What is n8n, and does an SME actually need one?

If you have looked into automation recently, someone has mentioned n8n, Make or Zapier. They belong to the same family: workflow automation tools. You draw a chain of steps — when this happens, fetch that, transform it, put it there — and it runs without anyone present.

What they actually do

They are glue. Your accounting package does not talk to your CRM. Your web form does not write into your project system. A workflow tool sits between them, watches for a trigger, and moves data across, applying simple rules on the way.

n8n is the one that comes up most in Swiss conversations, for two reasons: it can be self-hosted on your own server, and its source is open. For a company whose data must stay in Switzerland, that is a meaningful difference from a purely cloud-hosted competitor.

Typical SME chains: an incoming order email creates a task and notifies the warehouse; a signed quotation copies itself into the project folder; a weekly report assembles itself from three systems.

Where the real cost is

Not the licence. These tools are cheap or free. The cost is that a workflow is software, and software needs an owner.

The failure mode is specific and common: one enthusiastic person builds fourteen chains over a winter, everything works, and then they leave. Nobody else knows why chain seven exists or what breaks if it is switched off. You now have an undocumented system holding your operations together.

Three rules prevent this, and they cost nothing:

• Every chain has a one-line description of what it does and who asked for it.
• Every chain that fails sends its failure somewhere a person actually looks.
• A second person knows the list exists and can switch things off.

When you do not need one

If your two systems already have a supported integration, use it. A vendor-maintained connector survives updates; your hand-built chain does not.

And if the process is mostly judgement rather than movement — deciding, not transferring — a workflow tool is the wrong shape. These tools move things reliably. They do not decide things.

The honest summary

For a Swiss SME with three systems that do not talk, a self-hostable workflow tool is one of the better-value purchases available. Just treat it as a system you own rather than a trick you discovered, and it will still be working in three years.