n8n vs Make vs Zapier: which one for your company
Process automation stopped being a luxury — it is a necessity. But picking the wrong tool can cost you more time than it saves. Here is a real-world comparison of n8n, Make (formerly Integromat) and Zapier, based on having deployed them across dozens of companies.
Zapier: the pioneer that got expensive
Zapier was first and is still the best known. The UI is intuitive and it has 5,000+ integrations. But it has a serious problem: pricing based on "tasks". Every time a zap runs, it consumes a task. If your flow has 10 steps and runs 100 times a day, you burn 1,000 tasks daily.
For a mid-sized company that means $150 to $500 USD per month easily. And if you exceed the cap, your flows stop. That is not reliable automation.
Make: visual power at fair pricing
Make is the evolution of Integromat. Its visual flow-diagram UI is the most powerful of the three. You see exactly what happens at each step, debug with real data, and build complex logic (branching, loops, error paths) without code.
Pricing is fairer: you pay per operation, not per task, and the plans are cheaper than Zapier. In general, Make costs 40–60% less than Zapier for the same volume.
n8n: the option for serious teams
n8n is open source. That means you can self-host it and pay zero licensing. But beyond the cost, n8n has technical advantages the other two lack:
- Self-hosted: your data never leaves your infrastructure. Critical for companies handling sensitive info.
- Code when you need it: you can write JavaScript or Python in any node. The others lock you into preset configurations.
- Community nodes: the community ships integrations constantly. If a tool has no official integration, someone built one already.
- Native webhooks: receiving data from any system is trivial. No workarounds needed.
My take
Zapier only if you need something very simple and overpaying does not matter. Make for most companies: solid balance of power and ease. n8n if you handle sensitive data, need complex logic, or want full control.
At Alma Studio we use all three depending on the project. But 70% of our deployments go on n8n because clients value privacy and flexibility.