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Buyer's guide Workflow automation

Workflow automation tools pricing: what you pay to start

CloudPloy has the cheapest paid entry plan and GrantCue the dearest, free plans are common, and prices jump hardest at business tiers.

AgentsIndexPublished 19 min readEditorial policy
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On this page
  1. The short answer
  2. Pick by what you need
  3. All 8 picks at a glance
  4. What the prices show
  5. What each one costs
  6. Prices compared
  7. What it means for a buyer
  8. How we compared
  9. Questions buyers ask
  10. Sources

The short answer

Duaer shows where the money goes: its Starter plan is $24 a month and its Business plan $800 a month, with unlimited users on every tier. AutoGPT, CloudPloy, GrantCue, Duaer and Middleware OpsAI each have a free plan, and GrantCue and Middleware OpsAI each add a 14-day free trial.

Gumloop’s Pro plan is $37 a month with 20,000 credits, and its agents stop running when those credits run out unless you opt into pay-as-you-go billing.

On 27 October 2026 we listed 361 tools: 28 of them under Workflow Automation and 166 with a free plan.

  • CloudPloy has the cheapest paid entry plan, at $9.99 a month.
  • GrantCue has the dearest entry plan, at $49 a month, which falls to $39 billed annually, and every new workspace gets 14 days of the Team plan free.
  • Duaer climbs from $24 a month on Starter to $800 a month on Business, and the top-ranked workflow platform tops out at Business and custom Enterprise plans.
  • Gumloop now lists only Pro at $37 a month and Enterprise, after a Free plan with 5,000 credits a month left its pricing page.

Pick by what you need

Logos of n8n, AutoGPT, BuildShip, CloudPloy, GrantCue, Gumloop, Duaer, Middleware OpsAI. 8 tools compared, from $9.99 a month.

All 8 picks at a glance

Table 1 Price, free plan and the questions that separate them, checked 24 October 2026
ProductFromFree plan
n8n
about $27 a month
14-day trial
AutoGPT
Free, then $50 a month
Yes
BuildShip
$19 a month
–
CloudPloy
Free, then $9.99 a month
Yes
GrantCue
Free, then $49 a month
Yes; 14-day trial
Gumloop
$37 a month
–
Duaer
Free, then $24 a month
Yes
Middleware OpsAI
Free
Yes; 14-day trial
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What the prices show

  • Paid entry plans run from CloudPloy’s $9.99 a month to GrantCue’s $49 a month.
  • Free plans are common: AutoGPT, CloudPloy, GrantCue, Duaer and Middleware OpsAI each have one.
  • Prices jump hardest at business tiers, where Duaer goes from $60 a month on Pro to $800 a month on Business and the top-ranked workflow platform moves up to Business and custom Enterprise plans, while GrantCue’s Organization plan is $229 a month and CloudPloy’s Scale plan stays at $39 a month.
  • Free trials share one length, a 14-day free trial, on the top-ranked workflow platform, GrantCue and Middleware OpsAI.
  • Gumloop’s free plan has dropped off its pricing page, which listed only Pro at $37 a month and Enterprise on 27 August 2026, though a June 9, 2026 blog post still describes a Free plan with 5,000 credits a month.

What each one costs

n8n

Best for self-hosting teams billed in euros: Its hosted plans bill in euros, and the same workflows run on your own infrastructure.

Price From about $27 a month

The entry plan bills annually in euros, and every paid tier includes unlimited users and unlimited workflows, priced on monthly executions and concurrency. A 14-day free trial covers Starter or Pro, and the public API is switched off during the trial. Business is sold for self-hosting only, and a Start-up Plan takes 50% off Business for companies under 20 employees.

The AI credits in each plan pay for the assistant that drafts workflows from a prompt, while AI Agent nodes that call OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini bill through your own provider keys. Bringing your own key is the default path, and workflows download from the editor menu as files you can import elsewhere.

What it does well

  • Every paid tier includes unlimited users and workflows, so the bill follows executions and concurrency.
  • It runs on your own servers, which keeps data where your policies want it.
  • An independent auditor assesses it annually against System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2.
  • Claude, ChatGPT or a coding agent can search, run and edit the workflows you enable through its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server on every plan.

Where it falls short

  • Its hosted cloud runs only in Frankfurt.
  • No uptime percentage is published for the hosted service; Enterprise buys dedicated support with guaranteed response times.
  • Model calls inside your workflows bill separately through your own provider keys, on top of the subscription.
  • Free trial: 14 days
  • Who it’s for: Technical teams that want a visual workflow builder they can self-host, with code nodes there when a step needs custom logic.
  • Skip it if: You need a hosted service outside the European Union, since its cloud runs only in Frankfurt, or plan to resell it inside your own product, which its Sustainable Use License does not allow.

AutoGPT

Best for running AI assistants free on your own servers: AutoGPT says self-hosting is the free path: you provide the infrastructure and model API keys and maintain the deployment.

Price Free, then $50 a month

AutoGPT has a free plan, and its managed cloud Platform and self-hosting run from the same repository with the same core builder and agent runtime. Self-hosting trades managed infrastructure, built-in model access and vendor support for Docker, your own API keys and community help.

The product now centers on Otto, an orchestrator that delegates to 32 role-specific agents you brief in plain English and set spending thresholds for. The Platform code ships under the PolyForm Shield License, a source-available license that is free for personal and internal business use.

What it does well

  • Self-hosting is free when you bring your own infrastructure and model keys.
  • Otto hands work to 32 named agents, such as an account executive and an executive assistant.
  • Agents run continuously in the cloud and start from relevant triggers.

Where it falls short

  • The single-container installer is still marked as coming with the next appliance release, so today’s self-host setup is manual.
  • The current Platform is source-available under the PolyForm Shield License, though the docs call the product open source.
  • The persona-based rebrand dates to October 3, 2026, so the product is still settling.
  • Free plan: yes
  • Who it’s for: Small business owners who want a roster of AI assistants handling repetitive digital work and can run it on their own servers.
  • Skip it if: Teams that want a hosted plan with a printed price should look at Duaer, whose Starter plan is $24 a month.

BuildShip

Best for teams that turn a prompt into a deployed flow: A plain prompt becomes a full flow or a single node, and flows deploy as APIs, scheduled jobs or event-driven automations on Google Cloud Run.

Price From $19 a month

BuildShip wires nodes for web calls, database work, AI model calls and triggers into flows that deploy as APIs, scheduled jobs or event-driven automations on Google Cloud Run. Its pricing page names Starter, Pro, Business and Enterprise tiers, and lists self-hosting or bring-your-own-cloud only under Enterprise.

Generated workflows open in code, and an imported API spec generates nodes for outside services. BuildShip says Deriv runs over 150 of its workflows in staging and production.

What it does well

  • A plain prompt becomes a full flow or a single node, which speeds up prototyping.
  • 50+ ready-to-use nodes cover common building blocks.
  • Importing an API spec generates nodes for that service.

Where it falls short

  • Self-hosting is listed only on Enterprise, so Starter, Pro and Business run on BuildShip’s hosting.
  • Its compliance claims link to no trust center or audit report, and its terms say the services are not tailored to health-privacy regulations.
  • The core workflow engine is closed-source.
  • Who it’s for: Product and ops teams who want to turn a plain prompt into a working flow and deploy it as an API endpoint.
  • Skip it if: Teams that want to run the platform itself on their own servers without an Enterprise deal should look at AutoGPT, whose self-hosting is free.

CloudPloy

Best for the lowest paid entry price: CloudPloy has the cheapest paid entry plan, at $9.99 a month, for a deploy control plane your AI coding agent drives.

Price Free, then $9.99 a month

Free is $0 forever for 1 server and 1 app, Starter is $9.99 a month for up to 3 servers, Pro is $19 a month for up to 10 servers and 3 seats, and Scale is $39 a month for unlimited servers. The subscription pays for the dashboard, deploy pipeline and agent access, and CloudPloy says it never marks up compute on servers you already own.

Agents connect over the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or the API, using tokens scoped to read, deploy, provision or destroy. The pricing page says prepaid Amazon Web Services provisioning is not available yet, so today you connect a server you control.

What it does well

  • Starter costs $9.99 a month for up to 3 servers.
  • The Free plan covers 1 server and 1 app at $0 forever.
  • You pay your own provider directly for compute on the servers you connect.
  • Scoped tokens hand an agent the exact ability it needs, and you can rotate or revoke them.

Where it falls short

  • Server provisioning is advertised, but the pricing page says prepaid provisioning is not available yet and credit top-ups are unavailable.
  • CloudPloy claims no formal compliance certification.
  • Its GitHub organization holds no public repositories, so none of the product is open to inspection.
  • Free plan: yes
  • Who it’s for: Developers who want Claude Code or Cursor to deploy and manage apps from the editor.
  • Skip it if: You need a formal compliance certification, which CloudPloy does not claim, or need it to provision new servers today, since prepaid Amazon Web Services provisioning is not available yet.

GrantCue

Best for grant-seeking teams ready for a paid plan: Essentials costs $49 a month for 3 users, 75 grants and the full AI writing tools.

Price Free, then $49 a month

Free is $0 for 1 user, 10 grants tracked at once and the core Kanban board, with no card required. Essentials is $49 a month or $39 billed annually, and Team is $109 a month for 8 users, 250 grants, the proposal assistant, chat and calendar integrations and webhooks. Organization is $229 a month for 20 users, unlimited grants, audit trails and single sign-on on request.

Every new workspace gets 14 days of the Team plan free before dropping to Free, and a 25% nonprofit discount applies to any paid plan. The AI drafts from your organization profile and content library and marks missing facts as placeholders.

What it does well

  • The Free plan tracks 10 grants at once for 1 user.
  • Nonprofits get 25% off any paid plan.
  • AI drafts are written from your organization’s own profile and content library, and each suggestion lists the material it used so you can check it before accepting.
  • Search covers Grants.gov plus state and foundation sources, refreshed nightly.

Where it falls short

  • GrantCue has the dearest entry plan, at $49 a month.
  • It looks funders up but does not prospect private foundations for you.
  • Free plan: yes; 14-day free trial
  • Who it’s for: Grant-seeking teams that want discovery, a tracking pipeline and proposal drafting in one place.
  • Skip it if: Teams that need new private-foundation funders found for them should look elsewhere, since GrantCue’s foundation directory lets you look a funder up but does not match or prospect for you.

Gumloop

Best for operations teams wanting one flat Pro plan: Gumloop sells a flat Pro plan at $37 a month with unlimited seats and teams and 20,000 credits a month.

Price From $37 a month

Pro costs $37 a month with a 14-day free trial, and includes 20,000 credits a month, unlimited seats and teams, and 1 Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. The next step is Enterprise, which is custom through sales.

Since August 5, 2026, Gumloop passes model and compute costs through at list price and adds an 8% orchestration fee on the full task cost. Past the monthly credits, agents stop running until you opt into pay-as-you-go billing.

What it does well

  • Pro includes unlimited seats and teams, and agents one person builds can be shared across the company.
  • Teams can mix model providers per task and bring their own API keys.
  • Prebuilt agents work with HubSpot, Salesforce and Airtable to update records and automate follow-up.

Where it falls short

  • Single sign-on, role-based access, audit logs and data exports are Enterprise-only, and Enterprise is quote-only.
  • The Free plan its own blog still describes is missing from the pricing page as of 27 August 2026.
  • Agents stop when the monthly credits run out unless you turn on pay-as-you-go billing.
  • Who it’s for: Operations and go-to-market teams that want AI agents running repeatable work across their stack.
  • Skip it if: Teams that need single sign-on or audit logs at a printed price should look at Duaer, whose Business plan includes single sign-on at $800 a month.

Duaer

Best for company knowledge and follow-up on a budget: Starter costs $24 a month for 2,500 executions with unlimited users, and the Hobby plan starts free.

Price Free, then $24 a month

Hobby is free with 1,000 executions a month and 800 AI credits, and Starter is $24 a month for 2,500 executions and 2,300 AI credits. Pro is $60 a month for 10,000 executions and 13,700 AI credits, and Business is $800 a month for 40,000 executions plus single sign-on, Git and priority support. Every tier bills per workflow execution with unlimited users and workflows, and Duaer says yearly billing is roughly 17% cheaper.

Answers are limited to what the asking person can open in the source system, and each one cites its file. Ready-made skills wrap free public sources such as PubMed, World Bank indicators and arXiv.

What it does well

  • The Hobby plan includes 1,000 executions a month at no cost.
  • Every tier includes unlimited users and workflows.
  • Answers respect each person’s permissions and cite the source file.
  • Reminder cards appear for their owner every day until the work is marked handled.

Where it falls short

  • Duaer is in early release, with a public version of 0.02.
  • Single sign-on starts on Business at $800 a month, the plan after Pro at $60 a month.
  • Free plan: yes
  • Who it’s for: Operations teams that want answers from Google Drive, Microsoft 365 and Slack in one place, plus reminders that chase overdue work.
  • Skip it if: You need single sign-on on a plan under $800 a month or a product past early release, since its public version is 0.02.

Middleware OpsAI

Best for site reliability teams paying by usage: Site reliability teams can start on its free plan or a 14-day free trial with an agent that detects production errors and applies fixes.

Price Free

OpsAI has a free plan and a 14-day free trial. It ingests alerts from Slack, PagerDuty, Opsgenie and Jira so incident signals land in one workflow, then troubleshoots Kubernetes issues and suggests or applies a fix. Anomaly detection flags unusual behavior across observability data, and log pattern analysis picks out recurring failure signatures.

What it does well

  • A free plan and a 14-day free trial let a team try it on real incidents.
  • Alerts from Slack, PagerDuty, Opsgenie and Jira land in one place.
  • It suggests or applies fixes for Kubernetes issues.

Where it falls short

  • Fixes apply automatically in production, so a team needs its own approval rules before switching that on.
  • Free plan: yes; 14-day free trial
  • Who it’s for: Site reliability and platform teams that want faster root-cause analysis and automated remediation.
  • Skip it if: Teams automating business work across apps should look at Gumloop or Duaer, since OpsAI works on production metrics, logs and traces.

Prices compared

Figure 1 · Entry price, a month Entry prices in US dollars run from $9.99 a month to $49 a month; the median is $30.50 a month
  1. CloudPloy$9.99 a month
  2. Duaer$24 a month
  3. Gumloop$37 a month
  4. GrantCue$49 a month

Source: Each vendor’s pricing page, read between 23 October 2026 and 23 October 2026.

The span between entry plans is narrow next to the tier steps that follow them. CloudPloy’s $9.99 a month and GrantCue’s $49 a month mark its two ends, while Duaer’s Business plan alone costs $800 a month.

What it means for a buyer

The entry price says little about the bill once a team grows. Duaer and the top-ranked workflow platform each include unlimited users and charge by executions, so adding people costs nothing until the workflows run more often. GrantCue counts users instead: Essentials covers 3 users and Organization 20 users.

Credit-based tools need a closer read. Gumloop’s Pro plan includes 20,000 credits a month and passes model costs through with an 8% orchestration fee, so heavy AI steps use credits faster. For the lowest fixed cost, CloudPloy’s subscription pays for the control plane, and servers you already own are billed by your own provider.

How we compared

We compared 8 tools on price, free plan and 0 questions a buyer asks, reading each vendor’s pricing page and product pages between 27 August 2026 and 24 October 2026. We did not sign up for or run any of them. The median, the cheapest and the dearest plan are taken over the 4 picks priced in US dollars a month, so their prices compare directly. In all we answered 23 questions about what they do.

Questions buyers ask

What is the cheapest workflow automation tool with a paid plan?

CloudPloy has the cheapest paid entry plan, at $9.99 a month. That Starter plan sits below Pro at $19 a month and Scale at $39 a month, and CloudPloy’s Free plan costs $0 forever.

Which workflow automation tools have a free plan?

AutoGPT, CloudPloy, GrantCue, Duaer and Middleware OpsAI each have a free plan. On GrantCue, a new workspace moves to the free plan when its 14-day free trial ends.

Which workflow automation tools offer a free trial?

GrantCue and Middleware OpsAI each offer a 14-day free trial, and the top-ranked workflow platform offers one too. Its trial covers the Starter or Pro plan, and GrantCue’s trial runs on its Team plan.

Where does the price jump on workflow automation plans?

The price jumps hardest at business tiers: Duaer goes from $60 a month on Pro to $800 a month on Business. GrantCue climbs from $49 a month to $109 a month and then $229 a month. CloudPloy’s steps stay small, from $9.99 a month to $19 a month and $39 a month, and the top-ranked workflow platform moves from Starter and Pro to a Business plan billed annually.

Do workflow automation tools charge per user?

Mostly no. The top-ranked workflow platform includes unlimited users on every paid tier and prices on monthly executions and concurrency, and Duaer bills per workflow execution with unlimited users on every tier. CloudPloy charges for servers, and its Pro plan includes 3 seats.

What happens when I run out of credits on Gumloop?

Your Gumloop agents stop running once the 20,000 monthly credits on Pro are used up. They start again when you opt into pay-as-you-go billing, which is off by default.

Can I self-host a workflow automation tool for free?

Yes, with AutoGPT: self-hosting is its free path, and you provide the infrastructure and model API keys. AutoGPT also has a free plan, but self-hosting brings community-only support and, today, a manual setup. BuildShip also runs on your own infrastructure for full data control.

Sources

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