Zapier vs Make vs n8n: The Best Automation Tool for AI Workflows

Use Zapier if a non-technical team needs a reliable automation this week. Use Make if you want a visual builder and more room for the same money. Use n8n if a developer will own it, especially if you can self-host. Add an AI step only after the workflow already moves the data correctly without one.

Prices were last verified October 16, 2026. Zapier and Make figures are the USD amounts those vendors published in the sources below. n8n’s pricing page was displayed to us in euros. This guide does not convert euros into a guessed dollar price.

Which one should you open first?

You are	Open this	First paid tier we could price
In operations, support, or marketing, and new to automation	Zapier	Professional $19.99/month billed annually, 750 tasks
Comfortable with flowcharts and watching a credit meter	Make	Core from $9/month at the 10,000-credit tier, annual
A developer, or you must keep data on your own server	n8n	Cloud Starter €20/month billed annually, 2,500 executions. Community Edition is free if you self-host
You want an AI employee, not a workflow diagram	Lindy or Manus	Lindy Team from $49.99/month; Manus Pro from $20/month

Figure (routing diagram, not a product screenshot). Alt: Start with one repetitive task. If the owner is non-technical, build it in Zapier. If the scenario has many branches and a technical editor, build it in Make. If a developer needs code, self-hosting, or per-execution pricing, build it in n8n. Add an AI step only after the non-AI path works.

The category hub is automation and agents.

The pricing unit is the whole comparison

These tools do not sell “unlimited automation.” They sell a meter. Picking the wrong meter costs more than picking a slightly worse UI.

	Zapier	Make	n8n
What you pay for	Tasks	Credits	Workflow executions
Free	100 tasks/month, unlimited Zaps	1,000 credits/month	Self-hosted Community Edition. Cloud has a trial, not a permanent free cloud plan in the price table
Entry paid	Professional $19.99/month annual, 750 tasks/month	Core from $9/month annual, from 10,000 credits	Starter €20/month annual, 2,500 executions
Next step	Team $69/month annual for shared folders, roles, and SAML SSO	Pro from $16/month; Teams from $29/month, at the 10,000-credit tier	Pro €50/month annual, 10,000 executions
High end	Enterprise, custom	Enterprise, custom	Business €667/month annual for 40,000 executions, self-hosted; Enterprise custom
Users and workflows	Unlimited Zaps on Free. Team adds shared administration	Scales with the credit tier you buy	Unlimited users, workflows, and integrations on all plans
AI-specific	AI tools are listed on the free plan	AI steps consume credits like other modules	AI agents, MCP, and AI nodes are part of the product

Zapier’s higher task tiers cost more than the 750-task Professional price. Make’s prices above are monthly equivalents with annual billing at the base 10,000-credit tier, taken from Make’s own comparison and help center because the pricing page did not fully render in our check. Monthly billing is higher. n8n’s annual billing saves 17% off the monthly euro price.

How an AI step changes the bill

An “AI workflow” is usually a normal automation with one model call in the middle: summarize a form, classify a ticket, draft a reply for a human to send.

• On Zapier, every action is a task. A Zap that catches a form, calls a model, and writes a row can be three tasks per run. At 100 free tasks, that is about 30 runs a month. Professional’s 750 tasks is about 250 of those runs. Do the arithmetic for your step count before you call it cheap.
• On Make, modules spend credits. A 10,000-credit Core plan is the published starting point, not a promise about a specific AI scenario. Make also documents 5 GB of data transfer per 10,000 credits.
• On n8n, a workflow execution counts once, however many AI nodes sit inside it. That is why technical teams with fat scenarios prefer it. A 2,500-execution Starter plan is 2,500 full runs, not 2,500 steps.

The model is a separate bill if you bring your own API key. ChatGPT Business or an API account is not included in Zapier’s $19.99. Budget both.

When Zapier is the right tool

Zapier is the default when the person maintaining the Zap is not a developer and the apps are mainstream: forms, spreadsheets, email, Slack, a help desk. Professional at $19.99/month annual unlocks multi-step Zaps, premium apps, and Filters, Paths, and Formatter. Free is enough to prove one Zap, and it is easy to outgrow in a week if the Zap runs on every email.

Paid plans start with a 14-day trial. Team at $69/month annual is an admin purchase (shared connections, roles, SSO), not a requirement for a single builder.

Use Zapier for the meeting-note handoff described in Otter vs Fireflies vs Fathom vs Granola when Otter or a similar tool already has a Zapier connector and the destination is a spreadsheet or Slack channel.

When Make is the right tool

Make is the better visual tool when the scenario branches, loops, or transforms data, and someone on the team will learn the canvas. Core from $9/month at 10,000 credits undercuts Zapier Professional on the sticker, which is why spreadsheet-heavy teams switch. The sticker is only fair if your scenario’s credit burn fits in 10,000. Extra credits are sold in bundles of 1,000 or 10,000.

Pro (from $16/month at the same credit floor) is the step up when you need the features Make reserves above Core. Teams starts at $29/month. Startups under 20 employees may qualify for 50% off Business, and nonprofits can ask Make about a discount. Those are programs, not automatic prices.

When n8n is the right tool

n8n is fair-code automation with a visual builder, JavaScript or Python when you need it, and first-class AI agents. Self-host the Community Edition if a lawyer or a security review wants the data in your network. You will spend time on Docker, upgrades, and backups. That labor is the real price of “free.”

Cloud Starter at €20/month annual is the hosted equivalent for 2,500 executions, 5 concurrent executions, and 1,600 Assistant credits. Pro at €50 adds room (10,000 executions, admin roles, longer insights). Business at €667/month annual is a large jump and is the self-hosted commercial tier in the table we saw, at 40,000 executions. Do not “upgrade to be safe.” Forecast executions first.

n8n is also the tool to pair with a coding agent when the workflow itself is software. If the thing you are building is an app rather than a Zap, read Lovable vs Bolt vs Replit.

Agents, when a Zap is the wrong shape

Lindy and Manus are agent products. Lindy Team starts at $49.99/month for 5,000 credits, with a 7-day free credit grant and no card. Manus Pro starts at $20/month for 4,000 credits plus a daily refresh. Use them when the work is “watch this inbox and do the task,” not “when a row is added, run these five steps.” They are a worse fit than Zapier for a brittle, auditable integration a client will ask you to diagram.

A build order that survives contact with real data

1. Pick one annoying task. Write the trigger, the fields, and the human approval step on paper.
2. Build it with no model call. If the row lands in the wrong sheet, a language model will not fix that.
3. Add one AI step with a fixed output shape: a category, a three-bullet summary, or a draft that a person sends.
4. Log failures. Count tasks, credits, or executions for seven days.
5. Then choose the paid tier that covers that count with headroom, using the vendor’s calculator rather than this article’s entry price.

FAQ

Is Zapier or Make cheaper?

At the published entry tier, Make Core starts at $9/month annual for 10,000 credits, and Zapier Professional is $19.99/month annual for 750 tasks. Which is cheaper in practice depends on how many operations your scenario uses. A three-step Zap on 300 events is 900 Zapier tasks, which already exceeds the 750-task tier.

Is n8n free?

The self-hosted Community Edition is free. n8n Cloud Starter is €20/month billed annually in the currency displayed to us. Budget hosting and maintenance if you self-host.

Where should the AI model run?

Inside the automation tool’s AI action, or through an API key you control. ChatGPT Plus is a poor place to run an unattended workflow. Use an API or a business plan with a data policy you have read. ChatGPT Business is $20/user/month annual and, per OpenAI, does not train on business data by default. See which subscription is worth paying for before you add that seat only for automations.

Last verified

October 16, 2026. Recheck Zapier’s pricing guide, Make’s pricing page, Make’s comparison page, and n8n pricing before you buy. Confirm the currency n8n shows you.

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