Guide

AI automation tools compared: n8n, Zapier and Make

Harrowtech.ai · last checked 13 October 2026

n8n, Zapier and Make all join your apps together and all now offer AI agents. The real differences for a small business are how each one counts usage, what you get free, and whether you can run it on your own server. In short: Zapier lists the most apps and has a free plan for simple two-step jobs; Make’s free plan gives 1,000 credits a month against Zapier’s 100 tasks; n8n charges per whole workflow run and is the only one of the three you can self-host for free.

Everything below comes from each vendor’s own pages, read on 13 October 2026. Vendors describe themselves favourably, so their claims are quoted as claims.

Side by side

How each one counts usage

This matters more than the headline price, because the three units are not the same size.

• n8n prices on “monthly workflow executions, regardless of complexity”. Its pricing page says an execution “is a single run of your entire workflow. It doesn’t matter how many steps are in the workflow or how much data it processes.” A daily schedule, it notes, is 30 or 31 executions a month.
• Zapier counts tasks. Its rates page says “Each successful step uses tasks”: a standard trigger or action step is 1 task, and its built-in tools (Formatter, Paths, Filters, Delay, Looping and others) use none. Its pricing page adds that “Triggers don’t count toward your task limit” and that a failed action does not count. When you reach your limit, Zapier switches you to pay-per-task billing at a higher rate if you have it turned on; otherwise your Zaps pause until the next period.
• Make counts credits. Its help centre says that for non-AI apps “1 operation equals 1 credit”, and a few modules use more. Its pricing page says the Router module and error-handler modules use no credits.

A worked sum. Take a hypothetical workflow: one trigger and four action steps, no AI, running once a day (30 runs a month). On n8n that is 30 executions. On Zapier the trigger is free and the four actions are 4 tasks a run, so 120 tasks, and because it has more than two steps it needs a paid plan. On Make the four actions are at least 120 credits, which fits inside the free 1,000. Add more steps and the Zapier and Make counts grow; the n8n count does not.

How each one charges for AI

• n8n lists “Agents, MCP and AI nodes” and “AI models without API keys” on its Starter plan, and “Human approval for tool calls” in its agent features. The pricing page sets out no separate AI usage charge for paid plans; the free trial lists “100 AI credits”. Its home page says you can “Swap cloud or offline models without rebuilding your workflows.”
• Zapier now bills AI by the same tasks. Per AI step: Standard models and your own model 1 task, Advanced models 3 tasks, Premium models 5 tasks, and each tool call the AI makes is billed separately at the same rate (Standard models cannot call tools). If you bring your own model, you “pay your provider directly”. A tool call through Zapier MCP uses 2 tasks.
• Make varies by connection. Using a third-party AI app such as OpenAI or Anthropic Claude with your own connection, you pay Make 1 credit per operation and pay the AI provider for tokens. Using Make’s AI Provider (available on all plans in Make AI Agents and Make AI Toolkit), “Credits are based on tokens and operations”, so the credit count changes with the length of prompts and replies. Custom AI provider connections are listed for paid plans.

Whichever tool you choose, the AI provider’s own fees are a separate cost unless the tool resells the model to you. Our AI automation cost guide covers those fees and the rest of the bill.

Free options in detail

• n8n: no free hosted plan. The Cloud free trial gives Pro-level features with 1,000 executions, and the docs describe it as 14 days. The self-hosted Community edition is free “with almost the complete feature set”. n8n’s licence FAQ says: “If workflows are only created or modified by you or people in your organization, you can use n8n under the Community license for free.” It does not allow you to host n8n as a service where your clients build their own workflows.
• Zapier: “Free forever”, with 100 tasks a month, unlimited Zaps, Tables and Forms, two-step Zaps only, and Copilot with daily message limits. Webhooks and multi-step Zaps are listed from Professional up. New accounts also get a 14-day trial of Professional. Separately, Zapier Agents has a free tier of 400 activities a month and Chatbots a free tier of 2 chatbots.
• Make: “If you are on the Free plan, you have 1000 credits per month”, with 1 MB of data storage and 1 data store.

Self-hosting

Of the three, only n8n lists a self-hosted version. Its docs are plain about the trade-off: self-hosting needs technical expertise “for installation and configuration”, and you “must provide and manage infrastructure”. In return you control where data sits. For its hosted plans, n8n says data is stored in the EU, on servers in Frankfurt. Neither Zapier’s nor Make’s pricing page offers a self-hosted edition.

Who each one is for, in the vendors’ own words

• n8n: “AI agents and workflows for technical teams”. Its Pro plan is “For solo builders and small teams running automations in production”. Its docs recommend n8n Cloud if you “Don’t have technical expertise”.
• Zapier: answers “Do I need to know how to code?” with “Nope!”, and says it connects to “9,000+ apps—more than any other automation tool”.
• Make: “Make is an AI automation platform. You build automated workflows and AI agents visually”, and “No coding required; developers can add custom code where it helps.”

This reading comes from each vendor’s own pages and pricing, not from a side-by-side test. Read together, if you want to build small jobs yourself without code and your apps are niche, Zapier’s app count and free two-step plan suit. If you want a visual builder with a bigger free allowance, Make. If your workflows have many steps or run often, or you want the option to keep everything on your own server, n8n’s per-run pricing and self-hosting make the difference, at the cost of more technical set-up.

Why Harrowtech builds in n8n

Harrowtech.ai builds client automations in n8n for speed and flexibility: it gets projects rolling fast. When we build for you, hosting, n8n and AI usage costs are billed to you directly, with no mark-up from us, and the automations stay in your account, documented and in your name. See how we work and examples of what we have built.

Before you choose

• Prices change. n8n shows euros and Zapier US dollars, and neither figure includes VAT or your AI provider’s fees.
• Count your runs and steps first, then price each tool on its own unit.
• Check where your data will be processed if the workflow handles customer details; our GDPR guide explains why.

Sources

• n8n, Plans and pricing
• n8n, home page
• n8n docs, Choose how to use n8n
• n8n docs, License FAQ
• Zapier, Pricing
• Zapier, Task usage rates
• Make, Pricing
• Make Help Center, Credits (updated 13 October 2026)
• Make, home page and Make AI Agents

All read 13 October 2026.

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