Quick Answer
Make is the simpler first test for a nontechnical small team that wants a managed visual automation platform. n8n is the stronger first test when technical control, self-hosting or execution-based billing matters enough to justify more operational ownership.
The biggest difference is not which canvas looks better. Make is sold primarily as a managed automation platform that bills by credits consumed by scenario actions. n8n Cloud bills by completed workflow executions with unlimited steps, while n8n also offers a self-hosted Community Edition under its Sustainable Use License.
This is a source-based buying guide, not a hands-on reliability or speed benchmark. We have not run a controlled Make-versus-n8n production benchmark. Verify the live plan, license and feature pages before making a deployment decision.
Make vs n8n: Comparison at a Glance
| Decision point | Make | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted entry plan | Free; Core currently shown at $9/month for 10,000 credits on the pricing page's annual-billing view. | Starter: €20/month billed annually for 2,500 workflow executions. |
| Usage model | Credits; most module actions use one credit, with exceptions for some advanced/AI features. | Cloud pricing is based on completed workflow executions, regardless of step count. |
| Free managed plan | Yes: up to 1,000 credits/month. | Cloud offers a free trial, not a permanent free hosted tier. |
| Self-hosting | Not positioned as a free self-hosted product. | Community Edition can be self-hosted under the Sustainable Use License, subject to its terms. |
| Public integration directory | 3,000+ standard apps. | Current integrations directory lists 2,307 integrations. |
| AI/agent support | AI apps, AI Agents, MCP and built-in AI tools are part of the current product stack. | Starter includes agents, MCP and AI nodes; n8n also supports AI-oriented nodes and integrations. |
| Infrastructure ownership | Mostly vendor-managed for normal cloud use. | Vendor-managed on n8n Cloud; your responsibility when self-hosted. |
| Best first fit | Business operators who want managed visual automation. | Technical teams that value self-hosting, code/API flexibility or execution-based billing. |
Pricing Models: Credits vs Workflow Executions
Make's current pricing page shows a Free plan with up to 1,000 credits per month. The page currently displays Core at $9/month for 10,000 credits in its annual-billing view. Make explains that each module action in a scenario generally consumes a credit, though some AI and advanced features can consume credits differently.
n8n's current pricing page lists Starter at €20/month billed annually for 2,500 workflow executions and Pro at €50/month billed annually for 10,000 executions. n8n states that paid cloud pricing is based on completed workflow executions regardless of workflow complexity, with unlimited steps inside the workflow.
These units are fundamentally different. A ten-step workflow may consume several Make credits per run while still counting as one completed execution in n8n Cloud. But that does not automatically make n8n cheaper: cloud subscription prices, infrastructure ownership, support needs, workflow design, retries and operator time still matter.
For a fair comparison, model one real workflow on both systems and count the units that the vendors actually bill.
Self-Hosting Is the Biggest Strategic Difference
n8n's pricing and Help Center explicitly offer a self-hosted Community Edition. Its current license FAQ says the Community Edition can be used free when only people in your organization create or edit workflows, subject to the Sustainable Use License and its restrictions.
That option gives a technical team more control over where the runtime operates, but self-hosting moves responsibilities onto the business: server availability, upgrades, backups, secrets, database maintenance, monitoring, security hardening and incident recovery.
Do not treat “self-hosted” as “free operations.” The software license may cost nothing for a permitted use case while the infrastructure and engineering work still have real cost.
Make's normal small-business proposition is different: the platform hosts the automation environment, so the team spends less time operating infrastructure and more time configuring scenarios.
Integrations: Both Are Broad, but Verify the Exact Node or Action
Make currently advertises 3,000+ standard apps. n8n's current integrations directory lists 2,307 integrations.
Raw catalog size is useful, but it can mislead. Before choosing either platform:
- Verify the exact trigger and action needed, not just the logo.
- Check whether the connector is first-party, partner-built or community-provided.
- Check how authentication is handled.
- Check whether an HTTP/API node can fill a missing connector gap.
- If self-hosting n8n, review the security implications of any community node before installing it.
A smaller catalog is not necessarily a blocker for a technical team comfortable with APIs. A larger maintained catalog can be a major time saver for a team that does not want to build custom integrations.
AI and Agent Workflows
Both platforms now treat AI as more than a single text-generation step.
Make's current pricing page lists AI applications, Make AI Agents, MCP Server, AI Toolkit and other AI-oriented capabilities. n8n's Starter plan lists agents, MCP and AI nodes, and its integrations directory includes dedicated AI categories such as agents, chains, language models, memory and vector stores.
For an AI-heavy workflow, compare four things separately:
- automation-platform usage units,
- model/API charges,
- human review time, and
- failure/exception handling.
The more autonomous the workflow becomes, the more important logging, approval boundaries and rollback become.
Technical Ownership: Who Will Maintain This Six Months Later?
Make reduces infrastructure ownership but can still become complex when scenarios contain many routers, iterators and transformations. n8n can expose deeper control, but that flexibility also creates more ways to build something that only the original developer understands.
Before choosing either platform, identify the actual maintainer:
- If the owner or operations staff will maintain workflows, favor clarity and low operational overhead.
- If a developer or technical automation specialist owns the system, self-hosting and code-level control may be more realistic.
- If no one owns monitoring, retries and credential failures, the automation is not production-ready regardless of platform.
Document the trigger, data sources, credentials, failure path and manual fallback before scaling the automation.
n8n License and Client Work: Read the Boundary Carefully
n8n's current license FAQ says its free self-hosted Community Edition is governed by the Sustainable Use License. It says you can build and run workflows for clients on your own instance when clients only receive outputs and cannot create or change workflows. It also says a commercial license is required when people outside your organization can build or configure workflows, or when you host n8n as a service or white-label it.
This is an important distinction for agencies, SaaS products and automation providers. Do not assume “open source-like” or “self-hosted” automatically means unrestricted resale or multi-tenant use. If your business model is close to the boundary, review the current license and ask n8n for written clarification.
Three Small-Business Scenarios
1. CRM lead → email → spreadsheet → Slack
Both platforms can be reasonable. A nontechnical operations team may prefer Make's managed visual model. A technical team may prefer n8n if it wants deeper control or expects to add custom logic.
2. Long workflow with many internal processing steps
n8n's execution-based cloud model is worth testing because a completed workflow execution can include unlimited steps. But compare the actual cloud plan, concurrency needs and operator time rather than assuming step count alone determines cost.
3. Automation touching private/internal infrastructure
Self-hosted n8n becomes strategically relevant when the team has the capability to operate it securely and the use case fits the license. Make can access APIs and enterprise systems through its own supported mechanisms, but it is a different infrastructure-control model.
A 7-Day Make vs n8n Test
- Choose one real, low-risk workflow. Avoid payments, legal decisions and destructive actions.
- Define the same business outcome. The implementation can differ, but the result should be comparable.
- Track Make credits and n8n executions. Do not convert one unit into the other.
- Track build time. Include authentication, data mapping and debugging.
- Track maintenance. Record retries, broken connections, manual interventions and log-review time.
- If testing self-hosted n8n, include infrastructure work. Server setup, updates, backup and monitoring are part of the cost.
- Measure net value. Time saved minus review, repair, subscription and infrastructure cost.
Use the 7-Day AI ROI Test for the measurement framework.
Decision Guide
| If this matters most... | Start by testing... | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest operational overhead for a nontechnical team | Make | Managed cloud plus visual scenario building reduces infrastructure ownership. |
| Self-hosting | n8n | Community Edition provides a self-hosted path under the Sustainable Use License. |
| Execution-based billing for long workflows | n8n Cloud | Cloud plans bill completed workflow executions with unlimited steps. |
| Large maintained app catalog | Make | Make currently advertises 3,000+ standard apps. |
| Developer/API flexibility | n8n | Its technical model and self-hosting path suit teams comfortable owning more implementation detail. |
| Business operators owning the automations | Make | It is designed around a managed visual workflow experience. |
Affiliate disclosure: The Make link below is an affiliate link. If you sign up or purchase through it, oRRbit Topics may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We do not have an affiliate relationship with n8n for the links in this guide. The commercial relationship does not change our comparison criteria.
Try Make with this comparison framework → Check n8n's current plans →
Frequently Asked Questions
Is n8n cheaper than Make?
Not automatically. Make and n8n bill different units. n8n Cloud bills completed workflow executions with unlimited steps, while Make generally bills credits for module actions. Self-hosted n8n can remove the cloud subscription for permitted Community Edition use, but infrastructure and maintenance still cost time and money.
Can I self-host Make?
Make's normal small-business offering is a managed cloud service. n8n is the comparison platform here with an explicit self-hosted Community Edition.
Is n8n Community Edition free for a business?
n8n's current license FAQ says free self-hosted Community Edition use is allowed when only people in your organization create or edit workflows, subject to the Sustainable Use License. External configurability, hosted-service and white-label scenarios can require a commercial license.
Which has more integrations?
Make currently advertises 3,000+ standard apps. n8n's current integrations directory lists 2,307 integrations. Verify the exact connector action required by your workflow rather than choosing only by catalog size.
Which is better for a nontechnical small business?
Make is the more natural first test when the business wants managed cloud automation and the workflows are owned by operations staff. n8n can still work, but its main advantages become more valuable when someone technical owns the system.
Bottom Line
Start with Make if you want managed visual automation with less infrastructure ownership. Start with n8n if self-hosting, execution-based billing or deeper technical control is central to the decision.
Do not choose by a generic “best automation tool” ranking. Build the same bounded workflow, record the platform units consumed, include maintenance and infrastructure work, and choose the system your team can operate reliably.
If your other candidate is Zapier rather than n8n, read our Make vs Zapier for Small Business comparison.
Sources
- Make — Plans & Pricing, checked Oct 7, 2026.
- Make — App Integrations, checked Oct 7, 2026.
- n8n — Plans & Pricing, checked Oct 7, 2026.
- n8n — Integrations Directory, checked Oct 7, 2026.
- n8n Help Center — Which license do I need for my use case?, checked Oct 7, 2026.
Editorial note: Prices, plan features, integration counts and licensing guidance can change. This article uses vendor-published information checked on Oct 7, 2026 and does not claim a controlled hands-on Make-versus-n8n performance benchmark.