The true cost of automation platforms, measured: a 5–8× spread on the identical workload

Running the same workflow basket 1,000 times a month costs $73.50 on Zapier, $9 on Make, and $0–5 on self-hosted n8n — and that 5–8× Zapier-to-Make spread holds at every volume tier we priced, from 100 to 30,000 runs a month (July 2026, monthly billing, list prices read from our own paid accounts).

Most cost comparisons quote pricing pages. This one doesn't: we run the identical workflows on each platform around the clock, read what the billing meters actually charge, and verified our consumption model against those meters — exactly (45 = 45 tasks) on Zapier, within 1% on Make. Then we priced the ladders from inside our own accounts. Every number below is traceable.

Cost vs volume (the number that matters)

Monthly cost of running the disclosed workflow basket N times per month, choosing the cheapest sufficient plan tier each time:

Curve stops where our first-party-verified price ladder stops — we don't extrapolate prices we haven't read from a real account. Make's annual prices weren't exposed in our account UI, so we only publish its monthly column. n8n self-hosted: $0 platform fees; we run it on a cloud always-free tier VM ($0), a typical small VPS is ~$5/month.

Why the gap: billing models, measured

The same basket run consumes different billable units by construction of each platform's meter:

Two folklore-killers from the measurement: filtered runs do not bill on Zapier (9 of our filter-stopped runs consumed 0 tasks, contrary to a widely repeated claim), and editor-mode test runs are free on both platforms. Both facts came out of reconciling our run ledger against the vendors' own meters.

The standing tax nobody prices in: polling

One of our four workflows is a 30-minute scheduled poll. On Make, every empty poll — the scheduler fires, finds nothing new, does nothing — still consumes 2 credits (the poll request plus the state lookup its dedup logic needs). At a 30-minute cadence that is ~2,880 credits a month for zero work, more than half of Make's entry paid tier before your workflow does anything. The identical poll on self-hosted n8n costs $0. Per-operation platforms charge you for checking, not just for doing — polling-heavy workloads should price this first.

Free tiers: what the pricing page doesn't say

• Zapier Free allows 2-step Zaps only — it cannot run our basket at all (two of the four workflows need more steps), so it does not appear on the curve.
• Make Free (1,000 credits) allows a maximum of 2 active scenarios — enough to sample, not enough to host the full basket plus polling.
• Pipedream Free ran our workflows flawlessly until its credits ran out — then its webhooks kept returning success while silently discarding every delivery. We measured that failure mode; if production data flows through a metered free tier, read it before trusting "generous free tier" framing.

Method and provenance

• The basket (disclosed): equal thirds of three webhook workflows — single action; filter then two actions (50% of events pass the filter); two parallel branches. Identical step-for-step on every platform; both endpoints under our control. Details and delivery statistics are on the reliability scoreboard.
• Consumption is measured from our reconciled run ledger and verified against each platform's billing meter (Zapier exact; Make within 1%, the residue being cycle-boundary minutes).
• Prices are list prices read from inside our own paid accounts on 2026-07-05 (plan-change sliders), anchored to our actual bills. Zapier annual prices are monthly ÷ 1.5, a ratio verified on two rungs. We paid for both subscriptions ourselves.
• Limitations: prices are USD list and change; this page is dated and re-checked when re-published. Consumption is for our disclosed basket — a loop-heavy or AI-step workload will differ (Make bills AI features differently, for example). n8n costs exclude your time to operate it, which is real but not a platform fee.

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