Cargo vs n8n

n8n is an open-source workflow automation platform with a visual canvas and a self-hosting option. It orchestrates anything, generically. Cargo orchestrates a revenue engine specifically: accounts, contacts, territories, enrichment waterfalls, scoring and routing are primitives rather than things you assemble out of generic steps.

When you already have the data layer and need glue between systems, or when self-hosting is a compliance requirement. Those are both real and n8n is the better answer for them.

In n8n there is no enrichment waterfall, no scoring or routing primitive, and no territories. You build all of it, which is the correct trade only if you wanted to. In practice that work often ends up owned by the data team, which puts the GTM team back in a ticket queue.

Cargo is a hosted platform, not a self-hosted one. What you own and can take with you is the engine definition: the models, plays, agents and logic live as TypeScript in your own repository rather than inside the vendor's database.

Only where there is an API or an MCP surface to operate. Cargo is operable from a UI, a CLI and over MCP, so a coding agent can build and change plays without a human clicking. Logic that lives in a visual builder can be clicked by a human and not much else.