n8n vs Zapier vs Make: which automation platform should a growing business use?

The three platforms in one table

Entry prices come from Zapier’s pricing page, n8n’s pricing page and, for Make, its 2026 plans as reported by Activepieces. They change often, so check each provider before you commit.

How each platform charges, and why it matters

The biggest difference between the three isn’t features, it’s what they count.

• Zapier: according to Zapier’s help centre, a task is any successful action that runs. Filter and Paths steps don’t count, and neither do steps that error or never run.
• Make: Make’s help centre explains that credits are its billing unit and that, by default, one operation (one module run) uses one credit; some built-in AI features use more. Credits replaced "operations" in 2025, converting existing balances one to one.
• n8n: n8n’s pricing page states that pricing is based on monthly workflow executions "regardless of complexity": one run of a whole workflow is one execution, however many steps it has.

Take a workflow with one trigger and nine actions that runs 1,000 times a month:

For short, simple automations the difference is small. For long workflows that run often, such as lead processing, booking follow-ups or AI agents with many steps, per-step pricing grows quickly, and that is where n8n’s model pulls ahead.

Ease of use

Zapier is the easiest to start with: pick a trigger, pick an action, and it runs. Make shows workflows as a visual map, which makes branching logic and data transformation easier to follow, with a little more to learn. n8n is the most powerful and the most technical. It rewards someone comfortable with data structures, APIs and error handling, and it can frustrate teams without that skill. Digidop’s comparison reaches the same ranking.

Integrations

Zapier has the largest library of ready-made app connections, with thousands of apps. Make’s library is also large. n8n has fewer built-in nodes, but its HTTP request node can talk to almost any service with an API, so the practical gap is smaller than the numbers suggest, as long as someone can set those connections up.

Data control and hosting

Zapier and Make run only in their own clouds. n8n can also be self-hosted: its pricing page notes that a standard self-hosted version is available on GitHub. Self-hosting means:

• customer data stays in infrastructure you control, which helps with GDPR and data-residency requirements
• there is no per-execution charge, only the cost of the server
• you are responsible for keeping it updated, backed up and secure

n8n also offers a managed cloud if you’d rather not run a server.

AI agents and complex logic

All three now offer AI features. For multi-step AI agents, such as a voice receptionist that checks a calendar, books, confirms and logs the call, n8n is the most common choice: complex branching, custom code and many steps per run cost no more than a simple workflow.

When custom code beats all three

Platforms are the right tool for most business automation. Custom code makes sense when the logic is core to your product, when an integration is unusual, or when volume is so high that even per-run pricing becomes a constraint. Many teams start on a platform and move one or two critical workflows into code later.

Which should you choose?

• Zapier if your team is non-technical, your automations are short, and you value speed of setup over cost.
• Make if your logic is moderately complex, you transform a lot of data and you want to keep costs down.
• n8n if your workflows are long or frequent, include AI agents, or handle data you want under your own control, and you have someone (in-house or a partner) to build and maintain them.

Before choosing, list your main workflows, count their steps and estimate how often each runs per month. Then price that volume on each platform’s current pricing page. The answer is usually obvious once you do.

Why we build on n8n

At Orryvelle we build almost all automation on n8n, by hand, node by node. It handles the long, AI-heavy workflows our clients need, such as the confirmation, no-show and reactivation sequences in our Sales Pipeline System, without per-step costs, and it lets clients choose between running it themselves or having us manage it. Read more about our enterprise solutions.