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n8n vs Zapier vs Make: which automation tool for a small business?
The honest answer to this question starts with a different one: who will look after it? The tool matters less than the design and the person behind it, but the costs and trade-offs are real, so here they are with the prices we checked today.
What you are actually choosing
All three tools do the same basic job: when something happens in one app, make something happen in another. The differences that matter for a small business are not the feature lists. They are what each one costs as you grow, how much you can do inside it, and who has to look after it.
What they cost, checked on 9 October 2026
Prices change, so treat this as a snapshot and check the linked pages before you decide.
| Tool | Entry paid plan | What is counted | Other options |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | Starter, 20 euros a month billed annually | 2,500 workflow executions, with unlimited steps in each | Pro, 50 euros a month billed annually, 10,000 executions. A free self-hosted Community Edition under a fair-code licence |
| Zapier | Professional, 19.99 dollars a month billed annually (29.99 monthly) for 750 tasks | Tasks per month | Free plan with 100 tasks. The Team plan starts at 2,000 tasks and 69 dollars a month billed annually |
| Make | Core, 9 dollars a month for 10,000 credits | Credits per month | Free plan with up to 1,000 credits. Pro 16 dollars and Teams 29 dollars at the same base credits |
The headline prices are not comparable, because each tool counts differently. n8n counts a whole workflow run as one execution however many steps it has. Zapier counts tasks. Make counts credits. The only fair comparison is to take one real workflow of yours, work out how many times it runs a month, and price that in each.
Our choice, and why it might not be yours
We run n8n, self-hosted on our own server in Europe. The reasons are specific to us: we run dozens of workflows, many include steps that call an AI model or run code, and a flat server cost is easier to predict than per-step pricing. We describe the rest of the stack in the AI stack we run Viacala on.
Self-hosting also means someone has to own it: updates, backups, security, and noticing when something stops. If that someone does not exist in your business, a hosted plan from any of the three is the better choice, and we would say so. We make that call per client rather than by default.
A plain way to choose
| If this describes you | Start with |
|---|---|
| A handful of simple automations, nobody technical, you want it running this week | Zapier or Make on a paid hosted plan |
| Several steps per workflow, branching, and a budget you want to stay low as volume grows | Make, or n8n Cloud |
| Many workflows, AI steps, custom logic, or a reason to keep data on your own server, and someone to look after it | n8n, self-hosted or Cloud |
| You are not sure, and the workflows will touch customer data | Ask someone to scope it first, the tool is the smaller decision |
The part that matters more than the tool
Moving an enquiry from a form into a CRM and sending a reply is a ten-minute job in any of them. What decides whether a system works is the design around it: one front door, the record written first, a reply that fails safe, an alert when something breaks. We describe that in the three-tool speed-to-lead stack. Pick the tool you can look after, then spend your effort on that.
If you want help choosing for a specific business, that is part of the work behind the AI automation tools we choose for Mallorca clients.
Sources, checked 9 October 2026
- n8n pricing, Starter and Pro in euros billed annually, Community Edition self-hosted, read 9 October 2026.
- Zapier pricing, in US dollars, read 9 October 2026.
- Make pricing, in US dollars, read 9 October 2026.