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n8n vs Make vs Zapier: which is best?

For most businesses of around five people, Make is the best place to start, n8n is better if your automations have lots of steps, and Zapier is worth paying extra for when the software you need only connects through Zapier. The deciding factor is usually how each one charges, because they count usage in three completely different ways.

All three are automation platforms. Think of them as a very reliable office junior who watches for something to happen in one program (a form being filled in, an email arriving) and then does a set of jobs in your other programs, without you lifting a finger. Zapier and Make are the best-known names. n8n (pronounced "n-eight-n") does the same job and is the only one of the three you can also run on your own computer.

Everything below comes from the three companies' own pages, checked on one day, with links. All three change their prices often, so click through rather than relying on this page.

How do Zapier, Make and n8n charge?

Zapier charges for every successful action. Make charges for each step, in a unit it calls credits. n8n charges for one run of the whole automation, however many steps it has.

Take a realistic example. A form comes in from your website. You want to create a record in your customer system, send a message to your team, and add a row to a spreadsheet. That's one trigger (the form arriving) followed by three actions.

On Zapier, a task is "any successful action that runs in Zapier. Only successful actions count toward your task usage." The trigger doesn't count, and neither do steps that just check or sort things, or steps that fail. So that example uses three tasks each time it runs. Zapier's own example is a Gmail attachment being saved to Dropbox and then posted to Slack: two tasks a run, and "if your Zap runs ten times, it will use 20 tasks."

On Make, you pay per step, which Make calls a module. Most modules use one credit, but its credits documentation says some, mainly Make's own AI tools for pulling content out of documents, use 2 or 10 credits each time, and its AI features are charged by how much text, data, pages or running time they use. So three ordinary steps is three credits, unless one of them is doing something heavy.

On n8n, its pricing page says: "An execution is a single run of your entire workflow. It doesn't matter how many steps are in the workflow or how much data it processes. It's still a single execution." Three steps or thirty, it counts once.

Run that example 800 times a month and you'd use 2,400 Zapier tasks, about 2,400 Make credits, and 800 n8n executions. The gap grows with every step you add. If your automations are long, n8n works out much cheaper. If they're short two-step jobs that run constantly, the three come closer together and the difference matters less.

If working out which of these fits the way your business runs sounds like a chore, we're happy to look at the jobs you want automated and recommend the right platform.

How much do Zapier, Make and n8n cost?

Zapier. According to Zapier's pricing page, the Free plan is $0 for 100 tasks a month, with two-step automations only. It checks for new things every 15 minutes, like looking in the post box four times an hour rather than being told the moment something arrives, and it excludes premium apps and webhooks (instant notifications from one program to another). Paid plans start at Professional, from $19.99 a month billed annually for 750 tasks ($29.99 if you pay monthly), rising to $49 a month for 2,000 tasks and $129 a month for 10,000, again billed annually. Automations with more than two steps are only available from Professional upwards. Team starts at $69 a month billed annually and includes 25 users.

Make. According to Make's pricing page, the Free plan is $0 for up to 1,000 credits a month, with two active automations, a 15-minute minimum gap between runs and a five-minute limit on how long each run can take. Paying annually, Core is $12 a month for 10,000 credits, Pro $21 and Teams $38. Make says you save 15% or more that way, and month to month Core is $16. Make's pricing page doesn't list a limit on the number of steps in an automation on any plan. What it limits is credits, the number of active automations (two on the free plan, unlimited on paid ones) and how often they run.

n8n. According to n8n's pricing page, there's no free plan for its hosted service, only a trial: no card needed, 1,000 executions, five running at once, and a 180-second limit on each run. Starter is €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions and unlimited active automations. Pro is €50 for 10,000. Business jumps to €667 for 40,000, and n8n lists it as self-hosted rather than hosted by n8n, so it's aimed at bigger teams with their own servers.

Two things stand out. Zapier's free plan is really a way to try it out rather than something a business can run on, because 100 tasks and two steps doesn't go far. And none of the three sets its prices in pounds. Make prices in dollars and n8n in euros. Zapier can bill in a number of local currencies, but it converts from its dollar price at the exchange rate when you pay. So your real cost moves with the exchange rate.

Which one connects to the most apps?

Zapier, by a wide margin. On the day we checked, Zapier's app directory said "9,000+ apps", Make's said "3,000+", and n8n's integrations page said "2239 integrations".

That's the one advantage Zapier has that a lower price can't match. If the specialist booking system or trade-specific customer system you already use has a ready-made connection anywhere, Zapier is the most likely place to find it.

All three can also connect to software without a ready-made connection, by talking directly to its API. An API is like a staff entrance that a program provides so other programs can come in and swap information. Using it directly is perfectly possible, but it's a more technical job and harder to look after.

The number that matters is whether the apps you use are on the list, not the total. Three thousand and nine thousand are the same if both include your five. If one of your systems isn't on any list, we're happy to check whether it can still be connected and build the automation for you.

Where do Zapier, Make and n8n store your data?

This is where the three really differ, and it matters if the automations handle customer or staff details.

Zapier says on its security and compliance page that "Zapier is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the United States". It holds SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 reports, which are independent checks of its security. You can't choose a different region. That means UK personal data passing through Zapier leaves the UK. That isn't automatically a problem under UK GDPR, but it counts as an international transfer, and the ICO's guidance explains that it has to be covered by one of a few specific legal routes.

For Zapier, the route is the UK-US "data bridge". Under UK regulations made in 2023, personal data can go to a US company that has signed up to the UK Extension of the US government's Data Privacy Framework, a scheme where companies promise to follow a set of privacy rules, without any extra paperwork from you. When we checked on 23 September 2026, Zapier, Inc. was on the Data Privacy Framework list with its UK Extension marked active. Zapier's data processing addendum, its contract covering how it handles your data, adds that if the framework doesn't cover a transfer, the ICO's standard contract wording for transfers, known as the UK Addendum, applies instead.

Make lets you choose. Its organisations documentation says Make "currently supports two data center locations: United States (US), European Union (EU)", and that "you cannot change the location of the data center after you create the organization." So the choice made when the account is first set up is permanent. Make is also part of a company called Celonis, and its privacy notice says EU, UK or Swiss personal data "may be transferred outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), UK or Switzerland."

n8n's hosted service keeps data in the EU. Its security page says "n8n cloud uses Microsoft Azure for hosting. The physical hardware powering n8n, and the data stored by the platform, is currently hosted in the European Union", with data encrypted when stored and backed up daily to a separate location in the same country.

Is it worth running n8n yourself?

For most small businesses, probably not. Running it yourself, known as self-hosting, is a bit like buying a van instead of using a courier. You get full control, but the servicing, repairs and breakdowns are all yours.

n8n is the only one of the three you can run on your own computer or server. Its Community Edition is free: n8n's docs describe it as "the free edition. This is what n8n runs without a license key." Registering your email adds a few more features, still at no cost. Because your data never passes through anyone else's systems, it settles the question of where your data is stored.

There are two things to know first. The licence isn't open source in the strict sense, and n8n says so itself: "according to the Open Source Initiative (OSI), open source licenses can't include limitations on use, so we do not call ourselves open source." Its Sustainable Use Licence lets you "use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use", and pass it on "only if you do so free of charge for non-commercial purposes." Automating your own business is clearly allowed. What the licence FAQ rules out is things like hosting n8n as a service and letting your own customers build workflows on it, which few small businesses would want to do anyway.

The second is the one that matters most for a small business. Running it yourself means you're responsible for keeping it running, updated, backed up and secure. n8n's security page is clear that for self-hosted copies "encrypting other data at rest is the responsibility of the user." When a hosted service breaks overnight, the provider's staff deal with it. When your own copy stops, your automations quietly stop too, and it may be days before anyone notices. The risk hasn't gone away. It's moved to you. Unless someone in your business already looks after servers as part of their job, that's usually a worse deal than it first appears.

Which one would we recommend?

For a typical five-person business, we'd recommend Make. Its free plan is generous enough to see whether an automation is worth having, and at $12 a month for 10,000 credits on annual billing it's the lowest-cost realistic starting point of the three. Its EU data location is a sensible choice for a UK business.

Two things would change that recommendation.

If a piece of software you rely on only has a ready-made connection on Zapier, we'd recommend Zapier. That's the one situation where its higher price gets you something the others can't.

If your automations are long, with six, eight or twelve steps, we'd recommend n8n's hosted service instead. Because it charges per run, extra steps cost nothing more, and €20 a month for 2,500 full runs is much better value than the other two for that kind of work. We'd recommend the hosted version rather than running it yourself, unless you already have someone who looks after servers. Running it yourself mainly makes sense when a contract requires your data to stay in the UK or EU in a way the hosted options can't meet.

Whichever you choose, the platform is the easy part. The time goes into deciding what to automate, and into making the automations reliable. If you'd rather hand that over, you can see what we do and how our pricing works, and we're happy to set it up for you.

Sources

Checked on 24 September 2026. Automation vendors change prices, rename their billing units and move tier boundaries several times a year - Make renamed operations to credits, and Zapier has reshuffled its plan names before. Treat every number here as a snapshot and check the links before you commit.

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