Dustvsn8n

The Best n8n Alternative for Enterprise AI Agents

AI agents anyone can build with natural language, everywhere your team works

Trusted by 2,000+ organizations

blueground
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clay
Case study →
cursor
assembled
kyriba
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patch
Case study →
persona
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photoroom
vanta
Case study →
qonto
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watershed
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whatnot

The Key Differences

Who can build
Anyone—natural language agent creation in minutes
Technical teams—drag-and-drop requires system knowledge
Native distribution
Agents accessible in Slack, Teams, Chrome, Excel, Zendesk
No distribution layer—build integrations yourself
Semantic search
Native RAG across all connectors
Just pipes data—no semantic search
Maintenance
Adaptive agents evolve automatically
Workflows break when APIs change

How Dust Compares to n8n

Natural language agent creationBuild agents by describing what you want, not wiring blocks
Agentic-first approachAgents reason and adapt vs deterministic workflows that break
Native distributionAgents accessible in Slack, Teams, Chrome, Excel, Zendesk
Semantic search (RAG)Intelligent search across Drive, Notion, Confluence, Slack, Salesforce
Permission-aware accessBuilt on a comprehensive permissions model for agent-specific access
Human-AI collaboration@mention colleagues, share interactive Frames and Slides
Deep research agentMulti-source research and synthesis built-in
Adaptive agentsZero reconfiguration when processes/APIs change
SOC 2 Type II certifiedEnterprise-grade security out of the box
500+ integrationsLarge connector library for system-to-system automation
Self-hosting optionDeploy on your own infrastructure

Why teams choose Dust over n8n

Enterprise-wide adoption, not just technical teams

Natural language agent creation—anyone can build in minutes. Sales, marketing, support, HR, legal—every team creates value. Persona achieved 80% AI agent adoption company-wide.

Agents live where your team works

Native distribution in Slack, Microsoft Teams, Chrome extension, Excel/Sheets add-ons, Zendesk. n8n workflows run as backend processes with no way to reach end-users.

Semantic search unlocks agent intelligence

Native semantic search indexes Drive, Notion, Confluence, Slack, Salesforce, GitHub, Gong simultaneously. n8n just pipes data between systems—no search capability.

Adaptive agents > high-maintenance workflows

Agents adapt naturally when processes or APIs change—no reconfiguration needed. n8n workflows are brittle and require constant technical maintenance.

Permission-aware access, not shared credentials

Automatically inherits user permissions from source systems. n8n uses shared credentials—a junior employee triggering a workflow gets the same access as a senior employee.

True total cost of ownership

All-in per-user pricing includes models, infrastructure, security, compliance. n8n's 'free' license requires infrastructure + technical staff + OpenAI API costs + maintenance.

Why teams choose Dust

80%
Company-wide adoption
Persona's AI agent usage
70%
Weekly active users
Patch team using agents
50+
Integrations
With semantic search

Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on your use case. If you're using n8n for backend deterministic workflows (ETL, data pipelines), keep n8n—that's its strength. If you're building intelligent agents for your team to use, Dust is purpose-built for that and dramatically simpler. Many teams use both: n8n for backend automation, Dust for user-facing agents.
n8n has a 'free' license but requires infrastructure costs ($500-$2,000+/month), technical staff to maintain it, and separate OpenAI/Anthropic API costs. Dust offers all-in per-user pricing that includes models, infrastructure, security (SOC 2 Type II), and compliance. When you factor total cost of ownership, Dust is often more cost-effective.
Dust covers 90% of critical enterprise tools. The real differentiator: Dust indexes data for semantic search across all connectors. n8n just pipes data between systems. For agents, 50 connectors with intelligent search beats 500 without it.
You'll hit limitations fast: no distribution layer (can't reach Slack/Teams/Chrome), no semantic search (need to build RAG pipelines manually), shared credentials (compliance risk), only technical teams can maintain it, and workflows break when APIs change. n8n is a workflow automation tool. Dust is an agentic-first platform for enterprises.
Dust is SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR compliant, and HIPAA-ready. We offer SSO/SAML, SCIM provisioning, role-based access controls, audit logs, and optional data residency (US/EU). With n8n self-hosting, you own all security and compliance management—a full-time job.
Dust offers data residency options (US/EU) within our SOC 2 Type II-certified cloud infrastructure. For most organizations, this is more secure than self-hosting because you avoid maintaining SOC 2/GDPR compliance yourself. For highly regulated industries, contact us about dedicated deployment options.
Yes. Start a 14-day free trial—no credit card required. You'll get full access to no-code agent creation, all 50+ enterprise connectors, semantic search, and distribution in Slack, Teams, Chrome, and Excel.

Ready to Democratize AI Across Your Organization?

n8n automates backend processes for technical teams. Dust augments everyone.

14-day free trial. Cancel anytime. No credit card required.

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