Workflow Automation Platforms Compared: Zapier vs Make vs n8n (Real Pricing & Data for 2026)

If you run a business and you've ever thought "there has to be a way to automate this," you've probably come across Zapier, Make, or n8n. They're the three dominant workflow automation platforms in 2026, and each one takes a fundamentally different approach to solving the same problem: connecting your tools and eliminating repetitive work.

This isn't a sponsored comparison. No affiliate links. Just real pricing pulled directly from each platform's website in February 2026, honest trade-offs, and a few notes on where feedback-driven automation fits in.

What These Platforms Actually Do

At their core, all three platforms let you build automated workflows—sequences of actions triggered by events across different apps. When a customer submits a form, send a Slack message. When a new row appears in Google Sheets, create a task in Asana. When a review comes in on Google Maps, categorize it and notify the right person.

The differences are in how they charge, how they handle complexity, and who they're designed for.

Zapier: The Easiest Starting Point

Zapier has the largest app directory and the simplest learning curve. If you've never automated anything before, Zapier is where most people start.

Pricing (as of February 2026)

• •Free: $0/mo — 100 tasks/month, two-step Zaps only, includes Tables and Forms
• •Professional: Starting at $19.99/mo (billed annually) — multi-step Zaps, unlimited premium apps, webhooks, AI fields, conditional form logic
• •Team: Starting at $69/mo (billed annually) — 25 users, shared Zaps and folders, SAML SSO, Premier Support
• •Enterprise: Contact for pricing — unlimited users, advanced admin permissions, annual task limits, observability, dedicated Technical Account Manager

What Zapier Does Well

• •Breadth of integrations: Zapier advertises connections to 8,000+ apps. If a SaaS tool exists, there's probably a Zapier integration for it.
• •Canvas: Their visual workflow builder makes it easy to see the entire logic of a Zap at a glance.
• •Tables and Forms: Now bundled into every plan (including Free), so you get basic data storage and form building without extra tools.
• •MCP (Model Context Protocol): Zapier's newest feature lets you connect AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to 8,000 apps via a standardized interface.

Where Zapier Falls Short

• •Task-based billing stacks up fast: Every action in a Zap (except the trigger) counts as a task. A 5-step Zap that runs 100 times uses 400 tasks. At scale, this gets expensive.
• •Limited data transformation: Complex data manipulation requires workarounds. You can add code steps, but at that point you're fighting the platform's simplicity.
• •No self-hosting: It's cloud-only. If you need data to stay on your infrastructure, Zapier isn't an option.

Make (formerly Integromat): The Visual Powerhouse

Make uses a credit-based system and a visual scenario builder that's genuinely impressive for handling complex branching logic.

Pricing (as of February 2026)

• •Free: $0/mo — 1,000 credits/month, visual workflow builder, 3,000+ apps, routers and filters, 15-minute minimum interval
• •Core: $9/mo (for 10k credits) — unlimited active scenarios, scheduling down to the minute, Make API access
• •Pro: $16/mo (for 10k credits) — priority execution, custom variables, full-text execution log search
• •Teams: $29/mo (for 10k credits) — team roles, shareable scenario templates
• •Enterprise: Custom pricing — custom functions, enterprise app integrations, 24/7 support, overage protection

What Make Does Well

• •Visual scenario builder: Make's drag-and-drop interface shows data flowing between nodes. For complex branching workflows with filters and routers, it's more intuitive than Zapier.
• •Credit efficiency: Each module action costs one credit, but Make's pricing per credit is significantly lower than Zapier's cost per task—especially as you scale.
• •Advanced logic natively: Routers, filters, iterators, and aggregators are built-in. You don't need workarounds for "if this, then that, else do something else."
• •Granular scheduling: Even on Core, you can schedule scenarios down to the minute. Zapier's free plan polls every 15 minutes; Make matches that only on Free.

Where Make Falls Short

• •Steeper learning curve: The visual builder is powerful, but new users can feel overwhelmed by the node-based interface.
• •Fewer native integrations than Zapier: 3,000+ apps vs. Zapier's 8,000+. You can use HTTP modules as a workaround, but it requires more setup.
• •No self-hosting option: Like Zapier, Make is cloud-only.

n8n: The Developer's Choice

n8n is open-source and offers both cloud-hosted and self-hosted options. It's technically the most flexible, but it expects more from its users.

Pricing (as of February 2026)

• •Community (self-hosted): Free forever — unlimited workflows, unlimited executions, full source code on GitHub (174,000+ stars)
• •Starter (cloud): $20/mo (billed annually) — 2,500 workflow executions, unlimited steps per execution, 5 concurrent executions, unlimited users
• •Pro (cloud): $50/mo (billed annually) — 10,000 executions, 20 concurrent executions, workflow history, execution search, admin roles, global variables
• •Business (self-hosted): $800/mo (billed annually) — 40,000 executions, SSO/SAML/LDAP, version control with Git, different environments, scaling options
• •Enterprise: Contact for pricing — 200+ concurrent executions, unlimited shared projects, log streaming, external secret store, dedicated support with SLA

What n8n Does Well

• •Execution-based pricing, not step-based: A workflow with 50 nodes that runs once counts as one execution. On Zapier, that same workflow would consume 49 tasks. This is n8n's biggest pricing advantage.
• •Self-hosting: You can run n8n on your own infrastructure. For businesses with data residency requirements or tight budgets, this is a game-changer.
• •Code when you need it: JavaScript and Python steps are first-class. You can drop in custom code alongside no-code nodes without switching tools.
• •AI Workflow Builder: n8n includes an AI assistant that can help you build workflows from natural language descriptions. Credits come with every plan.
• •Open source transparency: The entire codebase is on GitHub. You can inspect, modify, and contribute.

Where n8n Falls Short

• •Requires technical comfort: Self-hosting means managing infrastructure. Even the cloud version assumes you're comfortable with concepts like webhooks, JSON, and API authentication.
• •Smaller app library: n8n has 400+ built-in integrations. Far fewer than Zapier or Make, though the HTTP Request node and custom code fill gaps.
• •Community Edition limitations: The free self-hosted version lacks some collaboration features (shared projects, admin roles) that teams need.

Side-by-Side: Pricing at Scale

Let's make this concrete. Say you need to run 10,000 workflow executions per month, each with an average of 5 steps:

Zapier (Professional) — ~$49.99/mo+. 10,000 executions × 4 tasks each = 40,000 tasks. The 2,000-task Pro tier starts at $49.99; you'd likely need a higher tier.

Make (Core/Pro) — ~$16–29/mo. 10,000 credits covers about 2,000 five-step scenarios. For 10,000 scenarios you'd need ~50,000 credits, bumping cost up.

n8n Pro (cloud) — $50/mo flat. 10,000 executions, steps don't matter.

n8n Community (self-hosted) — $0. Unlimited everything if you manage the server.

The takeaway: n8n is the cheapest at scale if steps-per-workflow are high, because it charges per execution, not per step. Zapier is the most expensive at scale but the fastest to set up. Make sits in the middle.

Decision Framework: Which Platform Fits Your Business?

Choose Zapier if: - You need the widest possible app coverage - Your workflows are simple (2-5 steps) - You want the fastest setup with minimal learning curve - Your team is non-technical - You want built-in Tables and Forms without extra tooling

Choose Make if: - Your workflows involve complex branching logic - You need visual debugging and clear data flow - You're cost-conscious but cloud-only is fine - You want more control over scheduling and execution

Choose n8n if: - You need to self-host (data residency, compliance, cost) - Your workflows are code-heavy or highly custom - You have a developer or technical person on the team - You want execution-based pricing instead of per-step billing - Open source matters to you

Where Feedback Automation Fits In

All three platforms are great for operational workflows—syncing CRM data, routing leads, updating spreadsheets. But there's a category of automation that these general-purpose tools handle awkwardly: turning unstructured customer feedback into structured business improvements.

When a customer leaves a Google review that says "love the food but the wait was ridiculous," that's both a compliment and a complaint. A general workflow tool can forward the review to a Slack channel, but it can't categorize the sentiment, identify recurring patterns across hundreds of reviews, or turn that insight into an assignable task for your operations team.

This is the gap that purpose-built feedback platforms fill. Instead of stitching together Zapier Zaps to parse reviews, route them to a spreadsheet, manually tag them, and then create tasks in a separate project management tool—you use a single system designed for the full loop: collect feedback, categorize it with AI, surface patterns, and generate improvement tasks.

Satiaphic does exactly this. It syncs Google Maps reviews and collects in-store feedback via QR codes, uses AI to categorize everything (complaint, suggestion, praise, idea), highlights what's recurring, and lets you turn insights into assignable tasks for your team. It's the difference between building a feedback pipeline from 7 different Zaps and having one tool that was designed for the entire workflow from day one.

Combining Approaches

The most effective setup for many small businesses is using a general-purpose automation platform for operational workflows (invoicing, lead routing, data sync) alongside a specialized tool for domain-specific work (feedback → improvement cycles, customer relationship management, etc.).

You don't have to pick just one. Automate your invoice reminders with Zapier. Automate your review response workflow with Make. But for turning what customers say into what you actually do differently—that's a fundamentally different problem that benefits from a purpose-built solution.

Final Thoughts

Zapier, Make, and n8n are all genuinely good tools solving real problems. The "best" one depends entirely on your technical comfort, budget, workflow complexity, and data requirements.

Don't over-optimize the choice. Pick the one that gets you automating fastest, and switch later if you outgrow it. The biggest waste isn't choosing the wrong tool—it's spending six months researching while continuing to do everything manually.