We built an open-source alternative to Zapier/n8n — what we learned along the way

Hey IH 👋

I’m Ivica, one of three founders building ByteChef.

We’ve spent years working on workflow/automation systems, and kept running into the same pattern:

Teams start with tools like Zapier or Make → everything works great → usage grows → suddenly pricing becomes unpredictable, and people actually automate less to control costs.

At the same time, more technical teams move to tools like n8n, but then non-technical people get blocked, and workflows stay owned by engineers.

That tension (cost vs flexibility vs usability) is what pushed us to build ByteChef.

What we’re building

ByteChef is an open-core workflow automation platform (Apache 2.0 core):

• visual builder + code (JS / Python / Ruby)

• 180+ integrations

• LLM steps as part of workflows

• self-hosted or cloud

GitHub: https://github.com/bytechefhq/bytechef

One thing we’re trying to get right

Making automation something teams don’t avoid as they scale

We’ve seen SaaS teams:

• delay automations because of pricing uncertainty

• build internal tools that become hard to maintain

• or limit integrations because of effort

We’re trying to design around that, but honestly still figuring out the right balance.

Something we’re exploring (early)

We’re also experimenting with using ByteChef as an embedded integration layer inside SaaS products.

Instead of building 50+ integrations yourself, you embed workflows and let customers configure them.

Still very early, but this might turn out to be the more interesting direction.

What I’d love feedback on

• Have you hit pricing limits with Zapier/Make? What did you do?

• If you switched to something like n8n — what broke for you?

• If you built your own automation layer — was it worth it?

Would really appreciate any thoughts — especially from people who’ve gone through this.

Thanks 🙌