Zapier vs n8n: Which Should You Pick?

The billing unit is the real difference

Zapier counts tasks. A task is one successful action a Zap performs, so a workflow with a trigger and six actions consumes six tasks on every run. The Free plan includes 100 tasks a month. Professional starts at 750 tasks for 19.99 US dollars a month billed annually, or 29.99 billed monthly, and scales up through published tiers to 2,000,000 tasks. Multi step Zaps are a paid feature, so the free plan is limited to two step workflows.

n8n counts workflow executions. One run of a workflow is one execution whether it contains three nodes or ninety. The Starter plan is 20 euros a month billed annually and includes 2,500 executions. Pro is 50 euros a month billed annually for 10,000 executions.

The consequence is easy to miss and expensive to discover later. A ten step workflow running a thousand times a month costs 10,000 Zapier tasks, which sits in the middle of Zapier's paid range. The same work is 1,000 n8n executions, comfortably inside the Starter plan. The gap widens with every step you add, and it is the single most common reason teams move from one to the other.

Integration breadth

This is where Zapier is clearly ahead. Zapier's apps directory states it connects to 10,255 or more apps. n8n's integrations page lists 2,366 integrations. Both numbers come from the vendors' own listing pages.

The practical difference is in the long tail. For mainstream services, email, calendars, CRMs, spreadsheets, payment processors, both have a maintained connector. For a niche vertical tool, Zapier is far more likely to have one already built, and that connector will handle authentication and field mapping for you.

n8n closes part of the gap with its HTTP Request node, which is listed in its own integrations directory. Anything with a REST API can be called from it. That is a genuine answer, but it is an answer for someone comfortable reading API documentation and handling auth tokens, not for someone who wanted a connector.

Hosting and licensing

Zapier is a hosted service only. There is no version you run yourself, and no path to keeping data inside your own network.

n8n publishes a Community Edition on GitHub that you can self host, under what it calls the Sustainable Use License. This is not an OSI approved open source licence and the distinction matters. The licence permits use for your own internal business purposes, and for non commercial or personal use. n8n's documentation frames the test as whether you are selling a product, service or module whose value derives entirely or substantially from n8n functionality. Internal work such as syncing a CRM into a company database is explicitly permitted. Consulting is permitted, including installing and managing n8n on a client's own server, provided you are not also hosting it for them.

So a company can run n8n on its own server for its own automations without paying n8n anything. A company cannot wrap n8n and sell it as its own automation product. n8n's documentation directs unclear cases to its licensing address rather than settling them in the FAQ, which is worth taking literally if your use is near the line.

One detail for self hosted buyers: n8n's Business plan is self hosted only at present, and its licence key contacts n8n's licence server daily, including execution counts. Telemetry is on by default with an opt out.

AI agents, and how each one charges for them

Both vendors have added agent features, and both charge for them outside the main meter.

Zapier Agents are billed in activities rather than tasks. The Free plan includes 400 activities a month with a cap of 10 activities per run. Paid plans raise the per run cap to 40, and Professional includes 1,500 activities a month. Zapier Chatbots are billed by how many chatbots you have rather than by usage. Copilot, which builds Zaps from a chat prompt, is unlimited on paid plans and daily capped on Free. AI by Zapier is a paid feature priced by model tier per step and per tool call. Zapier also exposes an MCP endpoint, where one MCP tool call consumes two tasks.

n8n takes the opposite approach and puts AI inside the workflow graph. It offers an AI Agent node and AI steps, an MCP Server Trigger and MCP Client, and a human approval step for tool calls. Its own Assistant is credit metered, with 1,600 credits a month on Starter. n8n's published figures for Pro Assistant credits are inconsistent between its plan table and its FAQ, so confirm that number with the vendor if it matters to you. Self hosted instances can bring their own model key with no credit limit.

Who each one is actually built for

Zapier's product decisions consistently favour the non technical buyer. Templates, a chat based builder, managed connectors and a linear editor all reduce the distance between an idea and a working automation. The cost of that is control: you work within what the connector exposes, and you pay per step.

n8n's decisions favour the engineer. You get a branching canvas, JavaScript and Python code nodes, bash scripts and custom nodes on self hosted instances, version control friendly workflow JSON, and LangSmith tracing for AI workflows. The cost of that is time. Someone has to understand the graph, and if you self host, someone has to run the server, patch it and back it up.

Seat policy follows the same split. Zapier's Free and Professional plans are single seat, Team includes 25 seats, and Enterprise is unlimited. n8n states unlimited users and unlimited active workflows on every plan, and limits collaboration through shared project counts instead: one on Starter, three on Pro, six on Business.