TL;DR
- The billing model is the whole comparison. n8n charges per workflow execution regardless of how many steps it contains. Zapier charges per task, meaning per step. Make charges per credit, roughly per module run. At GTM volumes this produces cost differences of an order of magnitude for identical work.
- n8n is the strongest fit for technical teams running multi-step GTM workflows at volume, from $20 to $24 per month for 2,500 executions, with a free self-hosted Community Edition.
- Zapier is the strongest fit where breadth of integrations and non-technical usability matter more than unit cost, from $19.99 per month annually for 750 tasks across 9,000+ apps.
- Make is the strongest fit for visually complex branching logic at mid volumes, from roughly $9 to $12 per month for 10,000 credits.
- One caution on n8n: sources disagree on whether an execution counts the whole workflow or each step. n8n's own documentation says the whole workflow. At least one third-party guide claims per step. Verify against your own usage before budgeting.
Contents
- The three billing models explained
- Comparison table: pricing, limits, and capability
- n8n in detail
- Zapier in detail
- Make in detail
- Real cost at GTM volumes
- Self-hosting: what it actually costs
- Which platform fits which team
- FAQ
The three billing models explained
Every meaningful difference between these platforms follows from how they meter usage.
n8n bills per execution. One execution is one complete run of a workflow from trigger to finish. A two-node workflow and a fifty-node workflow each consume exactly one execution per run. This is the most favourable model for complex work.
Zapier bills per task. A task is one successful action performed by a step. A five-step Zap running 1,000 times consumes 5,000 tasks. Filters, Paths, and Formatter steps do not count against the task total, which is a meaningful concession, but every action step does.
Make bills per credit. Make switched from operations to credits on 27 August 2025. A credit corresponds roughly to a module run, so like Zapier it scales with workflow complexity, though the per-unit price is considerably lower and AI-related features consume credits differently from standard modules.
The consequence at GTM scale is stark. One published comparison models a five-step workflow running 1,000 times: 5,000 tasks on Zapier, which requires a plan costing $500 or more per month, against one n8n plan at $20 per month for the same work. That 90% gap is not marketing spin, it is arithmetic.
Comparison table: pricing, limits, and capability
| n8n | Zapier | Make | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Execution (whole workflow) | Task (per action step) | Credit (per module run) |
| Free tier | Self-hosted Community Edition, unlimited | 100 tasks per month | 1,000 credits per month |
| Entry paid | $20 to $24 per month, 2,500 executions | $19.99 per month annual, 750 tasks | $9 to $12 per month, 10,000 credits |
| Mid tier | $50 to $60 per month, 10,000 executions | $103.50 per month, 2,000 tasks | $16 per month Pro |
| Business tier | $667 to $800 per month, 40,000 executions | Custom | $29 per month Teams |
| Integrations | ~400 to 1,000+ | 9,000+ | 2,000+ |
| Self-hosting | Yes, free | No | No |
| n8n | Zapier | Make | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited users | Yes, all plans | No, seat-based on Team | Seat-based above Core |
| Unlimited workflows | Yes | Plan-dependent | Yes |
| Custom code | Yes, JavaScript and Python | Limited | Limited |
| Overage behaviour | Workflows stop, no auto-charge | Charged per task over limit | Scenarios stop until reset |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes, included on all plans | Yes |
| Annual discount | 17% | Built into annual price | ~15% |
n8n in detail
Best for: Technical GTM and RevOps teams running multi-step enrichment and orchestration workflows where execution volume is high and step count is higher.
n8n is a source-available workflow automation platform with a visual builder and full custom code support in JavaScript and Python. Its architectural advantage for GTM work is that a workflow which enriches a lead through six providers, scores it, writes to the CRM, and pushes to Slack costs exactly the same as one that sends a single Slack message.
Forma Norden's internal assessment ranks n8n as the top alternative for both workflow automation and AI agent building, behind Clay and Claude Code respectively.
Pricing: The self-hosted Community Edition is free, with unlimited executions and workflows, and you pay only for infrastructure, typically $5 to $20 per month on a small VPS. Cloud Starter is $20 per month billed annually or $24 monthly, covering 2,500 workflow executions, one shared project, five concurrent executions, unlimited users, and 2,300 AI credits per month. Pro is $50 to $60 per month for 10,000 executions. Business is quoted at $667 to $800 per month for 40,000 executions with SSO, Git sync, and multiple environments. Enterprise is custom with unlimited executions. Annual billing saves 17%. All cloud plans include unlimited users, unlimited workflows, and every integration.
Where it falls short: Execution limits are a hard stop rather than an overage charge. When you hit the cap, workflows stop running until the billing cycle resets, with no auto-upgrade. That is a business continuity risk, not just a cost issue. One workflow triggering every five minutes consumes 8,640 executions per month, which exhausts Starter in nine days.
The integration count is also much lower than Zapier's, at roughly 400 to 1,000 native nodes depending on the source, against Zapier's 9,000+. In practice the HTTP Request node covers most gaps, but only if someone on your team is comfortable reading API documentation.
One source conflict is worth flagging. n8n's own pricing page and the majority of 2026 guides state that one execution equals one complete workflow run regardless of step count. At least one competitor-published guide claims n8n treats each step as a separate execution. The vendor documentation is the more reliable source here, but confirm against your own billing before committing to a plan sized on the assumption.
Verdict: The strongest fit where workflows are complex and volume is real. The cost advantage over Zapier at GTM scale is not marginal.
Zapier in detail
Best for: Teams where the binding constraint is connecting an unusual app, or where non-technical staff need to build automations without support.
Zapier's advantage is coverage and approachability. It supports over 9,000 apps and more than 66,000 individual triggers and actions, and it is used by over three million businesses. If a tool in your stack has an integration anywhere, it is almost certainly on Zapier.
The 2026 positioning has shifted toward governance, marketing itself as a control plane for AI workflows and agents with credential management, action-level controls, and policies that persist across model providers. Zapier MCP is included on Free, Professional, and Team plans at no extra cost.
Pricing: A subscription combines a plan level with a task tier. Free covers 100 tasks per month with single-step Zaps. Professional starts at $19.99 per month billed annually, or $29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks, unlocking multi-step Zaps, premium apps, Filters, Paths, and Formatter. Team is reported at $103.50 per month for 2,000 tasks. Enterprise is configured with sales. Tasks over your allowance still run and are charged per task. AI add-ons including Zapier Agents and Chatbots are separately priced.
Where it falls short: Cost at volume. Per-task billing means every additional step in a workflow multiplies your consumption. For the multi-step enrichment and orchestration workflows that GTM teams actually build, Zapier becomes the most expensive option here by a wide margin. Custom code support is limited compared to n8n.
Verdict: The right answer for breadth and for non-technical builders. The wrong answer for high-volume, multi-step GTM orchestration.
Make in detail
Best for: Teams that want visual branching logic and error handling at a lower unit cost than Zapier, without needing to self-host.
Make's visual scenario builder is the strongest option here for representing complex branching, iteration, and error handling. Over 350,000 organisations use it, and it connects 350+ AI applications alongside 2,000+ general integrations.
Pricing: Free tier with 1,000 credits per month and no time limit. Core at $9 to $12 per month with 10,000 credits, depending on billing period. Pro at $16 per month. Teams at $29 per month. Enterprise custom. All paid plans start at 10,000 credits monthly. Annual billing saves roughly 15%. If you exhaust credits, scenarios stop until the cycle resets, you upgrade, or you buy more.
Where it falls short: Credit consumption is genuinely difficult to forecast, and AI-related features consume credits differently from standard module runs, which is the detail most guides omit. Like Zapier, cost scales with workflow complexity rather than workflow count. The visual builder, while powerful, becomes hard to read on very large scenarios.
Verdict: The best value among the hosted options, and the strongest visual builder. It sits between n8n and Zapier on both cost and technical requirement, which is a defensible place to be.
Real cost at GTM volumes
Abstract per-unit pricing hides the difference. Here are three realistic GTM workflows costed across all three platforms.
Workflow A: lead enrichment on form submission. Eight steps including enrichment, verification, scoring, CRM write, and Slack notification. 1,000 submissions per month.
| Platform | Consumption | Plan required | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | 1,000 executions | Starter, 2,500 | $20 |
| Zapier | 8,000 tasks | Above Team tier | $200+ |
| Make | ~8,000 credits | Core, 10,000 | $9 to $12 |
Workflow B: daily signal monitoring. Twelve steps, running every 30 minutes, 1,440 runs per month.
| Platform | Consumption | Plan required | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | 1,440 executions | Starter, 2,500 | $20 |
| Zapier | 17,280 tasks | Enterprise territory | $400+ |
| Make | ~17,280 credits | Above Core | $30+ |
Workflow C: simple two-step CRM sync. Two steps, 500 runs per month.
| Platform | Consumption | Plan required | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | 500 executions | Starter, 2,500 | $20 |
| Zapier | 1,000 tasks | Professional, 750 plus overage | ~$25 |
| Make | ~1,000 credits | Free, 1,000 | $0 |
The pattern is consistent. Zapier is competitive only for simple, low-volume workflows. Make wins at the low end because of its generous free tier and cheap credits. n8n wins decisively as step count and frequency rise, which describes most real GTM automation.
Self-hosting: what it actually costs
n8n is the only one of the three that can be self-hosted, and the Community Edition is free with unlimited executions.
The honest accounting is that free software still needs somewhere to run and someone to maintain it. A small VPS costs roughly $5 to $6 per month, and published analyses put self-hosting on Hetzner at a saving of around €600 per year against the Pro plan. Against those savings you should set the engineering time for initial setup, upgrades, backups, monitoring, and incident response when a workflow silently fails at 2am.
The practical rule we apply: self-host if you already run infrastructure and have someone on call for it. Use n8n Cloud if automation is important but nobody owns servers. The cloud premium is small relative to a single unplanned outage in a workflow that feeds your CRM.
Self-hosting also matters for data residency. If your automation touches personal data and you have GDPR obligations, keeping the workflow engine inside your own infrastructure removes an entire category of vendor assessment work.
Which platform fits which team
| Situation | Strongest fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-step GTM workflows at volume | n8n | Execution billing makes step count free |
| Non-technical team building automations | Zapier | Easiest builder, widest app coverage |
| Need an unusual app integration | Zapier | 9,000+ apps, 66,000+ triggers and actions |
| Complex branching, mid volume, hosted | Make | Best visual builder, cheap credits |
| Data residency or GDPR constraints | n8n self-hosted | Engine runs in your own infrastructure |
| Very low volume, simple workflows | Make free tier | 1,000 credits per month, no time limit |
| Need custom JavaScript or Python | n8n | Full code support in-workflow |
| Governance across AI models | Zapier | Credential and action-level controls |
AI vs SDR Cost Comparison Template: Download Free
Get the practical framework for applying this article to your GTM system.
Download the Cost Comparison Template →
FAQ: n8n vs Zapier vs Make
What is the difference between an execution, a task, and a credit?
An n8n execution is one complete run of a workflow regardless of how many steps it contains. A Zapier task is one successful action performed by a single step, so a five-step Zap consumes five tasks per run. A Make credit corresponds roughly to one module run, so it also scales with step count. This is why n8n is dramatically cheaper for complex workflows.
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
For multi-step workflows, substantially. One published comparison models a five-step workflow running 1,000 times as 5,000 Zapier tasks requiring a plan of $500 or more per month, against a single n8n plan at $20 per month. For simple two-step workflows at low volume the gap largely disappears.
Is n8n free?
The self-hosted Community Edition is free with unlimited executions and workflows. You pay only for infrastructure, typically $5 to $20 per month on a small VPS. n8n Cloud starts at $20 per month billed annually for 2,500 executions.
What happens when I hit my plan limit?
On n8n Cloud, workflows stop running immediately with no overage charge or auto-upgrade until the billing cycle resets. On Zapier, tasks over your allowance still run and are billed per task. On Make, scenarios stop until the cycle resets, you upgrade, or you buy additional credits.
Which has the most integrations?
Zapier by a wide margin, with over 9,000 apps and more than 66,000 triggers and actions. Make supports over 2,000 integrations plus 350+ AI applications. n8n has roughly 400 to 1,000 native nodes depending on the source, though its HTTP Request node covers most gaps for anyone comfortable with API documentation.
Can I self-host Zapier or Make?
No. Neither offers a self-hosted option. n8n is the only one of the three that can run on your own infrastructure, which matters for data residency, GDPR obligations, and cost at high volume.
Yananai A. Chiwuta
Author
Yananai Chiwuta is a Go-To-Market Architect and founder of Forma Nôrden. He builds Go-To-Market growth systems for B2B companies selling into enterprise and mid-market accounts.
Celine Sky
Reviewer
Celine ensures technical accuracy and strategic alignment across all Forma Nôrden playbooks and resources.
