primarily through Communities.

n8n Revenue: $40M ARR, $100K ARR in 7 years

The full story

TL;DR

Jan Oberhauser, a VFX pipeline engineer, started coding n8n in his Berlin apartment after work. His first hire was a developer evangelist. Now it's worth $2.5B with 150K GitHub stars.

Jan Oberhauser was a VFX pipeline technical director at Academy Award-winning studios, working on films like Disney's Maleficent and Happy Feet Two. His job: automating complex visual effects pipelines. He started coding n8n in early 2018 in his Berlin apartment after work hours — a workflow automation tool that would let anyone connect apps and APIs visually.

The Open Source Launch

On June 23, 2019, Jan published n8n to GitHub. He launched "properly" in October 2019. Within 5 months, the repo had 10,000 stars. The key differentiator from Zapier: n8n was fully open-source and self-hostable, giving users control over their data and workflows.

Community First

Jan's first hire wasn't an engineer — it was a developer evangelist. This revealed his conviction that community would be the competitive moat. He used "fair-code" licensing (source-visible but commercial use requires a partnership), letting developers try everything before paying. An active community forum and Discord grew to 16,000+ members by 2021.

From VFX to $2.5B

Sequoia Capital co-led a $1.5M seed round in March 2020. By 2025, n8n had raised $240M across 4 rounds, reached $40M ARR with just 67 employees ($597K revenue per employee), and earned a $2.5B valuation. The AI wave supercharged growth: n8n became the go-to platform for building AI agent workflows.

Solo founder side project (2018)
GitHub stars: 150,000+
Seed round: $1.5M (Sequoia, March 2020)
$40M ARR with 67 employees
Revenue per employee: $597K
Valuation: $2.5B (October 2025)

Key Takeaways

Build something you need yourself — VFX pipeline automation experience directly informed n8n

First hire should be community, not engineering — developer advocate was hire #1

Fair-code licensing lets you build community AND a business simultaneously

Self-hosted option creates trust and adoption in enterprise environments

A solo founder with deep domain expertise can build a unicorn

The full story

TL;DR

Jan Oberhauser, a VFX pipeline engineer, started coding n8n in his Berlin apartment after work. His first hire was a developer evangelist. Now it's worth $2.5B with 150K GitHub stars.