n8n vs Zapier: Pricing, Features and Which to Pick

The short answer

Both tools connect apps and now build AI agents, but they are built for different people.

Zapier is a product for business users. You pick a trigger, add actions from a catalog of 9,000+ apps, and it runs in Zapier's cloud. Zapier Agents add an AI layer that can take action across those apps, and Copilot can draft an agent from a sentence. You pay for that convenience per task.

n8n is a toolkit for builders. Its canvas exposes the data moving between steps, it runs JavaScript and Python, it swaps cloud or local models, and the Community Edition runs on your own servers. You pay per workflow execution in the cloud, or nothing beyond hosting if you self host.

If you are unsure, answer one question: will the person maintaining this be comfortable reading an error message about a JSON field? If yes, n8n. If no, Zapier.

Pricing

Line item	n8n	Zapier
Billing unit	Workflow execution, unlimited steps	Task, each completed action
Free option	Community Edition, self hosted	Free plan, 100 tasks a month
Entry plan, billed monthly	Starter about $27 (€24) for 2,500 executions	Professional $29.99 for 750 tasks
Entry plan, billed annually	$20 a month	$19.99 a month
Mid tier, billed monthly	Pro $60 for 10,000 executions	Professional $193.50 for 10,000 tasks
Team or business tier	Business about $900 (€800) monthly or about $751 (€667) annually, 40,000 executions, self hosted	Team $253.50 monthly ($169 annually) for 10,000 tasks, 25 users
Users	Unlimited on every plan	25 on Team, unlimited on Enterprise
AI agents	Agents, MCP and AI nodes on every plan	Agents add on: Free 400 activities, Pro 1,500 activities for $50 a month
Annual discount	17%	33%

The unit is what matters. Take a 5 step workflow (a trigger plus 4 actions, one of them an AI step) that runs 2,000 times a month. Zapier counts each completed action as a task, so that is 8,000 tasks and lands on the 10,000 task Professional tier at $193.50 a month billed monthly. n8n counts the whole run once, so it is 2,000 executions and fits Starter at about $27 (€24). At 10,000 runs a month the gap widens further: n8n Pro covers it at about $68 (€60), while Zapier would need 40,000 tasks.

Zapier's price buys you something real: the catalog, the editor, managed hosting and support. But if a workflow runs thousands of times a month, the math favors n8n almost every time.

One more cost to count on Zapier: Agents are metered separately from Zaps. Each agent action (a web search, a knowledge lookup, an app action) is an activity, and a single run can use up to 40 on Pro.

Features

Feature	n8n	Zapier
Integrations	500+ built in, plus HTTP request for any API	9,000+ apps
Editor	Node canvas showing data between steps	Linear step editor plus Copilot
Code	JavaScript and Python	JavaScript and Python code steps
AI models	Any model, cloud or local	Built in AI; model choice not published for Agents
Agent features	Multi agent, RAG, MCP, human approval, evaluations	Agents with knowledge sources, Chrome extension, Copilot, MCP
Self hosting	Yes: Docker, on premises, air gapped	No
Debugging	Inspect every execution, re run single steps	Zap history and agent activity monitoring
Security	SSO, SAML, LDAP, RBAC, audit logs on higher plans	SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 listed, SAML SSO on Team
Public reviews	Trustpilot 3.0 from 50 reviews	Trustpilot 1.3 from 324 reviews

Two differences deserve a closer look.

Integrations. Zapier's catalog is roughly 18 times n8n's built in list. That matters most for small SaaS tools that n8n does not cover. n8n's answer is the HTTP request node, which can call any REST API, but you need to read the API docs and handle authentication yourself.

Control over AI. n8n lets you choose the model per step, run local models, build multi agent systems and evaluate outputs natively. Zapier hides more of that and gives you a faster start. If you need to keep data on your own servers or use a specific model, n8n is the only one of the two that allows it.

On reviews, treat Trustpilot with care: both scores are dragged down by billing and renewal complaints, a common pattern for subscription tools. Zapier's larger count reflects its far larger user base.

Who wins for each scenario

A five person agency automating client onboarding. Zapier. Every app the team uses is likely in the catalog, nobody needs to learn a new data model, and volumes are low enough that per task pricing stays reasonable on the $29.99 or $73.50 tiers.

A SaaS company syncing product events to the CRM thousands of times a day. n8n. At that volume per task billing is punishing, and an engineer can maintain the workflows. Self hosting can drop the software cost to the price of a server.

A healthcare or finance team that cannot send data to a third party cloud. n8n, self hosted or air gapped. Zapier is cloud only.

A sales team that wants an AI agent to research and update leads. Zapier, if speed to launch matters most: Agents work across your CRM, email and enrichment tools without setup code. Choose n8n if you want to pick the model and keep costs flat as the team scales.

Verdict

Pick Zapier if your team is non technical, your volume is modest and you value the widest app coverage. It is the fastest way to get an agent working in the tools you already use, and the free plan includes 400 agent activities to try it.

Pick n8n if you have someone technical, run high volume or need self hosting. Per execution billing and unlimited users make it the cheapest serious option in the category, and its AI features are deeper.

Many teams end up using both: Zapier for quick, low volume connections and n8n for the heavy workflows. For more options, see our ranking of the best AI agent builders, the Make vs Zapier comparison and the full n8n review and Zapier review.