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n8n vs Make vs Zapier: Choose an Automation Tool for a Small Team

#n8n #make #zapier #workflowautomation

Originally published on EpiFive, where it is kept up to date.

n8n, Make and Zapier all connect apps and automate repetitive work, but they bill differently. Zapier charges per successful action step (a task), Make charges per module run (an operation, which for ordinary apps is one credit), and n8n charges per complete workflow run (an execution). The right choice for a small team depends on how many steps your workflows have, how often they run, and whether anyone is willing to host software.

Who this is for and what you will have at the end

This guide is for owners, office managers and IT staff at small teams choosing a first automation platform, or reconsidering one after a bill grew. It does not require coding skills.

At the end you will have:

  • A clear definition of what each tool bills for.
  • A side-by-side table of plans and limits taken from the vendors' pages.
  • A worked example showing how the same workflow produces different usage numbers in each tool.
  • A short decision guide and a checklist for a one-week trial.

Prices and plan limits change often. The figures below were read from the vendor pages on 2026-10-26 and are labelled as such. Treat them as a snapshot and confirm them before you buy. Make's paid plan prices were not stated on the page that was retrieved, so this article does not quote them.

Prerequisites

  • One real workflow you want to automate, written as a list of steps. For example: "when a web form is submitted, create a CRM contact, send a confirmation email and post a message in a chat channel".
  • A rough estimate of how many times per month that workflow will run.
  • Accounts (free ones are fine) for the tools you want to trial.

What each tool charges for

The unit of billing is the single most important difference, so start there.

Tool Billing unit What counts
Zapier Task Each successful action step. Triggers, filters and paths do not count.
Make Operation, billed as credits Each run of a module. A trigger counts once per check; other modules count once per bundle they process.
n8n Execution One run of the entire workflow, regardless of steps or data volume.

Zapier: tasks

Zapier's help centre says that successful action steps count as tasks, including steps in error handler paths. Trigger steps (including polling checks), Filter and Paths steps, action steps that error or halt, and steps that never run do not count. Formatter, Delay, Looping, Digest and Storage steps are also listed as not using tasks. Code by Zapier uses 1 task per standard run, and AI by Zapier depends on the model tier.

In practice, a Zap with a trigger, a filter and three actions uses three tasks for each run that passes the filter, and none for runs the filter stops.

Make: operations and credits

Make's documentation defines an operation as each time a module runs to process or check data. A trigger module runs once per check regardless of how many bundles it returns. Every other module runs once for each bundle it processes. Bundles produced early in a scenario therefore multiply the operations used by every later module.

For credits, Make's pricing details say most actions use 1 credit, router and error-handler modules use none, and unused credits expire at the end of the term. The Free plan includes 1,000 credits per month. For a deeper walkthrough, see Make.com operations and pricing explained.

n8n: executions

n8n's pricing page defines an execution as a single run of your entire workflow, regardless of how many steps it has or how much data it processes. If you exceed your quota on a cloud plan, workflows keep running, but overage charges may apply unless you upgrade.

Plans and limits compared

The table shows what each vendor's pricing page listed on 2026-10-26.

Zapier Make n8n
Free option Free: 100 tasks per month, two-step Zaps only, 15-minute polling Free: 1,000 credits per month, 1 MB data storage Community Edition: free, self-hosted
Entry paid plan Professional from $19.99 per month on annual billing ($29.99 monthly), 750 tasks tier Core (price not retrieved) Starter at 20 EUR per month, billed annually, 2,500 executions per month
Next tier Team from $69 per month annual, 25 seats, 2,000 tasks tier Pro, Teams (prices not retrieved) Pro at 50 EUR per month, billed annually, 10,000 executions per month
Polling interval 2 minutes on Professional, 1 minute on Team Depends on plan; confirm on the pricing page Not stated on the pricing page
Self-hosting No No Yes (Community, Business and Enterprise)

Notes on the table:

  • Zapier's Professional plan is tiered, from 750 up to 2,000,000 tasks. On annual billing, the page lists 2,000 tasks at $49, 10,000 tasks at $129 and 100,000 tasks at $489. Monthly billing costs more at every tier.
  • n8n's Starter and Pro plans are hosted by n8n and list unlimited active workflows. The Business plan is self-hosted only on the page retrieved.
  • Make states that annual payment is cheaper than monthly and that auto-purchase of extra credits is available on Core, Pro and Teams plans.

A worked usage example

Take a workflow with a trigger and three actions: create a CRM contact, send a confirmation email, post a chat message. Assume 200 submissions a month, no filter, and no AI steps.

Tool Calculation Monthly usage
Zapier 200 runs x 3 actions (the trigger is free) 600 tasks
Make with a polling trigger Checks plus 200 bundles x 3 action modules See below
n8n 200 runs x 1 execution 200 executions

For Make, the trigger cost depends on how it starts. If the trigger polls on a schedule, every check costs one operation whether or not new data exists. Assume a check every 15 minutes: that is 96 checks a day, or 2,880 in a 30-day month. Add 200 x 3 = 600 for the actions and the scenario uses about 3,480 credits, which is more than the Free plan's 1,000. Instant (webhook-based) triggers follow events instead of the clock, so the same scenario would use far fewer operations on the trigger side. Both the schedule and the trigger type matter.

Against the plans above, the Zapier version fits the 750-task Professional tier with some headroom. The n8n version fits easily inside Starter's 2,500 executions. The Make version needs a paid plan if it polls, and the credit tier you need depends on prices you should read on the day you buy.

The pattern generalises:

  • Short workflows that run rarely are cheap everywhere.
  • Long workflows favour n8n, because extra steps do not add executions.
  • Workflows that process many items per run favour n8n and penalise Make, where each item runs through each later module.
  • Quiet polling workflows are cheap on Zapier, because polling checks are not tasks, and costlier on Make, where each check is an operation.

Self-hosting n8n: what it involves

n8n's Community Edition is free and runs without a licence key. According to n8n's documentation it includes almost the complete feature set, including logging and queue mode. These features are not available in Community: custom variables, environments, external secrets, external storage for binary data, log streaming, multi-main mode, projects, SSO (SAML and LDAP), sharing of workflows and credentials, and Git version control. Registering your email gives you a free licence key that unlocks folders, debug in editor and custom execution data.

The licence is the Sustainable Use License. Its text on GitHub says you may use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes, or for non-commercial or personal use, and that distribution is allowed only free of charge for non-commercial purposes. Files with .ee. in the name need a separate n8n Enterprise License. If you plan to resell n8n or embed it in a product, read the full licence first.

Self-hosting means you take on the work the hosted tools do for you:

  • A server or container host, and Docker installed.
  • Backups of the data volume that holds your workflows and credentials.
  • Updates, monitoring and TLS if the instance is reachable from the internet.

n8n's Docker documentation maps port 5678 and stores data in a volume mounted at /home/node/.n8n. A minimal test run looks like this, with your own timezone in place of the placeholder:

docker volume create n8n_data

docker run -it --rm \
 --name n8n \
 -p 5678:5678 \
 -e GENERIC_TIMEZONE="<YOUR_TIMEZONE>" \
 -e TZ="<YOUR_TIMEZONE>" \
 -e N8N_ENFORCE_SETTINGS_FILE_PERMISSIONS=true \
 -v n8n_data:/home/node/.n8n \
 n8nio/n8n
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That page is marked by n8n as outdated and recommends Docker Compose for new installations, so use it only to try the product. The n8n self-hosting guide covers a Docker Compose setup.

How to choose

If your situation is... Consider
A handful of simple two-to-five step automations, nobody technical, you want the fastest start Zapier
Visual, branching scenarios where you want to see data flow between modules and control usage by design Make
Long or data-heavy workflows, a need to keep data on your own servers, or someone comfortable running Docker n8n
Mostly Microsoft 365 apps and Teams Compare Power Automate too; see Zapier vs Power Automate for small businesses

These are starting points, not rules. The number of supported apps for your specific software matters more than any row above, so check that each tool has a connector for every app in your workflow before you invest time.

Run a one-week trial

  1. Write the workflow as numbered steps and list every app involved.
  2. Confirm each tool has a connector, or can call the app through a webhook or HTTP request.
  3. Build the same workflow in each tool you are considering, using its free option.
  4. Run it with realistic data, not one test record.
  5. Read the usage figure each tool reports for a run: tasks in Zapier, credits in the Make scenario editor, executions in n8n.
  6. Multiply by your expected runs per month and compare the result with the plan limits.

Troubleshooting common problems

Usage is much higher than expected on Make

Check the trigger schedule first. A polling trigger consumes an operation on every check, so a short interval on a quiet scenario can use more credits than the work itself. Then check whether an early module returns many bundles, which multiplies every later module. Combining bundles with an aggregator before an expensive module reduces runs.

Zapier tasks are running out

Remember that each successful action step is a task. Moving a Filter step to the start of the Zap stops runs before any action executes, and filter steps do not use tasks. Review whether multi-step Zaps can be split or simplified.

A Zap will not save on the Free plan

The Free plan allows two-step Zaps only, with no filters, paths or premium apps. Adding any of them requires a paid plan.

n8n cloud usage is near the limit

Because the unit is the whole run, reduce the number of runs rather than the number of steps. Replace frequent schedules with event triggers where the source app supports them, or batch items so one execution processes several.

Checklist

  • Define the workflow and the monthly run count before comparing prices.
  • Identify each tool's billing unit and calculate usage for your own workflow.
  • Check connectors for every app involved.
  • Read current prices on the vendor pages on the day you buy.
  • If you self-host n8n, plan backups and updates, and read the Sustainable Use License.
  • Re-check usage after the first month, then adjust schedules and plan tier.

References

This guide was researched and drafted with AI assistance and checked against the vendor documentation listed in its References. Read the maintained version and related guides on EpiFive.

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