The two Zapier alternatives worth serious consideration are Make, at $9 a month for 10,000 credits, and n8n, at €20 a month on Cloud or free if you self-host. Both are cheaper than Zapier’s $19.99 entry tier, and for multi-step workflows the gap widens sharply because of how each one counts usage.
But cheaper per month is not the same as cheaper to switch. Migration costs are real, mostly invisible in advance, and concentrated in the integrations you assumed would exist. This post covers both halves: what you’d save, and what it costs to get there.
Key takeaways
- Make is the cheapest like-for-like swap at $9/month, with a similar visual builder.
- n8n bills per whole workflow run, so long multi-step automations cost the same as short ones.
- Zapier’s advantage is app coverage — 8,000+ integrations against roughly 3,000 and 1,000.
- Budget 2–4 hours per workflow to migrate, plus a fortnight of parallel running.
- Check your three most obscure apps first. That’s where migrations actually fail.
What Are the Real Alternatives?
Two serious ones for small businesses, and the choice between them turns almost entirely on whether you want to run software yourself.
| Zapier | Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 100 tasks · 2-step limit | 1,000 credits · 15-min interval | Self-hosted: unlimited |
| Entry paid | $19.99/mo annual · 750 tasks | $9/mo · 10,000 credits | €20/mo annual · 2,500 executions |
| Billing unit | One action reaching an app | One module run | One whole workflow run |
| Integrations | 8,000+ | 3,000+ | ~1,000 + any REST API |
| Self-hostable | No | No | Yes |
| Learning curve | Lowest | Moderate | Steepest |
The billing unit is the story. A ten-step workflow costs ten module runs on Make and one execution on n8n. On Zapier it costs only the steps that reach another app — filters and formatters are free.
What Would You Actually Save?
Take a business running 1,000 workflow runs a month, each with one trigger and three actions.
| Platform | Usage consumed | Plan needed | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | 3,000 tasks | Professional, 5,000-task tier | Highest |
| Make | 4,000 credits (trigger counts) | Core, 10,000 credits | $9 |
| n8n Cloud | 1,000 executions | Starter, 2,500 executions | €20 |
| n8n self-hosted | Unlimited | Community edition | $0 + server |
Make wins on headline price at this volume. n8n self-hosted wins outright on cost but adds a server to maintain — realistically $5–20 a month of hosting plus your time when it needs updating, which is not nothing. Our full breakdown sits in n8n pricing: cloud vs self-hosted.
What Actually Breaks When You Migrate?
Integrations, almost every time. The workflow logic ports fine — it’s the long tail of connected apps where migrations stall, because Zapier’s 8,000+ integrations are its genuine moat and the alternatives have a fraction of that.
| What breaks | How often | Workaround |
|---|---|---|
| A niche app has no native connector | Common | HTTP/webhook module, if the app has an API |
| Connector exists but lacks the action you use | Common | Chain two actions, or call the API directly |
| Authentication method differs | Occasional | Re-authorise; some need an app-side setting |
| Built-in formatting behaves differently | Very common | Test date and number handling explicitly |
| Error handling isn’t equivalent | Occasional | Rebuild retry logic rather than assuming it |
| Multi-step approval or delay steps | Occasional | Check these exist before committing |
Do the integration check before anything else. List every app your workflows touch, then search each alternative’s directory for the three most obscure. If those three aren’t there, your migration is an API project, not a swap.
What Does Migration Cost?
Budget two to four hours per workflow, and don’t count the first one — it’s always slower while you learn where everything lives.
| Stage | Time | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Integration audit | 1 hr | List apps, check each connector exists |
| Rebuild first workflow | 3–4 hrs | Learning the platform, mostly |
| Rebuild each subsequent one | 1–2 hrs | Much faster once fluent |
| Parallel running | 2 weeks | Both live, comparing outputs |
| Cutover and cleanup | 1 hr | Switch off, cancel, document |
Ten workflows is therefore roughly 15–20 hours plus a fortnight of watching. At a $30 hourly value that’s $450–600 of your time to save perhaps $10–20 a month, which pays back in two to five years. That arithmetic matters.
Should You Actually Switch?
Usually not, if you have fewer than ten workflows and Zapier’s bill is under $30. The saving is real but small, and the migration cost swamps it. Switch when one of these is true.
| Reason to switch | Worth it? |
|---|---|
| Zapier bill over $100/month | Yes — savings now exceed migration cost quickly |
| Workflows have many steps | Yes — n8n’s per-run billing is structurally cheaper |
| You want data on your own server | Yes — only n8n offers this |
| You’re at the start, nothing built yet | Yes — no migration cost at all |
| Saving $10/month on a small setup | No — the time costs more |
| You need a rare integration | No — Zapier’s coverage is the product |
Can You Run Two Platforms at Once?
Yes, and for many businesses it’s the sensible endgame rather than a transitional state. Keep Zapier for the handful of workflows that need its rare connectors, and run the high-volume ones on Make or n8n where the per-run cost is lower.
Two entry plans cost roughly $29 a month combined, which is often less than a single Zapier tier at volume. The trade is a second place to look when something breaks, so document which workflow lives where — a single note listing every automation and its platform saves an hour of confusion later.
If you’re choosing from scratch rather than escaping, the fuller three-way comparison is in Zapier vs Make vs n8n, and the per-platform arithmetic in Zapier pricing explained.
What About the Other Options You See Listed?
Roundups usually name a dozen alternatives. Most fall into three groups, and only one group is worth a small business’s evaluation time.
| Group | What they are | Worth evaluating? |
|---|---|---|
| General no-code platforms | Make, n8n — direct substitutes | Yes |
| Developer-first tools | Code-centric, often generous free tiers | Only if someone codes |
| Suite-bundled automation | Built into a CRM or office suite you own | Check first — you may own it |
| Single-purpose connectors | Link two named apps only | Rarely — you’ll outgrow them |
Anything in the fourth group deserves particular caution, because outgrowing one means a second migration within a year. Be wary of the free tiers on developer-first tools. They’re often genuinely generous and genuinely unsuitable, because the cost reappears as your time whenever something needs a script. Free is only cheap if you’re the person who can fix it at 9pm.
There’s also a category question worth asking before any of this: whether you need a general platform at all. If all you want is one chain — form to CRM to email — your form tool or CRM may already do it. Adding a platform to connect two apps that connect natively is a subscription and a dependency for nothing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Zapier alternative?
Make for most small businesses, at $9 a month for 10,000 credits with a similar visual builder. n8n is better for long multi-step workflows because it bills one execution per whole run, and it can be self-hosted for free.
Is Make cheaper than Zapier?
Yes at entry level — $9 a month for 10,000 credits against Zapier’s $19.99 annual for 750 tasks. Note Make counts the trigger as a module, so a three-action workflow consumes four credits per run rather than three.
Is there a free alternative to Zapier?
n8n’s self-hosted Community edition is free and unlimited, but you run and maintain the server. Make’s free plan gives 1,000 credits a month with a 15-minute minimum interval, which is more usable than Zapier’s free tier because it isn’t capped at two steps.
How long does it take to migrate from Zapier?
Two to four hours per workflow, with the first taking longest while you learn the platform. Add an integration audit of about an hour and two weeks of parallel running. Ten workflows is roughly 15–20 hours of work.
What breaks when you switch automation platforms?
Integrations most often — niche apps may have no connector, or a connector missing the specific action you use. Date and number formatting differs subtly and fails silently. Check your three most obscure apps before committing to anything.
Should I switch from Zapier to save money?
Only if your bill exceeds roughly $100 a month, your workflows have many steps, or you haven’t built anything yet. Below that, the migration time costs more than the subscription saving, often by years.
The Bottom Line
Make is the cheapest straight swap and n8n is the structurally cheapest at scale, but neither saving matters until your Zapier bill is big enough to fund the switch. Under $30 a month with a handful of workflows, stay put and spend the time on building something new instead.
If you are switching, do the integration audit first. List your apps, check the three most obscure against the new platform’s directory, and stop there if they’re missing. Everything else in a migration is predictable; that one thing decides whether it’s possible.
And run both in parallel for a fortnight. One extra subscription is cheap insurance against the silent formatting error you’d otherwise find in your customers’ inboxes. More options in our comparisons hub.
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Sources
- Zapier — Pricing plans
- Make — Pricing plans
- n8n — Pricing plans
- Zapier Help — What counts as a task
- n8n Docs — Self-hosting
All prices read off each vendor’s own pricing page, last verified 11 August 2026. Integration counts are the vendors’ own published figures, rounded down. Migration time estimates are our own, based on the rebuild-and-parallel-run approach described; your workflows may be simpler or considerably more tangled.
