n8n vs Zapier vs Make: Real Monthly Cost, What Breaks and Who Maintains It (2026)
Zapier is the easiest to start and the most expensive as you grow. Make is the cheapest per step and good for visual, branching scenarios. n8n charges per workflow run, not per step, and can be self-hosted for free. At our mid-size example, one month costs about $129 on Zapier, $21 on Make and $20 on n8n. The bigger cost is whoever keeps it running.
n8n vs Zapier vs Make at a glance
| Zapier | Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Tasks: each successful action step | Credits: most actions use 1 | Executions: one per full workflow run |
| Entry paid plan | $19.99 a month (annual), 750 tasks | $12 a month (annual, US), 10,000 credits | $20 a month (annual), 2,500 executions |
| Users | Team plan for shared work | Teams plan for shared work | Unlimited users on every plan |
| Self-hosting | No | No | Yes, free Community Edition |
| Learning curve | Lowest | Medium | Highest |
| Best for | Simple flows, fast setup, non-technical owner | Branching scenarios on a budget | High volume, AI agents, owners who can maintain it |
Prices from each vendor's pricing page, checked 2026-10-16. Full sources at the end.
Jump to: cost at three sizes, what breaks, self-hosting, or AI features. Looking for someone to build in one of them? See hire an n8n expert.
Most comparisons of these three tools are written by someone selling one of them, or by someone who has used each for a weekend.
I've run all three. At Pareto Talent our operators are trained on Zapier and n8n, and they work in whatever the client already uses, which is often Make. So this guide is about what happens after the demo: what a month really costs at your volume, what breaks first, and how much time each tool asks of the person who owns it.
One warning before the numbers. The three tools count differently, so the cheapest plan on the page is not the cheapest plan for you. Read the pricing units first.
01 · Pricing Units
How do n8n, Zapier and Make charge?
Zapier charges per task, which is each successful action step in a workflow; triggers and filters are free. Make charges per credit, and most actions use one credit. n8n charges per execution, which is one full run of a workflow no matter how many steps it has.
That one difference decides most of the cost. Take a five-step workflow: a form submission triggers it, then four actions follow (write to the CRM, ask Claude for a reply, send the email, post to Slack).
- Zapier: the trigger is free, so 4 tasks per run. Zapier's help center is explicit: "Zap triggers never use tasks", and filter and paths steps don't either (Zapier Help).
- Make: each module that reads or writes uses credits, including the trigger, so about 5 credits per run. Make says "most actions consume 1 credit", while some AI features "may use more" (Make pricing).
- n8n: 1 execution per run. n8n's pricing page says it charges for "full executions, not for each step" (n8n pricing).
The more steps your workflows have, the more n8n's model saves you.
02 · Real Monthly Cost
How much do n8n, Zapier and Make cost at three business sizes?
At about 500 workflow runs a month, all three cost under $50. At 2,500 runs, Zapier costs about $129 a month on annual billing against $21 on Make and $20 on n8n. At 10,000 runs, it's $289 on Zapier, $72 on Make and $50 on n8n. Monthly billing costs more on all three.
My assumptions, so you can redo the math: every run is the five-step workflow above (4 Zapier tasks, 5 Make credits, 1 n8n execution). One person builds and edits. Prices are the cheapest plan that fits, read from each vendor's page on 2026-10-16. Make shows prices by country; these are its US prices.
| Business size | Usage per month | Zapier (Professional) | Make (Core) | n8n Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small: a few automations | 500 runs = 2,000 tasks, 2,500 credits, 500 executions | $49 annual, $73.50 monthly | $12 annual, $16 monthly | Starter: $20 annual, $24 monthly |
| Mid: a working system | 2,500 runs = 10,000 tasks, 12,500 credits, 2,500 executions | $129 annual, $193.50 monthly | $21 annual, $28 monthly | Starter: $20 annual, $24 monthly |
| Larger: most of operations | 10,000 runs = 40,000 tasks, 50,000 credits, 10,000 executions | $289 annual, $433.50 monthly (50,000-task tier) | $72 annual, $97 monthly (80,000-credit tier) | Pro: $50 annual, $60 monthly |
Monthly cost at three business sizes, annual billing
Cheapest plan that fits the usage in the table above. US prices, checked 2026-10-16.
- Zapier, small$49 a month
- Make, small$12 a month
- n8n, small$20 a month
- Zapier, mid$129 a month
- Make, mid$21 a month
- n8n, mid$20 a month
- Zapier, larger$289 a month
- Make, larger$72 a month
- n8n, larger$50 a month
Sources: Zapier pricing, Make pricing (US prices), n8n pricing, all checked 2026-10-16. Usage and totals are our calculation from the stated assumptions.
If more than one person edits: Zapier's Team plan starts at $69 a month on annual billing for 2,000 tasks, $169 for 10,000 and $399 for 50,000. Make's Teams plan is $38 a month on annual billing for 10,000 credits and $225 for 80,000 (US). Every n8n plan includes unlimited users.
What the table leaves out: the AI model itself. If a step calls Claude or ChatGPT through your own API key, you pay the model provider separately on all three. n8n's cloud plans include "AI models without API keys" for its assistant features, but your own production prompts will usually run on your own key.
The cost that isn't on the pricing page
None of these numbers is big. A founder will spend more on one lunch than on a month of Make. The real cost is the person: the hours to build, the hours to fix and the hours you lose when something stops and nobody notices. That's where the three tools actually differ.
03 · What Breaks
What breaks in Zapier, Make and n8n?
The same things break in all three: a connected app changes a field or its API, a login token expires, a step hits a rate limit, or unexpected data arrives, like a blank email or a second language. The difference is how loudly each tool tells you and how hard the fix is.
Here's what I've seen most often, by tool:
| What breaks | Zapier | Make | n8n |
|---|---|---|---|
| App changes a field | Step errors; easy to remap in the editor | Scenario errors; remap the module | Node errors; remap, sometimes rewrite an expression |
| Expired connection | Common; reconnect the app | Common; reconnect the connection | Common; re-authorize the credential |
| Run out of plan | Overage billed at a multiple of your rate if pay-per-task is on | Scenarios stop until credits are added | Executions are capped by plan |
| Odd data | Filters help; complex logic gets messy | Routers and error handlers built in | Full code nodes; most flexible, most rope |
| Server problems | Zapier's job | Make's job | Yours, if you self-host |
Two lines from the vendors' own pages are worth knowing. On Make, if you run out of credits, "your scenarios won't continue to run, until credits are added again" (Make pricing). On Zapier, going over your limit is billed at 1.25 times the task rate on annual plans and 2.5 times on monthly plans, when pay-per-task is turned on (Zapier pricing).
The worst failure isn't any of those. It's the silent one: the workflow runs, nothing errors, and the output is wrong. A lead gets the wrong reply for two weeks. No tool catches that. A person who reads the outputs does.
04 · Maintenance
Which is easiest to maintain?
Zapier is the easiest for a non-technical owner to maintain, because each workflow is a short list of steps. Make is easy to read visually but complex scenarios get crowded. n8n takes the most skill but gives you version history, code nodes and full control, which makes large systems easier to keep clean.
What maintenance means in practice, for any of them:
- Check every run daily. Errors, and outputs that look wrong.
- Alert on failure. Send failures to Slack or email, so nobody has to remember to look.
- Name things. A workflow called "Test 4 copy" is a problem in month six.
- Write a one-page note per workflow. What it does, what it touches, how to turn it off.
- Keep accounts in the company's name. Not the builder's personal login.
That last one is the one that hurts most when it's skipped. If your automations live in a freelancer's account, you don't own them.
The cheapest plan on the page is rarely the cheapest year.
Want someone who runs all three?
Our certified AI Operators are trained on Zapier, n8n, Claude and more. They build in your accounts, watch every run and fix what breaks.
05 · Self-Hosting
Should you self-host n8n?
Self-host n8n only if someone on your team is comfortable running a server, applying updates and backing up data. The Community Edition is free, but you pay in hours and in risk. For most small businesses, n8n Cloud at $20 to $60 a month is the cheaper choice once you count the time.
n8n's documentation calls the Community Edition "the free edition". It leaves out some team features, including projects, SSO, sharing of workflows and credentials, environments and version control using Git (n8n docs). n8n also sells a self-hosted Business plan at $800 a month on annual billing for 40,000 executions, aimed at companies under 100 employees that need collaboration and scale (n8n pricing).
Zapier and Make don't offer a self-hosted plan on their pricing pages. If your data has to stay on your own servers, n8n is the only one of the three that does it.
06 · AI Features
Which has the best AI features?
All three now ship AI agents and connect to AI models. n8n has the deepest agent tooling for builders, with agents, MCP and AI nodes on every cloud plan. Zapier has the easiest agents for non-technical users, with agent activity included on its plans. Make has an AI assistant and agents inside its visual builder.
What each pricing page lists, as of 2026-10-16:
- Zapier: Zapier Agents with 400 activities a month on Free and 1,500 on Professional, which don't use your task pool; Copilot with unlimited messages on paid plans; Chatbots; and Zapier MCP on all plans, where one MCP tool call costs 2 tasks (Zapier pricing).
- Make: AI agents, the Maia AI assistant, Make AI apps and an MCP server, with some AI features using more credits than a normal action (Make pricing).
- n8n: agents, MCP and AI nodes on every cloud plan, 1,600 AI Assistant credits a month on Starter and up to 9,600 on Pro (n8n pricing).
In practice, the AI in a workflow is usually one step: "read this email and write a reply". All three do that well. The hard part is the prompt, the guardrails and the person who reads the outputs. If your AI work goes beyond workflows into tools and apps, that's where Claude Code comes in. For a full list of agent ideas by job, see 25 AI agents for business.
07 · The Verdict
Which should you choose?
Choose Zapier if you want the fastest start and the person maintaining it isn't technical. Choose Make if you want visual, branching scenarios at a low price. Choose n8n if you run high volume, build AI agents, or need to self-host, and you have someone who can maintain it.
| If this is you | Pick |
|---|---|
| A founder building a few simple automations alone | Zapier |
| An ops lead who likes visual flows and watches costs | Make |
| A team with high volume or long, multi-step workflows | n8n Cloud |
| Data that must stay on your servers | n8n, self-hosted |
| You already use one and it works | Stay. Migrating costs more than the plan difference |
The last row matters most. I've seen founders spend a month moving from one tool to another to save $40 a month. That's a bad trade. Fix the ownership problem first, then the tool.
More in this series: 25 AI agents for business, Claude for business, AI employee software, AI automation specialist job description, best AI tools for small business, fractional chief AI officer. Hiring instead? See hire an AI developer or hire an n8n expert.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is n8n better than Zapier?
How much does Zapier charge?
Is there a cheaper alternative to Zapier?
Is n8n becoming obsolete?
Is Zapier outdated?
What is the difference between Make and Zapier?
Can I switch from Zapier to n8n or Make later?
Sources
Sources
- Zapier, Pricing, checked 2026-10-16: Free 100 tasks; Professional $19.99 (annual) or $29.99 (monthly) for 750 tasks, $49 or $73.50 for 2,000, $129 or $193.50 for 10,000, $289 or $433.50 for 50,000; Team from $69 (annual) for 2,000 tasks; overage multiples; Agents, Copilot, Chatbots and MCP.
- Zapier Help Center, "How is task usage measured in Zapier?", checked 2026-10-16: triggers, filters and paths don't use tasks.
- Make, Pricing, checked 2026-10-16: credits as the billing unit; US prices loaded by the page: Core $12 (annual) or $16 (monthly) for 10,000 credits, $21 or $28 for 20,000, $72 or $97 for 80,000; Teams $38 (annual) for 10,000 and $225 for 80,000. Prices vary by country.
- n8n, Pricing, checked 2026-10-16: Starter $20 (annual) or $24 (monthly), 2,500 executions; Pro $50 or $60, 10,000 executions; Business self-hosted $800 (annual), 40,000 executions; unlimited users; AI features by plan.
- n8n Docs, "Community edition features", checked 2026-10-16.
- Monthly totals and usage: the author's calculation from the stated assumptions.
Written by Ivan Bunin from his own experience building on Zapier, Make and n8n at Pareto Talent. Reviewed and updated quarterly; prices are re-checked each review.
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