n8n vs Zapier
vs Make.
Real comparison for 50+ employee companies. TCO, self-host, GDPR, performance, ecosystem. With numbers, no smoke.
01 · TL;DR
For 50+ employee companies, self-hosted n8n is the dominant choice for three reasons: (1) zero marginal cost per execution, (2) your data doesn't leave your infrastructure, (3) real extensibility with code when you need it. Zapier and Make are excellent for small startups or non-technical teams, but they scale poorly in cost and compliance.
02 · Real cost (TCO) at 12 months
Take a realistic case: 80-employee company, 40,000 executions/month across 25 workflows, medium complexity (5 steps per flow).
- Zapier Team: ~€2,400/month on the plan that allows that volume + multi-step. ≈ €28,800/year.
- Make Pro/Teams: ~€950/month for the operations consumption. ≈ €11,400/year.
- n8n self-host: ~€35/month for the VPS + ~€90/month for optional Enterprise license (if you want SSO/audit). ≈ €1,500/year.
The difference isn't marginal: n8n comes out 7× to 19× cheaper at the same volume. And that gap widens linearly with each new workflow.
03 · Technical
Extensibility
n8n has a native Code node that runs arbitrary JavaScript or Python. You can import libraries, connect to APIs without an official node, and treat data as manipulable objects. Zapier and Make also allow code, but with time limits, no outbound network access on basic plans, and a painful debug curve.
Versioning and environments
n8n lets you export workflows as JSON, put them in Git, and deploy from CI. Zapier and Make are, in practice, click-ops: what's in production is what whoever has editor access did.
Integration ecosystem
Zapier wins on quantity: ~7,000 native apps vs ~1,000 for Make and ~500 for n8n. But for 80% of real B2B workflows, all three cover what you need. And n8n has HTTP requests and generic nodes that fill any gap.
04 · Data and GDPR
Here the difference is categorical. With Zapier or Make, every piece of data you process passes through their servers (US/EU). You can sign DPAs, but you're still sending your data outside. For companies with sensitive data (healthcare, financial, legal), this is a real compliance obstacle.
With self-hosted n8n, your data literally never leaves your infra. You sign DPAs only with the AI model providers you use (OpenAI, Anthropic) and only for the data you explicitly send to them.
05 · When to choose which
| Recommendation | |
|---|---|
| 1-10 employee company, 5-20 workflows | Zapier or Make |
| 10-50 employees, sensitive data, no engineering | Make + DPA |
| 50+ employees, growing volume | n8n self-host |
| Healthcare, financial, legal · any size | n8n self-host |
| SaaS / Tech with internal devs | n8n self-host |
06 · Conclusion
If you're already on Zapier/Make and your bill is below €500/month, don't migrate. Above that threshold, the n8n migration pays itself back in 3-6 months. And if you're starting from scratch with sensitive data: skip Zapier/Make, go straight to n8n.
Need help migrating or starting on n8n? Free 30-min assessment. We tell you if it makes sense for you and what it costs.