n8n vs Make vs Zapier: Which Automation Tool Is Best for Small Business?

If you run a small business and you’re still manually moving data between spreadsheets, email, and your CRM, you already know you need automation. The question is which tool.

The three big names are Zapier, Make (formerly Integromat), and n8n. I’ve used all three, and Make and Zapier are part of the standard toolkit we build with at Lumomatics. The honest answer is that none of them is “best.” They’re best at different things, and picking the wrong one costs you time, money, and enthusiasm — usually in that order.

Here’s the comparison I wish someone had handed me before I opened three sets of documentation.

The short version

	Zapier	Make	n8n
Entry price (paid, annual)	~US$19.99/mo (750 tasks)	~US$9–11/mo (10,000 credits)	US$20/mo cloud (2,500 executions), or free self-hosted
Billing unit	Per task (each action step)	Per credit (each module run)	Per execution (one workflow run, any length)
Ease of use	Easiest	Moderate	Developer-oriented
Integrations	The biggest directory by far	3,000+ apps	Fewer native, but HTTP/webhook/code nodes reach anything with an API
Best for	Simple two-app connections	Visual multi-step logic on a budget	Custom pipelines someone technical will own

Prices are in US dollars — all three bill in USD (or EUR for n8n), so as an Australian business, add currency conversion and card fees to your mental maths. Pricing moves around; check the current pages before committing (Zapier, Make, n8n).

The billing model matters more than the sticker price

This is the part most comparisons skip, and it’s where small businesses get stung.

Zapier bills per task — every action step in a workflow consumes one task. A five-step workflow that runs on 200 leads a month is 1,000 tasks, not 200. That’s how a “$20/month” subscription quietly becomes a $49-or-more subscription: the Professional plan starts around US$19.99/month annually for 750 tasks and climbs as your volume does. Simple workflows stay cheap. Busy, multi-step workflows get expensive fast.

Make bills per credit — since late 2025, each standard module run costs one credit, and AI-flavoured modules cost more. The Core plan’s ~US$9–11/month includes 10,000 credits, which is a lot of operational room for a small business. Same maths as Zapier (steps × runs), but the bucket is far bigger for the money.

n8n bills per execution — one workflow run counts once, whether it has three steps or thirty. For long, complex workflows this is dramatically cheaper at scale: the cloud Starter plan is US$20/month for 2,500 executions, and every plan allows unlimited active workflows. And there’s the option the other two don’t offer at all: the self-hosted Community Edition is free with unlimited executions — the real cost is a ~US$5–7/month server and, more importantly, someone who knows how to run Docker and keep it updated.

The rule of thumb that falls out of this: short workflows, low volume → any of them. Long workflows or high volume → the further right you go in that table, the cheaper it gets — and the more technical skill it demands.

Learning curve

Zapier wins on ease of use, and it’s not close. If you need “when a form is submitted, add a row to a sheet and send an email,” you can have it running in five minutes. That simplicity cuts both ways: branching logic, error handling, and anything loop-shaped gets awkward.

Make has a visual canvas that shows data flowing through every step — genuinely helpful for debugging. The learning curve is moderate; most non-technical owners get comfortable in a day or two, and it handles conditional paths and routers much more gracefully than Zapier.

n8n is built for technical users. The node-based editor is powerful, but you’ll be dealing with webhooks, JSON, and error-handling concepts from day one. If you’re not technical and don’t have someone who is, n8n will frustrate you — not because it’s bad, but because it assumes skills you may not have.

Integrations

Zapier’s app directory is the largest by a wide margin — if you use something obscure, Zapier is the most likely to have a ready-made connector. Make’s 3,000+ apps cover nearly everything a small business actually runs. n8n has fewer native integrations but compensates with HTTP request, webhook, and code nodes: if the tool has an API, n8n can talk to it. More setup, fewer hard limits.

One wrinkle worth knowing: what Zapier calls one “app” is sometimes several narrow triggers, and what n8n lacks natively you can often build in twenty minutes with an HTTP node. Directory size is a tiebreaker, not a decision.

When to pick each

Pick Zapier when you need a handful of simple, low-volume connections and nobody in the business wants to think about automation. Paying a premium for zero friction is a legitimate choice.

Pick Make when you’ve outgrown two-step zaps — you want branching logic, multiple systems in one flow, and a bill that doesn’t punish you for it. For most owner-operated businesses doing moderate-volume automation, Make is the value pick.

Pick n8n when the workflows are complex, the volume is real, and a developer (yours or your consultant’s) will own the setup. Self-hosted n8n is also the answer when data residency matters — everything runs on your server, which some clinics and professional practices care about a great deal.

The thing most people miss

Most small business owners don’t have a tool problem. They have a workflow problem. They haven’t mapped what’s actually happening — where the handoffs are, what triggers what, where data gets stuck. Choosing Zapier vs Make vs n8n is a distraction if you don’t know what you’re automating yet.

That’s why every engagement we run starts with a Workflow Clarity Audit: trace the actual process, find the two or three automations worth building, and then pick the tool that fits them. Sometimes the answer is Make. Sometimes it’s a $0 change to how the existing tools are configured.

And if you’d rather not own a tool at all, that’s what the managed AI employee is for — we build and run the automation end-to-end, and the tool choice becomes our problem, not yours.

Bottom line: all three work. Zapier for simplicity, Make for value and visual logic, n8n for developer-led builds. But map the workflow first. Everything else follows.