n8n vs Zapier vs Make: Which Automation Platform Fits Your Team in 2026?

How n8n, Zapier, and Make bill at your volume, when self-hosting fits, and when to move the workflow to code.

n8n vs Zapier vs Make is a buying question. All three can take a form submission, create a CRM contact, and ping a channel. They do not bill that work the same way, they do not host it the same way, and they do not package an AI step as the same product. Choose the meter that matches how often the workflow runs, and the operating model your team can live with.

The prices below are the ones published on the vendors' own pages as of October 2026. This is not a ranked winner and it is not a guess from a demo. If you would rather hand over the steps, Send us your workflow and we'll recommend a platform.

Start with the unit, not the logo

Each vendor publishes a different meter.

n8n charges for an execution: one run of a workflow from start to finish. Its pricing page says the number of steps inside that run does not change the count.
Zapier charges for tasks. Its pricing page says a task is counted when Zapier successfully completes a unit of work, failed actions are not counted, and some actions, especially AI steps, cost more than one task.
Make charges for credits. Its pricing page says most module actions use one credit, routers and error-handler modules use none, and some AI features use more than one credit.

A six-step workflow that runs 200 times is 200 executions on n8n's published model, and closer to 1,200 tasks or credits on Zapier or Make if every action is one unit. A short workflow that runs all day can reverse that. Seats matter too: n8n's pricing page includes unlimited users on every plan, while Zapier lists one seat on Free and Professional and 25 on Team.

Published prices as of October 2026

These figures were on the vendors' sites on October 23, 2026. Annual and monthly prices differ. Open the link before you budget.

n8n

n8n's pricing page lists Starter at €20 per month and Pro at €50 per month, both billed annually and hosted by n8n. Business is listed at €667 per month, billed annually, and marked self-hosted only. Enterprise is contact-sales. The page says you pay when a workflow runs, not per step and not per user.

The sticker price is not the execution allowance. n8n's help center, updated August 27, 2026, describes Cloud Pro-1 as 10,000 executions and Cloud Pro-2 as 50,000. On Cloud Pro-2 monthly, extra executions can be added up to 500,000 at €2 per 1,000, plus tax. Annual billing does not raise that monthly allowance. The help article does not state Starter's included executions, so do not assume the €20 plan covers a production volume.

Zapier

Zapier's pricing page prints a task table. Free is 100 tasks a month. Professional billed annually is $19.99 a month at 750 tasks, and $29.99 if that same tier is paid monthly. The next Professional annual tier is 1,500 tasks at $39 a month. Team starts at 2,000 tasks: $69 a month on annual billing and $103.50 on monthly. The same table continues up to 2 million tasks a month on self-serve. The annual Professional price for 20,000 tasks is $189 a month. Enterprise is arranged with sales.

AI steps can use more than one task. Past the allowance, pay-per-task billing can keep Zaps running, or usage can stop, depending on a setting. The page says usage still stops at three times the subscription.

Make

Make's pricing page says Free includes 1,000 credits a month, with no time limit, and that paid plans are Core, Pro, Teams, and Enterprise. Most module actions are one credit. Make's comparison page lists Core at $9 a month starting at 10,000 credits, Pro at $16 a month starting at 10,000 credits, and Teams at $29 a month starting at 10,000 credits. Enterprise is custom. The pricing page also has monthly and annual billing, so confirm which toggle those starting prices use.

If credits run out, Make says scenarios stop until you add credits. Core, Pro, and Teams can buy extras. Unused credits expire at the end of the term.

Cost at your volume

Write down one real workflow: the trigger, each action that succeeds, and how many times it ran last month. Then apply the vendor's unit. The arithmetic below uses those published rules. It is not a quote.

A few hundred short runs

A form creates a CRM contact, posts in a team channel, and appends a spreadsheet row. Four successful actions, 200 times.

n8n: 200 executions, one per run. That count sits inside the 10,000-execution Pro-1 allowance described in the help center. Whether the €20 Starter plan includes them is not stated there. Check the plan you select.
Zapier: 800 tasks, if each successful action is one task. Free stops at 100. Eight hundred is above the 750-task Professional tier ($19.99 a month, annual) and below the 1,500-task tier ($39 a month, annual). An AI step that costs more than one task moves this up.
Make: 800 credits, if each of those four modules is one credit. Free includes 1,000 credits a month, so this sketch fits that published allowance. A router does not add a credit. An AI module might.

A workflow on a timer

n8n's pricing page uses this example: a workflow on a five-minute schedule is about 8,600 to 8,900 executions a month. That is still inside the 10,000-execution Pro-1 description, and it would not fit there if other workflows share the allowance. The same schedule on Zapier, at two successful actions per run, is about 17,000 to 18,000 tasks, which falls in the published 20,000-task Professional tier at $189 a month on annual billing. On Make, two module actions per run is about 17,000 to 18,000 credits, above the 10,000-credit starting tier on the comparison page, so you would move up a credit tier.

Many steps make Zapier and Make more expensive. Frequent runs make n8n more expensive. Write the line yourself: runs per month, actions per run, and which actions the vendor counts.

Can n8n be self-hosted?

Yes. n8n's deploy docs describe running it on your own infrastructure. Without a license key, that install is the free Community edition. The edition comparison says Community leaves out custom variables, environments, external secrets, projects, SSO, sharing, and Git version control. Those are on the self-hosted Business and Enterprise plans.

The license FAQ covers the self-hosted product, not n8n Cloud. You can run your own business on it, and build automations for clients on your instance if those clients cannot edit the workflows. You cannot resell n8n as a builder for other people, white-label it, or fork it into your own product.

You still pay for the machine, the database, backups, and whoever updates them. The paid self-hosted Business plan is €667 a month billed annually. Hosted Starter and Pro leave the servers with n8n, and the pricing page says that hosted data is stored in Frankfurt. Self-hosted data sits wherever you put the server.

Zapier's and Make's pricing pages sell hosted subscriptions. They do not list an edition you install yourself. If the requirement is that workflow data stay on a server you operate, n8n is the one of the three that documents that path.

AI and agent features

There is no single winner. Ask whether the agent is part of the automation plan or a separate product, and whether you bring your own model key.

n8n's pricing page lists an AI Agent node, AI steps, MCP client and server triggers, human approval for tool calls, and hosted chat on Starter, Pro, and Enterprise. Assistant, marked as a preview, is on the cloud plans except Enterprise, with 1,600 credits a month on Starter and up to 9,600 on Pro. On self-hosted n8n, the same page says Assistant is a preview and you bring your own key, so those cloud credit limits do not apply. JavaScript and Python steps are included.

Zapier's pricing page includes Copilot for building Zaps, with a daily limit on Free and unlimited messages on paid plans. AI by Zapier draws from the same task pool. Agents and Chatbots are add-ons billed in activities, not tasks, so they are not inside the $19.99 plan.

Make's pricing page lists Make AI Agents, in beta, with Make's AI provider or your own key, plus Maia, an MCP server, and content extraction. The Make Code app costs two credits per second on the paid columns. Make's comparison page says those agents are included in paid plans rather than sold separately. Several items are still marked beta.

n8n and Make publish those agent pieces on the automation plans above. Zapier publishes agents as their own product beside the task plans. None of this is a reason to let software issue refunds, hire someone, or sign a contract. For that boundary, read AI development and automation and which small-business workflows to automate first.

When to move the workflow to code

Stay on a hosted builder for a back-office handoff with a failure someone will notice. Move the work into code you own when one of these is true.

The workflow is the product a customer uses, not a chore inside the company. You want tests, review, and a deploy you can roll back. That bar is described in how to ship a production-ready automation pipeline.
Other software has to call you, and a missed event is a lost order or a missed payment. That is the problem covered in designing reliable webhook architecture. A hosted runner can still sit in front. The system of record should be yours.
The per-step or per-run bill is why the project is stuck, and a small service would replace a long chain of modules. Do the arithmetic above first. A smaller tier, or fewer steps, answers this more often than a rewrite.
You need a long-running job, a library you already trust, or data that cannot be pasted into a third-party credential screen.

You can keep the platform as the switchboard and put one hard step behind an HTTP call you operate.

What a recommendation includes

Devdabs work starts at $500. On the pricing page, an Automation Starter is one workflow on n8n, Zapier, or Make, or a review of what to automate first, usually $500 to $2,500. A build that adds AI steps such as classify, extract, summarize, or draft is usually $2,500 to $10,000. A custom assistant or agent is $10,000 to $40,000 or more. Care for automations already running starts at $500 a month, published as $500 to $3,000 a month. Platform subscriptions, model usage, and any server you self-host are paid to those providers.

Those are published starting points, not a quote. The number moves with the steps, the tools, the volume, and how careful the data has to be. Send us your workflow and we'll recommend a platform.

Frequently asked questions

How do I estimate n8n vs Zapier vs Make at my volume?

Count runs per month and successful actions per run. n8n bills one execution for the whole run. Zapier bills tasks per successful unit of work, and some AI actions cost more than one task. Make bills credits, usually one per module action, with routers and error handlers excluded. Then compare that count with the allowance on the plan you would actually buy. Prices above are from the vendors' pages as of October 2026.

Can n8n be self-hosted?

Yes. n8n documents a self-hosted install, and without a license key it runs as the free Community edition. You still pay for the server and the person who maintains it. SSO, environments, and Git version control are on the paid Business and Enterprise plans. The Community license allows internal use and client work where the client cannot edit the workflows. It does not allow you to resell n8n as a builder for other people.

Which has better AI and agent features?

It depends on how the agent is packaged. n8n includes an AI Agent node, MCP, and an Assistant preview on the cloud plans described on its pricing page. Make lists AI Agents, in beta, on its plan grid, with its own model provider or yours. Zapier includes Copilot and AI steps in the task plans, and sells Agents and Chatbots as add-ons with a separate activity allowance. None of the three is a reason to let software issue refunds or make hiring decisions on its own.

When should we move to custom code?

Move a workflow into code you own when it is part of the product, when a missed event costs an order, when the platform's code step cannot hold the logic, or when the per-run bill is the problem and a smaller service would replace it. A hosted tool can still call that code. You do not have to rebuild the simple handoffs.

Will you tell us which platform to use?

Yes. Send the workflow, how often it runs, who has to edit it, and whether the data can leave your server. We will recommend n8n, Zapier, Make, or a custom build, and we will say what the first version should leave to a person. Devdabs work starts at $500.