Cost of a 10-step workflow running hourly: Zapier vs Make vs n8n
720 runs a month (hourly), 10 billable actions each.
- This workload is 7,200 Zapier tasks, 7,920 Make credits or 720 n8n executions a month.
- Cheapest verified option: Make (Core 10,000 credits) at $9.00/month, $216.00 over 24 months.
- The priciest ranked option is Zapier at $129.00/month: $1,440.00 more per year than the cheapest.
Cheapest
Make Core 10,000 credits: $9.00/mo
Your workload in each vendor's unit: 7,200 Zapier tasks · 7,920 Make credits · 720 n8n executions per month (annual billing).
| # | Option | Plan | Per month | Per year | 24-mo TCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Make cheapest | Core 10,000 credits | $9.00 | $108.00 | $216.00 |
| 2 | n8n Cloud | Starterlist €20.00 | $22.42 | $268.99 | $537.98 |
| 3 | Zapier | Professional 10,000 tasks | $129.00 | $1,548.00 | $3,096.00 |
Prices exclude VAT/sales tax.
Self-hosted n8n Community shown, never ranked
The software is free with no execution cap. Infrastructure cost is TODO-verify (only a single secondary source so far). Self-hosting is cheaper than the cheapest ranked option (Make, $9.00/mo) only if your server plus your time costs less than that.
The catch, per option
- Zapier — Professional 10,000 tasksOverage: Pay-per-task overage (opt-in) is about $0.0161 per task (1.25x the base rate on annual billing); Zaps pause at 30,000 tasks (3x the plan).
- Every successful billable action is a task; triggers and built-in steps (Filter/Formatter/Path) cost 0 tasks.
- Free is two-step only (trigger + 1 action, no built-in steps, no webhooks).
- Make — Core 10,000 creditsOverage: Scenarios stop at the credit limit; upgrade, buy credit packs or go Enterprise. No overage dollar amount is modeled.
- 1 credit per module action including the trigger read; Router and error handlers are free and are not entered (1 trigger + 10 billable actions per run).
- When credits run out, scenarios stop; unused credits expire.
- Same volume on Pro: $16.00/mo; Teams: $29.00/mo.
- n8n Cloud — Starter
- One execution = one whole workflow run, so step count does not change the price.
- No auto-overage on Starter/Pro-1: upgrade or one-time reset.
- Priced in EUR; converted with the exchange rate you set.