Make vs n8n: which automation platform in 2026?
Make is the better first platform for most teams: $9 a month, billed annually, covers 10,000 credits, the visual builder is friendly, and it runs fully managed, in an EU data center if you choose one. n8n wins on economics and control the moment volume grows or data gets sensitive: self-hosted, it charges nothing per execution and costs only the small server it runs on.
TL;DR verdict
Pick Make for managed simplicity under roughly 10,000 credits a month. Pick n8n when you run high volume, need data on your own servers, or build AI-heavy workflows: one execution covers a whole run, however many steps it has.
| Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | $9/mo billed annually, $10.59 monthly (Core) | €20/mo billed annually, €24 monthly (Cloud Starter) |
| What it includes | 10,000 credits (1 credit ≈ 1 module operation) | 2,500 workflow executions, unlimited steps per run |
| Free option | 1,000 credits/mo, 2 active scenarios, 15-min interval | Community Edition, self-hosted, free |
| Self-hosted cost | Not available | From about €6/mo for a small VPS (excl. VAT), no execution fees |
| Billing unit | Per module operation | Per workflow execution |
| Data location | Managed on AWS, in an EU or US region chosen per organization | Wherever you host it |
| Learning curve | Visual canvas, gentle | Steeper; JS/Python code nodes when needed |
| AI workflows | AI modules available | Native LangChain and agent nodes |
| License | Proprietary SaaS | Fair-code (source-available) |
Which we'd pick, scenario by scenario
A 5-person services firm, ~3,000 ops a month
Make. The Core plan covers it with headroom, there is nothing to maintain, and the visual canvas means a non-developer can fix a broken scenario on a Friday afternoon.
E-commerce doing 50,000+ operations a month
n8n, self-hosted. On Make this volume means climbing credit tiers every quarter; on n8n it is the same flat server bill whether you run 50,000 or 500,000.
AI agents that handle customer data
n8n. Its LangChain nodes are the most mature of the mainstream platforms, and self-hosting keeps prompts and customer data inside your infrastructure, which makes GDPR reviews shorter.
In practice this choice comes down to who fixes things at 9pm. Make is a managed product: when a scenario fails, you re-run it from a clean UI and move on. Self-hosted n8n is your server: updates, backups and monitoring are on you, and more than one team finds that out mid-incident. So our default recommendation depends on your team, not on the feature list. If nobody on staff runs servers, Make's fee is cheaper than learning DevOps under pressure. If you have that person, or an agency running the instance for you, n8n's flat cost pays off more as volume grows: past a certain scale Make would cost multiples of the n8n server bill without adding a feature you would notice. Migration between them is real work but not a rewrite: triggers and HTTP calls map one to one, and we move the highest-volume workflows first. The three-way math, including Zapier, is in our Make vs n8n vs Zapier guide.
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Frequently asked
Is n8n cheaper than Make?
At low volume, no: Make's $9 Core plan beats n8n Cloud at €20 (both billed annually). The economics flip when you self-host n8n: no execution fees on a VPS from about €6 a month excl. VAT, while Make's cost climbs through credit tiers. The break-even sits near the point where you outgrow 10,000 credits a month.
Can I migrate from Make to n8n?
Yes, but scenario by scenario, not by file export. The concepts map cleanly (modules to nodes, routers to IF and Switch), HTTP calls transfer almost verbatim, and webhooks only need a new URL. Plan about a day per complex scenario and migrate the highest-volume ones first.
Is n8n harder to learn than Make?
Somewhat. Make's canvas is friendlier in the first week. n8n expects more technical comfort and rewards it: expressions, code nodes and Git-friendly workflow files fit developer habits in a way Make does not.
Which process costs you the most?
Thirty minutes, free. You leave with a concrete fix plan and what the process costs you. The plan is yours, even if you build it without us.
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