Zapier vs Make vs n8n: which automation tool fits your business in 2026?

Zapier is the easiest of the three and has the most app connections, so it suits non-technical teams with simple workflows. Make is usually the best value for busy, multi-step workflows because it bills per action at a low rate. n8n suits technical teams: it bills per whole workflow run, and the self-hosted version has no execution limits, but someone has to run the server. For most small businesses, the right choice depends on two things: how many steps your workflows have, and whether anyone on the team is comfortable maintaining a server.

How the three tools count usage

Pricing pages compare badly because each tool measures something different. Here is what you pay for:

• Zapier counts tasks. Each action step that runs successfully is one task. The trigger is free. A five-step Zap that runs 100 times uses about 400 tasks.
• Make counts credits. Most module actions use one credit, including reading, searching and creating records. Routers and error handlers are free, and some AI features use more than one credit.
• n8n counts executions. One run of a whole workflow is one execution, however many steps it has. A 20-step workflow costs the same as a 2-step one.

So a long workflow that runs often costs the most on Zapier and the least on n8n.

Zapier: easiest to start

Zapier's free plan gives 100 tasks a month, but Zaps can only have two steps. Professional starts at $29.99 a month, or $19.99 a month billed yearly, for 750 tasks. Team starts at $103.50 a month, or $69 billed yearly, for 2,000 tasks shared by up to 25 users.

Paid plans can switch on pay-per-task, so automations keep running past the limit and the extra tasks are billed at 1.25 times the base rate on annual plans or 2.5 times on monthly plans. Usage stops at three times your plan either way. Paid plans also check for new data every two minutes (one minute on Team), against 15 minutes on Free.

Zapier is the right pick when the people building automations are not developers, the workflows are short, and you need a connection to an app that the others may not have.

Make: best value for multi-step workflows

Make's free plan includes 1,000 credits a month. The paid plans are Core, Pro, Teams and Enterprise. Make's own page did not list prices when we checked, but third-party pricing guides list Core from about $9 a month on annual billing for 10,000 credits. Unused credits expire at the end of each billing period, and if you run out, scenarios stop until you add more.

The visual builder shows the whole workflow as a map, which makes branching logic easier to follow than in Zapier. The trade-off is a steeper learning curve, and loops can use credits quickly, because every item an iterator outputs is charged at each module after it.

n8n: most control, for technical teams

n8n Cloud starts at €20 a month on annual billing for 2,500 executions (Starter), and Pro is €50 a month for 10,000. The Business plan, at €667 a month on annual billing, is self-hosted only and adds features such as SSO.

The Community Edition is free to self-host under n8n's fair-code licence and has no execution limits. That is why technical teams like it, and also where the hidden cost sits: someone has to set up the server, keep it updated, back it up and secure it. If nobody on your team can do that, the free option is not free.

n8n also lets you write code inside a workflow and keep data on your own server, which matters for customer records and financial data.

A worked example: following up new leads

Take a common workflow: a new lead arrives from a website form, it is added to your CRM, an AI step drafts a reply, a manager approves it on WhatsApp or Slack, and the reply is sent. That is a trigger plus about four actions. At 500 leads a month:

• Zapier: about 2,000 tasks a month, which needs a higher Professional tier than the entry 750-task plan.
• Make: about 2,000 to 2,500 credits, well inside one paid plan's 10,000 credits.
• n8n: 500 executions, inside Cloud Starter's 2,500, or free if self-hosted.

These are estimates. Retries, loops and AI steps change the numbers, so run a week of real traffic on a trial before you commit.

Keep a person in the loop

All three tools can now send emails, update records and move money without anyone looking. That is useful and risky. Add an approval step before anything goes to a customer, before a refund or payment, and before records are deleted, and give each automation its own account with limited access. Our AI agent security basics guide covers the setup, and small, boring automations explains which workflows to start with.

When a custom build beats all three

Off-the-shelf tools are hard to beat for connecting apps. A custom build makes more sense when:

• volumes are high enough that per-task pricing becomes a large monthly bill,
• the logic must check rules, such as prices against a menu or stock against a warehouse,
• sensitive data should not pass through a third-party platform, or
• the automation is the product, such as a WhatsApp ordering system.

Our WhatsApp ordering system for a five-branch restaurant chain checks every price against the branch menu in code and sends confirmed orders straight into the POS. That kind of rule-checked flow is where a no-code tool starts to fight you.

If you want help choosing, see our AI automation agency services, business process automation and chat automation services, or tell us which workflow eats the most of your week.