Make vs n8n vs Zapier: What Automation Really Costs in AUD (2026)

Freaky Newguy — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 03:48:23 +0000

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes · Prices last checked: 20 October 2026

Affiliate disclosure: this post contains an affiliate link to Make, marked “affiliate link”. If you sign up through it, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The prices and comparisons come from each company’s own pricing page either way.

Make, n8n and Zapier all do the same basic job: they connect your apps and run tasks for you automatically. Comparing Make vs n8n vs Zapier on price is hard, though, because each one charges for something different. Here’s what each costs in Australian dollars, worked through two example workflows, from someone who runs n8n on his own server.

Short answer: for small and medium workflows, Make is the cheapest hosted option, from about A$12.90 a month billed yearly. n8n charges per workflow run rather than per step, so it pulls ahead on long workflows, and self-hosting it can cost under A$10 a month. Zapier connects to the most apps but charges for every step, which gets expensive fast: our small example costs A$71 to A$107 a month.

Jump to: How each one charges · Prices in AUD · Small example · Bigger example · Which to choose · FAQ

Make vs n8n vs Zapier: how each one charges

	Zapier	Make	n8n
You pay for	Tasks	Credits	Workflow executions
What uses one	Each action step that completes. The trigger, failed steps and built-in tools like Filter and Formatter don’t count	Each module action, including reading data from an app or webhook. Routers and error handlers don’t count	One full run of a workflow, however many steps it has
Free option	100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only	1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios, scheduled runs at most every 15 minutes	Free self-hosted Community edition, or a Cloud trial with no credit card
Billed in	Your choice of currency, including AUD	US dollars (see note below)	Euros
Run it on your own server?	No	No	Yes

That middle row is the whole story. A five-step workflow that runs once uses four Zapier tasks, five Make credits and one n8n execution.

Prices in Australian dollars

Plan	Includes	Billed monthly	Billed yearly (per month)
Zapier Professional	750 tasks	A$43.73	A$29.15
Zapier Professional	2,000 tasks	A$107.18	A$71.46
Make Plan (affiliate link)	5,000 credits	A$17.85 (US$12.45)	A$12.90 (US$9)
Make Plan	10,000 credits	A$26.94 (US$18.79)	A$22.94 (US$16)
n8n Cloud Starter	2,500 executions	A$38.65 (€24)	A$32.21 (€20)
n8n Cloud Pro	10,000 executions	A$96.62 (€60)	A$80.52 (€50)
n8n self-hosted	No execution limit	Free software, plus a server from about A$4.30 a month (see Self-hosted n8n vs n8n Cloud)

Checked from an Australian connection on 20 October 2026. Zapier prices are its own AUD prices. Make and n8n are converted at the Reserve Bank rates for 19 October 2026 (US$1 = A$1.4337, €1 = A$1.6103). Make’s page shows “$” prices without naming the currency; I’ve treated them as US dollars. When I checked, Make listed one paid plan apart from Enterprise, the Make Plan, priced by how many credits you buy. All three bill from overseas, so your bank may add a fee: see How to pay for ChatGPT and Claude without bank fees.

Example 1: a small workflow

Someone fills in a form on your website. The workflow adds them to a Google Sheet, posts a message in Slack and emails them a reply. That’s four steps (the form trigger plus three actions), and it runs 600 times a month.

Tool	Usage	Plan you’d need	Billed monthly	Billed yearly (per month)
Zapier	1,800 tasks	Professional, 2,000 tasks	A$107.18	A$71.46
Make	2,400 credits	Make Plan, 5,000 credits	A$17.85	A$12.90
n8n Cloud	600 executions	Starter	A$38.65	A$32.21
n8n self-hosted	600 executions	Your own server	From about A$4.30

Zapier’s free plan can’t do this one, because it only allows two-step Zaps. Make’s free 1,000 credits would run out partway through the month.

Example 2: a bigger workflow

Now a ten-step workflow, say processing orders: look up the customer, update a few apps, create an invoice and send some notifications. It runs 3,000 times a month.

Tool	Usage	Plan you’d need	Billed monthly	Billed yearly (per month)
Zapier	27,000 tasks	Professional, 50,000 tasks	A$632.16	A$421.44
Make	30,000 credits	Make Plan, 40,000 credits	A$89.20 (US$62.22)	A$75.99 (US$53)
n8n Cloud	3,000 executions	Pro, 10,000 executions	A$96.62	A$80.52
n8n self-hosted	3,000 executions	Your own server	Server cost only, if it can handle the load

Make is still the cheapest hosted option here, but only just. Add more steps and n8n wins: a 20-step version would need 60,000 Make credits (the 80,000-credit tier is A$130.47 a month billed yearly), while n8n would still count 3,000 executions on the same A$80.52 plan.

AI steps cost extra on all three

If a workflow calls an AI model, the examples above get dearer. Zapier says AI steps can use more tasks depending on the AI model. Make says some AI features use more than one credit. In n8n you can connect your own AI provider and pay it per token (see AI Token Pricing Explained), and n8n Cloud also lets you use some AI models without your own API key.

What I use

I self-host n8n on the same small RackNerd server that runs this blog. One of the things it runs is Bob, a chat assistant that answers questions from ServiceNow documentation. The server renews at US$54.99 a year, about A$6.57 a month, and n8n doesn’t charge me per run. The trade-off is that I’m the one who keeps it updated and backed up.

Which should you choose?

Pick Zapier if you need an app that only Zapier connects to (it lists more than 9,000), or your automations are short and rare enough for the free plan. Zapier also lets you pay in Australian dollars.
Pick Make if you want the cheapest hosted plan for small to medium workflows and a visual drag-and-drop builder. You can start on Make’s free plan (affiliate link).
Pick n8n Cloud if your workflows have lots of steps, because you pay per run, not per step.
Pick self-hosted n8n if you’re comfortable running a Linux server and want the lowest cost. Self-hosted n8n vs n8n Cloud covers what that involves.

FAQ

Is Make cheaper than Zapier?

In both of our examples, yes, by a lot: A$12.90 against A$71.46 a month for the small one, and A$75.99 against A$421.44 for the bigger one, on yearly billing. Zapier doesn’t charge for the trigger or for built-in tools like Filter and Formatter, which narrows the gap a little on some workflows.

Does Zapier charge in Australian dollars?

You can pick AUD on Zapier’s pricing page, and Zapier says it accepts payment in several currencies. The Zapier prices in this post are its own AUD prices. n8n prices in euros, and Make’s prices appear to be in US dollars.

What’s the difference between a task, a credit and an execution?

A Zapier task is one completed action step. A Make credit is one module action, and most actions use one credit. An n8n execution is one full run of a workflow, whatever its length.

Can I self-host Make or Zapier?

No. Both run only on their own cloud. n8n is the one of the three you can run on your own server, using its free Community edition.

Which one has the best free plan?

For hosted tools, Make’s 1,000 credits a month goes further than Zapier’s 100 tasks, and Make allows multi-step workflows. n8n has no free Cloud plan, only a trial, but self-hosting n8n is free apart from the server.

Related guides on FNG

Written by Scott (Freaky Newguy), a Sydney-based IT worker. How I check prices.

Sources

Zapier plans, AUD prices, task rules and free plan: Zapier pricing, checked from an Australian connection on 20 October 2026
Make plans, credits and free plan limits: Make pricing, checked from an Australian connection on 20 October 2026
n8n plans, executions and Cloud trial: n8n pricing, checked 20 October 2026
First-hand: my own self-hosted n8n on a RackNerd VPS (renews at US$54.99 a year)
Exchange rates: Reserve Bank of Australia, 19 October 2026

The post Make vs n8n vs Zapier: What Automation Really Costs in AUD (2026) appeared first on That Freaky NewGuy.

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