n8n vs Zapier vs Make: pricing and limits for small teams

How each tool counts what you use

n8n, Zapier and Make all automate work between apps: when something happens in one application, they carry out actions in others. Each one sells a monthly allowance of usage, but each measures it differently.

• Zapier counts tasks: each successful action, such as adding a spreadsheet row, uses one task, while the trigger that starts a Zap is free.
• Make counts credits, which it previously called operations: most modules use one credit every time they run, and the trigger is a module too.
• n8n counts executions: one execution is one complete run of a workflow, however many steps it contains and however much data it processes.

So the number of steps drives the bill on Zapier and Make, but not on n8n. Loops matter too: on Zapier and Make, every step inside a loop counts each time it repeats, while n8n counts the whole run once.

n8n, Zapier and Make at a glance

Prices are for the cheapest paid plan, billed monthly, from each maker's pricing page on Nov 8, 2026. Paying yearly costs less: $20 a month for n8n, $19.99 for Zapier, and $12 for Make.

Tool	Counts	Free plan	Paid from, a month	Apps	5 steps, 1,000 runs	Self-host
n8n	Executions: 1 per full run	No, a 14-day trial	$24 for 2,500 runs	2,000+	$24	Yes
Zapier	Tasks: 1 per action	100 tasks, two-step Zaps	$29.99 for 750 tasks	9,000+	$133.50	No
Make	Credits: 1 per module	1,000 credits, 2 scenarios	$16 for 10,000 credits	3,500+	$16	No

What does one workflow cost on each?

Take a workflow with five steps: a trigger, such as a new form entry, followed by four actions. The actions add a spreadsheet row, create a CRM contact, send an email and post a message to Slack. It runs 1,000 times a month, and here is what each tool counts under its own published rules.

• n8n: 1,000 executions, one for each run, which fits inside the Starter plan's 2,500 executions at $24 a month.
• Zapier: 4,000 tasks, because the trigger is free and each of the four actions uses one task. The 2,000-task tier is too small, so you need Professional with 5,000 tasks, which costs $133.50 a month or $89 billed yearly.
• Make: 5,000 credits, since all five modules count, the trigger included. That fits inside the Core plan's 10,000 credits at $16 a month.

None of the free plans covers this workflow for a whole month. Zapier's free plan only allows two-step Zaps, Make's 1,000 free credits cover 200 runs, and n8n Cloud has a trial instead.

If the trigger checks for new data on a schedule, Make also charges one credit for every check, even when nothing new turns up. Checking every 15 minutes adds up to about 2,900 credits a month, which still fits within Core, while Zapier never charges for these checks.

With 20 steps instead of five, n8n would still count 1,000 executions, while Zapier would count 19,000 tasks and Make would count 20,000 credits. As a rule, short workflows favour Make, and long workflows with many steps favour n8n.

The three tools, one by one

2. Zapier: best for the most apps

• ZapierBest for the most appsFree

Zapier connects more than 9,000 apps, the largest library of the three, and counts one task for each action that succeeds. Triggers, checks for new data and built-in steps such as Filter, Formatter, Paths and Delay never use tasks.

The free plan gives 100 tasks a month for two-step Zaps that check for new data every 15 minutes. Professional starts at $29.99 a month, or $19.99 billed yearly, for 750 tasks, adding multi-step Zaps, premium apps and webhooks for one user. A team needs the Team plan, which costs $103.50 a month, or $69 billed yearly, for 2,000 tasks and up to 25 users.

Good

• More than 9,000 apps
• Triggers, filters and formatting steps are free
• A free plan that never ends

Watch for

• The highest cost per step of the three
• Free and Professional are for one user only

3. Make: best on a budget

• MakeBest for short workflows on a budgetFree

Make builds workflows, which it calls scenarios, on a visual map, and counts one credit every time a module runs. That includes the trigger, even when it checks and finds nothing new, while routers, filters and error handlers are free. Make lists more than 3,500 apps in its integration library.

The free plan gives 1,000 credits a month, two active scenarios and a run every 15 minutes at most. Core adds unlimited scenarios, runs every minute and runs lasting up to 40 minutes, and every plan, including the free one, has unlimited users.

Good

• The lowest price for short workflows
• 1,000 free credits a month
• Unlimited users on every plan

Watch for

• A trigger that checks on a schedule uses a credit every time
• Scenarios stop when your credits run out

AI steps and agents

All three tools let you add AI steps to workflows and build AI agents that decide which actions to take. Each one bills for that AI work in a different way.

• n8n includes its AI Agent node, other AI steps and MCP on every plan, and none of them adds executions. You pay for the model separately, using your own API key. On Cloud Starter and Pro, prepaid Gateway credits cover models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini without any key.
• Zapier charges 1, 3 or 5 tasks for each AI by Zapier step, depending on the model tier. Every tool the step calls costs the same amount again, so a Premium step that calls two tools uses 15 tasks per run. Zapier's help pages disagree on whether new steps default to the 3-task or 5-task tier, so check before you switch a Zap on.
• Make offers AI Agents, in beta, and its AI Toolkit on every plan. With Make's own AI provider, each operation costs one credit plus extra credits based on the tokens it uses. With your own API key, each operation costs one credit, and you pay the model provider directly.

Zapier Agents run on a separate quota, with 400 free activities a month, and each Zapier MCP tool call uses two tasks. For workflows with many AI calls, n8n's single count per run is the easiest to plan around.

Should you self-host n8n?

n8n is the only one of the three that you can run on your own server, using its free Community edition from GitHub. Its documentation covers Docker Compose, a one-line setup script, and guides for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and several other providers.

Self-hosting makes sense when someone on your team can install, secure and update a server. It also suits teams whose data must stay on their own machines, or whose usage would outgrow a plan priced per execution.

It makes less sense for a team that builds workflows together. The Community edition has no projects, no single sign-on and no way to share workflows or credentials between people. Those features come with the Business plan, which is self-hosted only and costs $960 a month, or $800 billed yearly, for 40,000 executions.

A free licence key, sent when you register by email, adds folders and debugging in the editor to the Community edition.

Which one should you pick?

• Your workflows have many steps or loop over many itemsn8n
• You want to run it on your own servern8n
• Your workflows are short and you want the lowest billMake
• You want the most from a hosted free planMake
• You need an app the others don't connect toZapier
• You want triggers and checks for new data that never cost anythingZapier

How we picked

We read each maker's pricing page and help documentation on Nov 8, 2026, and took every price, limit and rule from those pages. The worked example uses only those published rules and plan limits, so it is arithmetic rather than a measured test.

We haven't run the tools side by side: everything here comes from the makers' own pages. Make's pricing page displayed two different price lists that day, so we include both. No maker paid to appear in this piece, and no maker saw it before publication. If a price changes, we update this page and its date.

Questions people ask