An automation is a chain of steps that starts without you. A form is sent, a file lands in a folder or a clock reaches nine, and the work happens with nobody pressing a button. This module builds four from nothing in n8n: a form that names files, one post rewritten for five places, a calendar that drafts its own posts, and a Drive folder that files whatever lands in it. The last item covers runs that fail and what they cost. This one picks the tool.
The three count different things. n8n charges for , and its pricing page counts one run of a whole workflow as one execution, however many steps it has. It also runs free on your own server, as the . Make charges for credits, one for each , such as adding a row to a Google Sheet. Its help centre adds a cost that is easy to miss. The trigger spends a credit every time it checks for new data, even when it finds none, so a check every hour costs 720 credits a month before any work is done. Zapier charges for tasks. Each action that succeeds uses a task (a few use more), and its triggers and checks for new data are free. The table below has their prices as each page showed them on 9 October 2026.
The prompt
The decision sheetMarkdown # Which tool runs [WORKFLOW NAME] Prices checked on each tool's own pricing page on [YYYY-MM-DD]. ## The workflow1. What starts it: [A FORM, A NEW FILE, A NEW ROW OR A TIME OF DAY]2. Runs a month: [NUMBER]3. Steps after the trigger, in each run: [NUMBER]4. If it waits for something new, how often it checks: [EVERY 1, 15 OR 60 MINUTES]5. A model writes or judges something: [YES OR NO] ## The sums1. n8n. Executions = runs a month = [NUMBER]. A Schedule Trigger counts every time it fires. A check for new data counts only when it finds some. Test runs you start by hand are free.2. Make. Credits = trigger credits + (runs a month x steps) = [NUMBER]. A trigger that checks on a schedule uses one credit per check: every minute is about 43,200 a month, every 15 minutes about 2,880, every hour about 720, once a day about 30. A trigger that is sent data, such as a form, uses one per run.3. Zapier. Tasks = runs a month x steps that do something = [NUMBER]. Triggers, checks for new data and Zapier's own Filter and Formatter steps are free. ## The plan each one needs1. n8n: [PLAN, PRICE AND CURRENCY, AS THE PAGE SHOWS IT]2. Make: [PLAN, PRICE AND CURRENCY, AS THE PAGE SHOWS IT]3. Zapier: [PLAN, PRICE AND CURRENCY, AS THE PAGE SHOWS IT] ## Before you choose1. Who fixes it when it breaks, and can they read this tool?2. Does any step send client material to a model, and on whose key?3. If you host it yourself, who keeps that machine running? Decision: [TOOL AND PLAN], because [ONE REASON].Download it or copy it into a doc, and fill one in for each workflow before you build it.
Side by side
The three side by side
| n8n | Make | Zapier | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay for | Executions. A whole run is one, however many steps. Runs you start by hand while building are free. | Credits. Most module actions use one, and a scheduled trigger uses one every time it checks. | Tasks. Each action that succeeds uses at least one. Triggers, checks and the Filter and Formatter steps are free. |
| Free to start | No free hosted plan. A 14-day Cloud trial with 1,000 executions and no card, or the Community Edition on your own server. | A Free plan with no time limit: 1,000 credits a month, two active scenarios, a run every 15 minutes at most. | Free forever: 100 tasks a month, in Zaps of two steps (a trigger and one action). |
| Cheapest paid plan | Starter: €20 a month billed annually, or €24 monthly, for 2,500 executions. | Make Plan: $9 a month billed annually, or $10.59 monthly, for 5,000 credits. | Professional: from $19.99 a month billed yearly, or $29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks. |
| Model steps | On Cloud Starter and Pro, the Gemini, OpenAI and Anthropic model nodes can run on n8n's Gateway credits instead of your own key. | Make's AI Provider works on every plan. Connecting your own model key needs a paid plan. | AI steps use tasks, at a rate that depends on the model tier. |
| Pick it when | Workflows have many steps, a model sits in the middle, or you want to host it yourself. | Workflows are short and run on a slow schedule, and the price matters most. | You need an app the other two do not connect to. Zapier lists over 9,000. |
Read on each company's own pricing page on 9 October 2026, in the currency it showed: euros for n8n, US dollars for Make and Zapier. Each page opened on its annual price.
What to do it with
- n8nOpen weights or open source
Automation you can self-host, wiring APIs and models into a pipeline that runs on a trigger.
Bad at Visual automation hides its failure modes. Without logging you find out it broke from a client.
- MakeFree tier, paid above it
Connects services into a flow without code, including most of the model APIs.
Bad at Operation-based pricing gets expensive on anything that loops.
- ZapierFree tier, paid above it
The widest set of integrations, for gluing tools that were never meant to meet.
Bad at Shallow by design. Anything with real branching outgrows it.
The words, in plain language
- Execution
- n8n's unit of billing: one run of a whole workflow, however many steps it has.
- Module action
- One thing a step does in Make, such as adding a row to a sheet. Most cost one credit.
- Community Edition
- The free version of n8n that you host yourself, on your own computer or server.
Why it matters
Work out the cost of a real job before you sign up. Take the files item later in this module, which renames and moves twenty files a day, about 600 a month. On n8n that is 600 executions at most, well inside Starter's 2,500, because a check that finds nothing is free. On Make, a check every 15 minutes costs 2,880 credits a month on its own and the work adds about 1,200, which fits the Make Plan's 5,000 but would empty the Free plan in about a week. On Zapier the same work is about 1,200 tasks, which needs Professional at its 1,500-task tier, $39 a month billed yearly. The sheet below does the sum.
Elsewhere
- Type
- technique
- Period
- ongoing