n8n vs Zapier: cost, hosting, and who fixes it

Tuesday, 7:40 in the morning. A web form lead from Sunday night never reached your inbox. When you finally go looking, you find the automation that was supposed to copy it into your spreadsheet and text you stopped running three days ago. Someone on a forum told you to switch from Zapier to n8n because it's cheaper. Your nephew says n8n is harder. You have a business to run and would like one straight answer.

So here is n8n vs Zapier from the owner's chair: what each one costs, how each counts what you use, where it runs, and who fixes it at 7:40 on a Tuesday. All the prices come from Zapier's pricing page and n8n's pricing page. I checked both on September 25, 2026. Both companies change their plans, so check again before you buy.

n8n vs Zapier in one table

Two things about that table. First, n8n's page shows prices in euros and lists only the yearly prices, even though there's a monthly toggle. Second, Zapier's price depends on how many tasks a month you choose, and the page lists tiers all the way up to two million. I've shown the smaller tiers because those are the ones a small business actually buys.

How each one counts what you use

Zapier counts tasks. Its page says a task is counted "whenever Zapier successfully completes a unit of work for you." Triggers don't count, failed actions don't count, and Zapier's built-in tools (Filter, Formatter, Paths) don't count either. Every real action that succeeds does count: add a row, send an email, create a contact.

n8n counts executions. Its page says an execution is "a single run of your entire workflow," however many steps it has or however much data it handles.

Here's what that means for one ordinary workflow. A lead fills out your website form. The automation adds them to your spreadsheet, creates a contact in your CRM, texts you, and sends the lead a confirmation email. That's one trigger and four actions.

• On Zapier, each lead uses 4 tasks. At 200 leads a month you're at 800 tasks, which is over the 750-task Pro tier.
• On n8n, each lead is 1 execution. At 200 leads a month you've used 200 of Starter's 2,500.

That's just arithmetic from each company's own definitions, and it's the main reason n8n looks cheap for long workflows. It's also how a Zapier bill creeps up: add one step to a busy Zap and every run after that costs one more task.

For a short workflow with a trigger and one action, the gap mostly disappears. One lead is one task on Zapier and one execution on n8n.

Who hosts it, and why that matters

Zapier runs only on Zapier's servers. You sign in, build, and it runs. There's nothing to patch and nothing to back up.

n8n gives you a choice. You can pay for n8n's cloud, which works about the way Zapier does. Or you can run the free self-hosted version, which n8n's pricing page says is available on GitHub, on a server you control.

That's where "n8n is free" comes from, and it's true in a narrow sense: you don't pay n8n. You do pay for the server, and you become the person responsible for it (updates, backups, security, noticing when it goes down). If you like that kind of work, it's a good deal. If you don't, you've swapped a software bill for a chore that shows up at random times.

Who fixes it when it breaks

Both tools break for the same everyday reasons: a password changes, a connected app updates its form, a field gets renamed, a card on file expires. Neither tool prevents that. What differs is how fast you find out and how hard the repair is.

Zapier is easier for a non-technical owner to open and follow. Each Zap reads top to bottom in plain language, and most popular apps have a ready-made connection. When one breaks, most owners can find the red step and reconnect the account themselves.

n8n gives you more control: branching, custom code steps, and long workflows that stay cheap to run. The editor, though, is a canvas of connected nodes, and it assumes you're comfortable with data moving between steps. Owners can learn it. The risk I watch for is the business where one person understands the workflows, and when that person is on vacation, nobody touches them.

Here's how I'd sort it:

When neither one beats a small custom build

If the process has real business logic (routing leads by town and job type, a quote that changes with the answers on the form, a follow-up schedule that stops the moment a customer replies), a general-purpose tool turns into a pile of workarounds, and neither one is the right answer. I go into that line in more detail in Zapier vs custom automation.

That's the kind of work I do. For a freight forwarder, I built intake for quote, import, export, and general inquiries, so each request arrives sorted instead of piling up in one inbox. For a mortgage professional, I built a custom engine that scans, scores, and delivers early-intent leads, something no off-the-shelf connector was going to do. Builds start at $500 one-time, then a flat monthly from $99 after an included run-in period, cancellable. Part of that monthly is that I'm the one who notices when a step breaks. Sometimes a $20 plan and an afternoon of setup is the better choice, and I'll tell you when that's the case.

What replacing the hand work looks like

Whatever tool you pick, the steps are the same:

1. Write the process down as it happens today. Where does the work start (a call, a form, an email), who touches it, and where does it end?
2. Pick the one step that hurts most. Usually it's the lead that sits in an inbox, the quote nobody follows up on, or the invoice nobody chases.
3. Automate that step and nothing else. Run it for two weeks. Watch what breaks.
4. Add a failure alert that goes to a person: a text or an email when a run fails, sent to someone who will read it.
5. Only then add the next step.

When I see automation that went wrong, it usually skipped step 4. The tool worked fine until it didn't, and nobody knew it had stopped.

What stays human

No tool should be deciding who gets a call back first, what a job is worth, or how to answer a customer who's upset. Automation should get the right information in front of you quickly and handle the copying, reminders, and routing. The judgment stays with you, including looking at a failed run and deciding whether it matters. On a small team, that's usually the owner or one trusted person.

Questions

Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?

For workflows with many steps, usually yes, because n8n counts a whole run as one execution and Zapier counts each successful action as a task. For short, two-step workflows at low volume, the difference is small, and Zapier's free plan may cover you.

Is n8n really free?

The self-hosted version is free to download from GitHub, according to n8n's pricing page. You still pay for the server it runs on and the time to maintain it. n8n's cloud plans are paid, starting at €20 a month billed yearly.

Is Zapier easier to use than n8n?

For most non-technical owners, yes. Zapier's builder reads as a plain list of steps. n8n's canvas is more flexible and has more of a learning curve.

Can I try both before I pay?

Yes. Zapier offers a 14-day trial of Professional and n8n offers a cloud trial with Pro features and 1,000 executions. Neither asks for a card, according to their pricing pages.

If you'd like help deciding which of your workflows belongs where, or whether any of it 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.