n8n Pricing vs Make vs Zapier: The Real Cost Breakdown

Most "n8n pricing" articles just paste the pricing page and move on. The number on the page isn't the thing that decides your bill, though. The thing that decides your bill is how each tool counts what you run — and on that one detail, n8n and Zapier are a different sport. Here's the honest breakdown, with the math that matters if you're running an agent that fires every day.

Quick orientation before the numbers. All three tools do the same basic job: you connect apps and let a workflow run on a trigger or a schedule. Where they split is the meter. Zapier charges per task. Make charges per operation. n8n charges per execution. Those three words sound similar and produce wildly different invoices. Get this part and the rest of the decision is easy.

The one concept that controls your bill

Picture a simple agent: it triggers on a schedule, grabs five prospects, writes a personalized email for each, sends them, and logs the result. Say that's six steps, and it runs once a day.

• Zapier (per task): every action step counts as a task. Six steps minus the trigger is roughly five tasks per run. Run it daily on a list of five and you're burning tasks fast — a few hundred a month from one small workflow.
• Make (per operation): each module that fires is one operation, counted granularly. Similar shape to Zapier's task model, but Make's allowances are far larger for the money, so the same work costs a fraction.
• n8n (per execution): the entire workflow run counts as one execution. Six steps or sixty, processing one row or a thousand — it's a single execution. That run of five emails? One execution.

That's the whole ballgame. The more steps your workflow has, the more punishing per-task pricing gets, and the better n8n's per-execution model looks. AI agents tend to have a lot of steps. You can see where this goes.

n8n pricing (2026)

n8n has two completely separate paths, and conflating them is where people get confused.

n8n Cloud (they host it)

Every cloud tier includes unlimited active workflows and unlimited users. Annual billing runs roughly 17% cheaper. Prices are listed in euros and shift over time — always confirm on n8n's pricing page before you commit.

n8n self-hosted (you host it)

This is the part that makes n8n genuinely different: the Community Edition is free and open-source, with unlimited executions. Run it on a small server you rent for a few dollars a month and your automation bill is basically your server bill. No per-task meter, no execution cap. The tradeoff is that you own the setup, the updates, and the uptime. For a technical solo operator, that tradeoff is often well worth it. If you've never done it, our walkthrough on building a cold email agent in n8n assumes the cloud version to keep things simple, but the same workflow runs identically self-hosted.

Zapier pricing (2026)

Monthly billing is around 33% more than annual. Remember the task math: a 750-task plan does NOT mean 750 workflow runs. A 3-action Zap eats 3 tasks per run, so 750 tasks is roughly 250 runs. For anything multi-step and frequent, that ceiling arrives quickly.

Zapier's real strength isn't price, it's polish. It has the largest app library, the friendliest setup, and it just works for non-technical people. You're paying for ease, and for low-volume use that's a fair deal.

Make pricing (2026)

Make counts per operation like Zapier counts per task, but you get far more for the money — frequently cited as 60–70% cheaper than Zapier for the same workload. The visual builder is powerful but has a steeper curve than Zapier's.

The honest comparison at scale

Here's the pattern once you run real volume. Take that daily multi-step agent and push it to a meaningful list size:

• Low volume, non-technical, a few simple Zaps: Zapier's fine. The price difference is rounding error and the ease is worth it.
• Medium volume, cost-conscious, willing to learn: Make is the value pick. Same per-step model as Zapier, a fraction of the cost.
• High volume, multi-step agents, or you'll self-host: n8n wins, and it isn't close. Per-execution billing means adding steps is free, and self-hosting removes the meter entirely. A workflow that would cost a few hundred a month on Zapier can run for the price of a small server.

For cold email and AI agents specifically — workflows that are inherently multi-step and run on a schedule every day — this is why n8n keeps winning in this niche. The thing you're building is exactly the thing per-task pricing punishes. We go deeper on the feature side in n8n vs Zapier vs Make for cold email, but on cost alone, the execution model is the deciding factor.

The traps in every pricing page

A few things the marketing won't lead with:

• Zapier's task math. The headline task count divides by your number of steps. Always estimate tasks as steps × runs, not just runs.
• n8n Cloud's execution cap is per run, but a failed run still counts. A workflow stuck in a retry loop can quietly burn executions. Watch your error handling.
• Self-hosting isn't "free." It's free software plus a server you maintain. The dollar cost is tiny; the time cost is real if something breaks and you're the one fixing it.
• Make's free tier is the best for testing. If you just want to learn the per-operation model risk-free, start there.

So which one should you pick?

Strip away the brand loyalty and it's almost mechanical:

1. Non-technical and low volume → Zapier, for the ease.
2. Want value and don't mind a learning curve → Make.
3. Running real automations at volume, or comfortable on a server → n8n, every time.

If you're here reading about AI agents and cold email, you're almost certainly in bucket three even if you don't feel technical yet. The good news is that a ready-made template erases most of the learning curve — you import a working agent instead of staring at a blank canvas, and you get n8n's pricing without n8n's setup tax.