n8n expert in Belgium: what I build for Belgian SMEs

What is n8n?

n8n is a workflow automation tool. You connect apps and services with visual nodes: a form submission arrives, a contact is created in your CRM, a WhatsApp message goes to your team and the customer gets an email. Where a ready-made node is missing, n8n can call any API or run custom code.

It also has AI nodes. An n8n workflow can call a language model, use your own documents as a knowledge source and let an agent take actions in your tools, with approval steps where you want them.

Self-hosted or n8n Cloud?

As of November 2026, n8n Cloud starts at €20 a month for 2,500 workflow executions (Starter) and €50 a month for 10,000 (Pro), billed annually. The Business plan, from €667 a month for 40,000 executions, is self-hosted only for now. Enterprise is available hosted or self-hosted.

The Community Edition is free to self-host on your own server. It runs under the Sustainable Use License, which allows internal business use: if only you or people in your organisation create or edit workflows, you can use it for free. A consultant can build and maintain workflows for you and charge for that work. What the licence does not allow is offering n8n as a service where your own customers build workflows.

• n8n Cloud: no server to maintain, monthly plan, execution limits
• Self-hosted: no execution limit, you pay for the server and its upkeep
• Both: you keep ownership of the workflows

Is n8n GDPR-friendly for a Belgian company?

It can be. Self-hosting on an EU server keeps workflow data where you choose. n8n Cloud offers a data processing agreement; check n8n's current terms and sub-processor list for where data is hosted.

The bigger GDPR question is usually not n8n itself but what the workflow sends elsewhere. If a workflow passes customer data to an AI model, a mailing tool or a CRM, each of those needs its own legal basis and agreement. Coban Labs maps these data flows before building and keeps personal data to the minimum each step needs.

Which workflows do Belgian SMEs automate first?

The best first automation is a task someone does by hand every day and that follows clear rules.

• Website form to CRM, with a WhatsApp or email alert to the team and a welcome email to the customer
• Bookings from Calendly or Cal.com with reminders and no-show follow-up
• Invoices and payment reminders pulled into a weekly report
• Lead assignment to the right salesperson with a simple scoring rule
• An AI agent that drafts replies to incoming emails for a person to approve

n8n vs Make vs Zapier: which one?

Zapier is the easiest to start with and has the largest app catalogue. It gets expensive as volume grows. Make sits in the middle: visual, flexible and cheaper per operation.

n8n is the strongest choice when you need custom logic, high volume, AI agents, or data to stay on your own EU server. It has a steeper learning curve, which matters less when someone builds and maintains the workflows for you. If your team will build everything themselves and volumes are low, Zapier or Make can be the better fit, and I will say so.

What does an n8n automation cost?

There are two parts: the tool and the build. The tool costs nothing on a self-hosted Community Edition beyond the server, or from €20 a month on n8n Cloud as of November 2026.

At Coban Labs, a first automation starts at €1,500 and takes about two weeks: one process built end to end, connected to the tools you already use, with a short training and a written guide. Optional maintenance is €150 a month. Bigger projects get a fixed quote after a 15-minute call. Prices exclude VAT.

What has been built with n8n before?

Mehmet Emin Çoban leads the R&D team at Digiens Academy, where n8n runs alongside the company ERP used daily by 40+ employees. He also built the technical implementation library of Digiens AI, a community of 500+ students, with step-by-step n8n, Supabase, Vercel and Resend builds. For Kokon Global, every Calendly booking flows automatically to the website, a sheet and the CRM.