The short answer
Zapier is the easiest to start with, Make costs less as workflows grow, and n8n suits teams with someone technical. Here's how prices and limits compare.
Zapier, Make and n8n all do the same basic job. They connect the apps you already use and pass information between them: when a form is filled in, add the person to a spreadsheet and send them a reply. If that idea is new to you, what is business automation? explains it in plain English. This article is about choosing between the three, because they differ a lot in how easy they are, how they charge and who they suit.
Prices below are as of October 2026. All three change their plans now and then, so check their pricing pages before you sign up.
The short answer
- Zapier: the easiest to learn and connects to the most apps. Best for a few simple automations, set up by someone who isn't technical.
- Make: a visual builder with more control, and usually cheaper once you run lots of steps. Best when your workflows have branches and conditions.
- n8n: the most flexible, and the cheapest at high volume. Best when you have someone technical, or pay someone, to set it up and look after it.
What they have in common
All three work on the same idea: a trigger (something happens in one app) followed by actions (things happen in other apps). All three have a free way to start, connect to the common small business tools like Gmail, Google Sheets, Shopify, Stripe and Slack, and can add AI steps, like summarising an enquiry or drafting a reply. The differences are in the details.
Zapier: the easiest place to start
Zapier is built for people who don't want to think about how it works. You pick an app, pick what should happen, and fill in the blanks. It connects to more apps than either of the others, so if you use something unusual, Zapier is the most likely to support it.
- Free plan: 100 tasks a month, and only two-step automations (one trigger, one action).
- Professional plan: from $19.99 a month billed yearly, or $29.99 billed monthly, for 750 tasks a month and automations with as many steps as you like.
- How it counts: every action that runs uses one task. The trigger doesn't count.
The catch is cost as you grow. An automation with four actions uses four tasks every time it runs, so busy, multi-step workflows push you into bigger plans quickly.
Make: more control for less money
Make lays your automation out as a flowchart on a canvas, with each app as a circle joined by lines. That makes it easier to see and build workflows that split into different paths, loop through lists or handle errors. It takes a little longer to learn than Zapier, but most people pick it up in an afternoon.
- Free plan: up to 1,000 credits a month, two active automations, and scheduled automations can run at most every 15 minutes.
- Paid plans: start at around $9 to $11 a month, depending on how you pay and how many credits you need.
- How it counts: each step that runs uses credits, including the trigger. Simple steps use one credit; some AI steps use more.
n8n: the most flexible, if someone technical is around
n8n looks similar to Make, with a visual canvas, but it's aimed at people comfortable with a bit of technical detail. You can write small pieces of code inside a workflow, connect to almost any system with an API, and build AI assistants that use your own data. It's popular with developers for that reason.
- Cloud plans: from €20 a month for 2,500 executions on the Starter plan, and €50 a month for 10,000 on Pro, billed yearly.
- Self-hosted: the community edition is free software you can run on your own server, with no limit on runs. You pay for the server and the time to keep it updated and secure.
- How it counts: one execution is one full run of a workflow, however many steps it has.
That last point is why n8n gets cheap at volume. A twenty-step workflow costs the same as a two-step one. The trade-off is that you need someone who can set it up properly and fix it when something changes.
A worked example: how the counting changes the price
Say your website contact form triggers a workflow with four actions: add the person to a spreadsheet, add them to your email list, send them a reply and message you on Slack. You get 300 enquiries a month.
- Zapier: 4 tasks per run, so 1,200 tasks a month. That's more than the 750 in the starting Professional plan, so you'd need a bigger tier.
- Make: 5 credits per run (the trigger plus four actions), so about 1,500 credits a month. That fits comfortably in an entry paid plan.
- n8n: 300 executions a month, well within the Starter plan.
For one or two small automations, the price difference hardly matters and Zapier's ease wins. As your automations get longer and busier, the way each tool counts starts to matter more than the headline price.
Which one for which business?
- A solo owner who wants enquiry replies and a few reminders, and will set it up themselves: Zapier.
- A small team with several workflows that branch, like routing enquiries by service or handling orders differently by country: Make.
- A business with lots of runs, sensitive data it would rather keep on its own server, or an AI assistant built on its own documents: n8n, with someone to look after it.
- Not sure yet: start with Zapier's free plan for one automation. You'll learn what you need before you pay for anything.
What matters more than the tool
- Keep the account in your business's name, not a freelancer's.
- Turn on error alerts, so a broken automation emails you instead of failing quietly.
- Write a one-line note on what each automation does. In six months nobody will remember.
- Start with one automation that saves real time, and add the next once it's working.
Want help choosing, or building it?
If you're not sure what to automate first, 5 tasks small businesses can automate today is a good starting list. Our workflow automation service picks the right tool for your volume and budget, builds the automations in your own account and shows you how they work. Most projects take one to two weeks.
