Quick verdict
n8n and Zapier both automate workflows, but they are aimed at entirely different operators. n8n is free to self-host, charges per full workflow execution (not per step), runs code nodes in JS and Python, and keeps your data on your own infrastructure. Zapier has 7,000+ app connectors, gets non-technical ops teams live in under an hour, and starts at $19.99/mo. At low task volume, Zapier's pricing is comparable. Past 10K tasks a month, the n8n cost advantage is significant: roughly $60/mo vs $200+ on Zapier Professional. Pick n8n for technical teams who want control and better unit economics at scale. Pick Zapier for non-technical teams who need breadth and zero infrastructure overhead.
n8n vs Zapier at a glance
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free tier | External rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Technical ops and engineering teams wanting code control + data residency | Free (self-hosted); ~$24/mo cloud | Yes (unlimited self-hosted) | G2 (via Topickz listicle, May 2026) 4.8/5 (233 reviews) | |
Non-technical ops teams needing broad app coverage and fast setup | $19.99/mo (Professional, annual) | Yes (100 tasks/mo, two-step Zaps) | G2 (via Topickz listicle, May 2026) 4.5/5 (1,754 reviews) |
Feature comparison by criteria
| Criteria | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (annual) | Free self-hosted; ~$24/mo cloud (EUR-billed) | $19.99/mo Professional (USD) |
| Free tier | Yes, unlimited executions self-hosted | Yes, 100 tasks/mo, two-step Zaps only |
| G2 rating (May 2026) | 4.8/5 (233 reviews) | 4.5/5 (1,754 reviews) |
| Pricing model | Per full workflow execution (all steps included) | Per task (each Zap step = 1 task) |
| Self-hosting | Yes, Community Edition is free on GitHub | No (cloud only) |
| App integrations | ~1,000+ native nodes | 7,000+ app connectors |
| Code nodes (JS/Python) | Yes, native on all plans | Code by Zapier (limited), no Python |
| SAML SSO tier | Business tier (custom pricing, cloud or self-hosted) | Team tier ($69/mo, annual) |
| AI automation | AI Workflow Builder credits + native LangChain/agent nodes | Copilot AI builder + AI fields on Professional+ |
| Best for team size | 1-200, technical ops or engineering-led | 1-500, non-technical to mid-market ops |
| Standout strength | Data ownership, code control, better unit economics at scale | App breadth, fastest onboarding, non-technical friendly |
| Our score (out of 10) | 8.8 | 9.0 |
The fundamental divide
n8n and Zapier both connect apps and automate workflows. That’s where the similarity ends.
Zapier was built for people who have never written a line of code. It takes 45 minutes to go from account signup to a working multi-step workflow. The 7,000+ app connectors mean your obscure CRM, your niche support tool, and your legacy marketing platform are almost certainly in there. You don’t need an engineer. You barely need to understand APIs.
n8n was built for people who do know what an API is. The canvas is more powerful, the pricing is more rational at scale, and the self-hosted option means your workflow data never leaves your infrastructure. A code node in any workflow can run arbitrary JavaScript or Python. But the first time a non-technical user tries to map a nested JSON response from an API call into the next node, they’ll need help.
The decision is really about who’s building and maintaining the automation. That one question resolves most of the rest of this comparison.
Pricing reality
The pricing models are structurally different, and that difference matters more than the headline sticker.
Zapier charges per task. Every action step in a Zap counts as one task. A 5-step Zap that runs 1,000 times per month uses 5,000 tasks. The Professional plan ($19.99/mo annual) covers 750 tasks/mo. Actual production use hits the next band fast. At 10,000 tasks per month (not unreasonable for an active ops stack), Zapier runs closer to $49-73/mo depending on the band you’re in.
n8n charges per workflow execution on cloud plans. The entire workflow, regardless of how many nodes it has, counts as one execution. Cloud Starter ($24/mo, billed in EUR at roughly 20/mo annual) covers 2,500 executions/mo. Cloud Pro ($60/mo) covers 10,000 executions/mo. Self-hosted Community Edition is free with no execution limits.
The unit economics comparison is worth running at your actual volume.
| Monthly workflow runs | Zapier Professional | n8n Cloud Pro | n8n Self-hosted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 750 (100 tasks/run avg) | $19.99 | $24 (Starter) | $0 |
| 2,500 executions | $49+ (est.) | $24 (Starter) | $0 |
| 10,000 executions | ~$73-100+ (est.) | $60 (Pro) | $0 |
| 40,000 executions | $200+ (est.) | ~$667 (Business, cloud) | $0 + infra |
Note: n8n cloud is EUR-billed. USD figures are approximate based on live EUR/USD rate at time of research (June 2026). Zapier task-band pricing is estimated from published plan bands; exact cost depends on Zap step count. n8n self-hosted has no execution cost beyond your own server ($3-10/mo for a basic VPS covers most small teams).
Which tier you will really land on
Both tools have a free tier that runs out fast in production.
| Feature you need | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| Any automation at all | Free (self-hosted, unlimited) | Free (100 tasks/mo, 2-step Zaps) |
| Multi-step workflows | All paid cloud tiers + self-hosted | Professional ($19.99/mo) |
| Webhooks | All paid tiers + self-hosted | Professional ($19.99/mo) |
| Code nodes (JS/Python) | All plans including self-hosted | Code by Zapier, Professional+ (JS only) |
| Admin roles | Cloud Pro (~$60/mo) | Team ($69/mo) |
| SAML SSO | Business (custom pricing) | Team ($69/mo) |
| Git version control | Business (cloud or self-hosted) | Not available |
| Multiple environments | Business (2 instances on cloud) | Not available natively |
| AI agent workflow nodes | All plans (AI credits vary by tier) | Professional+ (AI fields, Copilot) |
| Audit logs | Enterprise (custom) | Enterprise (custom) |
| SLA support | Enterprise (custom) | Enterprise (custom) |
The Zapier reveal: if your security team requires SAML SSO, your real Zapier price is $69/mo on Team, not $19.99/mo. For a 25-person team on Zapier Team vs Professional, that’s $828/year more, just to unlock SSO.
The n8n reveal: if you need SSO and don’t want to self-host, you’re looking at Business tier pricing, which is a sales conversation, not a self-serve card swipe. But if you self-host, you can configure SSO yourself at the infrastructure level at no additional n8n license cost.
Pricing at 5, 25, and 100 seats
n8n doesn’t charge per seat. Both tools are unlimited-user on paid plans. The variable is execution volume and tier features, not headcount.
This table models the annual cost for a team that runs roughly 5,000 workflow executions per month (a realistic mid-size ops stack).
| Scenario | n8n Cloud Pro | Zapier Professional |
|---|---|---|
| 5,000 executions/mo, unlimited users | ~$720/year | ~$1,500+/year (est.) |
| Same volume, add SSO | Custom (Business tier) | ~$3,000+/year (Team) |
| Self-hosted, same volume | $0 + ~$50-100/year VPS | Not available |
The self-hosted math is the wildcard. An n8n Community Edition instance on a $5-7/mo DigitalOcean droplet handles low-to-medium production loads fine. For orgs with the DevOps bandwidth to manage it, the cost difference over three years is substantial.
Where each wins
n8n wins on data control. The self-hosted model is not a marketing feature. It means no data in transit through a third party, no vendor SLA required for compliance, and no concern about what Zapier does with the data your workflows process. For teams handling PII, financial records, or healthcare data, this matters more than any pricing difference.
n8n wins on code-native flexibility. The Code node runs arbitrary JavaScript or Python inline, inside any workflow. You can write a function to transform data, call an internal SDK, parse a malformed API response, or implement business logic that no visual connector will ever support. Zapier’s Code by Zapier exists, but it’s limited and runs only JavaScript.
n8n wins on AI agent depth. Native LangChain integration, tool-calling nodes, memory management, and multi-agent orchestration exist as first-class workflow nodes. Teams building AI-powered internal tools are doing things in n8n that Zapier doesn’t support yet.
Zapier wins on app breadth. 7,000+ integrations is not a minor gap. If your stack includes tools like Pipedrive, a regional payment gateway, an HR platform with limited API docs, or a legacy marketing tool, Zapier almost certainly has a pre-built connector. n8n’s HTTP Request node covers many gaps, but it requires more setup time than a click-to-authenticate Zapier app connection.
Zapier wins on non-technical user experience. The Zapier UI is genuinely the best in this category for people who are not comfortable with APIs. The AI Copilot builder makes it even faster. For ops teams where the automation builder is a marketing coordinator, an HR manager, or a finance analyst, Zapier’s UX removes barriers that would block n8n entirely.
Zapier wins on support breadth and documentation. Years of community answers, Stack Overflow threads, YouTube tutorials, and certified Zapier experts in the market. n8n has a solid technical forum and good docs, but the depth of third-party resources is not comparable yet.
Integration depth
This is the section where Zapier wins most visibly.
| Integration need | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Native node | Native + bi-directional |
| HubSpot | Native node | Native + deep CRM sync |
| Slack | Native node | Native |
| Google Sheets | Native node | Native |
| Airtable | Native node | Native |
| OpenAI / Anthropic | Native AI nodes | AI fields (Professional+) |
| Stripe webhooks | Native + HTTP | Native |
| Shopify | Native node | Native |
| Long-tail SaaS (obscure tools) | HTTP Request node (manual config) | Usually has a pre-built connector |
| Internal APIs / custom endpoints | HTTP Request + Code node | Custom webhooks, limited code |
| Local LLMs (Ollama, LM Studio) | Native (via local API) | Not supported |
The integration gap closes when your stack is mainstream. If you’re running Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Google Workspace, n8n covers all of it with native nodes. The gap opens when you need niche connectors, or when a non-technical builder needs to authenticate a new app in five minutes without reading API docs.
Technical skill and time to value
This is the most honest section to get right.
Zapier: a non-technical ops manager with no prior automation experience can have a working multi-step Zap live in under one hour. The trigger-action model is intuitive. Authentication is click-through OAuth for most apps. The Copilot AI builder reduces even that friction. Onboarding cost is essentially zero.
n8n: a technical builder (comfortable with JSON, APIs, basic scripting) can have a meaningful workflow live in two to four hours, including reading docs on node configuration. A non-technical user should budget significantly more, and realistically needs someone to answer questions. The canvas is more powerful than Zapier’s linear step view, but that power comes with more to learn.
The practical rule: if automation is primarily built by people with “engineer” or “developer” in their title, n8n’s learning curve pays off quickly. If automation is built by people in ops, marketing, or finance who have no interest in reading API docs, Zapier is the safer investment.
Security and compliance
| Control | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 Type II | Yes (cloud) | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Self-hosted possible; cloud not certified | No |
| Data residency | Your infrastructure (self-hosted) | Zapier servers (US) |
| SAML SSO | Business tier (custom) | Team ($69/mo) |
| Audit logs | Enterprise (custom) | Enterprise (custom) |
| End-to-end data control | Yes (self-hosted) | No |
| SOC 2 report availability | Yes (available on request) | Yes |
The data residency point is the biggest structural difference for compliance-sensitive teams. On Zapier, your workflow data (the payloads moving through your automations) transits and is temporarily stored on Zapier’s infrastructure. For most commercial use cases, that’s fine. For healthcare, legal, financial services, or any org with strict data-residency requirements, it’s often not.
n8n self-hosted eliminates the question entirely. Your data stays on your infrastructure. n8n cloud is hosted in Europe (AWS Frankfurt), which helps with EU data-residency requirements even on the managed product.
Switching cost and lock-in
Zapier workflows are not portable in any standard format. There is no export-as-JSON for your Zap library, no way to re-import them to another platform. If you leave Zapier, you rebuild. For a 20-Zap stack, that’s a real afternoon. For a 200-Zap stack, it’s a multi-week project.
n8n workflows export and import as JSON. The file is portable across n8n instances (cloud to self-hosted, one cloud org to another). Teams running n8n on Git-backed environments (available on Business tier) get full workflow version history and can deploy workflows like code. That portability is genuine.
Both tools require annual contracts on non-Free tiers to get the best pricing. Month-to-month is available on Zapier at a 33% premium. n8n cloud also offers monthly billing. Neither has multi-year lock-in at standard tiers.
Vendor viability
n8n is a VC-backed company with over $55M raised (Series B in 2023). GitHub stars sit at 193,000+ (visible live on the pricing page this session), which is one of the strongest signals of developer adoption in the automation category. The open-source model means the codebase isn’t going away even in an adverse funding scenario. Product velocity in 2025-2026 has been strong, with AI agent nodes and LangChain integration added as first-class features. The company is growing fast in the developer and technical-ops community.
Zapier is a profitable private company that has been around since 2011. Over 2 million businesses use it. The brand is the default noun in non-technical circles when someone says “I need to automate that.” No acquisition risk visible. The 2025-2026 pivot to “AI orchestration platform” (visible on the pricing page) signals product direction toward AI-native workflows, Copilot, and the agent ecosystem. The risk is pricing creep: as Zapier adds AI features, task costs and tier requirements tend to move upward.
Support reality
Zapier provides email and live chat support on Professional and above. Team and Enterprise plans get priority support. The help center is extensive, and the volume of community answers, blog posts, and YouTube content is the best in the category.
n8n provides forum support on Starter and Pro cloud tiers. Business and Enterprise plans get email support and dedicated support with SLA, respectively. The community forum is technically strong and response times from community members are fast. For ops teams used to a ticketed support model with response-time SLAs, note that SLA support on n8n requires Enterprise tier.
Neither vendor has a phone support option below enterprise volume. That’s normal for this category and price point.
Best-for matrix
| You are… | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Non-technical ops team, 1-50 people | Zapier | Fastest setup, broadest connectors, zero ops overhead |
| Technical ops or engineering-led team | n8n | Code nodes, better unit economics, AI agent depth |
| Running 10K+ tasks/month and watching costs | n8n | Execution-based pricing is meaningfully cheaper at scale |
| Team with data-residency or HIPAA constraints | n8n | Self-hosted option keeps data on your infrastructure |
| Building AI agent workflows | n8n | Native LangChain, tool-calling, multi-agent nodes are a real advantage |
| Need a connector for an obscure SaaS tool | Zapier | 7,000+ connectors; n8n’s HTTP node works but takes longer |
| Security team requires SSO at a named price | Zapier | SAML SSO on Team ($69/mo) vs. n8n Business (contact sales) |
| Team without any DevOps bandwidth | Zapier | No infrastructure to manage, no version upgrades to own |
| Need Git-backed workflow versioning | n8n | Business tier feature; Zapier has nothing equivalent |
| Evaluating both for a mixed technical/non-technical org | Neither alone | Run both on a 30-day trial; complexity tolerance is the deciding variable |
For more context on where these tools sit in the broader automation market, see the full best workflow automation tools guide .
The verdict
Zapier is the right default for teams that aren’t sure what they need yet, teams where automation is built by non-technical people, and any situation where breadth of app connectors matters more than cost or data control. The 7,000+ integrations and the sub-hour time-to-first-workflow are real advantages. You will eventually run into the pricing ceiling if you build anything serious, but for getting automation moving in a business, Zapier is the safest first choice.
n8n is the right choice once you have at least one technical person involved in building and maintaining automations. The execution-based pricing model is more rational than task-based pricing at any real production volume. The self-hosted option is the only path to true data residency without building your own automation infrastructure. The code nodes and AI agent capabilities are ahead of Zapier for teams doing serious workflow engineering.
The crossover rule is simple. If you expect to run more than 10,000 workflow executions a month and have someone technical who can own the platform, n8n’s economics win clearly. If your automation builder is a non-developer who needs to ship workflows independently without engineering support, Zapier removes barriers that n8n does not.
Affiliate disclosure: TopickZ may earn a commission when readers click links to n8n or Zapier and become paying customers. This has no effect on our ratings or recommendations. n8n pricing verified live on n8n.io/pricing (June 25, 2026), billed in EUR. Zapier pricing verified live on zapier.com/pricing (June 25, 2026), in USD. G2 ratings carried from the verified best workflow automation tools listicle (May 25, 2026); G2 was bot-walled during this research session. See our methodology and full disclosures .
Frequently asked questions
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
At real production volume, yes. Zapier's Professional plan starts at $19.99/mo (annual) and charges per task, meaning each step in a Zap counts separately. A 5-step Zap running 2,000 times per month uses 10,000 tasks. On Zapier, 10,000 tasks costs roughly $49/mo or more depending on your plan band. On n8n Cloud Pro ($60/mo), that same run uses 2,000 executions (the whole workflow counts once), well inside the 10K execution tier. n8n self-hosted is free with no task limits. The gap widens as volume grows. Below 2,000 tasks per month, the price difference is small enough that Zapier's ease of use can tip the decision.
Can non-technical ops managers use n8n?
With difficulty. n8n has a visual canvas, templates, and an AI Workflow Builder that helps. But credential setup, data-mapping between nodes, and error debugging require some comfort with JSON and API concepts. Most teams that run n8n successfully have at least one person who can troubleshoot a failing node and read an API response. If your entire ops team is non-technical and you don't have an engineer nearby, Zapier is the right call. The time-to-first-working-workflow on Zapier is under an hour for most non-technical users. On n8n, expect 4-8 hours for the first meaningful workflow.
Does n8n have as many integrations as Zapier?
No. n8n has roughly 1,000+ native nodes (integrations). Zapier has 7,000+. The gap is real and matters if your stack includes long-tail SaaS tools that aren't widely supported. The practical workaround in n8n is the HTTP Request node, which lets you call any API with custom headers and authentication. For teams with technical builders, this covers most gaps. For non-technical teams who need a pre-built connector for an obscure CRM, Zapier is safer. Check n8n's integration list at n8n.io/integrations before you commit.
Where does Zapier's SSO land?
SAML SSO is available on Zapier's Team plan, which starts at $69/mo (annual). That's a meaningful jump from the Professional plan at $19.99/mo. For a 25-person team, moving from Professional to Team for SSO costs $828/mo more per year. On n8n, SSO and SAML are on the Business tier, which is custom-priced (contact sales). If your security team requires SSO and you're running more than 20 people, build SSO cost into the evaluation from the start.
Can n8n really handle AI agent workflows?
Yes, and this is where n8n has moved ahead of Zapier for engineering teams. n8n has native LangChain integration, meaning you can build multi-step AI agents that call tools, check conditions, loop on outputs, and hand off to other nodes, all within the visual canvas. You can connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, local LLMs via Ollama, or any custom model endpoint. Zapier has AI Copilot (a workflow builder assistant) and AI fields in Zaps, but it doesn't have the same depth of agentic workflow construction. If AI orchestration is a primary use case, n8n's approach is more capable.
How hard is it to migrate from Zapier to n8n?
There's no one-click migration. You'll rebuild workflows in n8n's canvas, which typically takes 2-4x longer than the original Zapier setup because the UX is different. The good news is that n8n imports workflows as JSON files, so once a template exists in your team, re-deploying it across environments is fast. The harder migration risk is app connections: any integration your Zapier account handles via an OAuth app connection needs to be re-authenticated in n8n. For a 10-15 Zap stack, budget one to two engineer-days for migration plus testing.