GILD verdict
Choose Zapier when business teams build their own automations across many apps and the workflows are short.
Choose n8n when a technical team will own the workflows and they are long, frequent, or must stay on your own infrastructure. Price one real workflow on both at your monthly volume, because the two billing units drift further apart as steps per run grow.
Long workflows and self-hosting favor n8n, which bills a whole execution as one, whatever its length, on n8n Cloud or your own infrastructure. Zapier runs only in its own cloud and bills every successful action. Both run multi-step app workflows with AI steps and MCP.
Choosing between Zapier and n8n
Choose Zapier if
- Business and operations teams will build their own workflows, and you want the widest catalog of ready-made app integrations.
- Your workflows are short and mostly move data between apps, where triggers, Filters, and Formatter steps use no tasks.
- You want assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT to act in 9,000+ apps through one MCP server, without hosting anything.
Choose n8n if
- Workflows are long or run often: n8n bills a whole execution as one, regardless of how many steps it has.
- Data or execution must stay on your own servers, on premises, or in a private cloud.
- A technical team wants code in workflows and Git-backed environments for promoting changes.
Side by side
| Dimension | Zapier | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Each successful action step uses 1 task, and a Lead Router step uses 5. A Code step with extended runtime uses 1 more task for every 30 seconds past the plan's allowance. Triggers, Filters, Paths, Formatter, and failed steps use none. Each Zapier MCP tool call uses 2 tasks. AI by Zapier uses 1, 3, or 5 tasks per run and per tool call, depending on model tier | Monthly workflow executions, regardless of complexity: a full run counts once, with unlimited steps |
| Entry plansList prices, as each vendor publishes them: Zapier in US dollars, n8n in euros. | Free: 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps. Professional: US$19.99 a month billed annually, or US$29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks. Team: US$69 a month billed annually, or US$103.50 monthly, for 2,000 tasks and 25 users | Starter: EUR 20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions. Pro: EUR 50 a month billed annually for 10,000 executions. Business: EUR 667 a month billed annually for 40,000 executions. Annual billing saves 17% |
| Users | 1 user on Free and Professional, 25 on Team, unlimited on Enterprise | Unlimited users and workflows on every plan |
| Past the limit | Accounts created after January 2024 have pay-per-task on by default. Extra tasks cost 1.25x the base rate on annual plans and 2.5x on monthly plans. Zaps pause at 3x the plan's tasks | Business plan overage is EUR 4,000 per extra bucket of 300,000 executions |
| Where it runs | Zapier's cloud on AWS in the United States only | n8n Cloud, or self-hosted on your own infrastructure, on premises, or in a private cloud; the self-hosted Community edition is free. One n8n Community member who moved 8 workflows off Zapier reports a US$6-a-month server and 1 to 2 hours of upkeep a month1116 |
| Integrations | 9,000+ apps, plus Webhooks by Zapier and Code by Zapier on paid plans | 2,465 integrations listed in n8n's directory on October 28, 2026, plus HTTP Request and code nodes |
| AI and MCP | AI by Zapier steps at 1x, 3x, or 5x tasks by model tier; Zapier MCP at 2 tasks per tool call; Agents moving into AI by Zapier | AI agent, MCP, and AI nodes on every plan, with monthly AI Assistant credits from 1,600 on Starter |
| Admin controls | Team: SAML SSO, shared connections, 6-month audit log. Enterprise: SCIM, app access controls, managed connections, custom retention, log streams | Business: SSO and LDAP, multiple environments, Git version control. Enterprise: log streaming, external secret stores, extended data retention |
| When a run fails | Manual replay and autoreplay of errored runs, with error notifications set per Zap on paid plans | An error workflow, set per workflow, runs when an execution fails, for example to post an alert |
What practitioners report, side by side
Each product's figures come from its own practitioners, for the group you pick.
Overall signal
Zapier reads −4 and n8n 0, each from its own practitioners. Zapier: 9 positive, 10 negative of 24. n8n: 8 positive, 8 negative of 27.
The score is how far positive sources lead negative ones, per 100 sources from leaders and teams that take a side. Each author behind these scores wrote one of them, so each source is one vote.
A lead of a fifth of the sources reads positive and a lead of half strong positive, with the same lines below zero. The dots run positive, mixed, negative. Run a pilot on one live workflow to measure failed runs and the time spent fixing them.
Footprint on the AI Knowledge Work stack
They differ on one of 7 layers. On Enterprise search, Zapier touches it and n8n supports it. Coverage is each product's placement on this stack, as its product page shows it. Core is a job the product owns; Supports and Touches are jobs it helps with. Coverage says nothing about how well a product does them.
| Layer | Zapier | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Find | ||
| Enterprise search | Touches | Supports |
The 6 layers where they match
| Layer | Zapier | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Assist | ||
| AI assistant | Touches | Touches |
| Find | ||
| Web research | Touches | Touches |
| Create | ||
| Documents | Touches | Touches |
| Meeting notes | Touches | Touches |
| Analyze | ||
| Data analysis | Touches | Touches |
| Automate | ||
| Automation | Core | Core |
What practitioners praise
Among leaders and teams, App coverage and AI steps, agents & MCP reach 5 sources from 3 authors only for Zapier, at 6 of 6 and 5 of 5. n8n needs a pilot on the same workflows before you choose on either. Self-hosting & data control and AI agent workflows reach 5 sources from 3 authors only for n8n, at 5 of 5 and 2 of 6. Zapier needs a pilot on the same workflows before you choose on either.
| Praised for | Zapier | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| App coverage | 6 of 6 | Not a theme in its sources |
| AI steps, agents & MCP | 5 of 5 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Self-hosting & data control | Not a theme in its sources | 5 of 5 |
| AI agent workflows | Not a theme in its sources | 2 of 6 |
Each count is the sources that praise a theme, or raise it as a concern, out of those that discuss it. A row pairs the two products when both carry a theme under the same or an equivalent name.
A count ending in "so far" has under 5 sources from 3 authors among leaders and teams. "Not a theme in its sources" means GILD found no theme of that name in that product's sources.
What practitioners raise as concerns
Among leaders and teams, n8n alone has three concern themes that reach 5 sources from 3 authors. Failed & silent runs and License & paid tiers lead, at 7 of 7 and 6 of 7. Task cost reaches 5 sources from 3 authors only for Zapier, at 6 of 8. n8n needs a pilot on the same workflows before you choose on it.
| Raised as a concern | Zapier | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Task cost | 6 of 8 | Not a theme in its sources |
| Failed & silent runs | Not a theme in its sources | 7 of 7 |
| License & paid tiers | Not a theme in its sources | 6 of 7 |
| Maintainability at scale | Not a theme in its sources | 4 of 5 |
16 sources
- Zapier pricing
- Zapier pricing reference (machine-readable)
- Zapier: Task usage rates
- Zapier Help: How is task usage measured in Zapier?
- Zapier app integrations
- Zapier: Security & compliance
- Zapier Help: Replay Zap runs
- Zapier Help: AI by Zapier model tier pricing
- Zapier MCP docs: Usage and billing
- n8n pricing
- n8n docs: Host n8n
- n8n integrations
- n8n docs: Handle errors gracefully
- n8n docs: Use source control and environments
- n8n for Enterprise
- n8n Community: n8n vs Zapier, my honest cost breakdown after 1 year of self-hosting (Apr 11, 2026)