Zapier vs Make vs n8n Pricing 2026: Automation Cost Compared

Zapier, Make, and n8n are the three automation platforms a solo founder compares when wiring tools together in 2026. Their entry prices sit within a few dollars of each other, which makes the sticker comparison nearly useless. The figure that actually decides your bill is the billing unit: task, credit, or execution. This article verifies the headline tiers, then shows why a workflow's step count, not its run count, is what separates the three on cost.

1. Three billing units, not three prices

All three meter usage, but they count different things. Verified against each vendor's pricing and documentation as of May 25, 2026.

Platform	Billing unit	What one unit covers
Zapier	Task[1]	One successful action that moves data; triggers and some built-in steps are free
Make	Credit (operation)[2][4]	One module operation; a 5-module scenario uses about 5 credits per run
n8n	Execution[3]	One full workflow run, regardless of step count or data volume

Zapier and Make both scale cost with workflow complexity: more steps means more tasks or credits per run. n8n decouples cost from complexity entirely, charging one execution whether the workflow has two steps or fifty. Make moved from "operations" to a credit model where one standard operation equals one credit^[4], but the per-step principle is unchanged. This single difference, not the sticker price, is what determines which platform is cheapest for a given workload.

2. Headline tiers compared

Entry and mid tiers verified against each pricing page as of May 25, 2026. Note the included-volume units differ and are not directly comparable.

Platform	Free tier	Entry paid	Mid paid
Zapier	100 tasks/mo, 2-step Zaps[1]	Professional from $19.99/mo annual[1]	Team from $69/mo annual[1]
Make	1,000 credits/mo[2]	Core $9/mo (10K credits)[2]	Pro $16/mo; Teams $29/mo[2]
n8n	Cloud trial (no card on Starter/Pro)[3]	Starter €20/mo (2.5K executions)[3]	Pro €50/mo (10K executions)[3]

Make Core at $9/month for 10,000 credits is the cheapest entry paid tier by sticker. Zapier Professional starts from $19.99/month billed annually but includes only tasks, and a multi-step Zap consumes multiple tasks per run. n8n Starter at €20/month includes 2,500 executions, but because each execution is a whole workflow, that 2,500 can represent far more work than 2,500 Zapier tasks or Make credits. The free tiers tell the same story: Zapier's 100 tasks and Make's 1,000 credits are fine for a few simple automations; neither scales to complex flows without paying.

3. The per-step multiplier that decides cost

Consider one workflow that runs 1,000 times a month and has ten steps that each move data. The unit cost diverges sharply:

• Zapier: roughly 10 tasks per run × 1,000 runs = about 10,000 tasks/month. You need a plan tier sized for 10,000 tasks, not 1,000.
• Make: roughly 10 credits per run × 1,000 runs = about 10,000 credits/month, which exactly fills the Core plan's 10,000-credit allowance.
• n8n: 1 execution per run × 1,000 runs = 1,000 executions/month, comfortably inside the Starter plan's 2,500 executions.

Same workflow, same run count: 10,000 billable units on Zapier and Make, 1,000 on n8n. The per-step platforms charge ten times the units for this ten-step flow. This is why the right way to compare the three is to estimate units, not to read sticker prices. A simple two-step automation barely moves the needle in any direction; a ten-step data pipeline run thousands of times a month is where n8n's per-execution model pulls clearly ahead on cost. Fold whichever platform you pick into your monthly tooling budget with the AI stack cost calculator.

4. n8n's self-hosted escape hatch

n8n alone offers a self-hostable Community Edition on GitHub alongside its managed cloud plans^[3]. Self-hosting removes the per-execution cloud fee entirely; you pay only for the server you run it on. At high execution volume, where the cloud Business plan reaches €667/month for 40,000 executions, a small self-hosted instance on a cheap VPS can run far more for a fraction of the cost.

The trade is operational. Self-hosting means you patch, back up, secure, and monitor the instance yourself, and you lose the managed-cloud guarantees. Zapier and Make have no self-host option, so they are cloud-cost-only at every scale. The decision framing: if execution volume is climbing and you have the operational appetite, self-hosted n8n is the lowest-cost ceiling of the three. If you want zero operations overhead, you stay on a managed plan and pay the per-unit fee.

5. Decision guidance

• A few simple two-step automations: Zapier free (100 tasks) or Make free (1,000 credits). No reason to pay yet.
• Cheapest entry paid plan by sticker: Make Core at $9/month for 10,000 credits.
• Complex multi-step workflows run often: n8n, whose per-execution billing ignores step count. Structurally cheaper as steps grow.
• High volume with operational appetite: self-hosted n8n Community Edition removes the per-execution fee entirely.
• Widest no-code app library and least setup: Zapier, accepting that per-task billing scales with workflow complexity.

Re-verify each pricing page before committing; all three reprice and Make's credit model is recent. For the broader tooling-cost picture, see the 2026 AI solopreneur stack and the month-one stack cost breakdown.

All pricing figures verified against official pricing pages as of 2026-05-25.

Frequently asked questions

Is Zapier, Make, or n8n cheapest in 2026?

It depends on workflow shape, not just sticker price. The verified entry plans are Make Core from $9/month, Zapier Professional from $19.99/month billed annually, and n8n Starter at €20/month for 2,500 executions, as of May 2026. But they bill in different units: Zapier counts a task per action moved, Make counts a credit per module operation, and n8n counts one execution per full workflow run regardless of step count. A multi-step workflow that costs many tasks or credits on Zapier or Make costs one execution on n8n, so n8n is structurally cheaper for complex flows and the per-task tools can be cheaper for simple ones.

What is the difference between a task, a credit, and an execution?

A Zapier task is counted each time a Zap successfully moves data or completes an action; triggers and some built-in tools do not consume tasks. A Make credit is consumed per module operation, so a five-module scenario uses about five credits per run. An n8n execution is a single run of an entire workflow and does not depend on how many steps it contains. This is the decisive structural difference: per-step billing (Zapier, Make) scales cost with workflow complexity, while per-execution billing (n8n) does not.

Can you self-host n8n for free?

Yes. n8n publishes a self-hostable Community Edition on GitHub in addition to its managed cloud plans. Self-hosting removes the per-execution cloud fee entirely, leaving only your own server cost, which is the lowest-cost path at high execution volume. The trade is that you operate, update, and secure the instance yourself rather than paying n8n to run it. Zapier and Make are cloud-only with no self-host option.