# n8n, Zapier or Make: which automation tool should a small team pick?

Published: 2026-11-01 · Brand E5
URL: https://brande5.com/blog/n8n-vs-zapier-vs-make-small-business/

> We build on n8n because it is self-hostable, easy to customise and cheaper as volume grows. Zapier and Make bill for every step, while n8n bills for every run, so the gap widens the busier the workflow gets.

A small team should pick n8n. It can be hosted on your own server, it is easy to customise and it costs the least once your workflows get busy. Zapier is easier to start with and Make sits in between, but both charge for every step a workflow takes, while n8n charges for every run.

We use n8n for every client automation at Brand E5. After building on it, we do not think Zapier or Make can compete on cost, on the range of integrations or on handling large amounts of data. That is our view from client work, and the numbers below show where it comes from.

## How do n8n, Zapier and Make charge?

The three tools count different things, and that one difference drives almost every price gap.

| | Zapier | Make | n8n |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| What you are billed for | Tasks: each successful action in a workflow | Credits: each module action, usually 1 credit | Executions: one per workflow run |
| Free option | 100 tasks a month, two-step workflows | 1,000 credits a month | Self-hosted Community Edition |
| Paid plans (as of 1 Nov 2026, in rupees) | Professional from about ₹1,900 a month | Core about ₹1,100 a month for 10,000 credits | Starter about ₹2,100 a month for 2,500 executions, Pro about ₹5,300 for 10,000 |

Zapier's and n8n's prices come from their own pricing pages, and Zapier's task counting rules too. Make's pricing page did not list plan prices when we checked, so the Core figure is from an August 2026 comparison blog. n8n shows its cloud prices billed annually. The tools bill in dollars and euros. We converted them to rupees at the 1 Nov 2026 mid-market rates (₹94.96 to the dollar, ₹106.11 to the euro) and rounded to the nearest ₹100. Your bill will move with the day's rate. All three change their plans often, so check the pages before you decide.

The practical meaning is this. On Zapier, a workflow with 10 steps uses about 10 tasks every time it runs. On Make it uses about 10 credits. On n8n it uses 1 execution, however many steps it has. One comparison blog puts it plainly: a 20-step workflow costs about the same as a 1-step one on n8n, and roughly 20 times as much on Zapier.

## What does one workflow cost on all three?

Here is one workflow priced on each tool. It is an example we built to compare them, with assumed volumes, and not a client result. Replace the numbers with your own.

**The workflow:** a new enquiry arrives from the website form. The workflow saves it to a sheet, sends the customer a WhatsApp acknowledgement, alerts the owner, sets a follow-up reminder and updates the status when someone replies. That is 5 actions after the trigger.

**At 200 enquiries a month**, that is 1,000 actions.

| Tool | What it counts | Fits in |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Zapier | About 1,000 tasks | The 1,500 task tier of a paid plan, from about ₹1,900 a month |
| Make | About 1,200 credits, if the trigger counts as one | Just over the free 1,000, so Core at about ₹1,100 a month |
| n8n | 200 executions | Starter at about ₹2,100 a month, or self-hosted for the cost of a server |

At this size the three are close, and any of them is a small monthly bill. Zapier's page does not show which price goes with which task tier, so the exact figure depends on the tier you choose.

**At 2,000 enquiries a month**, the picture changes.

| Tool | What it counts | Fits in |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Zapier | About 10,000 tasks | The 10,000 task tier of a paid plan, priced well above the entry plan |
| Make | About 12,000 credits | Above Core's 10,000, so a higher plan or extra credits |
| n8n | 2,000 executions | Still inside Starter's 2,500 |

Ten times the enquiries, and n8n's bill does not move. That is the case for it, and it is why we say the gap widens with volume.

## What does self-hosting n8n really take?

The free Community Edition is free to use, and it is not free to run. It needs a server, and a server needs updates, backups and someone watching it.

The server is the smallest part. Hosting starts at about ₹699 a month on a Hostinger plan, which is the figure we use for a small team. The larger part is the work around it: keeping n8n updated, backing up the workflows and credentials, and fixing things when a service changes.

For our clients, setup is covered in the initial cost. After that, training and maintenance are charged under an agreement. Anything outside it is billed hourly, and our hourly rate starts at ₹1,200.

If you would rather not run a server, n8n's cloud plans start at about ₹2,100 a month, billed annually. That removes the server work and keeps the per-run pricing.

## Who keeps it running after handover?

Someone has to, and for a small team that is usually either an agency like ours on a maintenance agreement or one person on the team who learns it.

What breaks most often is not the tool. It is the input. The data an automation expects does not arrive in the shape it was built for, a customer types a phone number with spaces, or a URL it relies on changes. The workflow stops, and nobody notices until a lead goes cold.

The fix is to build for bad input from the start. We call it baby-proofing: check every field before using it, handle the empty case, and send an alert to a person when a run fails instead of failing silently. A workflow built this way keeps running through the messy inputs that real customers produce.

## When would Zapier or Make be the right choice?

In our view, rarely. After building on n8n, we do not tell clients to choose Zapier or Make.

There is one fair trade-off to know about. Comparison reviews rate Zapier as the easiest of the three to learn, with a simple trigger and action model that non-technical people pick up quickly. n8n has the steepest learning curve, and it expects some comfort with data and APIs. If nobody on your team will ever build or edit a workflow and you will not hire anyone to, that gap matters. If someone sets it up for you, it does not.

## Which one should your team pick?

| Your team | Our pick |
| --- | --- |
| A few workflows, set up for you, volume growing | n8n, self-hosted or cloud |
| One or two simple workflows you will build yourself | Any of the three, start on the free plan |
| Workflows that move a lot of data or call many tools | n8n |

If you are not sure which workflow to automate first, our [guide to what AI automation costs](/blog/ai-automation-cost-small-business-india/) walks through the usual starting points. Our [AI consulting service](/services/ai-consulting/) begins with exactly that question, and the [AI automation package](/pricing/) starts from ₹25,000 for one workflow.

## What to do next

Count how many times your busiest repeated task happens in a month, and how many steps it takes. Multiply the two. That number is what Zapier and Make will bill you for, and the number of runs is what n8n will. Book a [free audit](/contact/) and we will price it on all three with you.

## Questions

### Which is cheaper, n8n, Zapier or Make?

For busy workflows, n8n. Zapier counts tasks per step and Make counts credits per module, while n8n counts one execution per run however many steps it has. For a tiny workflow all three can be close to free.

### Is n8n free?

The self-hosted Community Edition is free. You still pay for the server, which starts at about ₹699 a month on a Hostinger plan, and for the time to keep it updated and backed up.

### Is Zapier easier than n8n?

Yes. Zapier has the lowest learning curve of the three, and a non-technical person can build a simple workflow quickly. n8n asks for more comfort with data and APIs, which is why many teams have it set up for them.

### What breaks most often in an automation after handover?

Messy inputs. The data a workflow expects does not arrive in the shape it was built for, or a URL it relies on changes. Building in checks that handle bad input is what keeps it running.

### How much does it cost to maintain an n8n setup?

Setup is covered in the initial cost. Training and maintenance are charged under an agreement, and extra work is billed at an hourly rate that starts at ₹1,200.

## Sources
- [n8n: Pricing](https://n8n.io/pricing)
- [Zapier: Pricing](https://zapier.com/pricing)
- [Make: Pricing](https://www.make.com/en/pricing)
- [Parseur: Zapier vs Make vs n8n](https://parseur.com/blog/zapier-n8n-make)