Zapier vs Make vs n8n: Automation Platforms Compared

Short answer: For the same workflow on these automation platforms, the billing unit matters more than the brand. Zapier charges per successful action, Make charges per module run, and n8n Cloud charges per whole workflow run. On a typical 5-step workflow running 2,000 times a month, our calculation puts Zapier at $129 a month, Make at $9 a month, and n8n Cloud at €20 a month, before any AI-step charges.

These three automation platforms all promise the same thing: connect your apps and stop copying data by hand. Small businesses usually pick between them on price, then get a surprise bill a few months later. The surprise is rarely a price rise. It is a counting rule they never read. A five-step workflow does not cost the same on three platforms that count work three different ways, even when the headline prices look close.

This comparison is built from the vendors’ own pricing pages, read on 25 October 2026, plus converging October 2026 pricing trackers where a vendor page did not render its prices. Where sources disagree, the disagreement is shown, not smoothed over. No plan was bought and no workflow was run for this article, so there are no hands-on speed claims here, only documented features, published prices, and checkable arithmetic.

What does each automation platform actually count?

Start here, because every other number follows from it. Zapier counts tasks: one task for each action that completes successfully, with the trigger free and filters, formatters, paths, and delays not counting. Make counts credits: usually one credit per module action, including reads, searches, creates, and updates, while router and error-handler modules are free. n8n Cloud counts executions: one execution for a whole workflow run, however many steps it contains. As n8n puts it, unlike tools that charge per step or per user, you pay when a workflow runs from start to finish.

The consequence is simple: adding steps punishes Zapier and Make but barely touches n8n Cloud, while running the same workflow more often punishes all three at very different rates. If you choose between these automation platforms before counting your own steps and runs, you are guessing. Readers who have not mapped their workflows yet should start with our guide to automating work with AI tools.

What does each automation platform charge at the entry level?

Zapier’s pricing page lists Free at $0 for 100 tasks a month, Professional from $19.99 a month, and Team from $69 a month for up to 25 users, with the task allowance climbing on a slider: Professional at 2,000 tasks costs $49 a month on annual billing and at 10,000 tasks costs $129, per converging October 2026 captures of Zapier’s pricing page. Make’s pricing page did not render its plan prices in a text fetch, so its figures come from several agreeing October 2026 trackers: Core from $9 a month billed annually for 10,000 credits, Pro from $16, and Teams from $29, each at the same starting bucket. Climbing Make’s tiers buys features, not more credits, until you move the credit slider. n8n’s pricing page lists Starter at €20 a month billed annually, Pro at €50, and Business at €667, with a 17% annual saving, and its Community Edition free to self-host, per n8n’s pricing page and Make’s pricing page, which confirms credits became Make’s billing unit on 27 August 2026.

Two warnings: n8n prices in euros, so euro and dollar figures are not directly comparable, and this article does not convert them. And Make’s entry price is the least stable number here: some United States displays captured in late October 2026 show Core at $12 a month billed annually rather than $9, as explained in the sources-disagree section.

If the app you need has no API at all, a browser agent is the remaining route — our WebRun review tests a $20-a-month agent that drives the browser itself, and shows where its 1-cent task pricing beats a platform subscription and where it does not.

What does the same workflow cost on all three automation platforms?

Take a lead-routing workflow a small business actually runs: a form submission arrives, the contact is enriched, an AI step scores the lead, the CRM record is updated, and the team gets a chat message. That is five modules in Make’s terms, one trigger plus four actions in Zapier’s terms, and one execution in n8n’s terms. Run it 2,000 times a month and our calculation gives: Zapier, 2,000 times 4 actions, which is 8,000 tasks, landing on the 10,000-task tier at $129 a month billed annually. Make, 2,000 times 5 modules, which is 10,000 credits, exactly Core’s starting bucket at $9 a month billed annually. n8n, 2,000 executions, inside Starter’s 2,500 at €20 a month billed annually. The same work, three bills, and the gap comes entirely from the counting rule.

Now shrink it. At 500 runs a month of a 3-step workflow, our calculation gives Zapier 1,000 tasks, needing the 1,500-task tier at $39 a month billed annually; Make 1,500 credits, needing Core at $9 because the free plan stops at 1,000 credits; and n8n 500 executions, still inside Starter at €20. Make is cheapest at this size in dollars, and Zapier’s free plan, at 100 tasks, is not a trial of a real workflow at this volume. At very low volume, though, a single two-step Zap on Zapier’s free plan genuinely costs nothing, while n8n Cloud has no free tier at all. For a realistic sense of what automation really costs once setup time is included, see the real cost of AI tools for small businesses.

Note on the third row: Make’s Core slider runs 10,000 credits at $9, 20,000 at $16, 40,000 at $29, 80,000 at $55, and 150,000 at $99 on annual billing, per converging October 2026 trackers, so 50,000 credits sits on the 80,000-credit step at $55. The calculator applies the slider correctly.

How the calculator works: Zapier tasks equal runs multiplied by actions, where actions are steps minus the trigger. Make credits equal runs multiplied by steps, because Make charges for most module actions including the trigger module. n8n executions equal runs, whatever the length. Tier prices are the annual-billing ladders quoted here; monthly billing costs more on all three. AI steps, retries, polling checks, and overage charges are not in these figures.

Which automation platform wins at each size?

Zapier wins on ease and reach: more than 9,000 apps on its own pricing page, the largest catalogue of the three, and a builder a non-technical owner can learn in an afternoon. If your automations are short and low-volume, Zapier’s premium is defensible. Polling also never costs a task, so a Zap that checks for new data all day only charges when it acts. For a customer-support setup built on these tools, see building a customer support system with no code.

Make wins on the middle ground: visual building with real branching, routers, and iterators, at a fraction of Zapier’s price for multi-step work. Its free plan suits one or two simple scenarios, and Core’s 10,000 credits cover a surprising amount of small-business automation. Its weakness is that the meter runs on everything, including polling checks that find nothing new, so a chatty scenario can burn credits while doing no useful work. Webhooks, where supported, are the fix.

n8n wins on scale and control: a 20-step workflow costs the same as a 2-step one, and the self-hosted Community Edition removes the platform meter entirely for anyone willing to run a server. That control cuts both ways: you own uptime, updates, security, and backups, and that time is real even when the licence is free. n8n also has the sharpest pricing cliff here: Pro covers 10,000 executions at €50, but the next step, Business, is €667 a month for 40,000 executions and self-hosted only. If your work involves agents that make judgment calls rather than fixed steps, read what AI agents can and cannot do for a business before assuming any of these three is the right hire.

Who should NOT pick each automation platform?

Do not pick Zapier if your workflows are long and frequent: the per-action meter compounds twice, and the pay-per-task overage at the limit is charged above the base task rate, per Zapier’s own pricing page. Do not pick Make if you will not watch the meter, because polling, loops, and AI-heavy modules can drain credits unpredictably, and credits expire at the end of the term. Do not pick n8n Cloud if you need a free tier to learn on, and do not pick self-hosted n8n if nobody will own the server, because an unpatched server holding CRM and inbox credentials is a liability, not a saving. Teams choosing between these tools often benefit from a structured way to evaluate AI tools for business rather than a feature checklist.

What costs does nobody put in the headline?

Four costs sit outside every price table here. First, AI steps: Zapier prices AI steps, code, and SDK calls under the same task model, with rates varying by model tier, and one MCP tool call uses two tasks; Make’s AI features can use more than one credit; n8n runs AI inside executions but you still pay the model provider separately. Anyone adding AI scoring or drafting to every run should price the model calls alongside the platform, and our lead-generation automation setup shows where that step usually sits. Second, retries: Zapier only counts successful actions, while Make counts module actions that run, so a failing scenario can cost money while producing nothing. Third, seats: Zapier’s Professional plan is single-user, with Team from $69 for up to 25 users, while n8n includes unlimited users on every paid plan and Make reserves team roles for Teams. Fourth, time: Zapier is fastest for simple flows, Make takes longer to learn, and n8n takes longest, so the cheapest monthly bill can still be the most expensive first month once setup hours are counted. A related trap is CRM pricing, which follows the same logic; see whether an AI CRM is worth it for a small business.

Where the sources disagree

Three disagreements are worth naming because they change the answer. Make’s Core price at 10,000 credits is $9 a month billed annually in most October 2026 trackers, but some United States displays captured in late October show $12 billed annually and $16 billed monthly, with Pro at $21 and Teams at $38, probably a regional display or a recent repricing that trackers have not all caught. If your Make page shows $12, your Make bill is a third higher than the calculator says. Next, app counts: Zapier claims more than 9,000 apps on its own page, while Make’s pricing FAQ says it offers integrations with more than 1,000 third-party apps, even though independent trackers credit Make with 3,000 or more; the vendor’s own lower figure is used here. Finally, Zapier’s plan names confuse older articles: some 2026 guides still list a Starter plan at $19.99, while the live pricing page now labels that entry point Professional at the same $19.99. The price matches; the name changed.

What we cannot confirm

Make’s plan prices could not be read from its own pricing page in a text fetch, because the page renders them with scripts, so Make figures rest on converging secondary trackers rather than a direct primary read, weaker sourcing than the Zapier and n8n figures, which were read directly from the vendors’ pages. Overage rates beyond Zapier’s pay-per-task note, and Make’s credit slider above 300,000 credits on Core, are also not pinned down from primary pages here. None of those gaps changes the ranking at the volumes most small businesses run, but anyone signing an annual contract at high volume should confirm the live figure first, especially for Make, where two price displays are circulating.

The decision in one minute

Count your runs and your steps first, then match the shape to the meter. Short workflows, low volume, and a need for the widest app catalogue point to Zapier, ideally starting on its free plan. Multi-step workflows at moderate volume point to Make Core, the cheapest dollar bill in both worked scenarios above. Long workflows, high volume, or data that must stay on your own servers point to n8n, Cloud if you want hosting handled, Community self-hosted if someone will own the server. If none of those sentences fits, the workflow is probably not ready to automate yet. Scheduling-style workflows that repeat on a calendar deserve the same counting treatment, as our scheduling comparison shows with no-show costs.

Frequently asked questions

Is Zapier, Make, or n8n cheapest for a small business?

It depends on your workflow shape. For the 5-step, 2,000-run workflow here, our calculation puts Make cheapest in dollars at $9 a month, n8n Cloud at €20, and Zapier at $129. Inside Zapier’s free allowance, Zapier costs nothing while n8n Cloud costs at least €20.

Is n8n really free?

The Community Edition software is free to self-host with unlimited executions, but you pay for the server, typically a few dollars to about $20 a month, plus the time to update, secure, and back it up. n8n Cloud starts at €20 a month billed annually, with no free tier beyond a trial.

Why is Zapier so much more expensive at scale?

Zapier charges per successful action, so a 5-step workflow pays for four actions on every run, and the bill grows with both volume and step count. Zapier’s advantage is its catalogue of more than 9,000 apps and its gentler learning curve, not its unit price.

Does Make’s free plan work for a real business?

For one or two simple scenarios, yes: 1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios, and a 15-minute minimum interval between scheduled runs. For instant triggers or higher volume, Core at $9 a month billed annually is the realistic entry point.

Can I switch platforms later without rebuilding everything?

There is no automatic migration between Zapier, Make, and n8n, so switching means rebuilding each workflow and reconnecting each app. That rebuilding cost is a reason to count your usage before choosing.

Do AI steps cost extra on top of the platform price?

Yes. Zapier folds AI steps into its task model, Make’s AI features can consume more than one credit, and n8n executions exclude the model provider’s token charges. Price the model calls for any workflow that scores, drafts, or summarises on every run.

Shurah is the founder of AI Tools Daily, tracking pricing, licensing and policy changes across AI tools so readers can make decisions without wading through marketing claims themselves.