Picking an automation platform feels simple until you look at the pricing pages. Zapier, Make and n8n each charge on a completely different billing unit and each wins for a different kind of user. Choose wrong and you end up with a surprise bill or a tool your team refuses to learn.
I have run production workflows on all three. Here is how they actually compare in 2026, what each one costs at real-world usage levels, and which one I would recommend for your situation.
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How They Charge: The Part That Actually Matters
The billing unit decides your bill more than any plan name.
- Zapier charges per task. One task is one successful action step. A five-step Zap that runs once burns roughly five tasks.
- Make charges per credit. Every module that runs counts as one credit (Make renamed “operations” to “credits” in August 2025). A scenario that looks like three steps on screen can easily consume eight or more credits per run.
- n8n charges per execution. One full workflow run counts as one execution, no matter how many steps sit inside it. A thirty-step workflow still counts as one.
Zapier: The Easiest One to Start With
Zapier has been around since 2011 and remains the default name in automation. Its editor is the friendliest of the three: a non-technical user can build a working two-step Zap in under five minutes without reading docs. That onboarding polish is the product’s real superpower.
The integration catalog is the other big draw: more than 7,000 apps. If you use a niche CRM, an oddball invoicing tool or a local-market service, Zapier probably connects to it when the other two do not. Its newer AI features include Zapier Agents and AI-powered actions for building agentic workflows.
Zapier pricing in 2026
- Free: 100 tasks per month, limited to two-step Zaps. Good for testing, not much else.
- Professional: from $19.99 per month on annual billing ($29.99 month-to-month), with 750 tasks included.
- Team: from $69 per month annually, with 2,000 tasks and collaboration features like shared folders and connections.
The math gets ugly at scale. Take a realistic five-step workflow, say syncing new Shopify orders into a Google Sheet and pinging Slack. If it fires 200 times a month, that burns roughly 1,000 tasks. You are already past the Professional tier’s 750-task limit and paying overage.
Zapier is the most expensive platform at scale, full stop. You are paying for convenience and breadth. For many small teams that is a fair trade, just go in with your eyes open.
Make: The Visual Builder With Better Value
Make, formerly Integromat, is the middle ground. Its drag-and-drop canvas draws workflows as branching diagrams with routers, filters and iterators. Conditional logic that feels cramped in Zapier’s linear editor looks natural here. Data transformation is easier too: formatting dates, parsing text and looping over items.
The catalog is smaller than Zapier’s at roughly 3,000 apps plus over 9,000 pre-built templates, but it covers everything a typical business needs. In 2026 Make added the Maia AI assistant and Make AI Agents for autonomous task execution.
Make pricing in 2026
- Free: 1,000 credits per month with 2 active scenarios.
- Core: around $9 per month on annual billing (about $10.59 month-to-month) with 10,000 credits.
- Pro: around $16 to $19 per month with higher credit allowances and priority execution.
The difference is striking. That same five-step workflow firing 200 times a month consumes roughly 1,000 to 1,600 credits on Make. The $9 Core plan includes 10,000. That is roughly ten times cheaper than Zapier at comparable volumes.
The honest downside: the credit system still confuses people. Credits get consumed by every module, including filters and routers you barely notice. Make is cloud-only with no self-hosting, so your data always sits on its servers. For most businesses that is fine. For regulated industries it may not be.
n8n: The Open-Source Powerhouse
n8n is the youngest of the three, founded in 2019. It is also the only one you can self-host. The Community edition runs free on your own server with no execution limits. Your data stays on your infrastructure, a hard requirement in healthcare, finance and government.
The bigger story in 2026 is AI. Version 2.0 added native LangChain integration, over 70 AI nodes and persistent agent memory. JavaScript and Python code nodes sit alongside no-code nodes in the same flow, which makes n8n the only platform here with genuinely native agent tooling.
n8n pricing in 2026
- Self-hosted Community: free forever, unlimited workflows. You pay only for the server, roughly $5 to $10 per month on a small VPS.
- Cloud Starter: about $20 to $24 per month for 2,500 executions, billed per full workflow run.
- Cloud Pro: roughly $50 to $60 per month for 10,000 executions.
n8n lists cloud prices in euros, so the US dollar cost shifts a little with exchange rates. And you pay per execution, not per step, so complex workflows cost the same as simple ones.
The trade-off is the learning curve. n8n expects more technical comfort, its native library is smaller (400+ integrations), and the gap gets closed with a generic HTTP request node that delights developers and intimidates everyone else. Paid support is also thinner.
| Make | Zapier | n8n | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0. 1,000 credits/mo, 2 active scenarios, 15-min minimum run interval. | $0. 100 tasks/mo, two-step Zaps only, 15-min polling. | $0. Self-hosted Community edition, unlimited executions. You pay only for your server (about $5 to $25/mo VPS). |
| Paid plans | Core: $9/mo annual ($10.59 monthly), 10,000 credits. Pro: $16/mo annual ($18.82 monthly), 10,000 credits plus priority execution, custom variables and full-text log search. Teams: $29/mo annual ($34.12 monthly), 10,000 credits plus team roles and shared templates. Enterprise: custom. (Make cut paid prices about 25% in Sept 2026.) | Professional: $19.99/mo annual ($29.99 monthly), 750 tasks. Team: $69/mo annual ($103.50 monthly), 2,000 tasks plus shared workspace. Enterprise: custom. Overdraw billing applies past the limit. | Cloud Starter: €20/mo annual (€24 monthly), 2,500 executions. Cloud Pro: €50/mo annual (€60 monthly), 10,000 executions. Business: €667/mo annual, 40,000 executions plus SSO and Git version control. Enterprise: custom. (n8n bills cloud plans in euros.) |
| How you are billed | Per credit. Nearly every module that runs costs one credit. Routers and error handlers are free. | Per task. One completed action step is one task. Triggers, filters and Formatter steps are free. | Per execution. One full workflow run counts as one, however many steps it holds. |
| Self-hosting | No. Cloud only. | No. Cloud only. | Yes. Full self-hosting with your data on your own infrastructure. |
| Key strengths | Best cloud value by far ($9 buys 10,000 credits). Visual canvas with routers and branching that feels natural. 3,000+ apps plus 9,000+ templates. Blueprint JSON export on every plan. | Easiest builder of the three, a beginner ships a working Zap in minutes. Largest catalog at 9,000+ apps. Strong onboarding polish and Zapier Agents for agentic work. | Cheapest at scale by a wide margin, especially self-hosted. Per-execution pricing makes long workflows cost no more than short ones. JavaScript and Python code nodes. Native AI agent nodes and LangChain support. |
| Key weaknesses | The credit system still confuses people (a scenario that looks like 3 steps can burn 8+ credits). Cloud only, so your data sits on its servers. Free plan limited to 2 scenarios at 15-minute intervals. | Most expensive at scale. Per-step task billing punishes multi-step workflows (one 5-step run can burn 5 tasks). Free tier allows only two-step Zaps. | Steepest learning curve, it expects real technical comfort. Smaller native library (about 400+ integrations), with the gap closed by a generic HTTP node. Thinner paid support. |
| Best for | Freelancers and small businesses that outgrew Zapier’s free tier and balked at its paid prices. Process-heavy work where branching logic matters. | Non-technical teams that value speed of setup and the widest app coverage. The fastest path from a manual process to a working automation. | Technical users, high volumes, regulated industries that need data sovereignty, and teams building AI agent workflows. |
Head-to-Head: The Comparison That Decides It
- Ease of use: Zapier wins. A beginner can ship something today. Make takes an afternoon. n8n takes a technical user.
- App catalog: Zapier wins with 9,000+ apps. Make covers about 3,000. n8n has around 1,000 native integrations plus a universal HTTP node.
- Cost at scale: n8n self-hosted wins outright. Make is the best cloud value. Zapier is the most expensive.
- Data control: n8n wins, since it is the only one you can self-host. The other two run cloud-only.
- AI workflows: n8n wins for developers with native agent nodes and LangChain support. Zapier and Make offer AI builders that are more accessible but less deep.
- Custom code: n8n wins with JavaScript and Python at every node. Zapier and Make are fundamentally no-code products.
Short workflows: Zapier’s task pricing hurts less. Long, frequent ones: n8n’s per-execution model keeps costs flat while Zapier charges for every step.
Who Should Pick Which
Pick Zapier if your team is non-technical and simplicity matters more than cost. It remains the fastest path from “I have a manual process” to “it runs itself”. For inspiration on what to automate first, see these eight marketing tasks you should automate with AI right now.
Pick Make if you want visual workflows with real conditional logic at a sane price. This is the sweet spot for freelancers and small businesses that outgrew Zapier’s free tier and balked at its paid prices. It also suits process-heavy work like automating repetitive office tasks, where branching logic is the whole point.
Pick n8n if you are technical, process high volumes, care about data sovereignty, or are building AI agent workflows. Self-hosted n8n on a $5 VPS running dozens of complex workflows is a deal no cloud platform can touch. Just be honest about the skill question: if nobody on your team wants to touch a server, it will sit unused no matter how cheap it is.
The Bottom Line
There is no single best platform, but there is a clear answer per situation. Zapier wins on breadth and ease; Make wins on value and visual power; n8n wins for technical users and AI agent workflows. Most non-technical teams should start with Zapier or Make, while anyone technical should seriously consider n8n in 2026.
My advice: map one real workflow you run today, estimate its monthly runs and steps, and do the billing-unit math before you commit. The cheapest logo on the pricing page is rarely the cheapest bill at your usage level. New to automation? Start with our guide to building your first AI automation without code.