Comparison
Make vs n8n vs Zapier: which automation platform fits your business?
By Shreekant Pratap Singh, Founder, Technosys IT Management · Updated · 7 min read
Short answer
Choose Zapier for simple, fast automations across the widest range of apps. Choose Make for visual, multi-step workflows at a lower cost per step. Choose n8n when you need self-hosting, complex logic or high volumes, because it bills per workflow execution rather than per step.
Key takeaways
- The biggest cost difference is the billing unit: Zapier counts tasks, Make counts credits, n8n counts whole workflow executions.
- n8n is the only one of the three you can self-host, which matters for regulated data.
- Zapier connects the most apps; Make and n8n reward teams that can design more complex flows.
- Most businesses should pick the platform that fits their data and volume, not the one with the longest app list.
How the three platforms bill
The billing unit decides what a busy workflow costs. A ten-step workflow that runs a thousand times a month uses very different amounts of each platform’s allowance.
| Zapier | Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Tasks (each successful action step) | Credits (most actions use 1) | Workflow executions (whole run, any length) |
| Free plan | 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps | 1,000 credits a month | Self-hosted version on GitHub |
| Entry paid plan | Pro from $19.99/mo billed annually (750 tasks) | Core plan (see Make pricing page) | Starter from €20/mo billed annually (2,500 executions) |
| Self-hosting | No | No | Yes |
| App catalogue | 9,000+ apps claimed | Large catalogue plus HTTP modules | Every integration on all plans, plus HTTP and code nodes |
When Zapier is the right choice
Zapier suits short, linear automations owned by non-technical teams: a form submission that creates a CRM contact and posts to Slack. It has the widest app coverage and the gentlest learning curve.
It gets expensive when workflows grow long or run often, because every successful action step counts as a task. Extra tasks beyond the plan are billed at a premium on monthly plans.
When Make is the right choice
Make suits multi-step workflows with branching, loops and data transformation, built on a visual canvas. Routers and error handlers do not consume credits, which keeps complex scenarios affordable.
Make is cloud-only. For most marketing, sales and operations workflows that is fine; for regulated data it may not be.
When n8n is the right choice
n8n suits high-volume or complex workflows and teams that need control over where data lives. Because it bills per execution, a long workflow costs the same as a short one.
Self-hosting puts the workflows and data on your own infrastructure. That is often the deciding factor in healthcare, finance and public-sector work, and it needs someone to maintain the server.
How Technosys chooses for a client
We pick per process during the automation audit, based on three questions: where the data is allowed to live, how many runs a month the workflow will make, and who will own it after launch.
A common pattern is Make or Zapier for team-owned marketing automations and n8n for core operations, with OpenAI or Claude handling the judgement steps in either.
Sources
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