Pricing pages never show your real cost. Set your usage below and see exactly what each tool costs per month.
I set up self-hosted n8n on a VPS in 1-2 days — most clients break even on the switch within the first month.
Get n8n Set Up For Me →Zapier and Make.com charge per "task" or "operation" — every single action in a workflow, not just the workflow itself, counts against your monthly quota. A workflow with 5 steps that runs 1,000 times a month can burn through 5,000 operations fast, pushing you into a higher pricing tier.
n8n works differently when self-hosted: you pay a flat monthly fee for the server it runs on ($6-10/month for most small businesses), and the number of workflow executions doesn't affect your cost. This is why n8n becomes dramatically cheaper as your automation volume grows — the crossover point is usually around 2,000-5,000 monthly runs.
If your volume is low (under 1,000 runs/month) or you need an integration n8n doesn't support natively, Zapier's larger app catalog can be worth the extra cost. I help clients decide case by case — happy to give you an honest recommendation even if it's not the paid migration.