n8n vs Zapier vs Make: Which Automation Tool Should You Actually Use?

Key takeaways

• Zapier is the easiest start: the biggest integration library (9,000+ apps), but per-task pricing gets expensive at volume.
• Make offers the best value for most UK SMBs: more logic per credit than Zapier's task model, at a cheaper entry price.
• n8n is free if you can self-host it: unlimited executions on the Community Edition, or cloud plans from €24 a month (about £20) otherwise.
• There's no universal winner: the right tool depends on team skill and volume, not brand loyalty.
• Free self-hosting has a real cost: server hosting and maintenance time belong in n8n's true price.

If you're weighing up n8n vs Zapier vs Make, there's no single best option: each is built for a different kind of team. Zapier is fully-managed, easiest to start, with the widest integration library, priced per task. Make is a visual builder billed in credits, usually cheaper than Zapier for the same workload. n8n is fair-code and self-hostable for free, or paid cloud, built for technical users who want full control over their data.

This automation tool comparison breaks down what each platform actually costs in 2026 and which to pick for your situation. If you're newer to the wider topic, how UK SMBs are using automation generally is worth reading first.

n8n vs Zapier vs Make: What's the Real Difference?

Strip away the marketing and each platform is making a different bet on who's using it. Zapier bets on breadth: connect almost anything in minutes without code, and pay by the task. Make bets on power per pound: a visual canvas where routing and branching cost little or nothing in credits, where the same logic would use several Zapier tasks. n8n bets on ownership: fair-code licensing, a free self-hosted option with no execution cap, and node-level control you can extend with custom code. Searches for make vs zapier and n8n vs make mean the same question, and the answer sits in workflow automation pricing as much as features. See our broader roundup of workflow automation tools.

n8n vs Zapier: The Short Answer

If you are only choosing between n8n and Zapier, the deciding question is how you are billed for a long workflow. Zapier charges tasks for the steps inside each run, so a trigger plus five actions running 1,000 times a month uses several thousand tasks. n8n counts one execution per complete run, however many steps it has, so the same workflow uses 1,000 executions. For short two-step automations the cost gap is small and Zapier's easier setup usually wins. For long, branching or high-volume workflows, n8n is far cheaper, and free if you self-host it.

Zapier Pricing and Where It Fits

Zapier's pricing is task-based: steps in your Zaps use tasks from a monthly allowance. AI steps, code steps, Zapier MCP and the Zapier SDK now all draw from the same shared task pool, and Zapier says the rate per action varies with the AI model tier, code runtime and connector type. That's simple to understand and brutal to budget once a workflow grows past a couple of steps.

• Free: $0/month, 100 tasks.
• Professional: from $19.99/month billed annually (about £15), starting at 750 tasks, scaling up as task volume grows; paying monthly costs more.
• Team: from $69/month billed annually (about £52), starting at 2,000 tasks, adding shared Zaps and app connections, SAML SSO, and 25 users.
• Enterprise: custom pricing, for larger deployments with advanced admin and security controls.

No platform here beats Zapier on integration library size (9,000+ apps) or speed to a first working automation, and that's not a small thing. But a five-step workflow burns at least five tasks every run, so cost climbs fast once event volume goes up, faster than on Make or n8n. Prices re-checked on 18 October 2026; current tiers are on Zapier's pricing page. If you hit your limit, Zapier switches you to pay-as-you-go unless you turn that off.

Make Pricing and Where It Fits

Make now bills in credits rather than operations. According to Make's help centre, most modules use one credit per operation, while AI modules and some advanced features use a variable number of credits based on tokens, file size, pages or run time. Routers and error-handler modules do not use credits. It's a less intuitive unit than Zapier's task count at first glance, but it buys more: a Make scenario can filter, branch and loop in ways that would need several separate Zapier steps.

• Free: $0/month, 1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios.
• Core: from $9/month billed annually (about £7), 10,000 credits, unlimited active scenarios.
• Pro: from $16/month billed annually (about £12), 10,000 credits, priority execution and custom variables.
• Teams: from $29/month billed annually (about £22), 10,000 credits, team roles and shared templates.
• Enterprise: custom pricing.

Make's credit-based pricing usually undercuts Zapier's for a similarly complex workflow, and the canvas makes multi-branch logic easier to build. What you lose is the intuitive part: a credit isn't as easy to picture as one task equals one action, and AI modules make it variable, so budgeting takes a bit more thought upfront. The paid tier prices above are Make's published figures from 5 August 2026; check Make's pricing page for current tiers.

n8n Pricing and Where It Fits

n8n is the outlier of the three: it's fair-code, source-available, and genuinely free to self-host with unlimited executions, which neither of the other two offer. That's the headline. The honest version needs a second sentence: free software still needs somewhere to run.

• Community Edition (self-hosted): free under n8n's fair-code Sustainable Use License, unlimited workflow executions, no per-task or per-credit cost. You provide and maintain the server.
• Cloud Starter: €24/month (about £20), or €20/month billed annually (about £17), 2,500 executions.
• Cloud Pro: from €60/month (about £51), or from €50/month billed annually (about £42), 10,000 executions, with a 50,000 tier.
• Business (now self-hosted only): €800/month (about £675), or €667/month billed annually (about £563), 40,000 executions, plus SSO, environments and Git-based version control.
• Enterprise: custom pricing, self-hosted or cloud.

Real ownership is the payoff: no execution ceiling self-hosted, and full control over where your data sits. n8n is the default zapier alternative for technical teams who'd rather self-host than pay per task. Just don't call it free. You're trading licence cost for server hosting and your own maintenance time. Prices re-checked on n8n's pricing page on 18 October 2026; our n8n pricing guide breaks down every plan in GBP and what self-hosting really costs.

n8n vs Zapier vs Make: Full Comparison Table

Put side by side, the trade-offs are clearer than any single vendor's pricing page makes them look.

None of the three wins every row, which is exactly why n8n vs Zapier vs Make doesn't have one right answer independent of who's asking.

Choose Zapier If / Choose Make If / Choose n8n If

Google's own AI Overview answers this comparison with almost exactly this structure, and it's the right one: match the tool to the job, not the other way round.

A Decision Framework by Use Case

• Solo founder automating admin work: start on Zapier's or Make's free tier. You don't have the volume to justify n8n's setup overhead yet.
• Marketing team building multi-step campaigns: Make usually fits better. Campaign workflows branch and filter more than a simple two-app Zap, and its pricing handles that more cheaply.
• Agency or dev-led team running client automations at volume: self-hosted n8n. Once you're running dozens of client workflows, like accounts payable automation or lead routing, execution-based pricing beats paying per task across every client.
• Regulated business needing data residency control: self-hosted n8n, for the same reason: your data stays on infrastructure you control.

If you don't recognise your business in any of these four, that's normal: most teams sit somewhere between two, and the honest move is to pilot the cheapest option first and upgrade only once you've hit its ceiling.

How Aristral Uses All Three

We don't run one automation platform across every client, and we're wary of anyone who claims to. Which tool we build on depends on the client's existing stack, their appetite for maintaining a self-hosted system, and how many workflows they're running. A lean ops team gets a Zapier or Make build they can maintain themselves. A client running high-volume automations, or one with data-residency requirements, gets a self-hosted n8n build, sometimes alongside our Make integration page for the rest of their stack. That's the decision framework above, applied to a real business. If you want it built for you, see our AI automation agency service.

Frequently asked questions

Is Zapier better than n8n?

Not universally, no. Zapier is faster to set up and has the wider integration library, which makes it better for non-technical teams running straightforward workflows. n8n is better for technical teams that want full control, self-hosting, or need to run high volumes of executions without Zapier's per-task costs stacking up.

Can Zapier replace n8n?

For most non-technical use cases, yes: Zapier covers the same trigger-and-action logic n8n does, with a larger integration library and no server to maintain. It can't replace n8n's self-hosting, data-residency control, or the deeper custom-code flexibility that technical teams build workflows around, though.

Which is better, n8n or Make.com or Zapier?

None is universally better: Zapier wins on integration breadth and ease of setup, Make wins on automation logic per pound for moderately complex workflows, and n8n wins on cost at high volume and on data control if you can self-host it. The right one depends on your team and workload.

Is anything better than n8n?

For non-technical teams, Zapier and Make are usually easier to use than n8n, since neither needs server maintenance. For high-volume, self-hosted, or highly customised workflows built by a technical team, n8n's fair-code model and execution-based pricing are hard to beat on cost and control.

Is n8n really free?

The Community Edition genuinely is: free, source-available under n8n's fair-code licence, unlimited executions, no vendor lock-in. But free only covers the software licence. You still pay for server hosting, and you, or someone on your team, owns uptime, security updates, and maintenance, which is a real cost most comparisons leave out.

Can I switch from Zapier to Make or n8n later without starting over?

You'll rebuild the workflows rather than migrate them directly, since none of the three import another's format natively. The logic transfers easily, triggers, actions and conditions map across all three, but budget rebuild time, not just a settings export, when planning a future switch.

Whichever platform fits your team today, the underlying trigger-action-condition logic carries across all three, so picking one now isn't a permanent bet. For real-world examples of these builds, see real AI agent examples, or talk to us about your stack for a second opinion before you commit budget.