Comparison

n8n vs Zapier

Last updated: Aug 22, 2026

n8n wins on cost and flexibility for dev-adjacent GTM teams willing to self-host; Zapier wins on integration breadth and zero-setup accessibility — but at a price premium that becomes indefensible above 5,000 tasks per month.

At a glance

n8n · entry price

$20/mo (Starter, cloud-hosted, 2,500 workflow executions); $0 self-hosted

Zapier · entry price

$19.99/mo (Professional, 750 tasks, annual; $29.99 monthly); Team from $69/mo; Agents Pro $50/mo add-on

n8n · raised

~$254M

Zapier · raised

~$1.4B (estimated; includes $140M 2021 round at $5B valuation)

Head-to-head by dimension

n8n

Dimension

Zapier

Pricing transparency

n8n: n8n's self-hosted community edition is free with unlimited executions — the only hard cost is server infrastructure, roughly $10-$50/month on a VPS for most GTM automation workloads. Zapier publishes its pricing and it is cheaper than this page once claimed: Professional starts at $19.99/month for 750 tasks on annual billing ($29.99 monthly), 2,000 tasks is $49 and Team starts at $69. The catch is that AI Agents are billed separately — Agents Pro is $50/month on top of the base plan.

ICP fit for SMB

Zapier: Zapier's zero-configuration onboarding — connect two apps, pick a trigger, pick an action, done — is the fastest path to a working automation for a non-technical operator. SMB teams without a developer or RevOps engineer should start with Zapier or Make rather than n8n, where the self-hosting requirement adds infrastructure overhead that eliminates the cost advantage for small-volume use cases.

ICP fit for enterprise

n8n: n8n's self-hosted enterprise tier offers SSO, audit logs, air-gapped deployment, and unlimited workflow executions — the features enterprise security teams require that Zapier's cloud-only architecture cannot match. Make's enterprise tier is credible but lacks the on-premise deployment option that regulated industries and security-sensitive enterprises increasingly require.

Data quality / product depth

n8n: n8n's code node — accepting JavaScript or Python inline — and its HTTP Request node with full header and authentication control make it the only platform in the category where complex data transformation, conditional branching, and custom API calls can be handled without leaving the workflow editor. Make's iterator and aggregator nodes are the next-best option for non-coders; Zapier's data transformation capabilities remain the most limited of the three.

Integration breadth

Zapier: Zapier's 7,000+ app integrations are the category benchmark — no other automation platform comes close on raw connector count. n8n has approximately 400 native integrations but the HTTP Request node covers any REST API without a native connector, reducing the practical gap for technical users. Make sits at roughly 1,500 native integrations with a similar HTTP module fallback.

AI-native features

n8n: n8n's LangChain integration, native AI agent node, and direct OpenAI/Anthropic API connectors make it the most capable platform for building AI-powered GTM workflows — prospect research agents, AI-enriched CRM updates, and LLM-scored lead routing all run natively without external Python scripts. Zapier's AI features (Zapier AI, launched 2024) are more constrained; Make's AI integrations are comparable to Zapier's but lag n8n's depth.

Time to value

Zapier: Zapier's first automation can be live in under 10 minutes for a non-technical user — the UI is the most guided of the three platforms. n8n's self-hosted setup requires VPS provisioning, Docker configuration, and SSL setup before the first workflow can run, adding 2–4 hours of setup time even for experienced developers. Make lands between the two: cloud-hosted with a visual interface that takes 20–30 minutes to produce a working multi-step scenario.

Total cost of ownership

n8n: At 50,000 tasks per month the gap is narrower than it used to be: roughly $15-$30/month self-hosted on n8n (infrastructure only), about $150-$200 on Make, and $289/month on Zapier Professional at annual billing ($399 on Team). n8n still wins decisively, but the honest comparison now includes Zapier's add-on stack — Agents and chatbots are priced separately, and heavy users report those pushing bills far above the base subscription.

Vendor risk / ecosystem

n8n: n8n's open-source core eliminates lock-in — workflow definitions are portable and the codebase is forkable. It is also no longer the scrappier company: n8n raised a $180M Series C in October 2025 at a $2.5B valuation (Accel, with Nvidia participating) and SAP took a stake via a secondary in May 2026 that doubled the valuation to $5.2B, alongside a partnership embedding n8n into SAP's Joule Studio. Zapier and Make remain proprietary SaaS where pricing changes are unilateral.

Reference data

Dimension	n8n	Zapier
Pricing tier	$$	$$
Entry price	$20/mo (Starter, cloud-hosted, 2,500 workflow executions); $0 self-hosted	$19.99/mo (Professional, 750 tasks, annual; $29.99 monthly); Team from $69/mo; Agents Pro $50/mo add-on
Funding stage	Series C	Series E
Total raised	~$254M	~$1.4B (estimated; includes $140M 2021 round at $5B valuation)
Valuation	$2.5B (Series C, Oct 2025) · $5.2B (SAP secondary, May 2026)	~$5B (2021 round)
Target segment	GTM engineers, RevOps operators, and technical teams who need Zapier-class workflow automation with developer-grade control, self-hosting options, and complex data transformation capabilities	Non-technical business operators, marketing and sales teams, and SMB organizations who need to automate workflows across SaaS tools without engineering resources
Founded	2019	2011

When to choose which

Choose n8n if…

– Your team has a developer or dev-adjacent RevOps engineer who can handle Docker-based self-hosting and JavaScript logic in workflow nodes — n8n’s TCO advantage is decisive once this condition is met.
– You are building AI agent workflows — prospect research, LLM-scored lead routing, or AI-enriched CRM updates — and need LangChain and native LLM API nodes rather than Zapier’s constrained AI feature set.
– Your current Zapier bill exceeds $200/month and task volume is growing — the migration to n8n pays back within 60 days at this threshold.
– You need on-premise or air-gapped deployment for security or compliance reasons — n8n is the only platform in this comparison that supports it.

Choose Zapier if…

– Your automation owner is a non-technical operator and self-hosting infrastructure is not viable — Zapier’s zero-setup, cloud-hosted model is the rational default despite its pricing premium.
– You need integrations with niche enterprise apps (specific HRIS, finance, or industry-specific platforms) that are only available in Zapier’s 7,000-connector catalog and not in n8n’s 400-connector library.
– Your task volume is under 5,000 per month and the cost difference between the two platforms is immaterial relative to the time cost of migration and re-training.
– You are in a Zapier-standardized organization where your team’s existing Zap library represents months of institutional knowledge — the switching cost of migrating to n8n exceeds the pricing savings at current scale.

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