Make, n8n or Zapier: which to choose to automate your marketing in 2026

Almost all SMEs have the same silent problem: someone manually copies form data into the CRM, forwards Meta leads by email, or prepares the same report every Monday. These are small tasks repeated hundreds of times a year, and automation tools exist precisely for this.

The three best-known are Make, n8n and Zapier. They are very similar in what they do and differ in four things that matter when signing up: how they charge, where your data lives, how hard it is to start, and how far they can go. This guide compares them using official prices checked on 31 October 2026, with no affiliate links and without selling any of them: we work with all three depending on the case.

What each one is in two lines

• Zapier connects apps with “Zaps”: a trigger (“a form arrives”) and one or more actions (“create a contact”, “send an alert”). It is the easiest to learn.
• Make draws the process as a visual map of connected modules, called a scenario. It allows you to branch, repeat, and transform data in great detail without writing code.
• n8n is similar to Make in its flow canvas, but closer to a technical environment: it supports code when needed, is designed to integrate AI, and you can install it on your own server.

How each one charges (and why it matters)

This is the point that surprises most after signing up, because the unit they count is different:

	Zapier	Make	n8n
What it counts	Tasks: each action step successfully completed	Credits: each action of each module (most are 1 credit)	Executions: one full execution of the workflow
What it doesn’t count	Triggers, failed steps, and built-in tools (filters, delays, formatting)	Router and error management modules	Internal steps: it doesn’t matter how many the workflow has
Free plan	100 tasks per month	1,000 credits per month	Cloud trial of 1,000 executions; the self-hosted Community version is free

An example with simple arithmetic (indicative, not a real case): a workflow with one trigger and four actions that runs 500 times a month.

• In Zapier it consumes about 2,000 tasks (4 actions × 500; the trigger doesn’t count).
• In Make it consumes about 2,500 credits (5 modules × 500).
• In n8n it is 500 executions, whether it has 5 steps or 50.

The more steps a workflow has and the more often it runs, the more n8n’s model works in your favour. Conversely, for very short workflows used occasionally, the differences are small and convenience rules.

Entry prices (checked on 31 October 2026)

These are public prices from the official websites. They change with volume, currency, and payment method: confirm them on each provider’s link before deciding.

	Zapier	Make	n8n
Free	$0 · 100 tasks	$0 · 1,000 credits	Self-hosted: €0 (you pay for the server)
First paid plan	Professional: $19.99/month billed annually or $29.99/month month-to-month (750 tasks)	Core: $9/month billed annually or $10.59/month month-to-month (10,000 credits)	Starter: €20/month billed annually (2,500 executions, hosted by n8n)
Mid-tier plan	Team: $69/month annually or $103.50/month monthly (2,000 tasks, 25 users)	Pro: $16/month annually or $18.82/month monthly (10,000 credits)	Pro: €50/month billed annually (10,000 executions)
Source	zapier.com/pricing	make.com/pricing	n8n.io/pricing

Three clarifications to read the table honestly:

• They are not equivalent to each other. 750 Zapier tasks, 10,000 Make credits, and 2,500 n8n executions measure different things, as you saw above. Always compare with your own workflow.
• Make shows these prices for the 10,000 credit tier; the price goes up with volume and you can buy extra credits in batches. Zapier bills in dollars and may charge you in other currencies at the daily exchange rate.
• n8n publishes its cloud plans in euros. Its Business plan (40,000 executions) is only offered self-hosted and costs significantly more than the previous ones; for a small SME, it is not usually the starting point.

Self-hosted or cloud: what n8n offers and the others don’t

Zapier and Make only work in their cloud. n8n also allows you to install it on your server with the Community edition, free under the Sustainable Use license: it is for your company’s internal use, but not for reselling or hosting for paying third parties.

Self-hosting has a clear advantage—your data doesn’t leave your infrastructure—and a cost that is often forgotten: someone has to maintain the server, apply updates, make backups, monitor security, and react when something fails. If you don’t have that person, the version hosted by n8n is usually more sensible.

GDPR and data location

When a workflow moves customer names, emails, or phone numbers, the provider becomes a data processor. This is what their official documents say:

• Zapier states that it stores and processes personal data in the US. It is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and publishes a data processing addendum and a data transfer impact assessment.
• Make lets you choose the data centre region when creating the organisation, and it cannot be changed later. We haven’t been able to confirm in their official documentation which city corresponds to each European zone: if this is a requirement for you, ask them before creating the account.
• n8n keeps the data for its hosted plans in Frankfurt (Germany); in the self-hosted version, it is wherever you decide.

Whatever your choice, three habits protect you more than the provider: sign their data processing agreement, send only the necessary fields through the workflow, and collect consent where appropriate. If the data comes from forms with cookies or analytics, review how to set up Consent Mode v2 first.

Learning curve

This is our assessment, not a measurement:

• Zapier: the fastest. A non-technical person can have their first Zap running in an afternoon. It gets complicated when the workflow needs branches or loops.
• Make: requires understanding how data travels between modules (arrays, iterators, aggregators). In return, it allows you to solve complex cases without code. Its visual map helps explain a workflow to someone else.
• n8n: the most flexible and the most demanding. A bit of a technical mindset is appreciated (data structure, expressions, sometimes a few lines of code), and if you self-host it, basic server administration.

Typical marketing integrations

The most repeated cases in an SME are well solved with any of the three:

1. Form → CRM: the lead enters the contact database, with its source and campaign, and is assigned to a person.
2. Meta and Google Ads leads → CRM and alert: the lead arrives instantly in your CRM and your team receives a message or email to reply quickly.
3. Internal alerts: a high-value lead, a payment, or an issue generates a message in your team’s channel.
4. Regular reports: GA4, ads, and CRM data are gathered every week into a sheet or dashboard.
5. Closing the loop: the sales status goes back to the CRM and from there to your tracking. To know which requests are real, start by tracking forms and WhatsApp properly in GA4.

The practical difference lies in the details: the catalogue of apps with a ready-made connector (all three cover the most common marketing tools, but check that yours is there) and what happens when an app doesn’t have a connector. Make and n8n also allow you to connect to the API of a service that doesn’t have its own connector.

What to choose based on your profile

Your situation	Start with	Why
You work alone or with a small team, want results this week and few workflows	Zapier	The gentlest curve; the cost stays low as long as workflows are short
You have several workflows with branches, data arrays or transformations, and someone eager to learn	Make	A lot of visual control for a low entry price
Your data is sensitive, you want to host it yourself or you have long and frequent workflows	n8n	Self-hostable, charges per full execution and supports code and AI
You want AI integrated into the workflow (classify, summarise, reply)	n8n or Make	More control over each step, although Zapier and Make count AI steps with their own consumption
You have no time and no one to maintain it	Any, set up by a professional	The tool matters less than a good design and someone to monitor errors

Before signing up: five checks

1. Choose a workflow, not a tool. Write down what triggers it, what steps it has, and how many times it runs per month. With that data, you can estimate your real consumption using each provider’s rules.
2. Test with the free plan or cloud trial. Build that full workflow before paying.
3. Set up error and usage alerts. A silently broken workflow is worse than having no workflow.
4. Review the data passing through it and sign the provider’s data processing agreement.
5. Give each automation a name and an owner, with a note of what it does. A year from now, someone will thank you.

In summary

There is no absolute winner. Zapier wins on ease, Make on visual control for the price, and n8n on flexibility and data control. The right decision comes from your specific workflow: how many steps it has, how many times it runs, what data it moves, and who will maintain it.

If you prefer not to decide alone, that’s exactly what we do in Automation and AI: map, automate, and monitor with a figure behind every workflow. And if you first want to see how your website is doing, the free audit checks it in 30 seconds.