Just finished the most draining project. Spent over 36 hours fighting with n8n to build an AI agent for our client. The frustrating part? I could have coded the same thing in Node.js in about 3 hours.

Finally delivered our first Claude-based AI agent today. The client is happy, but I’m completely exhausted.

I have built similar things in custom code before, so watching the hours add up while dealing with n8n’s limitations was painful. With every problem, I kept thinking how much faster it would be to just write the code myself.

What’s strange is how clients everywhere love these no-code platforms. Our client specifically asked for n8n even though we suggested faster options. I understand they like the visual workflows, but is it really worth taking 10 times longer?

Next time a client insists on using n8n, I’m definitely going to adjust our time estimates. This “quick project” turned into a marathon.

Anyone else find themselves taking the long route with platforms when you know coding it yourself would be much faster?

Time for some well-deserved rest before the next client call…