The n8n vs Make vs Zapier choice comes down to two things: who will maintain the workflows and how many steps they run. Zapier is the easiest and connects the most apps, but bills each action step. Make handles branching flows on a visual canvas. n8n bills each full run once and can live on your own server.
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n8n vs Make vs Zapier at a glance
All three do the same basic job. Something happens in one app (a paid order, a new form, a status change) and work happens in the others without anyone retyping it. Where they differ is what they charge for, how you build and who can keep it running, and those three things decide both the bill and the headaches.
The figures in this guide come from each vendor's own pages, checked on November 2, 2026: Zapier pricing, Make pricing, n8n pricing and n8n's GitHub repository. Plans and limits change often. How each tool counts changes much less. The last row of the table is our opinion, not theirs.
| Zapier | Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Tasks: each action step that completes. Triggers, Filter, Formatter and Paths cost 0 | Credits: most actions use 1. Router and error handlers use 0 | Executions: one full run of a workflow, however many steps it has |
| How you build | A list of steps, top to bottom | A visual canvas with branches | A canvas of nodes, with code where you need it |
| Apps | 9,000+ | 3,000+ native apps | Fewer ready-made nodes; an HTTP request reaches any API |
| Your own code | Code steps in JavaScript or Python | Functions inside each field | JavaScript and Python nodes, plus npm packages |
| Start without paying | Free plan, 100 tasks a month | Free plan, 1,000 credits a month | Community Edition, on your own server |
| Runs on your own server | No | No | Yes |
| Who keeps it running | Anyone on the team | An ops person who likes diagrams | A developer or an agency |
How much do n8n, Make and Zapier cost? Count what each one bills
Price lists move every year. What each tool counts moves far less, and that's what decides which one gets expensive for you. Zapier counts tasks, Make counts credits (it used to call them operations, and older comparisons still do) and n8n Cloud counts executions.
Take a common workflow. A paid order in your store creates the customer in your CRM, issues the invoice, updates stock, emails the confirmation and alerts the team. That's one trigger and five actions. Zapier doesn't charge for the trigger and counts five tasks per order. Make uses a credit for most modules that run, so five at least. n8n Cloud counts one execution, however many steps the run has.
The table below is our own arithmetic on those rules, not a quote from any vendor. The pattern: in Zapier and Make, usage grows with steps times runs; in n8n Cloud, with runs alone. With two or three short workflows, the gap is small and Zapier's ease is worth paying for. With long workflows running thousands of times a month, it isn't. Plug your own numbers into each pricing page to see which plan you'd land on.
Two caveats. According to their pricing pages, AI steps can cost more than one task in Zapier, and features that use Make's own AI provider can use more than one credit. And whatever the tool, if a step calls OpenAI or the Claude API with your own key, the model's usage lands on that provider's bill, not on the automation tool's.
| Workflow, per month | Zapier (tasks) | Make (credits) | n8n Cloud (executions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trigger + 5 actions, 500 runs | 2,500 | 2,500 or more | 500 |
| Trigger + 10 actions, 500 runs | 5,000 | 5,000 or more | 500 |
| Trigger + 5 actions, 5,000 runs | 25,000 | 25,000 or more | 5,000 |
| The same, self-hosted (n8n Community Edition) | Not offered | Not offered | Community Edition: no per-run fee; you pay the server and the upkeep |
What's the best automation tool for a small business?
There's no single winner. There's the right tool for the person who will open it when a run fails on a busy afternoon. Start from that person, then look at volume. And if you haven't picked the task yet, settle what to automate first before you pick the tool.
One more test: picture your workflows a year from now. Teams rarely switch tools while it's easy. They switch when there are forty Zaps and nobody remembers what half of them do.
- Zapier if you have a handful of short workflows, nobody technical on the team, or an app only Zapier connects to. Every step counts toward the bill; in exchange, anyone can open a Zap and follow it.
- Make if your workflows branch (orders from Spain go one way, orders from the US another) and someone on the team likes mapping fields on a canvas. It also bills by the action, so long workflows at high volume add up here too.
- n8n if workflows are long or run thousands of times a month, call your own code or an API nobody has built a connector for, or handle customer data you'd rather keep on your own server. It expects someone who reads JSON: a developer on the team or an agency.
- None of them if the automation is what your customers talk to. A WhatsApp agent that holds a conversation, checks live availability and books is software, not a workflow. More on that below.
Why n8n is our default for client workflows
Kivo Marketing uses n8n in production, so this part is first-hand rather than a feature list. n8n handles the workflows between tools, and the clearest examples are the Zoho flows behind two projects.
JD Yuversity. Its Korean aesthetics academy and shop in Miami (courses, catalog, customer portal and event landings) are wired to Zoho for stock, orders and invoices. One order on the site has to reach several places in Zoho: the kind of job where per-step billing adds up and per-run billing doesn't.
Nuderma Partner Portal. In this B2B portal, distributors apply in five steps, sign in with a one-time code and see the catalog and prices for their account type, and an admin desk approves every application. The portal itself is built in Next.js; n8n carries the data between it and Zoho CRM, alongside Stripe.
What tips jobs like these toward n8n: a run counts once, however many systems it touches; a code node handles the field no ready-made connector maps the way you need; any API is one HTTP request away; and it sits easily next to the TypeScript and Next.js we write anyway.
The trade-off is real. n8n wants someone who reads JSON and knows what an API sends back, and a self-hosted install needs updates, backups and someone watching the error alerts. If your business has no developer, agree who that person will be before choosing n8n. The full service, from brief to production, is on our AI automation page.
n8n vs Make vs Zapier for AI agents
All three can now put a language model inside a workflow: sort an incoming email, pull the fields out of a message written in someone's own words, summarize a call before it goes into the CRM. For a step like that, any of them works, and the billing rules above still apply.
An agent that talks to your customers is a different job. It has to read live data, keep track of the conversation, know when to pass the case to a person and leave a log you can review. That's a lot of logic for a canvas of nodes, and as code it's easier to test and to change.
The agent we built for Al Teu Aire is code, not a workflow: a WhatsApp agent that books events for more than 40 venues in Barcelona, written in TypeScript with the WhatsApp Cloud API, OpenAI and PostgreSQL. It reads availability and prices live from the team's own panel and answers in Spanish and Catalan.
Our rule of thumb: if a customer is waiting on the other end, write code. If a record is waiting, a workflow is fine. The two can work together, with the agent deciding and a workflow filing the paperwork. How we build the conversational side is on our WhatsApp AI agents page.
n8n cloud vs self-hosted: is n8n free?
Partly. n8n Cloud is paid, billed by monthly executions on its Starter, Pro and Enterprise plans. The Community Edition is the version you install on your own server. It's published on GitHub under n8n's fair-code license, the Sustainable Use License, and n8n's pricing page lists execution limits only for its paid plans. Self-hosted doesn't always mean no execution fee, though: n8n's Business plan is also self-hosted, and it is billed by executions.
Self-hosting the Community Edition doesn't make n8n free. It moves the bill. Instead of executions, you pay for a server and for the hours that keep it healthy: updates, backups, security patches and someone who notices when a workflow stops at 2 a.m.
It pays off when volume is high, when workflow data has to stay on infrastructure you control (common in healthcare, or when a client contract requires it), or when you already run servers for other things. With three workflows and nobody to look after a server, n8n Cloud, or plain Zapier, can end up cheaper once you count the hours.
Read the license before you build on it. Fair-code isn't open source in the strict sense, so if you plan to offer n8n to your own customers inside a product, check the terms first.
Work we have shipped
- Nuderma Partner Portal
B2B portal for distributors: five-step onboarding, sign-in by one-time code, catalog and pricing by account type, and an admin desk that approves every application. Next.js, n8n, Zoho CRM and Stripe.
See the project - JD Yuversity
Korean aesthetics academy and shop in Miami: courses, catalog, customer portal and event landings, wired to Zoho for stock, orders and invoices. PHP, Stripe, n8n, Zoho Inventory, Zoho CRM and Meta CAPI.
See the project
Frequently asked questions
What about Power Automate?
If your company already lives in Microsoft 365, Power Automate deserves a spot on the shortlist next to these three. Ask it the same questions: what it counts when it bills you, how it connects to the apps outside Microsoft that you depend on, and who on your team will maintain it.
Do I need to know how to code to use n8n?
Not to start: you build by dragging nodes onto a canvas, much like in Make, and a first workflow takes an afternoon. A production one takes more, and you'll run into code sooner than in the other two, starting with expressions written in JavaScript syntax.
Can I move my Zaps to n8n or Make?
Expect to rebuild them rather than import them, because each tool structures a workflow its own way. Treat it as a small project: list every Zap and what it does, switch off the ones nobody uses, rebuild the busiest first and run the old and new versions side by side for a few days before turning the Zap off.
Can n8n, Make or Zapier connect to WhatsApp?
Yes. All three can send and receive messages through Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform, with a ready-made connector or by calling Meta's API directly. Keep in mind that Meta's WhatsApp fees are separate from the tool's bill. A bot that takes bookings is another matter (see the AI agents section).
What happens when a workflow fails?
All three keep a history of runs and can alert you when one fails. In n8n you can send failures to an error workflow; in Make, error handler modules decide what happens next; Zapier flags the run and can email you. What no tool decides for you is who reads those alerts and how fast. Settle that before launch.
Is Zapier worth it?
For a few short workflows at low volume, usually yes: the hours you'd spend building them elsewhere cost more than the plan. Review it when your task count keeps pushing you into the next tier, or when one workflow has grown to ten steps. That's the moment to price the same work in Make or n8n.