The three tools cover the same main use case: connecting apps without writing code. But when you build the same real automation in all three, big differences emerge in monthly cost, setup time and one-year sustainability. This is our own benchmark with three workflows we ran in production for real clients over 60 days.
The three workflows in the test
Chosen for representativeness: one B2B acquisition, one data sync and one conditional-logic webhook.
- Workflow A (B2B acquisition): Typeform submission, email validation, HubSpot creation, contract sent via Signaturit and Slack notification. 5 steps, ~120 executions/month.
- Workflow B (bidirectional sync): Notion ↔ Airtable sync in both directions for 4 bases with 3,000 records each. 2 steps per sync, ~800 executions/month.
- Workflow C (webhook with logic): listen to Stripe webhook, parse payload, cross with an in-house PostgreSQL database, conditional decision (automatic dunning or CRM creation) and personalized email. 6 steps, ~40 executions/month.
Real monthly cost
Official prices as of September 2026 (Zapier · Make · n8n):
- Zapier Professional (2,000 tasks/month for $49): the 3 workflows consume ~2,400 tasks, forcing an upgrade to Team at $69/month. Each step in each workflow counts as a task, which spikes consumption on multi-step workflows.
- Make Core (10,000 operations/month for $9): the 3 workflows consume ~4,800 operations. The Core plan is more than enough. Make counts each "operation" (API call + processing), not each full step, which cuts cost.
- n8n Cloud Starter (5,000 executions/month for $20): the 3 workflows consume ~960 executions because n8n counts a full workflow, not each step or operation. The Starter plan is way over-provisioned. Alternative: self-hosted on an €8/month VPS covers the same case with headroom.
Annual difference between Zapier Team ($828) and self-hosted n8n (€96): about €700 a year. On projects with 15 or 20 workflows, the difference multiplies and easily justifies n8n's slightly more technical setup.
For the three workflows in the test, self-hosted n8n came in at €8/month vs Zapier's $69/month.
Setup time for workflow A (the most complex)
Timed with a senior developer with prior experience on all three tools:
- Zapier: 45 minutes. Very polished UI and an unmatched connector app store, but each step is a separate "Zap" and filters and paths are managed in nested menus. Scaling the workflow requires more Zaps.
- Make: 30 minutes. Visual editor with modules that execute complex logic in a single block; fewer steps, denser. The initial curve is steeper than Zapier's but pays off after that.
- n8n: 40 minutes. Similar to Make in visual editor, with the advantage of inline JavaScript in any node. That capability was critical for parsing the Stripe webhook in workflow C, where Zapier and Make required an extra "Code by Zapier" step or a code module.
Maintenance and errors over 60 days
- Zapier: 3 silent failures, all due to Free-plan limits before we upgraded to Professional. Once on Professional, zero failures.
- Make: 1 failure from a Notion API change, self-corrected after reconfiguring the module (5 minutes of intervention). Good retry system and email alerts.
- n8n: 0 failures on the cloud version. On self-hosted we had a 20-minute outage from a VPS restart without nginx configured for auto-restart — our fault on initial setup, not n8n's.
When to choose each one
- Zapier: when a non-technical team (ops, marketing, sales) has to create and edit workflows on its own. UI and app store are unmatched. Budget is not a problem.
- Make: when the team is mixed (PM + dev) and builds moderately complex workflows. Excellent price/power ratio. Steeper curve but pays off in two weeks of use.
- n8n: when there's a dev on the team or the agency. Self-hosted gives full control, no plan limits, native JavaScript logic and data that doesn't leave your server (critical for sensitive data or strict GDPR requirements).
Conclusion
For the three workflows in the test, self-hosted n8n came in at €8/month vs Zapier's $69/month. Concrete annual difference: €720. On projects with 15 or more workflows, the difference alone justifies n8n's extra setup. For small projects with a non-technical team, Zapier is still the clear winner. Make sits in the middle with the best cost-to-power ratio. At udae we use n8n on 80% of the projects we do with custom integrations, and the reasons are in the table above.
