Key takeaways
- The billing unit matters more than the price: Zapier counts successful action steps, Make counts credits (one per module run by default), n8n counts whole-workflow executions.
- For the same four-step order workflow at 10,000 orders a month, Zapier's list prices reach $289 a month on yearly billing, while n8n Cloud Pro is €50 a month at the edge of its execution quota.
- Make is the cheapest to start and the best at branching, but credits multiply when a step runs once per item in a list.
- Self-host n8n for control or data location, not to save money: two hours of upkeep a month can cost more than the cloud plan.
- If a workflow touches money, error handling and history are requirements. If a bill is the problem, audit before you upgrade.
Choosing between n8n vs Zapier vs Make is not really a features question, because all three connect apps, move data and call APIs. The decision that matters is what each one costs you in month three, when the workflow has doubled, a run fails at two in the morning and someone has to find out why. We build and repair automations on all three for a living, so this guide is written from the repair side of the desk: how each tool bills, where it breaks and who ends up fixing it.
Every price and rule below was read from the vendor's own pages on 17 October 2026. Where a number could not be confirmed we say so, and where we are giving an opinion we label it. If you would rather skip to help, our fixed-price Zapier, Make and n8n services cover everything in this article: audits, cost cuts, monitoring, self-hosting and migrations, each priced up front.
Billing units are as each vendor defines them on its own help pages, checked 17 October 2026.
n8n vs Zapier vs Make: the short answer by type of team
Most readers want the recommendation first and the reasoning second, so here it is. Each row is explained further down.
| If you are... | Start with | Why | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| A solo owner with a handful of simple automations | Zapier | Fastest to set up, a huge app list, and you can fix it yourself in minutes | Cost grows with every step you add and every run you make |
| A small team that wants visual branching and data handling | Make | Routers, iterators and aggregators are first-class, and entry pricing is low | Credits multiply when a step runs once per item in a list |
| An agency running many client workflows | Make or n8n | Per-step billing across many clients gets expensive; both give more control | n8n's licence limits what you can do for others commercially |
| A technical team comfortable with servers | n8n | Lowest unit cost, code steps, and self-hosting if you need it | Someone must own updates, backups and security |
| A business with strict data-location or hosting rules | n8n (self-hosted) | The only one of the three you can run on your own infrastructure | Self-hosting is a job, not a setting |
| A team with very high run volumes and tight margins | n8n | Billing by execution, not by step, flattens the cost curve | Concurrency and execution-time limits on cloud plans |
| A Microsoft 365 shop | Power Automate (not covered here) | Native to the apps you already pay for | Different strengths outside the Microsoft world |
If you cannot name the person who will fix a broken workflow, choose the tool that person already knows. A cheaper tool nobody can repair costs more than an expensive one somebody can.
How Zapier, Make and n8n count usage
A price list compares badly, because a Zapier task, a Make credit and an n8n execution are three different things. Counting one workflow three ways is the fastest route to the truth.
Zapier counts successful actions (tasks)
Zapier's help centre defines a task as any successful action that runs in Zapier, and says only successful actions count toward usage. Triggers never use tasks, and neither do Filter steps, Paths steps, or steps that error or halt. Formatter, Delay and Looping steps are also listed as not counting, along with Tables and Forms. A Zap that uploads a file to Dropbox and then sends a Slack message uses two tasks per run, so ten runs use twenty.
Two details matter for budgeting. Replaying a whole Zap run counts again, because the help page says previously successful steps that run again on a replay count as tasks. And Zapier now prices AI steps, code and its SDK on the same task model, so an AI step adds to the same meter rather than a separate one. If your task count is the problem, our Zapier task usage and cost optimization service finds where the tasks go and removes the waste before you pay for a bigger tier.
Make counts credits, one per module run by default
Make's help centre says credits replaced operations as the name of its billing unit, and that by default one operation equals one credit. Some AI modules use a variable number depending on tokens or file size. A trigger module runs once per check and counts as one operation however many items it returns. Every other module runs once per item (Make calls them bundles), so a list of ten new contacts passing through a Send Email module costs ten operations at that step.
That last rule is where Make bills surprise people. A scenario that looks like four modules on the canvas can be forty or four hundred credits when the first module returns a long list, and Make's own guidance is to restructure scenarios so they work on a batch instead of one item at a time. That restructuring is exactly what our Make.com operations cost optimization service does, with the savings measured and the scenario's behaviour left unchanged.
n8n counts executions, however many steps they contain
n8n bills on workflow executions, and its pricing page says plans have unlimited steps. An execution is one run of a whole workflow. Only production executions, started by a trigger, a schedule or polling, count toward the quota; manual test runs do not. Three rules are worth knowing: a Schedule Trigger counts one execution every time it fires whatever the outcome, a polling trigger counts only when it finds new data, and every inbound request that activates a Webhook Trigger counts as one.
A sub-workflow call does not add to the count (only the parent does) and error-workflow runs do not count either. In practice a thirty-step workflow costs the same as a three-step one.
- Zapier4 action steps, trigger free4,000 tasks
- Maketrigger run + 4 modules (estimate)≈ 5,000 credits
- n8none workflow run, any number of steps1,000 executions
Make's figure is our estimate: one credit for the trigger run plus one per module, assuming one order per run. Zapier and n8n follow their help-page rules above. Real counts change with filters, loops and failed runs.
Zapier vs Make vs n8n pricing in 2026
All prices below were read from the vendors' own pages on 17 October 2026. Zapier's plan list is the one its pricing page loads, with yearly and monthly prices for every task tier. Make's pricing page does not show paid prices without its interactive calculator, so for Make we use the starting prices from Make's own comparison page and say so. n8n's page lists its cloud and self-hosted plans.
Zapier pricing
| Plan | Included tasks per month | Yearly billing (per month) | Monthly billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 | $0 | $0 |
| Professional | 750 | $19.99 | $29.99 |
| Professional | 2,000 | $49 | $73.50 |
| Professional | 5,000 | $89 | $133.50 |
| Professional | 10,000 | $129 | $193.50 |
| Professional | 20,000 | $189 | $283.50 |
| Professional | 50,000 | $289 | $433.50 |
| Team (25 seats) | 2,000 | $69 | $103.50 |
| Team (25 seats) | 10,000 | $169 | $253.50 |
Three things stand out. Paying monthly costs exactly 50 per cent more than paying yearly at every tier we checked, so the headline price on the page is the yearly one. Free allows only two-step Zaps and checks for new data every 15 minutes, against 2 minutes on Professional and 1 minute on Team. And when you hit your task limit Zapier can switch you to pay-per-task billing so your Zaps keep running; its pricing page says that is charged at a higher per-task rate than your plan's base tasks, and it is a setting you choose to turn on.
Make pricing
Make's comparison page lists a Free plan with 1,000 credits a month, and paid plans that start at 10,000 credits: Core at $9, Pro at $16 and Teams at $29 a month. The page does not say whether those are yearly or monthly prices, and Make's pricing page says only that annual payment in advance is cheaper than monthly. Extra credits are sold in bundles of 1,000 or 10,000 at the price set in your subscription. We could not read prices for larger credit tiers, so use Make's calculator for your own volume before you decide.
n8n pricing
| Plan | Price (billed annually) | Executions per month | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €20 per month | 2,500 | Hosted by n8n |
| Pro | €50 per month | 10,000 | Hosted by n8n |
| Business | €667 per month | 40,000 | Self-hosted only |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Custom | Hosted or self-hosted |
| Community Edition | No licence fee | No plan quota | Self-hosted, free for internal business use under n8n's licence |
n8n's page shows an annual-billing toggle labelled "Save 17%" and does not display monthly-billing prices in the text we could read. Business-plan overage is listed as 4,000 euros for each extra bucket of 300,000 executions. Prices are in euros and we have not converted them.
- 1,000 orders a month4,000 tasks → Professional 5,000$89 yearly · $133.50 monthly
- 5,000 orders a month20,000 tasks → Professional 20,000$189 yearly · $283.50 monthly
- 10,000 orders a month40,000 tasks → Professional 50,000$289 yearly · $433.50 monthly
Prices read from Zapier's plan list on 17 October 2026. Failed steps do not use tasks, but replaying a whole run does.
Starter
€20 a monthFits inside the 2,500 executions with room to spare.
- 5 concurrent executions
- 7-day execution log
Pro
€50 a monthHalf of the 10,000 executions are used.
- Up to 50 concurrent executions (plan card)
- 30-day execution log
Pro, at its limit
€50 a monthExactly at the plan's execution quota, so any growth needs another plan or hosting.
- Business is self-hosted only
- Above that is a conversation with sales
Make is left out because its larger credit tiers are not shown on the pages we could read. At 1,000 orders the estimated 5,000 credits fits inside Make's advertised 10,000-credit starting tier.
That comparison is not a forecast of your bill. It shows the shape: Zapier's cost rises step by step with volume and with the number of actions per run, while n8n's rises only with the number of runs. If your workflows are long and your volume is high, that difference is the whole reason people move platforms, and it is the whole reason we offer a Zapier and Make to n8n migration that runs your old and new automations side by side before anything is switched off.
How to calculate your real cost in ten minutes
The example above is one workflow. Yours will differ, so here is the method with three typical workflows counted all three ways. List each workflow, how many times it runs a month and how many action steps (not counting the trigger) it has. Then apply each tool's rule.
| Workflow | Runs a month | Zapier tasks | Make credits (estimate) | n8n executions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lead from a web form to the CRM and a Slack alert (2 actions) | 600 | 1,200 | 1,800 | 600 |
| Paid order to customer, invoice, Slack and spreadsheet row (4 actions) | 1,000 | 4,000 | 5,000 | 1,000 |
| Nightly sync of 300 rows, 2 actions per row, one run a night | 30 | 18,000 | 18,030 | 30 |
| Total | 23,200 | 24,830 | 1,630 |
Our assumptions: Make is one credit for the trigger run plus one per module run, and the nightly sync is built the common way on Zapier and Make, so each row is processed on its own, while n8n loops over the rows inside a single execution. The third workflow is the point. It is tiny to describe and it makes up more than three quarters of the Zapier and Make totals, because the rows multiply it. On n8n it is thirty executions.
Now map the totals to plans. At 23,200 tasks a month the next Zapier tier above 20,000 is Professional 50,000, which is $289 a month on yearly billing. At 1,630 executions n8n Cloud's Starter plan at €20 a month covers it. Make's 24,830 credits is above its 10,000-credit starting tier, so you would price it in Make's calculator. The numbers are not a verdict. They tell you which workflow to look at first, and for most teams it is the one with the loop.
Whenever a workflow handles a list, ask whether the tool processes it as one batch or one item at a time. Per-item processing is where Zapier and Make bills multiply, and where n8n's per-execution billing helps most.
Zapier vs Make vs n8n: reliability, error handling and history
Zapier: the shortest path to working
Zapier's strength is how little you need to know. The editor is linear, the app directory is the largest of the three, and a colleague who has never seen your account can usually work out what a Zap does. Paid plans add multi-step Zaps, unlimited premium apps and webhooks, and the help centre documents replaying errored runs from your Zap history. By default Zapier also pauses a Zap that errors in 95 per cent or more of its runs over the last seven days, so a completely broken workflow stops instead of failing forever.
The costs of that simplicity are the per-task meter, a history window you mostly cannot change (Zapier keeps Zap history for 29 to 69 days, and only Enterprise admins can shorten it, to between 7 and 30 days), and the polling interval. A 15-minute check on the Free plan suits a weekly report and is wrong for "text the customer when the order ships". Look at the interval before you build anything time-sensitive.
Make: more power on the canvas, more to understand
Make shows a scenario as a diagram. You can branch with routers, loop over lists with iterators, collapse results with aggregators and attach an error handler to a single module. Its help centre documents error-handling routes, an exponential-backoff retry for failed scenarios and stored incomplete executions with an automatic retry. If your workflow is really a data transformation with branches, the canvas is a genuine advantage.
The price of that power is that you need to understand bundles. A new user can build a scenario that works perfectly and then discover it uses ten times the credits they expected because an early module returns a list. Budget an afternoon to learn how credits flow before you build anything high-volume.
n8n: control, code and responsibility
n8n gives you the most room. You can write JavaScript or Python inside a workflow, call any API with a generic request node, run sub-workflows and attach an error workflow so a failure triggers your own alert. Cloud plans have limits worth knowing: Starter allows 5 concurrent executions and a maximum execution time of 5 minutes, and Pro extends execution time to 40 minutes. Execution logs are kept for 7 days on Starter and 30 days on Pro, and Enterprise keeps them without a limit.
That log window matters more than it looks. If something went wrong on a Friday and you find out on a Monday three weeks later, a seven-day log means the evidence is gone.
| When a step fails... | Zapier | Make | n8n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Do failed steps use your quota? | No: only successful actions count | Check Make's current rules for failed modules (not confirmed on the pages we read) | A run counts when its trigger starts it. Manual runs, sub-workflow calls and error-workflow runs do not count |
| How you recover | Replay errored runs from the history; replaying a whole run counts tasks again | Error handlers per module, automatic retry with backoff, stored incomplete executions | Error workflow starting with an Error Trigger, plus execution history and re-run |
| How long history lasts | 29 to 69 days of Zap history | Depends on your plan (see Make's pricing page) | 7 days (Starter), 30 days (Pro), unlimited (Enterprise) |
| Alerting you build yourself | Notifications, or an error-handler path | Error handler route to email or chat | An error workflow that sends email or chat |
The takeaway is not that one is safer. Each expects you to set up recovery on purpose, and a workflow with no error path and no alert fails the same way in all three: quietly. That is the gap our monitoring services close. Zapier error monitoring and fix reads causes from your Zap history, proves each repair on a copy and replays missed runs once. Make.com scenario monitoring and maintenance checks for failure, silence and drift and alerts a named person. n8n error monitoring and recovery puts one error workflow in place that records, alerts and allows safe retries.
Is self-hosting n8n worth it? The real bill
Self-hosting is the reason many people look at n8n and the reason many regret it. The software can be free, the server is cheap and the labour is not. Here is each part.
The licence
n8n's repository applies the Sustainable Use License to the Community Edition. The licence text says you may use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use, and that you may distribute it or provide it to others only free of charge for non-commercial purposes. Files with ".ee." in the name belong to the paid Enterprise licence instead. The practical reading: running n8n for your own company's workflows is fine; running it as a paid service for your clients is not what the licence describes. If you are an agency, read the licence yourself or ask n8n before you build a business on it. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice.
What the free edition leaves out
n8n's documentation says the Community Edition includes almost the complete feature set, and lists what it does not: custom variables, environments, external secrets, external storage for binary data, log streaming, multi-main mode, projects, single sign-on (SAML and LDAP), sharing of workflows and credentials, and version control with Git. Queue mode and standard logging are included. For a solo owner none of that matters. For a team, the sharing limit is the one you feel first: on the free edition only the instance owner and the person who creates a workflow or credential can access it.
The server and the person
n8n's own sizing guidance, written for hosting it as part of another product, lists memory of 320 MB to 2 GB and a 512 MB to 4 GB database, and says n8n is not CPU intensive. On DigitalOcean's published price list a droplet with 512 MiB of memory is $4 a month and one with 2 GiB is $12 a month. You will probably want the larger one and a real database. n8n's documentation lists Docker Compose and a one-line setup among its install options.
The server is the cheap part. Someone has to install it, put it behind HTTPS, back it up, apply updates, watch for failed executions and react to security notices. n8n's own guide to choosing how to use it lists technical expertise as required for installing and configuring a self-hosted instance, and maintenance as your responsibility, and points people without that expertise to n8n Cloud. The table shows how quickly an hour or two of upkeep outweighs the licence saving.
| Monthly cost line | Illustrative figure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| n8n licence | $0 | Community Edition, internal business use |
| Server (2 GiB droplet) | $12 | DigitalOcean's published price |
| Backups and domain | Your choice | Not priced here |
| Upkeep: 2 hours a month | $100 at $50 an hour | Our assumption. Use your own hourly figure |
| Total | about $112 a month | More than n8n Cloud Pro at €50 |
If your own time is worth nothing to you, self-hosting is the cheapest route by a wide margin. If it is worth something, two hours a month tips the balance toward the cloud plan, and the first month, when you build it, costs far more. The honest summary: self-host for control and data location, not to save money.
Hidden costs that show up in month three
- Yearly versus monthly billing. Zapier's monthly prices are 50 per cent higher at every tier we checked. Make says annual is cheaper. n8n labels yearly billing as a 17 per cent saving. Decide which you are actually paying.
- Replays. On Zapier, replaying a full run counts the successful steps again. On any tool, a bug that causes ten replays is ten runs of billing.
- Polling. On Make, each check of a trigger is an operation even when there is nothing new. On n8n, polling counts only when new data is found. On Zapier, triggers and polls do not use tasks. The same "check every five minutes" workflow has three different costs.
- Lists. On Make, a module after a list-returning module runs once per item. On Zapier, the Looping step itself does not use tasks, so check how many actions run for each item before you assume a loop is free. On n8n, the whole workflow is one execution.
- AI steps. Zapier folds AI into its task model. Make's AI modules can use variable credits. n8n's cloud plans bundle assistant credits. Whichever you choose, test the cost of one AI step on a real run before you scale.
- Log retention. If you need an audit trail, the history window on your plan is a requirement, not a nicety.
- Plan jumps. All three price in steps. Going 10 per cent over a tier can mean paying the next tier up, or an overage rate higher than the base rate.
- Vocabulary changes. Make renamed its billing unit from operations to credits and told customers its pricing was unchanged. Expect help pages and third-party articles, including this one, to lag a vendor's current terms.
Security and data questions to ask before you connect an account
Whichever tool you choose, it will hold credentials and see your customers' data. These six questions are worth answering before you connect anything important.
- Where does the data go, and can I choose? Zapier and Make are hosted by the vendor. n8n can run on your own infrastructure. If a contract or regulation says where data must live, that decides the question.
- How long is run data kept? Zapier keeps Zap history for 29 to 69 days. n8n Cloud keeps execution logs for 7, 30 or unlimited days depending on the plan. Make's depends on your plan. Run data often contains customer details, so shorter can be a feature.
- Can I hide sensitive data in the history? n8n documents execution-data redaction, which hides inputs and outputs while keeping status and timing. Check what your tool offers before you pass identifiers or amounts through a workflow.
- Who else can see my workflows and credentials? On n8n's free edition, sharing is not included. On the hosted tools, check what each plan's team and permission features cover.
- Can I connect with the least access possible? Use a dedicated user or an app authorisation, never a personal login, so you can revoke it in one step.
- What is my way out? Ask how you would export your workflows. A tool you cannot leave is a bigger commitment than its price suggests.
Which tool for which job: ten examples
These are judgement calls, not rules. Each assumes the work is real and recurring, not a one-off experiment.
| The job | Our pick | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| Send each new lead from a form to your CRM and Slack | Zapier | Three steps, low volume, a person will maintain it. Convenience wins. |
| Create a QuickBooks invoice for every paid order | Make or n8n | Money is involved, so you want error handling and a re-run path you control. Volume grows with sales. |
| Process a nightly file of 5,000 rows | n8n | Row-by-row billing on the others multiplies fast. One execution handles the batch. |
| Post a weekly report to a team channel | Any | One run a week. Use whichever you already have. |
| Route support tickets by topic with an AI step | Make or n8n | Branching and AI steps are easier to see and cost on a canvas you control. |
| Keep two systems in sync both ways | n8n or a built integration | Two-way sync needs careful duplicate handling; do not build it on a free tier. |
| Handle webhooks from a payment processor | n8n or a built integration | Events can repeat or arrive late; you want your own control over de-duplication. |
| Automate onboarding with approvals | n8n or Make | Human-in-the-loop steps and long waits suit both better than a task meter. |
| Run client automations as a paid agency service | Make, or n8n under an enterprise licence | Per-step billing and n8n's licence limits both matter at agency scale. |
| Anything regulated or location-restricted | n8n self-hosted, or a build in your own accounts | You need control over where data goes and who can see it. |
Two of those rows say "a built integration". When a job is money-handling or two-way, a purpose-built route usually beats a general tool, and we sell exactly those as fixed-price packages, from Stripe to QuickBooks at $745 to Stripe invoice and payment reminder automation at $925.
A four-question guide to choosing
Who will fix it when it breaks?
Name a person. If that person is not technical, Zapier or Make is the realistic choice. If you have a developer or an operations engineer, n8n is open to you.
Where it breaks: The tool is chosen by the buyer, but maintained by someone who never saw the demo.Decide firstHow many runs a month, and how many steps each?
Multiply them. Zapier's bill follows the product of the two, Make's follows modules and items, n8n's follows runs.
Where it breaks: Using a weekly figure for a workflow that fires per order.Do the sumDoes the data have to stay somewhere?
If you need to control where a workflow runs, only a self-hosted n8n gives you that. If you do not, hosting is a cost to avoid.
Where it breaks: Self-hosting for "security" without anyone assigned to patch it.ConstraintWhat happens if it fails silently for a week?
If the answer is "we lose money", pay for error handling, history and alerts, and test the failure path before launch.
Where it breaks: Building the happy path only.Risk
If the answers point to different tools for different workflows, that is normal. Many teams run two.
When none of the three is the right answer
A subscription tool is a good fit when the workflow is simple, the volume is modest and someone enjoys maintaining it. It is a poor fit when the workflow touches money, has to be right every time, or is large enough that the per-step or per-run bill becomes a line item.
Take the order workflow from earlier at 10,000 orders a month. On Zapier's yearly prices it runs to $289 a month, or $10,404 over three years, plus the time to build and repair it. Whether a one-time build is cheaper depends on where it runs and what that platform charges, which is why a good builder asks that question first. At BoldBellows, builds live in your own accounts and are paid once; the platform subscriptions stay with the platforms, and we tell you in advance if a project needs a plan with API access.
Often the best use of money is not a new tool but a clean-up of the one you have. Most accounts we see contain steps that always run but never matter, polling that could be a webhook and loops that could be one batch. Start with the audit for your platform, Zapier, Make or n8n, and decide about switching only once you can see what the account really does.
How to migrate from Zapier or Make to n8n without losing a workflow
If the numbers say you should move, the order of work matters more than the speed. This is the checklist we follow on our own Zapier and Make to n8n migration projects.
- List every workflow and its trigger. Include the ones nobody remembers. Record last run date and monthly volume.
- Count units on the old tool and the new one. Use the rules above, not the vendor's marketing summary.
- Retire what is dead. A workflow with no runs in 90 days is a deletion, not a migration.
- Rebuild in order of risk, not size. Start with a low-risk workflow to learn the new tool, then the money-handling ones.
- Run both side by side. Send the same events to both for at least a week and compare the results.
- Keep the old one switched off, not deleted, for a month, so you can roll back.
- Write down the failure path for each workflow: who is alerted, where to look, how to replay.
If you would rather not do this alone, our migration service inventories every automation, rebuilds it as an n8n workflow, runs it beside the original and switches over with no gap, then hands over a document describing every workflow, its permissions and what to check first when something looks wrong.