Automation cost calculator: n8n vs Make vs Zapier
Price the same automation on n8n, Make and Zapier. Enter how often it runs and how many action steps it has. You get what each product counts in a month (executions, credits or tasks), the cheapest plan size that holds it, and what that costs.
Plan sizes and prices are from each product's own pricing page, read on November 14, 2026. n8n showed prices in euros and Make and Zapier in US dollars, so compare them with your own exchange rate. Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent or stored.
Start from an example:
All your workflows together. A daily schedule is about 30 runs a month, every 5 minutes about 8,640 (30 days). For a webhook or an app event, count how often the event happens.
The steps after the trigger, on average: read a row, create a record, send an email. Don't count the trigger itself.
Zapier doesn't count Filter, Formatter, Paths, Delay, Looping, Sub-Zap, Digest, Storage and Zapier Manager steps, or Zapier Tables and Forms, as tasks. The calculator still counts these steps as Make credits, although Make's filters and routers (its counterparts of Filter and Paths) use none; on n8n a run is one execution either way.
Make's Help Center says a trigger module uses 1 credit every time it runs. A polling trigger also uses 1 credit on each check that finds nothing new (about 2,880 a month when it checks every 15 minutes); the calculator does not add those. See Make credits explained.
Make's Free plan allows 2 active scenarios.
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How the bill grows with the number of runs
The same workflow (your action steps, users and billing above) at different run counts: the cheapest plan size on each product and its price per month.
| Runs a month | n8n (hosted) | Make | Zapier |
|---|
How the estimate works
- n8n counts one workflow execution per run, however many steps the workflow has. Starter and Pro are hosted by n8n. Business is self-hosted only. Above Pro's largest size (50K executions), hosted n8n is Enterprise, which is priced by sales. The free Community Edition has no execution quota on the pricing page, but you run the server yourself; we show the entry 2 GB servers from our self-hosting cost breakdown.
- Make counts credits: each module action generally uses 1 credit, and some AI features use more. A trigger uses 1 credit each run, even when it finds nothing new. Routers, filters and error-handler modules use none (the details: Make credits explained). Make's page shows the price for one credit amount at a time on a slider. Its page text gave us the 10,000-credits step with annual billing (Core $9, Pro $16, Teams $29 a month). Other steps and monthly-billing prices were not in the text we could read, so the calculator does not estimate them.
- Zapier counts a task for each successful action. Checking the trigger for new data never uses a task, and the built-in steps listed above don't count. Free allows two-step Zaps (a trigger and one action) and 1 user, Professional 1 user and Team 25 users. Every task tier from 750 to 2 million a month is on the pricing page.
- Cheapest plan size: the lowest price per month whose included usage covers your month. A higher plan can still be the right one for its features (more users, SSO, faster checks, priority runs).
- Loops: a step that runs once per item (a list of 50 rows, say) counts once per item on Make and Zapier, but the whole run is still one execution on n8n. Count such steps as many times as they run.
- Not included: tax, extra credit or task purchases (Make's extra credits cost 25% more than the credits in a plan), a Make polling trigger's checks that find nothing, Zapier's pay-per-task billing past a tier, failed runs, AI features that use more credits, and currency conversion.
The comparison in words, with a worked example: n8n vs Make vs Zapier pricing. The products' own pages: n8n pricing, Make pricing, Zapier pricing.
FAQ
Why is the same workflow so much cheaper on one tool?
They count different things. n8n counts one execution per run, however many steps the workflow has. Make counts a credit for each module action, and Zapier a task for each successful action step. A workflow with five actions that runs 1,000 times a month is 1,000 n8n executions, 6,000 Make credits (Make's trigger module uses 1 credit every run, on top of the five actions), and 5,000 Zapier tasks.
Which Zapier steps don't use tasks?
Zapier's pricing page lists Filter, Formatter, Paths, Delay, Looping, Sub-Zap, Digest, Storage and Zapier Manager steps, Zapier Tables and Zapier Forms as not counting as tasks. Checking the trigger for new data never uses a task either.
Why doesn't the calculator price Make above 10,000 credits?
Make's pricing page sets the price with a slider and shows one credit amount at a time. The page text we could read on November 14, 2026 only had the 10,000-credits step with annual billing (Core $9, Pro $16, Teams $29 a month). We don't guess the other steps; the calculator tells you how many credits you need so you can set the slider on Make's page.
Is self-hosted n8n free?
The Community Edition has no license fee and no execution quota on the pricing page, but you pay for a server and do the upkeep. Entry 2 GB servers were €9.99 (Hetzner CPX12, Helsinki), $12.00 (DigitalOcean) and $12.00 (Akamai Linode) a month before tax when we checked. n8n's Business plan is also self-hosted, from 667€ a month billed annually, and adds features the Community Edition leaves out, such as SSO, multiple environments and version control with Git.
Why are n8n prices in euros?
n8n's pricing page showed euros when we checked it, and it may show another currency where you are. Make and Zapier showed US dollars. The calculator does not convert, so compare with your own exchange rate.
What happens when I go over my plan?
Zapier emails you near the limit; with pay-per-task billing turned on, Zaps keep running at a higher per-task rate, and with it off they pause until the next usage period. Make stops scenarios until credits are added (incoming webhooks are queued up to your plan's limit), and you can buy extra credits, which cost 25% more than the credits in your plan. n8n's pricing page answers this for Business and Enterprise only: workflows keep running, but overage charges may apply if you don't move to the next usage tier.
Is anything I enter sent anywhere?
No. The page loads one price table from this site and does the arithmetic in your browser. The numbers you enter stay in the page and in the link after # if you copy it.