n8n vs Make(2026)
n8n is better for teams that need free to self-host. Make is the stronger choice if much cheaper than zapier. n8n is open-source (from $20/mo) and Make is freemium (from $9/mo).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
By Bikram NathLast updated
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n8n
n8n is a fair-code automation platform that lets developers build complex workflows with a visual editor, JavaScript/Python expressions, and 400+ integrations — all self-hostable for free.
Starting at $20/mo
Visit n8nMake
Make (formerly Integromat) offers a visual canvas for building complex multi-step automations with advanced data manipulation, error handling, and branching logic — at a fraction of Zapier's cost.
Starting at $9/mo
Visit MakeHow Do n8n and Make Compare on Features?
| Feature | n8n | Make |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | open-source | freemium |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $9/mo |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | — |
| 400+ integrations | ✓ | — |
| Code nodes (JS/Python) | ✓ | — |
| Visual editor | ✓ | — |
| Webhook triggers | ✓ | — |
| AI agent nodes | ✓ | — |
| Custom credentials | ✓ | — |
| Visual workflow canvas | — | ✓ |
| 1,500+ integrations | — | ✓ |
| Complex data mapping | — | ✓ |
| Error handling routes | — | ✓ |
| Webhooks | — | ✓ |
| HTTP module | — | ✓ |
| Scenario scheduling | — | ✓ |
n8n Pros and Cons vs Make
n8n
Make
Deep dive: n8n
When to choose n8n
n8n is the right pick when the team has at least one developer comfortable with self-hosting and wants to eliminate per-task or per-operation billing entirely. It runs on a single Node.js process with a SQLite or PostgreSQL backend, meaning a per month VPS can handle thousands of workflow executions daily. The code-first philosophy, with JavaScript and Python nodes alongside a visual editor, makes it the strongest choice for teams that need to embed custom logic, call internal APIs with authentication, or transform data in ways that no-code platforms cannot express. n8n also wins on data sovereignty: self-hosted means credentials and data never leave the team's infrastructure, which matters for teams processing PII, financial data, or operating under GDPR constraints. The AI agent nodes introduced in 2025 allow building agentic workflows that call LLMs, use tools, and maintain memory, making n8n competitive as a lightweight AI orchestration layer. Avoid n8n when the team is entirely non-technical, when there is no appetite for managing a server, or when the integration must work out of the box with zero configuration for mainstream SaaS tools that Zapier handles natively.
Real-world use case
A developer at a 30-person startup self-hosts n8n on a Railway instance at per month to automate their entire internal tooling layer. One workflow monitors a PostgreSQL table for new support tickets via a cron trigger, enriches each ticket with customer data from the CRM via an HTTP request node, classifies the priority using a Claude API call in a code node, and routes high-priority tickets to a Slack channel while logging everything to a Google Sheet. Another workflow runs nightly, pulling analytics from PostHog via API, computing weekly metrics in a JavaScript function node, and sending a formatted Slack digest to the team. The total monthly cost is for Railway. The same setup on Zapier would cost roughly per month due to the multi-step task consumption. The tradeoff: the developer spent a full day setting up n8n, configuring the reverse proxy, setting up basic auth, and writing the initial workflows. If that developer leaves, the knowledge of how the workflows are structured lives in the n8n database and requires another developer to maintain.
Hidden gotchas
Self-hosted n8n stores workflow definitions and credentials in a database that is not version-controlled by default. If the VPS disk fails or the database is accidentally dropped, all workflows are lost unless the team has configured regular database backups. The n8n CLI can export workflows to JSON, but automating that export is a manual setup step that most teams skip. Memory consumption is the second surprise: n8n runs all workflows in a single Node.js process, and workflows that process large datasets, such as iterating over thousands of webhook payloads, can cause the process to exceed the VPS memory limit and crash. The cloud plan at per month mitigates this with managed infrastructure but caps executions and adds per-execution pricing above the base tier. The community node ecosystem is less curated than Zapier's integration catalog: some community nodes have not been updated in months and may break on n8n version upgrades. Credential encryption uses a key stored in an environment variable, and if that key is lost or changed, all stored credentials become unreadable. The visual editor's learning curve is steeper than Zapier's for non-developers, and the documentation sometimes lags behind the latest release for community-contributed nodes.
Pricing breakdown
n8n's self-hosted Community Edition is free and open-source (Sustainable Use License). n8n Cloud starts at €20/mo for 2,500 workflow executions. The Pro plan at €50/mo includes 10,000 executions and advanced features (source control, environments). Enterprise is custom-priced. Self-hosting on a $5-12/mo VPS handles unlimited executions. The cost comparison with Zapier: n8n's Pro at €50/mo replaces Zapier's Professional at $49/mo but includes 10x more executions (10K vs 2K tasks). The limitation: n8n Cloud execution limits are per-month, not per-workflow, so a single chatty workflow can consume the entire quota.
Deep dive: Make
When to choose Make
Make is the right choice when the team needs Zapier-level integration breadth at a fraction of the cost, and when workflows involve non-trivial data transformations, branching, or error handling. Its visual canvas with drag-and-drop modules, routers, and iterators makes complex multi-path workflows significantly easier to build and debug than the equivalent in Zapier, which flattens everything into a linear step chain. Make is strongest for teams that sit between no-code users and full developers: comfortable enough to map JSON fields and write basic expressions, but not wanting to manage infrastructure. The built-in HTTP module and JSON parser mean most API integrations that lack a native module can still be wired up without external tools. Choose Make when the workflow complexity or task volume would make Zapier prohibitively expensive. Avoid it when the team is entirely non-technical and needs the simplest possible UX, or when the integration catalog must include niche vertical SaaS tools that only Zapier supports.
Real-world use case
An e-commerce team running a Shopify store uses Make to automate order fulfillment notifications, inventory sync, and customer feedback collection. A new order triggers a scenario that branches based on shipping destination: domestic orders route to a local 3PL API via HTTP module, international orders route to a different fulfillment partner. Both branches then update a Google Sheet inventory tracker, send a WhatsApp notification to the warehouse team via the Twilio module, and create a follow-up email in Brevo scheduled for 7 days post-delivery. The scenario has 12 modules across 3 branches and runs approximately 3,000 times per month. On Make Core at per month with 10,000 operations, this is comfortably within plan. The equivalent Zapier setup would consume roughly 36,000 tasks per month at 12 steps per trigger, pushing the cost past per month. The tradeoff: the initial build took the team about 4 hours compared to a likely 2 hours in Zapier, because Make requires explicit data mapping between modules where Zapier automatically surfaces fields from previous steps.
Hidden gotchas
Operations counting differs from Zapier tasks but is not always cheaper in edge cases. Each module execution counts as one operation, including filters that stop the flow. However, iterators that loop over an array count one operation per array element per downstream module, which can cause a single webhook trigger to consume hundreds of operations if it processes a list. Teams that automate batch events like processing all line items in an order must model the operation count as trigger_count multiplied by average_items multiplied by modules_after_iterator. The visual editor, while powerful, has a learning curve: routers, aggregators, and iterators are concepts that do not exist in Zapier and require understanding data flow rather than just connecting apps. Error handling routes are a major differentiator but must be explicitly configured per module. Without them, a module failure silently stops the scenario branch, and the team discovers missing data hours later. The built-in data store is limited to 10,000 rows on most plans and uses a proprietary query interface rather than SQL. Webhook response timing is tight: if a webhook trigger needs to return a response to the calling system, the entire scenario must complete within 40 seconds. Complex scenarios that exceed this window require an asynchronous pattern with a separate confirmation webhook, which the documentation mentions but does not walk through clearly.
Pricing breakdown
The free plan includes 1,000 operations per month and 2 active scenarios. The Core plan at per month includes 10,000 operations and unlimited active scenarios. The Pro plan at per month includes 10,000 operations plus priority execution and full-text log search. A team running 10 scenarios averaging 500 executions per month with 5 modules each consumes 25,000 operations monthly, requiring the Core plan with an add-on pack or the Teams plan at per month with 10,000 base operations plus purchased operation packs at per additional 10,000. Total cost would land around per month. The same workload on Zapier Professional would cost approximately per month in tasks.
Should You Use n8n or Make?
For most teams, n8n is the better default: it offers free to self-host and is open-source (from $20/mo). Choose Make instead if much cheaper than zapier matters more than requires server for self-host. There is no universal winner — the right pick depends on your budget, team size, and whether you value free to self-host or much cheaper than zapier more.
Choose n8n if…
- •Free to self-host
- •Full code access
- •Strong developer focus
Choose Make if…
- •Much cheaper than Zapier
- •Powerful data transformation
- •Visual debugger