For the same workflow, Zapier is usually the most expensive of the three, Make is far cheaper per step, and n8n is cheapest at volume because it bills a whole workflow run as one execution, or nothing at all when you host it yourself. A five-step workflow that runs 1,000 times a day costs $769 a month on Zapier's yearly Professional plan, $99 on Make's yearly Core plan and €120 on n8n Cloud Pro, while self-hosted n8n Community Edition has no licence fee at all. The trade is your time: updates, backups and security become your job.
Key facts, from the vendors' own pricing pages on 9 October 2026:
- Zapier counts a task for every successful action step; triggers are free.
- Make counts a credit for every module that runs, including the trigger, and polling triggers use a credit on every check.
- n8n counts one execution per workflow run, "no matter how many steps".
- Self-hosted n8n Community Edition is free for your own internal use under n8n's Sustainable Use License.
How each tool counts what you pay for
The prices only make sense once you see what each company is selling. They use three different units:
| Zapier | Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Task | Credit (called operations until August 2025) | Execution |
| What counts | Each successful action step | Each module that runs, trigger included | One full workflow run |
| Free inside the unit | Triggers, filters, paths, failed steps | Routers and error handlers | Every step of the run |
| Polling | Checks are free | Every check uses a credit, even if nothing is new | Not billed |
| AI steps | 1, 3 or 5 tasks by model tier since 15 June 2026 | Make's own AI features can use more than one credit | An agent turn counts as one execution |
| Apps advertised | 9,000+ | 3,500+ | 500+ built-in, plus any HTTP API |
Sources: Zapier task usage, Make credits, n8n pricing.
The difference grows with the number of steps. A workflow with one trigger and four actions uses 4 Zapier tasks, 5 Make credits and 1 n8n execution per run. Add a fifth action and it becomes 5, 6 and still 1.
A real workflow priced three ways
Take a common business automation: a web form arrives by webhook, the lead is enriched, saved to a CRM, added to a spreadsheet and announced in a team chat. That is one trigger and four actions, running 1,000 times a day, or 30,000 runs in a 30-day month.
| Tool | Units per month | Plan that fits | Per month, billed yearly | Per month, billed monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier Professional | 120,000 tasks | 200K tier | $769 | $1,149 |
| Zapier Team | 120,000 tasks | 200K tier | $999 | $1,499 |
| Make Core | 150,000 credits | 150k tier | $99 | $116.47 |
| n8n Cloud Pro | 30,000 executions | 50k tier | €120 | €144 |
| n8n self-hosted Community | 30,000 executions | No limit | No licence fee | Server and your time |
Two details move the numbers. Make lands exactly on its 150k tier only in a 30-day month: a 31-day month needs 155,000 credits, and a trigger that polls every minute adds about 43,200 empty checks, which pushes the scenario to the 300k tier at $182.16 a month on yearly Core. On Zapier, adding one AI step at the Advanced tier costs 3 tasks per run, another 90,000 tasks a month, which means the 300K tier at $1,069. On n8n both changes cost nothing extra: still one execution per run.
What 10,000, 100,000 and 1 million cost
For a quick comparison at round volumes, here are the official list prices per month. Remember that the units differ: for a workflow with N actions, one n8n execution equals N Zapier tasks or N + 1 Make credits.
| Volume | Zapier Professional (yearly / monthly) | Make (yearly / monthly) | n8n |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $129 / $193.50 | Core $9 / $10.59 | Cloud Pro €50 / €60 |
| About 100,000 | $489 / $733.50 | Core 150k $99 / $116.47 (no 100k tier) | Cloud stops at 50k; self-hosted Community has no fee |
| 1,000,000 | $2,199 / $3,299 | Pro $748.73 / $880.86 (Core stops at 300k) | Self-hosted Community has no fee; Business licence is custom above 500k |
Zapier sells up to 2 million tasks a month before "contact sales". Make continues to 8 million credits. n8n Cloud tops out at Pro 50k, then Enterprise on request; its self-hosted Business licence, for teams that need SSO, Git or environments, starts at €667 a month for 40,000 executions. If you go over on Zapier, extra tasks are billed automatically up to three times your plan, at a higher rate than the plan itself.
When each tool is the right choice
- Choose Zapier when the people building automations are not technical, the volume is low, and you need one of the thousands of apps the others do not cover. You pay for convenience and breadth, and at a few thousand tasks a month that can be money well spent.
- Choose Make when workflows have many steps but run at moderate volume. Its visual builder handles branching and data mapping well, and its per-credit prices are a fraction of Zapier's. Watch polling triggers and long loops, which multiply credits.
- Choose n8n Cloud when you want n8n's per-run pricing without running a server, up to 50,000 executions a month.
- Choose self-hosted n8n when volume is high, workflows are long, data has to stay on your own server, or you want to call internal systems that should not be exposed to a third-party cloud.
What self-hosting n8n really involves
The licence fee disappears; the work does not. These are the parts n8n's own documentation asks you to take care of:
- Updates. n8n releases patches almost daily and asks self-hosters to update at least once a month. Version 3.0, scheduled for October 2026, drops
npminstalls and supports self-hosting only with Docker, as the 3.0 changelog explains. - The encryption key. n8n encrypts saved credentials with a key it creates on first start. Lose the key and a restored database cannot decrypt them, so set
N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEYyourself and store it with your backups. - The database. SQLite is the default and fine for trying things out; n8n recommends PostgreSQL for anything running around the clock.
- Backups. A complete backup is the
.n8nfolder plus the database. The built-in export does not include users, history or the key. - Security. Webhooks must be reachable from the internet, so put n8n behind a reverse proxy with HTTPS and turn on two-factor login.
- Support. The free Community Edition has forum support only, and lacks SSO, environments, Git version control and log streaming.
In return, a single n8n instance is not demanding. n8n's own benchmark reached up to 220 workflow executions per second on a machine with 4 GB of memory and PostgreSQL, and its Docker Compose guide asks for at least 4 GB of RAM and 2 vCPUs for the full stack.
Licence: what you may and may not do
n8n's Community Edition uses the Sustainable Use License, not a classic open-source licence. According to n8n's licence FAQ, you may run your own business on it, build automations for clients on your instance as long as they cannot edit the workflows, and charge for building, setup and support. You may not host n8n as a service where your clients build their own workflows, or white-label it. For one company automating its own work on its own server, it is free.
Which server for self-hosted n8n
| Use | RS Computers plan | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A few workflows, SQLite, trying it out | VPS Micro (2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM) | n8n idles at around 100 MB; enough for light daily use |
| Production with PostgreSQL and the full Docker Compose stack | VPS Mini (4 vCPU, 4 GB RAM) | Matches n8n's stated minimum of 4 GB and 2 vCPUs |
| Heavy volume, queue mode with Redis and workers | VDS Small (4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM) or larger | Room for the main instance, workers, Redis and PostgreSQL |
Our step-by-step guide to self-hosting n8n on a VPS covers Docker, PostgreSQL, HTTPS and backups, and the n8n hosting page compares plans and locations. If you would rather have it set up for you, we install n8n on your own server on request, quoted per job.
Frequently asked questions
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
Almost always at volume. n8n bills one execution per workflow run, while Zapier bills every action step as a task. For a four-action workflow running 30,000 times a month, Zapier Professional costs $769 a month on yearly billing, n8n Cloud Pro €120, and self-hosted n8n has no licence fee.
Is n8n free to self-host?
Yes, the Community Edition is free for your own internal business use, personal use and non-commercial use under n8n's Sustainable Use License. You pay only for the server. You may not offer it to others as a service where they build their own workflows.
What is the difference between Make operations and credits?
Make renamed its billing unit from operations to credits on 27 August 2025 at a 1:1 rate, so prices did not change. Each module that runs uses one credit; Make's own AI features can use more.
How much RAM does n8n need?
n8n's documentation puts typical memory use between 320 MB and 2 GB, and asks for at least 4 GB of RAM and 2 vCPUs for its full Docker Compose stack. A 4 GB server with PostgreSQL is a sensible production starting point.
Does Zapier charge for triggers?
No. Zapier's help centre says triggers never use tasks; only successful action steps do. Make, by contrast, charges a credit for the trigger and for every polling check.
The bottom line
If your automations are few and simple, pay for Zapier's convenience or Make's lower prices and spend your time elsewhere. Once a workflow runs thousands of times a day or has many steps, n8n's per-run pricing wins, and self-hosting it removes the licence fee entirely in exchange for an hour or two of upkeep a month. Start on a KVM VPS in Amsterdam, Prishtina or Dublin and move your busiest workflow first.