n8n significantly outpaces ByteChef in community adoption with 198,099 stars compared to 921 stars on GitHub. This 215.1x difference suggests n8n has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, n8n has 59,645 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Both projects show recent activity, with ByteChef last updated 23 hours ago and n8n 2 hours ago.

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Typescript. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: ByteChef uses JSX, Next.js, Java, Kotlin while n8n leverages SCSS, Vue.

n8n has been in development longer, starting 7 years ago, compared to ByteChef which began 5 years ago. This 2.3-year head start suggests n8n may have more mature features and established processes.

Both tools serve similar use cases in Workflow Automation. However, they also have distinct specializations: ByteChef also focuses on AI Agent Platforms while n8n extends into Low-Code/No-Code, Workflow Orchestration.

Both ByteChef and n8n offer self-hosting capabilities, giving you full control over your data and infrastructure.