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This is an editorial research comparison based on official documentation, pricing pages and the sources listed below — how we review. Prices and plans change often; confirm on the vendor’s site.
Zapier, Make and n8n all connect apps and run workflows without a full backend. In 2026 all three also sell themselves as places to build AI agents. They differ in who they are built for and, above all, in how they charge. Zapier bills tasks, Make bills credits and n8n bills executions. The same five-step workflow can cost one unit on one platform and five on another. n8n also lets you run the whole product on your own server, under a licence that is not open source.
This comparison is for developers, technical founders and ops-minded engineers choosing an automation platform for internal tools, lead routing, meeting follow-ups or AI agents. It belongs to our broader guide to AI productivity tools for technical teams.
This is an editorial research article. It is based on each vendor’s pricing page, help center, documentation and licence text. We did not run our own workflows or load tests, so we make no claims about speed or reliability.
Quick verdict
In our assessment, Zapier is the easiest of the three to hand to colleagues when non-developers need to build automations across a very wide catalogue of apps, but its per-task pricing climbs quickly with volume. Make offers a visual scenario builder with a low entry price (Core is $9 a month billed annually for 10,000 credits, according to Make) and solid AI tooling. It suits teams that think in branching flows and can keep the module count per run in check. n8n is the developer’s option. It bills per full workflow run, supports code steps and Git-based environments, and is the only one of the three you can self-host for free, provided your use fits its Sustainable Use License.
At a glance
| Dimension | Zapier | Make | n8n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Tasks: each successful action step | Credits: most module actions cost 1 credit | Executions: one full workflow run, any number of steps |
| Free tier | 100 tasks/month, two-step Zaps, 15-minute polling | 1,000 credits/month | No free cloud plan (free trial); free self-hosted Community Edition |
| Entry paid price (annual billing) | Pro from $19.99/month for 750 tasks | Core $9/month for 10,000 credits | Starter €20/month for 2,500 executions |
| AI building blocks | Copilot, AI by Zapier steps, Agents, Chatbots, MCP, AI fields in Tables | Maia by Make, Make AI Agents (open beta), AI Toolkit, AI Content Extractor, MCP server | AI Agent node, AI steps, MCP server trigger and client, Assistant, evaluations |
| Self-hosting | No | No (cloud on AWS, with US and EU data zones; on-premises agents on Enterprise) | Yes: Community Edition free; Business plan is self-hosted only |
| Code steps | Code by Zapier | Custom functions on Enterprise | JavaScript and Python steps on all plans |
| Team features | Team plan: 25 users, shared Zaps, SAML SSO | Teams plan; Enterprise for advanced controls | Unlimited users on all plans; SSO/LDAP on Business |
Pricing units: tasks vs credits vs executions
This is the dimension that decides your bill, and the three units are not directly comparable.
Zapier tasks. According to Zapier’s help center, “A task is any successful action that runs in Zapier.” Triggers, polling, filters, paths, and built-in tools such as Formatter, Delay, Looping, Tables and Forms do not count. Failed steps do not count either. Some steps cost more. A Zapier MCP tool call uses 2 tasks, Code by Zapier uses extra tasks for extended runtime, and AI by Zapier steps are priced by model tier on a separate rate card. All usage draws from one account-wide pool, and self-serve allowances reset monthly even on annual plans. A trigger plus four actions therefore costs four tasks per run.
Make credits. Make’s pricing FAQ says “credits are the billing unit in Make”. Its help center adds that credits replaced operations as the name of the billing unit without changing plan prices. Most module actions cost 1 credit. Routers and error-handler modules cost nothing. Some AI Content Extractor modules cost 2 or 10. Make’s own AI Provider charges credits based on tokens, at a rate that varies by model. If you bring your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini key (paid plans), each module run costs 1 credit and you pay the provider for tokens. Credits expire at the end of the term.
n8n executions. n8n’s pricing is “based on monthly workflow executions, regardless of complexity”. One execution is one complete workflow run, whether it has two steps or two hundred. In our assessment, for long, multi-step workflows this is the easiest of the three units to predict. For very simple, high-frequency workflows, the advantage shrinks.
A rough worked example makes the difference concrete. Say a workflow with one trigger and four actions runs 2,000 times a month. That is about 8,000 Zapier tasks, about 10,000 Make credits (if every module counts, including the trigger module), and 2,000 n8n executions. Treat this as an illustration of the units, not a quote: real usage depends on filters, errors, loops and AI steps.
Prices verified against each vendor’s official pricing page (listed under Sources). Plans, promotions and renewal prices change often — confirm on the vendor’s page before you buy.
AI features
Zapier sells a wide AI line-up in separate pieces. Copilot builds Zaps from a description (with a daily message limit on Free). AI by Zapier steps and AI fields in Tables come with Pro. Zapier MCP exposes actions across its app catalogue to AI assistants, and Canvas maps processes. Zapier Agents and Chatbots are separate add-on products with their own units. Agents use “activities” rather than tasks: 400 a month on Free and 1,500 on Pro, with paid Agent add-ons starting at about $33.33 a month billed annually. Each trigger, knowledge lookup, action, web search or browse counts as one activity.
Make offers most of its AI features on every plan, including Free. Make AI Agents (open beta) run on Make’s AI Provider on all plans, or on your own LLM key on paid plans. Maia by Make, which builds scenarios and agents from conversation, is a 30-day trial on Free and spends credits on paid plans. The list also includes an AI Toolkit, an AI Content Extractor for files, AI Web Search and an MCP server, so external assistants can trigger your scenarios. The catch is the credit cost of AI Provider tokens, which Make says may change.
n8n treats AI as a set of workflow nodes. These are an AI Agent node, AI steps, an MCP Server Trigger and MCP Client, human approval for tool calls, hosted chat, and evaluations to test agent output. Its Assistant, which builds and edits workflows, is in preview. It uses monthly credits on Cloud (1,600 on Starter, 4,000 or 9,600 on Pro), while self-hosted users bring their own API key. Starter also offers “AI models without API keys”. For developers, n8n’s support for code steps, LangSmith tracing (self-hosted) and Git-based environments (Business and Enterprise) make agent workflows easier to test and version. In our assessment, these matter more than any single AI feature. Whichever platform you choose, the model behind your agent matters too. Our comparison of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini covers the main assistants.
Self-hosting and n8n’s licence
Zapier and Make are cloud-only. Make says its infrastructure runs on Amazon AWS, offers US and EU data zones, and includes on-premises agents on Enterprise for securely accessing local networks. n8n is different. You can run it yourself, and two of its plans are built around that.
- Community Edition: free, self-hosted, from GitHub. n8n’s docs say it “includes almost the complete feature set”. It lacks SSO (SAML, LDAP), projects, sharing of workflows and credentials, environments, Git version control, external secrets, log streaming and multi-main mode. Registering with an email unlocks folders, debug-in-editor and custom execution data for free.
- Business: a paid self-hosted plan (a cloud version is on a waitlist) at €667 a month billed annually, with 40,000 executions, SSO, environments, queue mode and Git version control.
- Enterprise: hosted by n8n or self-hosted, with custom pricing.
The licence matters. n8n’s main repository is published under the Sustainable Use License, which n8n created in 2022 and describes as “fair-code”. It is source-available, not an OSI-approved open-source licence. n8n’s own FAQ answers the question “Why don’t you use an open source license?” The licence lets you use and modify n8n “only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use”. You may distribute it only “free of charge for non-commercial purposes”. Files with “.ee” in their name fall under a separate n8n Enterprise License. In practice, running n8n to automate your own company’s work is fine. Embedding it in a product where your customers connect their own accounts and build workflows needs a commercial agreement with n8n. If you self-host, you also take on servers, upgrades, backups and security. Our comparison of DigitalOcean, Vultr and Hetzner covers the kind of VPS many teams use for a self-hosted n8n instance.
Apps, ecosystem and who builds the workflows
Zapier’s ecosystem is its moat. Its pricing reference describes it as connecting “9,000+ apps”, and its builder is aimed at people who do not write code. Make says it has 3,000+ app integrations and a visual canvas with routers, filters and iterators, a good fit for ops staff who think in diagrams. n8n says every plan includes every integration. Its strength for developers is the HTTP Request node, webhooks, JavaScript and Python code steps, a CLI and an API, so a missing integration is rarely a blocker. If your automations mostly feed a CRM, our roundup of CRMs for startups shows which of those tools have native connectors. A common example for technical teams is sending meeting summaries to Slack or a CRM. The notetakers in our Otter vs Fireflies vs Fathom comparison connect to these platforms in different ways. Calendar tools such as those in our Motion vs Reclaim comparison also expose APIs or webhooks that these platforms can call.
Pricing compared (as of October 2026)
Zapier and Make list prices in US dollars. n8n lists prices in euros only. Prices exclude any applicable tax or VAT. All three scale with volume, so the table shows each plan’s entry tier.
| Plan | Billed annually (per month) | Billed monthly | Included usage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier Free | $0 | $0 | 100 tasks; two-step Zaps |
| Zapier Pro | $19.99 | $29.99 | 750 tasks (2,000 tasks: $49 / $73.50; 10,000 tasks: $129 / $193.50) |
| Zapier Team | $69 | $103.50 | 2,000 tasks; 25 users (10,000 tasks: $169 / $253.50) |
| Make Free | $0 | $0 | 1,000 credits |
| Make Core | $9 | Higher (amount not verified) | 10,000 credits |
| Make Pro and Teams | Not verified (see caveats) | Not verified | Credit tiers starting at 10,000 |
| n8n Starter (cloud) | €20 (€240/year) | €24 | 2,500 executions |
| n8n Pro (cloud) | €50 (€600/year) | €60 | 10,000 executions (50,000 tier: €1,450/year or €145 monthly) |
| n8n Business (self-hosted) | €667 (€8,000/year) | €800 | 40,000 executions |
| n8n Community (self-hosted) | Free | Free | No execution limit from n8n; your own infrastructure costs |
Caveats: Zapier says annual billing is 33% off monthly. It bills in 19 currencies converted from USD at payment time, so non-USD invoices can vary. Pay-per-task overage, when enabled, costs 1.25 times the base rate on annual plans and 2.5 times on monthly plans, and usage pauses at 3 times your subscription. Make’s pricing page loads plan prices dynamically, and on October 17, 2026 we could confirm only the Core price (from Make’s own Make vs. Zapier article), so check Pro and Teams prices on the live page. Make sells extra credits in bundles of 1,000 or 10,000 at your plan’s rate. n8n’s Business overage is €4,000 per extra bucket of 300,000 executions, and workflows keep running when you exceed quota. All three have custom Enterprise pricing. Startup discounts exist: n8n and Make each advertise a Start-up Plan for companies with fewer than 20 employees. Zapier pricing · Make pricing · n8n pricing
Which should you choose?
- Zapier, if many non-technical colleagues will build automations, you need a very large app catalogue (9,000+ apps by Zapier’s count), and your volumes are modest or the time saved justifies the price. Use the task counting rules (triggers and built-in tools are free) to keep costs down. Visit Zapier
- Make, if you want a visual builder with branching logic, AI agents available on every plan and a low entry price. Budget carefully for AI Provider token usage and for scenarios with many modules. Visit Make
- n8n, if developers own the automations, workflows are long or AI-heavy, and you want code steps, Git-based environments or the option to self-host. Read the Sustainable Use License first if you might ever offer automations to your own customers. Visit n8n
FAQ
Is n8n open source?
Not in the OSI sense. n8n’s code is public on GitHub under its Sustainable Use License, which n8n calls “fair-code”. It allows free use for internal business, personal and non-commercial purposes but restricts commercial redistribution. Files marked “.ee” need a paid Enterprise licence.
Can I self-host n8n for my company for free?
Yes, for internal business use, with the Community Edition. You give up features such as SSO, projects, credential sharing and Git version control, which require the paid Business or Enterprise plans. Hosting, updates and security become your responsibility.
Do Zapier Agents use my task allowance?
No. Zapier says Agents use a separate “activities” quota (400 a month on Free, 1,500 on Pro), and Agent add-ons are billed separately from your task plan. Zapier MCP tool calls, however, do draw from your task pool at 2 tasks per successful call.
Sources
- Zapier pricing
- Zapier pricing reference (machine-readable, updated 2026-10-17)
- Zapier Help: How is task usage measured?
- Make pricing
- Make Help Center: Credits
- Make blog: Make vs. Zapier (April 2026)
- Make Help Center: Maia by Make pricing
- Make Help Center: Introduction to AI agents
- Make Help Center: AI providers and data zones
- n8n pricing
- n8n Docs: Community license and Sustainable Use License FAQ
- n8n GitHub repository: LICENSE.md
- n8n Docs: Compare editions (Community Edition features)
