n8n Agents vs Orbit: An Honest Review

n8n launched Agents on September 25, 2026, and they're good. I spent a session inside the new Agents tab, then did the same walkthrough in Orbit, and wrote down where each one wins.

One thing up front: I built Orbit. So I'm biased, and you should read this with that in mind. I've tried to make up for it by listing n8n's wins first and in full.

The whole walkthrough is on video if you'd rather watch: n8n's New AI Agents: Full Breakdown + Orbitagents Comparison.

What n8n Agents is

Until now, an agent in n8n was a node inside a workflow. Agents is a separate thing: a new tab next to your workflows, where you set an agent up once and then use it from several places. n8n's launch post describes what goes into one:

• A model. "Any model you have credentials for, or n8n's Gateway credits." With Gateway credits you don't need an API key from an AI provider to try it.
• Instructions. Its role, its tone, what it should and shouldn't do.
• Tools. Three kinds: built-in n8n integrations, MCP servers, and whole workflows you've already built.
• Skills. Reusable instructions and reference files.
• Knowledge. Uploaded csv, pdf, markdown or txt files.
• Memory. It holds the session conversation by default and can remember across sessions.
• Sub-agents. One agent can call another.
• Channels and triggers. Slack, Telegram, Linear, Discord, or a schedule. Inside a workflow, the Message an Agent node hands a step to an agent.

It's still a preview. Per n8n's community thread, it needs version 2.32.3 or higher, the rollout is phased, and self-hosted is in beta with some extra setup.

Inside the Agents tab

The tab is laid out the way the list above reads: model, Gateway credits, instructions, skills, triggers, tools and memory, each in its own section. If you've built n8n workflows, nothing here will surprise you, and I mean that as praise. The agent uses the same credentials and the same nodes you already have.

The design choice I like most is workflows as tools. The agent decides when to call a workflow. The workflow decides exactly how the steps run. For anything where the steps must be the same every time, that's the right split.

I asked n8n's agent to compare itself to Orbit

This was the part of the recording I didn't plan. I asked n8n's own agent how it compares to Orbit, and it wrote a table. Two rows stood out:

• Ready-made agents. It said Orbit comes with pre-built agents for sales and growth, while in n8n you build your own.
• Memory. It said Orbit has one shared Vault across all agents, while n8n's memory belongs to each agent.

That's a fair summary, and it came from the other side. I'd add one caveat in n8n's favor: skills can be shared between n8n agents, so a brief you write once can be reused.

What the same kind of job looks like in Orbit

Orbit is where you create AI agents to do your marketing and sales work. Here's what the recording shows.

• The data is built in. I ran a Reddit search for hiring-intent posts in Orbit's work mode. There was no API key to paste and no developer account to open. The Reddit data comes with it.
• It proposed an agent for my business. I didn't describe what I sell. Orbit suggested its Lead Finder (Pain Signals) agent based on what it already knew about the business.
• You can use the agents from Claude. Orbit's agents can be called from Claude and Codex. This post is a small example: the agent that edits my YouTube videos wrote the brief for it, and the brief reached the agent that writes the blog, which runs in Claude.
• Skills and learnings are shared. There's a skill library, and what one agent learns is available to the others.

If you want the full Reddit workflow on its own, I wrote it up in how to find customers on Reddit.

Where n8n wins

	What you get
Reach	Hundreds of integrations, plus any API through an HTTP request. If a service has an API, an n8n agent can use it. Orbit is built for marketing and sales only.
Control	Your existing workflows become tools. The agent decides when, the workflow decides how. That suits support, ops and finance, where steps must be exact.
Your own server	You can self-host n8n and keep your data in house (agents need some extra setup there). Orbit is hosted.
Where your team talks	Slack, Telegram, Discord and Linear are channels out of the box.
Guard rails	Approvals on tools you mark as sensitive, draft and published versions, access that follows your n8n roles, and a log of every session.
Pricing model	One turn with an agent is one execution, and tool calls to your workflows and sub-agents don't count separately. If you already pay for n8n, you already have agents.
Any model	Bring your own key, or start on Gateway credits with no key at all.

None of these are small. If your work is operations and you already live in n8n, the new tab is an easy yes.

Where Orbit wins

	What you get
The data comes with it	Reddit, X and LinkedIn data, web search and image generation are built in, with no developer accounts or API keys. In n8n you bring credentials for each source. Reddit has required approval for new API apps since November 2025, and n8n's LinkedIn node creates posts but doesn't search people.
A sentence to a working agent	Describe the job in one sentence and the agent shows up with its tools already in it.
It already knows your business	You tell Orbit once, and every agent you create uses it. In n8n you write the brief per agent, or share it as a skill or an uploaded file.
Results land somewhere built for this	A tracker of people with fit scores, and one inbox. You change things by replying. In n8n you choose where output goes.
Ready-made agents	Lead Finder, LinkedIn and Upwork agents are already written for these jobs.
Works from Claude and Codex	You can call Orbit's agents from the tools you already use. At launch, n8n says its agents can't be called from outside n8n yet.

That last n8n limit is a launch-day one. n8n lists being callable by outside agents among the things that aren't there yet, and they ship fast, so check before you rely on it.

Which one should you use?

Use n8n Agents if you run ops or support, want everything on your own server, or need an integration nobody else has. Also use it if your team already has workflows in n8n, because those workflows become the agent's tools on day one.

Use Orbit if your job is finding customers, outreach and content, and you never want to touch an API key.

They don't cancel each other out. n8n is general automation with agents added. Orbit is agents for marketing and sales with the data attached. Plenty of teams will run both, the same way I argued in Grok Bot vs Orbit that a single strong agent and a place to run many of them are different jobs.

Try the part Orbit is built for

If n8n fits your work, use it. It's a good launch and I'd rather say so than pretend otherwise.

If what you need this week is customers, start with Orbit's Lead Finder agent. It searches for people describing the problem you solve, scores them for fit and saves them to a tracker, with no keys to set up. Orbit is free to start, with 100 credits and no card. Build the AI empire that runs with you, the operating system for Claude, Codex, ChatGPT and more.

Find your first customers with the Lead Finder agent.