n8n vs Zapier: the honest comparison

The short answer

Edition v2026.Q3 · pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.

Choose n8n for technical founders who want workflows and AI agents on one self-hostable canvas — visual building plus real code (JS/Python) when nodes run out. Choose Zapier for non-technical teams whose bottleneck is the SaaS long tail — if an app has an API, Zapier almost certainly already connects it.

On the elems table, n8n holds seat #1 of the Workflow Automation element and Zapier holds #2 — this is the closest call in the category, and the honest answer depends on which trade-off you can live with.

The case for each

1. 1n8nn8n GmbH

   Free self-host (Community Edition) · Starter €20/mo (2.5k executions) · Pro €50/mo · Business €667/mo · Enterprise custom

   Best for Technical founders who want workflows and AI agents on one self-hostable canvas — visual building plus real code (JS/Python) when nodes run out.

   Watch Fair-code (Sustainable Use License), not OSI open source — no reselling the self-hosted edition. Per-execution cloud pricing jumps steeply from Pro (€50) to Business (€667). Verified ARR trails the hype: $40M as of Jul 2025 (Sacra); the '$100M+' figures circulating in 2026 are single-source.

   $5.2B valuation on SAP strategic investment, more than double in ~7 months (May 12, 2026) [src] · $180M Series C led by Accel at $2.5B, Nvidia-backed (Oct 9, 2025) [src]

2. 2ZapierZapier

   Free 100 tasks/mo · Professional from $19.99/mo · Team from $69/mo · Enterprise custom · Agents add-on free–$33.33/mo

   Best for Non-technical teams whose bottleneck is the SaaS long tail — if an app has an API, Zapier almost certainly already connects it.

   Watch Task-based pricing punishes scale — high-volume workflows cost multiples of Make or self-hosted n8n. Closed source, no self-hosting, and the Agents product is a metered add-on. Last verified revenue is 2023; 2026 figures in circulation are aggregator projections.

   9,000+ app integrations; 'one MCP connection… any model, surface, or agent harness' (homepage, Aug 2026) [src] · $310M ARR (2023, +35% YoY); profitable since 2014 on $1.4M total funding; ~$5B valuation (2021) [src]

n8n vs Zapier: side by side

Edition v2026.Q3 · verified 2026-08-06.

What each side won't tell you

n8n: Fair-code (Sustainable Use License), not OSI open source — no reselling the self-hosted edition. Per-execution cloud pricing jumps steeply from Pro (€50) to Business (€667). Verified ARR trails the hype: $40M as of Jul 2025 (Sacra); the '$100M+' figures circulating in 2026 are single-source.

Zapier: Task-based pricing punishes scale — high-volume workflows cost multiples of Make or self-hosted n8n. Closed source, no self-hosting, and the Agents product is a metered add-on. Last verified revenue is 2023; 2026 figures in circulation are aggregator projections.

If it's neither

The rest of the top five: Make (visual power, lowest price) · Gumloop (ai-native, benchmark-backed) · Activepieces (mit-licensed, embeddable). The complete field — 16 more tools including the graveyard — is on the element page.

This analysis is drawn from the Workflow Automation element dossier — the ranked top 5, the comparison matrix, and the complete field of 16 more tools live there, with every source. Data: wf.json (CC BY 4.0).