Make credits explained: cost of 100,000 credits/month
20,000 runs a month: 1 trigger credit + 4 billable actions = 100,000 credits.
- This workload is 80,000 Zapier tasks, 100,000 Make credits or 20,000 n8n executions a month.
- Cheapest verified option: Make (Core 150,000 credits) at $99.00/month, $2,376.00 over 24 months.
- The priciest ranked option is Zapier at $489.00/month: $4,680.00 more per year than the cheapest.
- n8n Cloud (Pro-2) has no exact verified price here (TODO-verify), so it is not ranked.
Cheapest
Make Core 150,000 credits: $99.00/mo
Your workload in each vendor's unit: 80,000 Zapier tasks · 100,000 Make credits · 20,000 n8n executions per month (annual billing).
| # | Option | Plan | Per month | Per year | 24-mo TCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Make cheapest | Core 150,000 credits | $99.00 | $1,188.00 | $2,376.00 |
| 2 | Zapier | Professional 100,000 tasks | $489.00 | $5,868.00 | $11,736.00 |
Prices exclude VAT/sales tax.
Not ranked (no exact verified price)
- n8n Cloud — Pro-2 TODO-verify Pro-2 (50,000 executions) price is TODO-verify.
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, $99.00/mo) only if your server plus your time costs less than that.
The catch, per option
- Zapier — Professional 100,000 tasksOverage: Pay-per-task overage (opt-in) is about $0.0061 per task (1.25x the base rate on annual billing); Zaps pause at 300,000 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 150,000 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 + 4 billable actions per run).
- When credits run out, scenarios stop; unused credits expire.
- Same volume on Pro: $153.45/mo; Teams: $291.56/mo.
- n8n Cloud — Pro-2Overage: Pro-2 on monthly billing can add executions at €2 per 1,000, up to 500,000 (verified), but the Pro-2 base price is TODO-verify, so no total is shown.
- 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.