N8NChatUI vs Typebot
A widget purpose-built to sit in front of an n8n workflow — the workflow is the entire brain, and the widget adds the proxy, security, and live controls around it. A hidden webhook, built-in rate limiting, and a JS API deep enough to drive proactive, context-aware conversations from your own site's JavaScript.
A Fair Source (FSL-1.1) conversational form and chatbot builder with its own visual flow engine. Free to self-host, with unlimited bots included on every cloud tier — it can call an n8n workflow through a webhook block, but its own flow builder is the primary logic layer, not n8n.
Typebot and N8N Chat UI take different views on where the "logic" should live. Typebot ships a full visual flow builder — branching logic, variables, conditions — and treats an n8n webhook as one block you can drop into that flow, alongside dozens of other integrations. It's a genuine alternative to building the conversation in n8n at all.
N8N Chat UI assumes you've already built that logic in n8n and don't want to rebuild it in a second visual builder. The widget's only job is to be a secure, controllable front end for a Chat Trigger node — the flow itself stays exactly where it already lives.
Typebot's pricing model is also structurally different: every tier, including the free one, includes unlimited bots — you pay for chat volume and seats, not per widget. And because it's Fair Source, self-hosting it is free (though the license forbids reselling hosting of a self-hosted instance). Both are real, worth stating plainly rather than glossing over.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | N8N Chat UI (Managed Widgets) | Typebot |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $70 / 25,000 messages (Professional tier), 100 free credits to start | Free (200 chats/mo), Starter $39/mo (2,000 chats), Pro $89/mo (10,000 chats) |
| Bots / widgets per plan | Unlimited, included | Unlimited on every tier, including Free |
| Self-hosting | Not offered — managed only | Free to self-host (Docker/Vercel/manual); Fair Source license (FSL-1.1), converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release |
| Where the logic lives | Your n8n workflow — the widget is just the front end | Typebot's own visual flow builder; n8n reached only via an HTTP Request/webhook block |
| Webhook / endpoint exposure | Hidden — routed through a proxy | Public typebot id exposed client-side (calls Typebot's own API by default); can point at a self-hosted apiHost instead |
| Domain restrictions | Domain restrictions + geofencing | "Allowed Origins" domain allowlist — no wildcard subdomains, no geofencing found |
| Rate limiting | Built in | Not documented |
| Analytics | Real-time dashboard — usage, sessions, performance | Views / Starts / Completions, plus per-block drop-off rate (Pro plan only) |
| Voice input | Supported | Supported (mic-button recording in the text-input block) |
| Screen recording | Not offered | Not found |
| Programmatic JS API | open()/close(), sendMessage() with metadata, live updateTheme(), updatePrompts() mid-conversation | open()/close()/toggle(), setPrefilledVariables(), setInputValue(), submitInput(), sendCommand() — no confirmed live theme-update or metadata-tagged send |
| RTL / language support | Yes (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and others) | Not documented |
Two rows favor Typebot and are left as genuine advantages: unlimited bots on every plan, and a free self-hosting option.
If you're comfortable building your conversation logic in a dedicated visual flow builder rather than n8n — or you want to self-host for free and run many bots without per-widget cost — Typebot's model is genuinely more flexible on those two points.
Managed Widgets makes more sense once n8n is already where your logic lives and you don't want a second flow-builder to maintain: the webhook stays hidden, rate limiting and geofencing are built in without extra blocks to configure, and the JS API — particularly live theme updates and mid-conversation prompt changes — goes further than what Typebot's client currently documents.
Skip the trade-offs — build with N8N Chat UI
Start free with 100 credits, no card required. A secure, branded chat widget for your n8n workflow, live in minutes.