Make vs n8n: cost, hosting and which one to pick

It's Tuesday, a little after 8. Your office manager has four web form leads from overnight. She copies each one into the job spreadsheet, texts you the address, and emails the customer to say someone will call. By the time she's done it's past 9, and nobody has called anyone yet. You've heard this can be automated for almost nothing, and your search has narrowed to Make vs n8n. One keeps getting called cheap and the other keeps getting called free, and neither word tells you what you'd pay.

That hour doesn't show up on any invoice. It comes out of the morning in small pieces, and the cost lands on the leads who waited, because a person who filled out a form last night is often calling the next company by breakfast.

For an owner with no technical help, I'd start on Make. It has a free hosted plan and a low entry price, and there's no server to look after. n8n pulls ahead when workflows have many steps or chew through long lists, especially if someone on staff is willing to run it themselves.

Make vs n8n in one table

I checked every figure below on November 9, 2026, on n8n's pricing page, Make's pricing page and the Make pages linked further down.

Two caveats on those prices. Make's pricing page builds its plan cards in the browser, and they didn't come through when I fetched it. The higher set comes from Make's blog, dated August 4, 2026. The lower set comes from its Make vs Zapier page. Neither says whether the price is for monthly or annual billing. The pricing FAQ does say annual is cheaper, so my read is that the lower numbers are annual, but I couldn't confirm it. Flip the toggle on the page before you budget.

n8n prices in euros and only prints the annual figure. Its toggle says annual saves 17%, so expect month to month to cost more, and check at checkout. For the full breakdowns, see Make pricing and n8n pricing.

How each one counts your usage

Make charges for each thing a scenario does. Its help page on operations defines an operation as "a single module run to process data or check for new data," and for ordinary apps one operation is one credit. Triggers count, one per check. Items multiply: Make's own example is a trigger returning 10 items with three modules after it, which comes to 31 operations in one run. Routers and error-handling modules are free. Steps that use Make's built-in language model provider can cost more than one credit.

n8n charges for each time a workflow runs. Its page calls an execution "a single run of your entire workflow," and says the number of steps and the amount of data don't matter. Add a second text or a CRM update and the bill stays the same.

So the cheaper tool depends on the shape of your work. I ran three ordinary office jobs through each company's definitions. These are my estimates, so check your real usage after the first week.

Make's 10,000-credit Core tier covers all three rows. n8n's 2,500-execution Starter covers the first and third, but the timer in the second row uses up the whole allowance by itself. The third row shows where n8n gets very cheap, which is long lists. Whichever you pick, use an instant trigger (a webhook that fires when the form is sent) wherever the app offers one.

Who hosts it, and what free costs you

Make runs on Make's servers, so you have nothing to install or patch. n8n's comparison page lists Make as cloud-only, and none of the Make pages I read offered a self-hosted version.

n8n gives you the choice, and that's where "free" comes from. Its docs say you can "stick with the free Community edition indefinitely." You pay for that with a server running around the clock, and with the updates and backups that go with it. That machine also holds the logins to your email and customer list, so somebody has to keep it locked down. The one-line setup requires Docker.

Offices with more than one person should read the fine print here. The docs say that on Community, "only the instance owner and the user who creates them can access workflows and credentials." Single sign-on and Git version control are missing too. If two people need to work on the same automations, Community won't do it, and you're comparing paid plans again.

Who fixes it when it breaks

Both tools fail for the same dull reasons, like a changed password or a field that got renamed in a connected app. They differ in how much help you get and how long the evidence sticks around.

• Support on n8n's Starter and Pro plans is the community forum, and email support isn't included. The Make pages I could read don't list support by plan, so ask before you rely on it.
• n8n keeps execution logs for 7 days on Starter and 30 days on Pro. If a lead went missing two weeks ago on Starter, there's no log left to read.
• On Make, running out of credits stops your scenarios. Webhooks wait in a queue up to a limit (667 per 10,000 credits, per its FAQ), so check the usage report partway through the month.
• Both builders are canvases of connected boxes. Neither reads like a plain list, and if you've never mapped data from one step to the next, expect to spend some time learning.
• Make has the bigger library of ready-made connections. n8n's own comparison page credits Make with 2,800+ integrations and n8n with over 1,000. Check that your phone system and field software are on the list before you commit.

Which one to pick

Before you sign up, do this with one real workflow:

1. Write down what starts it: a form, a booking, a missed call, or a timer.
2. Count the steps after the trigger.
3. Estimate how many times a month it runs and how many items pass through each run.
4. Multiply it out both ways, using the table above as a guide.
5. Build it on Make's Free plan or n8n's trial and read the usage screen after a week.

When neither one is the answer

Both tools are good at moving data from one app to another. They get awkward when the process carries real business rules, like a quote that changes with the form answers or leads routed by town and job type, and you end up with a canvas only one person can follow. I wrote about where that line falls in Zapier vs custom automation.

For a freight forwarder, I built intake for quote, import, export and general inquiries, so each request arrives sorted instead of landing in one inbox. More on that kind of work is on the business automation page. Builds start at $500 one-time, then a flat monthly from $99 after an included run-in period, cancellable. Plenty of the time a $12 plan and an afternoon of setup is the better choice, and I'll tell you when it is.

What stays with a person

I wouldn't let either tool decide which lead gets a call first or what a job is worth. A customer who replies "can you come Thursday instead?" needs someone to answer, and so does anyone who's upset. A person also has to read the failure alert and decide whether it matters. In a small office that's usually the owner or one trusted employee, so name that person before you build anything, and keep the accounts and logins in the company's name.

If you want a second opinion on which of your workflows belongs where, or whether the fix needs a tool at all, book the free 20 minute process audit. We'll look at your week and pick the one step worth fixing first.