n8n vs Zapier: Pricing, Features and Who Should Use Each

Pick Zapier if you're not technical, need a niche app connected today, or run a handful of simple workflows. Pick n8n if you or someone on your team is fine with a little code, your workflows have lots of steps, or you want to run the tool on your own server.

The price gap comes down to how each one counts work. Zapier charges for every action a workflow takes. n8n charges once per run, however many steps the run has.

Prices were checked September 27, 2026, on n8n's pricing page and Zapier's pricing page, in US dollars as shown to a US visitor. n8n shows euro prices in some regions. The Zapier pricing guide goes deeper on Zapier's plans and uses the same figures.

How each one counts your bill

Get this straight before you open either pricing page. It decides which tool costs less for you.

Zapier counts every successful action as a task. Triggers don't count, and neither do built-in tools like Filter, Paths, Formatter and Delay, per Zapier's task usage rules. So a workflow with 10 action steps that runs 1,000 times uses 10,000 tasks. Loops count too. A two-step Zap that goes through a 10-row table uses 10 tasks, because the action runs once per row.

n8n counts executions. Its pricing page puts it plainly: "An execution is a single run of your entire workflow. It doesn't matter how many steps are in the workflow or how much data it processes." That same 10-step workflow running 1,000 times uses 1,000 executions.

Now scale it up. A workflow with 10 action steps that runs 10,000 times a month costs:

• Zapier: 100,000 tasks, which is the Professional plan's 100,000-task tier at $489 a month billed annually ($733.50 monthly)
• n8n: 10,000 executions, covered by the Pro cloud plan at $50 a month billed annually ($60 monthly)

At that volume, Zapier's entry Professional tier, 750 tasks, wouldn't last a single day.

n8n: what it is and where it's strong

n8n (pronounced "n-eight-n") is an automation tool you can run on your own server. It raised a $180 million Series C at a $2.5 billion valuation in October 2025.

It isn't open source in the strict sense. Its Sustainable Use License lets you use and change the software "only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use." If you plan to build a product you sell on top of n8n, read the license first.

Where n8n is strong

Self-hosting costs only the server. The free Community edition runs on your own machine, a Docker host or a cloud server with, in n8n's words, "almost the complete feature set." You pay for the server and your time. For scale, DigitalOcean's Basic droplets cost $6 a month for 1 GiB of memory and $12 for 2 GiB. Size the server to your workload.

The AI tools go deep. n8n's integration directory lists 104 entries in its AI category: model providers, embeddings, vector stores, memory and agent nodes. The AI nodes are built on LangChain concepts. In practice that means you can build an agent that looks things up in your documents, calls tools, remembers past steps and stops for a person to approve, all on the visual canvas.

You can write code when you need to. Any workflow can include a Code node that runs JavaScript or Python. If no built-in node covers your edge case, you write a few lines and move on.

Your data stays on your server. When you self-host, workflow data never leaves your machines. For agencies, healthcare teams or anyone handling sensitive client data, that's often what decides it.

Long workflows don't cost more. A 200-node AI pipeline and a 2-node RSS-to-email workflow both cost one execution per run.

n8n pricing

Self-hosted Community edition: free, with no execution or user limits. Some features still need a paid license when you self-host, including SSO, projects, sharing workflows and credentials, environments and Git version control, per n8n's plan guide.

n8n Cloud and paid plans. Every plan includes unlimited users, unlimited workflows and every integration.

• Starter: $20 a month billed annually, or $24 monthly, for 2,500 executions and 5 concurrent executions
• Pro: $50 a month billed annually, or $60 monthly, for 10,000 executions, 20 concurrent executions, admin roles, global variables and workflow history
• Business: $800 a month billed annually, or $960 monthly, for 40,000 executions, SSO, SAML and LDAP, Git version control and environments. The pricing page lists Business as self-hosted only, and companies under 20 employees may qualify for a start-up plan at half the Business price.
• Enterprise: custom pricing, hosted by n8n or self-hosted, with custom execution volumes

n8n pros and cons

Zapier: what it is and where it's strong

Zapier is the tool that brought app-to-app automation to people who don't code. It has the widest integration library of the two. Its pricing page says it connects to "9,000+ apps—more than any other automation tool."

Where Zapier is strong

Setup is fast. No server, no Docker, no configuration. Sign up, connect two apps, and your first Zap can run in the same sitting. If you need something working today and don't want to look after infrastructure, this is Zapier's biggest edge.

It probably supports your odd app. More than 9,000 integrations means Zapier covers niche industry software that n8n may never build a node for. If your business runs on an obscure tool built for one industry, check Zapier first.

It's built for people who don't code. The builder walks you through each step, and Zapier Copilot builds a Zap from a plain-text description. That's the difference between a non-developer owning their automations and having to call for help every time one breaks.

Agents can reach a lot of apps. Zapier sells Agents and Chatbots as add-ons. Because of the integration count, Zapier Agents have the edge when the question is how many tools an agent can touch, rather than how complicated its logic can get.

Zapier pricing

Free: $0 for 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps, and unlimited Zaps, Tables and Forms.

Professional: $19.99 a month billed annually, or $29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks. Adds multi-step Zaps, unlimited premium apps, webhooks and AI fields. One user.

Team: $69 a month billed annually, or $103.50 monthly, for 2,000 tasks. Adds 25 users, shared Zaps and folders, shared app connections, SAML SSO and priority support.

Enterprise: custom pricing. Unlimited users, advanced admin and app controls, annual task limits and a technical account manager.

Higher task tiers go up to 2,000,000 tasks a month on Professional and Team. Annual billing saves 33 percent. The Zapier pricing guide lists the tiers and the pay-per-task rules.

Add-ons (billed separately, prices billed annually):

• Agents: Free with 400 activities a month, or Pro at $33.33 a month for 1,500 activities
• Chatbots: Free for 2 chatbots on OpenAI's GPT-3.5, Pro at $13.33 a month for 5 chatbots, or Advanced at $66.67 a month for 20

Zapier pros and cons

Head-to-head

AI: using it vs building with it

Both tools have AI. They're aimed at different jobs.

Zapier's AI (Copilot, AI fields, AI by Zapier steps, Agents) makes ordinary automations a bit smarter without much setup. Describe a Zap in plain English, or add a step that summarizes or sorts incoming data. An AI by Zapier step uses a number of tasks that depends on the model tier you pick, per Zapier's task usage rules.

n8n's AI is for building the AI system itself. You can wire up a pipeline that searches your documents before the model answers, an agent that calls tools, memory that lasts across sessions, and a step where a person approves the result, all on the canvas. About 75% of n8n's customers used its AI features as of March 2025, according to the company.

If you want to add AI to your automations, pick Zapier.

If you want to build AI systems with automation, pick n8n.

The cost math at real volumes

These are list prices billed annually, as of September 27, 2026. "Action steps" means the steps after the trigger, which is what Zapier bills.

Scenario A: small team, 5,000 runs a month, 4 action steps each

• Zapier: 20,000 tasks, Professional's 20,000-task tier at $189 a month
• n8n Cloud: 5,000 executions, more than Starter's 2,500, so Pro at $50 a month
• n8n self-hosted: the server, such as a $12 2 GiB droplet, plus your time

Scenario B: agency, 50,000 runs a month, 8 action steps each

• Zapier: 400,000 tasks, Professional's 400,000-task tier at $1,269 a month, or Team at $1,399
• n8n Cloud: 50,000 executions, above Pro's 10,000 and Business's 40,000, so an Enterprise quote
• n8n self-hosted: the free Community edition on a server sized for the load, or a paid license if you need SSO and sharing

Scenario C: developer building AI pipelines, 2,000 runs a month, 30 action steps each

• Zapier: 60,000 tasks, above the 50,000 tier, so Professional's 100,000-task tier at $489 a month
• n8n Cloud: 2,000 executions, within Starter at $20 a month
• n8n self-hosted: the server plus your time

At the entry level they cost about the same: $19.99 for 750 Zapier tasks against $20 for 2,500 n8n executions. Past that, n8n Cloud costs less in every scenario here, and the gap grows with the number of steps per run.

What the list prices leave out is the time it takes to learn n8n and, if you self-host, to keep it running.

Who should use n8n

n8n fits if:

• You're technical, or you have a developer who can handle the first setup
• Your workflows have many steps or run thousands of times a month
• You're building AI agents: document search, chains of model calls, multi-agent systems
• Your data can't leave your servers (healthcare, finance, agencies with client data)
• You want unlimited users without paying per seat

Jobs where n8n clearly wins:

• AI lead enrichment that calls outside APIs at volume
• Custom CRM workflows with lots of branching and data reshaping
• AI agents with memory, tools and document search
• Data pipelines where you need full control over how data is transformed
• Any workflow touching client data that legally can't leave your server

Who should use Zapier

Zapier fits if:

• You're not technical and need automation running today, not after a day of server setup
• Your stack includes niche industry tools n8n probably doesn't support
• You run few workflows, or simple ones with two or three steps
• Your team needs to share and maintain automations without a dedicated developer
• You want security features like SAML SSO handled for you instead of configured on your own server
• You'd like Copilot to build Zaps from a description

Jobs where Zapier clearly wins:

• Connecting a niche industry tool to the rest of your stack
• Simple notifications and data syncing (form submission to spreadsheet, CRM update to Slack)
• Marketing or ops teams without developers who own their own automations
• Quick prototypes where setup speed matters more than long-term cost

When to move from Zapier to n8n

Picking a tool to start with is the easy part. The harder call is when to move from Zapier to n8n once Zapier's bill becomes the problem.

Plenty of teams make that move. YipitData's April 2026 analysis found that nearly 80 percent of n8n's new customer additions over the prior year were already using Zapier.

It usually happens at one of three moments. Someone starts auditing the Zapier bill. You start building AI workflows and need pieces Zapier doesn't have. Or a client or compliance team asks where their data is processed.

The move is less painful than it sounds. n8n workflows save as JSON files. Common Zapier patterns, like webhook triggers, API calls, reshaping data and branching, map straight onto n8n nodes. The main friction is setting up your own server, if you go that way, and replacing Zapier Formatter steps with Code nodes. How long it takes depends on how many Zaps you have and how many use niche integrations, so count those first.

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