n8n vs Zapier vs Make for a small business: what each really costs and which to pick

What do n8n, Zapier and Make actually charge for?

The three tools sell different units, so entry prices cannot be compared side by side: 750 Zapier tasks, 2,500 n8n executions and 10,000 Make credits are not similar allowances. Every figure below was read on the vendors' pages on 2026-10-01.

Yearly billing is cheaper (Zapier advertises 33% off, n8n 17%, Make 15% or more), so the calculations use it.

What does one real workflow cost on each at 150 to 20,000 runs a month?

Take a typical workflow: an enquiry arrives, and the workflow adds a CRM contact, a spreadsheet row and a chat message, then emails a confirmation. One trigger and four actions make 1 execution on n8n, 4 tasks on Zapier (triggers are free) and 5 credits on Make. With 12 actions it is 1 execution, 12 tasks or 13 credits.

Make is cheapest in every 4-action row; Zapier is dearest from 1,000 runs up. The claim that n8n is several times cheaper holds against Zapier (3.9 times at 1,000 runs: $89 against $22.71). Against Make it holds only in the last row, where 12 steps and 20,000 runs favour n8n's flat price.

Where do the bills surprise you, and why do other comparisons quote other prices?

• Make counts each check of a polling trigger as one credit: a check every 5 minutes is 12 × 24 × 30 = 8,640 credits a month before any row moves. Zapier says its polls never use tasks.
• n8n's page warns that a 5-minute schedule uses about 8,600 to 8,900 executions a month, more than three times Starter's 2,500.
• A new AI step in Zapier starts on the Premium tier, which uses 5 tasks.
• n8n's tiers jump: 10,000 executions cost €50, 50,000 cost €120, and Business, €667 for 40,000, is self-hosted only.

Other comparisons disagree with the vendors. Parseur (updated 2026-09-08) puts Make Core at $12 for 10,000 credits; Make's page says $9 billed yearly or $10.59 monthly. It says Zapier counts filter steps as tasks; Zapier's help center says they are free. Digidop (updated 2026-01-25) quotes n8n Cloud at $22; n8n's page says €20, probably a currency conversion.

n8n Cloud vs self-hosted: how much does n8n cost and what does self-hosting save?

n8n Cloud Starter is €20 a month billed yearly and Pro is €50. The Community edition is free to self-host, and the pricing page sets no execution quota for it. Hosted plans keep data in Frankfurt.

• Starter: €20 × 1.1355 = $22.71 a month.
• A server: DigitalOcean lists $12 a month for 2 GiB of memory and $6 for 1 GiB.
• Saving before your time: $22.71 − $12 = $10.71 a month.
• An hour a month of updates, backups and monitoring that you value above $10.71 cancels it.

Someone must apply updates, back up the data and watch the server. n8n's docs add that the free edition lacks workflow sharing, projects, SSO, environments and Git version control, which need a paid self-hosted plan. Self-host when data must stay on your own server and one named person owns the upkeep.

Can you use n8n for clients or resell it under its license?

Most of n8n's code is under the Sustainable Use License 1.0: you may use or modify it only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use, and distribute it only free of charge for non-commercial purposes. n8n Cloud has separate terms. n8n's license FAQ allows:

• Running your own business on it.
• Building automations for clients on your instance, if the clients cannot create or edit them.
• Charging for setup, maintenance, training and consulting.
• Installing it on a client's own server, if you do not also host it for them.

It does not allow:

• Hosting n8n as a service where clients build workflows.
• Letting outside users build workflows through your product, by custom screen, API or AI agent.
• Forking it into your own automation product, white-labelling it, or using license-key features without an Enterprise license.

Which is easiest to use and which is the most flexible?

A rule of thumb, not a measurement: a first-timer usually gets a Zap running fastest, Make suits people who think in branches, and n8n suits people comfortable with data and a little code.

How do AI steps and error handling compare?

Add one AI step that classifies each enquiry to the 4-action workflow, at 1,000 runs a month:

Errors are the other half of the bill, and each tool handles them differently:

• n8n: its pricing page lists error workflows, which can alert you when a run fails, and automatic retries.
• Zapier: failed actions use no tasks, and Zapier can replay a failed step by hand or automatically, up to 5 times. Steps in an error-handler path do count.
• Make: the Break, Resume, Rollback, Commit and Ignore handlers cost no credits.

Before launch, test failure on purpose: disconnect the CRM, send a duplicate, leave a field empty, and check that a named person is told.

Where does your data live, and how locked in are you?

• n8n Cloud: hosted plans store data in Frankfurt, according to n8n's pricing page. Self-hosted: wherever you host.
• Make: you choose a US or EU data center for each organization when you create it and cannot change it later.
• Zapier: its privacy page says data sits on AWS servers in the United States, EU-only storage is not supported, and Zapier is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Under the GDPR you, as controller, need a contract with every processor (Article 28), and transfers outside the EU must meet Article 44. A Commission decision of 10 July 2023 recognises adequate protection for US organizations on the Data Privacy Framework list. This is not legal advice.

Lock-in is milder than it looks. n8n exports workflows as JSON, Make exports blueprints (Make adds that connections must be recreated) and Zapier exports Zaps as JSON. None of the pages we read describes importing another vendor's file, so moving means rebuilding: keep a plain-language map of each workflow.

Which automation tool should a small business pick, and when is it time to hire someone?

• Zapier: the app you need connects there, the flow has one to three steps, volume is low and nobody writes code. You pay the highest price per run.
• Make: you want a visual builder and the lowest price per run for short and medium flows. Use instant triggers, not polling.
• n8n Cloud: flows are long, frequent, call AI models or need code, or you want EU hosting at a flat price per run. Self-host only with a named owner for upkeep.

Hire someone when money or customer data move through the flow, when it touches three or more systems, when nobody will own alerts and backups, or when you plan to host automations for other businesses. Do not hire for a one- or two-step flow you can test in an afternoon. If n8n is the choice, its package is selected below.

The n8n workflow package takes 5–8 working days.