Zapier vs Make vs n8n: Best Automation Platform 2026

Automation platforms all promise the same thing — connect your apps, kill the busywork, let software move data while you sleep. But Zapier, Make, and n8n get there in very different ways, and they charge for it in very different units. Picking the wrong one can mean either a bill that balloons past $500 a month or a weekend lost to server configuration. Here's how the three stack up in 2026, and which one fits which kind of team.

The core difference: how each platform bills you

This is the single most important thing to understand before comparing prices, because each platform meters usage on a different unit.

Zapier charges per task — one task equals one action performed by a connected app. A five-step Zap that fires 100 times a day burns through tasks fast. A single 5-action Zap running 100 times a day generates 15,000 tasks before the month ends.

Make charges per operation, and an operation is every module that runs inside a scenario. Make Free gives 1,000 operations per month, but operations aren't tasks — they include triggers, filters, and iterators, so a workflow can chew through your allotment faster than the app count suggests.

n8n charges per execution — a full workflow run counts as one execution no matter how many steps it contains. That's the most forgiving model of the three for complex, multi-step workflows, and it's a big reason n8n gets cheaper as your automations get more elaborate.

Keep this in mind: comparing the raw plan prices below is misleading unless you translate everything into your own real-world usage.

Zapier: the broadest app library and the easiest on-ramp

Zapier is still the default, mostly because nothing else touches its integration catalog. In 2026 it offers 8,000+ app connections and an interface non-technical people can actually use, with some sources counting the library even higher.

Pricing is tiered, and the entry point is generous on paper but tight in practice. Zapier starts free with 100 tasks per month but limits you to simple automations. The free tier is a sandbox, not a production tool — it caps you at two-step Zaps. Paid plans depend on whether you pay monthly or annually: Zapier's tiers are Free, Professional (around $19.99/month annual), Team (around $69/month annual), and Enterprise. On monthly billing those numbers are higher — the Professional plan begins at $29.99 per month for 750 tasks, and the Team plan jumps to $103.50 per month.

What you get climbing the ladder: the Professional plan includes multi-step Zaps, premium apps, webhooks, and live support, while the Team plan adds 25 users, shared folders, SAML SSO, and Premier Support.

Zapier has also leaned hard into AI. It now offers Copilot, which builds Zaps from natural language, AI Agents that handle multi-turn interactions, AI Chatbots powered by your automations, and MCP support so AI apps can connect securely.

The catch is the task meter. Task-based pricing is predictable at low volume but punishing at scale — the pain zone tends to hit teams running a few thousand multi-step automations a month, where the bill climbs quickly.

Make: the visual builder that undercuts Zapier on cost

Make (formerly Integromat) is the middle path: more granular and cheaper than Zapier, more visual and beginner-friendly than n8n. Its drag-and-connect canvas is the main draw, and its app coverage has grown substantially — Make now advertises well over 2,000 integrations, with newer materials citing 3,000+.

On cost, Make is consistently the value pick for moderate volume. Make Core starts at $10.59/month for 10,000 operations, roughly 3–5× cheaper than Zapier at the same volume. The tiers stack like this: Core at $10.59/month gets 10,000 operations, Pro adds priority execution and custom variables, and Teams adds team management, with Pro landing around $18–21/month and Teams at $34.12/month on annual billing. The Pro plan bundles full-text execution log search, custom variables, and priority scenario execution so runs get through faster during peak times.

Two things to watch. First, all those prices are for annual billing; monthly billing is roughly 30% more. Second, the operation-counting model means a busy scenario with filters and loops can drain a plan faster than the sticker price implies. Make has also entered the agent era — you can now connect 2,000+ apps into agentic automation workflows in Make's visual builder.

Make rewards users who invest a little time in learning the canvas. If you're willing to do that and keep an eye on operation usage, it's the cheapest serious platform of the three for most small-to-mid workloads.

n8n: the power option for technical teams

n8n is the outlier, and the one that's grown fastest among developers. It's built on a node-based canvas with a real code node, native AI tooling, and — crucially — the option to run it on your own hardware.

Licensing first, because it's often misunderstood. n8n uses the Sustainable Use License and n8n Enterprise License, based on the fair-code model; because open source licenses can't include limitations on use, n8n doesn't call itself open source even though its source is available. In practice that means you can self-host it for free. The Community Edition is free to self-host under the fair-code license, running unlimited workflows, steps, executions, and users, with your only costs being infrastructure — typically a $4–7/month VPS.

If you don't want to manage a server, n8n Cloud is priced by execution. Numbers vary slightly by currency and billing, but roughly: Starter runs about €24/month for 2,500 executions, Pro about €60/month for 10,000 executions, and Business about €800/month for 40,000 executions. A recent improvement: all n8n cloud plans now include unlimited workflows and unlimited users after n8n removed the active-workflow caps in 2025, so execution volume is the only variable that scales your cost.

The one gotcha is polling. Starter's 2,500 executions sound like a lot until you realize a single polling trigger checking every 5 minutes uses roughly 8,640 executions a month on its own — n8n Cloud's lower tiers suit event-driven, webhook-based workflows far better than constant polling.

On capability, n8n is the strongest for AI and custom logic. It provides a node-based builder with over 400 integrations and native AI Agent nodes built on LangChain, and it's model-agnostic — you can wire in OpenAI, Anthropic's Claude, Google Gemini, or local models via Ollama. The integration count is smaller than Zapier's or Make's, but the code node fills most gaps for anything with a REST API.

Which one should you pick?

Choose Zapier if you're non-technical, value the broadest app catalog, and want the fastest path from idea to working automation. It's the safest default for solo operators and business teams whose main cost is time, not compute — just do the task math before you scale.

Choose Make if you want a visual builder that costs a fraction of Zapier for the same volume and you don't mind learning its canvas. It's the sweet spot for agencies and small teams running moderate, multi-step automation on a budget.

Choose n8n if you have technical chops or a developer on staff. Self-hosting the Community Edition gives you near-unlimited automation for the price of a cheap server, full control over your data, and the best native AI-agent tooling of the three. Non-technical users can still start on n8n Cloud, but the platform's real advantage shows up when you self-host.

The honest summary: Zapier buys you convenience and reach, Make buys you cheap visual flexibility, and n8n buys you power and control if you're willing to work for it. Match the billing model to how your workflows actually run, and the right choice usually picks itself.