Gumloop vs n8n (2026)

Connectors to Gmail, Salesforce, Slack, Notion and 150+ more, plus custom MCP servers, set what an agent can reach; tools can be restricted one by one, and skill scripts can call integrations from Python.

Several hundred documented app nodes, HTTP, GraphQL, SSH and code nodes, community nodes and an MCP Client node give agents tools across every major system class.

Agents delegate to subagents, an Agent node puts an agent inside a workflow, and workflows supply branching, loops and reusable subflows; in Loop Mode each iteration starts a new conversation unless conversation IDs are tracked.

If, Switch, merge, loop, wait and error handling nodes control flow, and sub-workflows can be attached to agents as tools.

Plain-language schedules, app events and per-agent webhooks start agents, and an agent can create and manage its own triggers, including custom polling triggers validated in a sandbox.

Sixteen named trigger nodes cover schedules, webhooks, chat, email, RSS, forms, files and MCP, and a durable scheduler keeps scheduled runs through restarts.

Company Brain keeps connected knowledge sources synced, attached whole or at file and folder level, and agents search it automatically when a question touches internal knowledge.

Vector stores, embeddings, retrievers and document loaders attach as sub-nodes, so the retrieval index can live in a customer-run database.

Agents edit and create their own skills after a correction and apply them in later conversations, with file-level version history; Gumloop says skills are not conversation memory and are reloaded when relevant.

Memory attaches as a sub-node with session IDs, but the vendor states it does not persist between sessions unless an external chat-memory backend is wired in.

Agents raise approval and input requests, enterprise controls require human approval before expensive actions, and per-tool authorization, connector restrictions and budgets limit what an agent can do.

Tools can require human approval before an agent runs them, a Guardrails node enforces policy, and workflow reviews gate publishing.

SOC 2 Type II and GDPR with a trust center, role- and attribute-based access, per-tool authorization, SCIM provisioning, centrally managed secrets and a live inventory of MCP servers in use.

Annual independent SOC 2 audits, a public SOC 3 report and yearly penetration tests sit beside SSO, SAML and LDAP on Enterprise, role-based access on paid plans and a deep set of documented security controls.

Gumstack traces every tool call to a user, agent or service principal, keeps a live inventory of MCP servers in use, reaches agents running outside Gumloop, and tracks credit spend per agent and team.

Every run is an execution the customer can open and filter, traced node by node to an OpenTelemetry collector, with Prometheus metrics and redaction for compliance.

Managed SaaS, or deployment into the customer's own cloud as a VPC in the region of their choice, with Gumloop operating the full stack there; open-weight model inference runs through US-based providers under Zero Data Retention.

Self-hosting is documented across Docker, npm and seven named cloud providers, with an isolate configuration that stops the instance contacting n8n's servers, beside managed n8n Cloud.

Skills ship as packaged folders that can be downloaded, uploaded and shared with Owner, Editor, Viewer and Use Only roles; an organization skill library can sync with a GitHub repository, and a template library covers common flows.

A template library, a custom templates library for self-hosted instances, the AI Starter Kit and portable .n8np packages give ready-made starting points.

Models from every major provider, chosen per agent from presets or the full list; every model in the agent picker supports tool calling, and open-weight models run through US-based providers under Zero Data Retention.

Agents require a Chat Model sub-node chosen from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Mistral, Perplexity, Qwen Cloud, MiniMax, Moonshot Kimi or local models, and each step can use a different model.

Gumloop documents an API to create agents, start chat sessions and trigger automations, with Python and JavaScript SDKs, a CLI, a Gumloop MCP and a webhook URL on each agent.

The MCP Server Trigger makes n8n an MCP server for outside clients, beside a public REST API, custom and community nodes, portable .n8np packages and a documented OEM embedding path.

Evaluations score every completed agent interaction against criteria the customer sets, with per-criterion pass or fail and rationales, and can be backfilled when criteria change.

Dedicated Evaluation and Evaluation Trigger nodes run quick tests against known cases in development and metric-based scoring in production.

A Chrome extension records actions on any website and replays them as automations, including on sites with no API; a related web automation node appears to be access-gated.

The Airtop app node wires in a third-party cloud browser that clicks, fills forms, types and scrolls; n8n ships no browser of its own.