Zapier vs Make vs n8n in 2026: verdicts from measurement, not vibes
Based on our own continuous benchmark — true cost + reliability scoreboard · updated 2026-07-07
Disclosure: this page contains one affiliate link (Make). Zapier has no affiliate program for publishers and self-hosted n8n pays us nothing — we recommend it anyway, first, where it wins. Rankings follow measurements only; our independence rules are public and our flagship data pages carry no affiliate links at all.
The short version
Same workload, measured: Make is 5–8× cheaper than Zapier at every volume we priced; self-hosted n8n is cheaper than both ($0–5/month flat) and has been the most reliable and fastest platform in our benchmark — zero silent failures in 2,315 runs, median delivery 0.7 s vs Zapier's 4.3 s. Zapier buys you the biggest app catalog and the fastest setup, at the highest price.
| You are… | Pick | Why (measured) |
|---|---|---|
| Technical, or have one engineer-hour a month | n8n, self-hosted | $0 platform fees (runs on a free-tier cloud VM), 0 silent failures in 2,315 runs, fastest delivery (724 ms median). We earn $0 recommending this. |
| Non-technical, volume above ~500 runs/month | Make | Cheapest managed option at every tier ($9 vs $73.50 at 1,000 runs/mo), 0 silent failures in 60 runs, 1.0 s median delivery. Mind the credit gotchas below. |
| Non-technical, low volume, need a niche app connector | Zapier | Largest catalog (8,000+ apps), fastest to set up, delivered 35/35 in our runs — at ≈4¢/task, the priciest unit economics and the slowest measured delivery (4.3 s median). |
| Webhook-heavy / polling-heavy workloads | n8n, then Make | Polling is a standing tax on per-operation platforms — an empty 30-min poll costs 2 Make credits (~2,880/month for nothing) and $0 on n8n. Details on the cost page. |
The numbers behind the verdicts
| Zapier | Make | n8n (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost @ 1,000 runs/mo | $73.50 | $9 | $0–5 |
| Cost @ 10,000 runs/mo | $283.50 | $53 | $0–5 |
| Silent failures observed | 0 / 35 (CI ≤ 9.9%) | 0 / 60 (CI ≤ 6.0%) | 0 / 2,315 (CI ≤ 0.17%) |
| Median delivery latency | 4.3 s | 1.0 s | 724 ms |
Identical workflows, both endpoints ours, all plans paid for by us. Small samples on the paid platforms have honest wide intervals — method, confidence intervals and raw data on the reliability scoreboard; price provenance on the cost page.
What each platform costs you beyond the invoice
- Zapier — the meter is honest (filtered runs and editor tests bill $0, measured) but the units are expensive, and overage silently spills into pay-per-task billing at a penalty rate. Watch the task meter, not the plan name.
- Make — three gotchas we hit ourselves: a scenario you finish editing is not active until you flip the detail-page switch (events queue silently); empty scheduled polls burn 2 credits each; the free tier caps you at 2 active scenarios regardless of credits left.
- n8n self-hosted — the invoice is ~$0 but you are the ops team: a 1 GB VM needs a swap file, CLI-imported workflows need re-publishing, and your uptime is your problem. Ours has run flawlessly on a free-tier VM — after we spent an afternoon setting it up properly.
Where to go
- n8n — n8n.io (not an affiliate link; we earn $0 from n8n).
- Make — make.com (affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no cost to you; Make's numbers above were measured before we joined its program and are published identically either way).
- Zapier — zapier.com (no affiliate program exists for publishers; we earn $0).
FAQ
Zapier vs Make: which is cheaper for high volume?
Make, by 5–8× at every volume tier we priced with first-party data. At 1,000 runs/month of our identical workflow basket: Zapier $73.50 vs Make $9 (monthly billing, July 2026). At 10,000 runs: $283.50 vs $53. The gap comes from unit prices (≈4¢ per Zapier task vs ≈0.18¢ per Make credit), not from Make doing less work.
Is n8n actually reliable enough to replace Zapier?
In our measurement, self-hosted n8n has run 2,315 output-expected workflow runs with zero silent failures (95% CI caps the true rate below 0.17%) and the fastest delivery of the three platforms (median 0.7 s vs Zapier's 4.3 s on the identical path). The honest trade-off is operational: you run the server, you own the uptime. We recommend it first for technical users and earn $0 doing so — it has no commission for us.
When is Zapier worth the premium?
When integration breadth and setup speed matter more than unit cost: Zapier's catalog (8,000+ apps) is the largest, its editor is the fastest path from idea to running Zap, and in our measurements it delivered 35 of 35 runs. You pay for that: the highest per-task price of the three and the slowest measured delivery (median 4.3 s). For low-volume, business-critical glue in a team without engineers, it is a defensible choice.
Does BenchTruth earn money from these recommendations?
Only partially — and never from rankings. If you sign up to Make through our link we may earn a commission (disclosed below). Zapier has no affiliate program for publishers and self-hosted n8n earns us nothing, yet n8n tops several of our verdicts. Flagship data pages carry no affiliate links at all, and measurements are published identically for platforms that pay us nothing.