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Raizan
Raizan

Posted on • Originally published at chasebot.online

Windmill vs n8n vs Make workflow pricing 2026

#automation #devops #selfhosted #apiorchestration

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Table of Contents

The 2026 Pricing Landscape

I've been building and deploying workflow automation platforms for three years now, and I can tell you with confidence: pricing changed significantly in 2025 and continues to shift into 2026. When you're choosing between Windmill, n8n, and Make, you're not just picking a tool—you're betting on a pricing model that could swing your budget by 40–60% annually.

Let me walk you through exactly what each platform costs in 2026, how they calculate fees, and crucially, where the hidden charges lurk.

The bigger picture? If you're running complex API-heavy workflows, understanding how these platforms tier their usage can be the difference between a $500/month bill and a $5,000 one. That's why when I'm evaluating platforms, I also look at adjacent solutions like Airflow vs n8n vs Temporal for API workflows to understand the full competitive landscape.

Windmill: Open-Source Simplicity

Windmill is the dark horse here. It's genuinely open-source, which immediately changes the entire pricing equation.

Self-Hosted (No Monthly Cost)

If you run Windmill self-hosted on your own infrastructure—say, a Contabo VPS with 4GB RAM for $3.99/month—your actual software cost is zero. You only pay for compute.

Here's a realistic self-hosted setup on Contabo:

version: '3.8'

services:
  windmill:
    image: ghcr.io/windmill-labs/windmill:latest
    ports:
      - "80:8000"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://windmill:windmill@postgres:5432/windmill
      - MODE=worker
      - WORKER_THREADS=4
      - RUST_LOG=info
      - NUM_WORKERS=3
      - DENO_PATH=/denots
    volumes:
      - ./worker_logs:/var/lib/windmill/logs
    depends_on:
      - postgres
    restart: always

  postgres:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=windmill
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=windmill
      - POSTGRES_DB=windmill
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: always

  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
      - ./ssl:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro
    depends_on:
      - windmill
    restart: always

volumes:
  postgres_data:

networks:
  default:
    driver: bridge
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Deploy this with Docker Compose, and you've got a fully functional Windmill instance. Running costs: roughly $4/month for the VPS.

Windmill Cloud (Managed)

If you prefer not to manage infrastructure, Windmill Cloud starts at $0 free tier with 10,000 executions/month, then $25/month for their Pro tier (100,000 executions/month), climbing to $200/month for Enterprise.

Key advantage: Windmill doesn't charge per "automation" or "task"—only execution count. If you have 100 idle workflows, they cost nothing. That's fundamentally different from Make's model.

n8n: Enterprise-Grade Flexibility

n8n Cloud is where things get interesting for mid-market and enterprise deployments.

n8n Cloud Pricing (2026)

  • Free: 100 executions/month (basically a sandbox)
  • Pro: $20/month (10,000 executions/month per user, 2 users)
  • Business: $100/month (500,000 executions/month per user, unlimited users)
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing (dedicated support, SSO, webhook queues)

But here's what matters: if you're running 2 million executions/month, you're looking at $240/month (Business tier) or more if you add team members.

Self-Hosted n8n (My Preference)

I typically recommend self-hosting n8n for serious automation work. Here's a Docker Compose setup on a Hetzner VPS (CPX11, €5.83/month with unlimited traffic):

version: '3.8'

services:
  n8n:
    image: n8nio/n8n:latest
    ports:
      - "80:5678"
    environment:
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - WEBHOOK_URL=https://yourdomain.com
      - GENERIC_FUNCTION_ALLOW_BUILTIN=true
      - N8N_LOG_LEVEL=info
      - DB_TYPE=postgresdb
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_HOST=postgres
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PORT=5432
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_DATABASE=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_USER=n8n
      - DB_POSTGRESDB_PASSWORD=securepassword123
      - N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY=generated_encryption_key_here
      - EXECUTIONS_TIMEOUT=600
      - EXECUTIONS_TIMEOUT_MAX=3600
      - N8N_METRICS=true
      - QUEUE_TYPE=redis
      - QUEUE_BULL_REDIS_HOST=redis
      - QUEUE_BULL_REDIS_PORT=6379
    volumes:
      - n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n
    depends_on:
      - postgres
      - redis
    restart: always
    networks:
      - n8n_network

  postgres:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=n8n
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=securepassword123
      - POSTGRES_DB=n8n
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: always
    networks:
      - n8n_network

  redis:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: always
    networks:
      - n8n_network

  nginx:
    image: nginx:alpine
    ports:
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
      - ./ssl_certs:/etc/nginx/ssl:ro
    depends_on:
      - n8n
    restart: always
    networks:
      - n8n_network

volumes:
  n8n_data:
  postgres_data:

networks:
  n8n_network:
    driver: bridge
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This runs on Hetzner with no monthly software license. Total cost: €5.83/month for the server.

n8n Enterprise

If you need enterprise features (dedicated instance, priority support, custom nodes), n8n offers white-label solutions starting around $500/month for serious deployments.

💡 Fast-Track Your Project: Don't want to configure this yourself? I build custom n8n pipelines and bots. Message me with code SYS3-DEVTO.

Make: The No-Code Premium Play

Make (formerly Integromat) is the platform for teams that don't want to think about infrastructure at all. But it costs.

Make Pricing Structure (2026)

Make charges per "operation"—each step in your workflow counts as one operation.

  • Free: 1,000 operations/month
  • Core: $9.99/month (10,000 operations)
  • Pro: $19/month (100,000 operations)
  • Business: $55/month (300,000 operations)
  • Enterprise: $490+/month (1 million operations)

Here's the catch: One workflow that loops through 1,000 items and performs 5 actions per item = 5,000 operations in one execution. Scale that to daily runs, and you're burning through your quota fast.

Make Real-World Example

Let's say you're syncing 50,000 CRM contacts weekly to a database, processing each contact through 3 operations:

50,000 contacts × 3 operations × 4 syncs/month = 600,000 operations/month

Cost: Pro tier ($19/month) insufficient → Business tier ($55/month)
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If that contact base grows to 200,000, you're looking at 2.4 million operations/month, pushing you into Enterprise territory at $490+/month.

This is where platforms like Temporal vs Zapier vs n8n: Enterprise Workflow Costs matter—because Make's operation counting becomes punishing at scale.

Head-to-Head Cost Breakdown

Let me give you concrete scenarios for a business running different workload patterns:

Scenario 1: Light Automation (10,000 executions/month)

Platform Monthly Cost Notes
Windmill Cloud $25 Pro tier covers this easily
n8n Cloud $20 Pro tier, single user
Make $9.99 Core tier if lean workflows
n8n Self-Hosted $5.83 (Hetzner) Lowest total cost
Windmill Self-Hosted $3.99 (Contabo) True minimum cost

Winner: Windmill Self-Hosted

Scenario 2: Medium Automation (500,000 executions/month)

Platform Monthly Cost Notes
Windmill Cloud $200 Enterprise tier
n8n Cloud $100 Business tier
Make $55 Business tier, but depends on operation count
n8n Self-Hosted $5.83 + resource scaling Likely $15-25 with heavier compute
Windmill Self-Hosted $10-15 Scales efficiently with execution count

Winner: n8n Self-Hosted or Windmill Self-Hosted

Scenario 3: High-Volume (2+ million executions/month)

Platform Monthly Cost Notes
Windmill Cloud $500+ Custom Enterprise plan
n8n Cloud $240+ Business tier for multiple team members
Make $490+ Enterprise tier minimum, operations spike
n8n Self-Hosted $50-100 Dedicated server, database optimization
Windmill Self-Hosted $30-60 Most cost-effective at scale

Winner: Windmill Self-Hosted

Which Platform Wins for Your Use Case

Choose Windmill If:

  • You're cost-conscious and willing to manage infrastructure
  • You run millions of simple executions (loops, data transforms)
  • You want true open

Originally published on Automation Insider.

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