n8n vs Zapier
One question settles it: does the automation have to reach something that is not a public SaaS app?
The verdict
Choose Zapier for low-volume connections between public SaaS apps that a non-technical owner will maintain. Choose n8n when the workflow touches your own database, needs real code, or runs often enough that per-task billing hurts.
Zapier is genuinely better at what it is for. The catalogue is roughly eighteen times larger, the editor is easier, and nobody has to run a server. For connecting a form to a CRM, reaching for n8n is overengineering.
That advantage stops mattering the moment a private database enters the picture. Same for a data-residency question, or a high run rate.
n8n and Zapier on the dimensions that change the decision
Checked against both vendors' own documentation on 11 August 2026. Feature counts move; the billing units and the licence move slowly.
| Dimension | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| Integration catalogue | Over 500 integrations, per n8n's homepage. | 9,000+ apps, per Zapier's pricing page. |
| Billing unit | One execution is a single run of a whole workflow, whatever the step count. | One task is each successful step in a Zap. Failed actions are not counted. |
| Self-hosting | Yes. A standard self-hosted version is on GitHub. | No. It runs in Zapier's cloud only. |
| Licence | Sustainable Use License: internal business use and self-hosting allowed, reselling it as a service is not. | Commercial SaaS. No source access. |
| Code escape hatch | Code node in JavaScript or Python. Self-hosting allows external modules. | Code by Zapier runs JavaScript or Python steps. |
| Reaching a private database | Direct, because it runs inside your network. | Only if you expose it to the public internet. |
| Who maintains it | Anyone can read the canvas, but somebody owns upgrades. | Operations staff, with no infrastructure to run. |
n8n
Strong at
- Self-hosting is first-class, so data and credentials stay on infrastructure you control.
- The code node takes JavaScript or Python, so there is no wall the canvas cannot cross.
- Billing counts whole workflow runs, so a long workflow costs the same as a short one.
- Workflows are JSON, which means they can be diffed, reviewed and rolled back.
Weak at
- The catalogue is far smaller, so more connectors become your problem.
- Self-hosting is a service to operate. Queue mode needs Redis as a message broker and a database alongside it.
- SQLite is the default database, and n8n does not recommend it for queue mode, so production means Postgres.
- On n8n Cloud the code node cannot import external npm modules, with only crypto and moment available.
- Debugging a failure deep in a long run is slow.
Zapier
Strong at
- The 9,000+ app catalogue means the connector almost always already exists.
- Non-technical staff can build and fix workflows without help.
- Nothing to host, patch or monitor.
- Failed actions do not consume tasks, so broken runs are not billed.
Weak at
- No self-hosting, so data residency has no answer beyond Zapier's own cloud.
- Per-step task billing makes high-frequency and many-step workflows expensive.
- It cannot reach a private database unless you expose it publicly.
- Complex branching and state are awkward, because the model is a linear chain of steps.
Which one fits your case?
Three questions about your situation, not your preference.
What does the workflow need to reach?
What happens if a run fails halfway?
How often does it run?
Every outcome
- Zapier
- Public SaaS apps, modest volume, and a non-technical owner. The connector exists, nothing needs hosting, and the per-task bill stays small.
- Self-hosted n8n
- Private systems, real logic, or high volume. It runs inside your network and the code node handles what the canvas cannot. A workflow run costs the same whether it has three steps or thirty.
- Neither. Write a service.
- When a half-finished run is a real incident, both tools are the wrong shape. Money moved, a document filed, an order dispatched: that needs durable execution and provable recovery, which is a job queue.
- TriggerBoth handle this the same way.
- StepsZapier bills each one. n8n bills the run.
- ReachZapier stops at the public internet.
- CodeBoth allow it. Only n8n self-hosted lifts the library limit.
- DataZapier's cloud, or your own hardware.
Two stations decide most cases: what the automation can reach, and who is billed for each step.
Rules that settle it
Pick on what the automation must touch and what a failure costs. Feature counts rarely decide a real project.
- 01Choose Zapier if every system involved is a public SaaS app with an existing connector.
- 02Choose Zapier if the person maintaining this is not technical and never will be.
- 03Choose n8n if the workflow reads or writes a database you would not expose to the internet.
- 04Choose n8n if compliance will ask where the data was processed.
- 05Choose n8n if the run count is high, since one execution covers the whole workflow rather than each step.
- 06Choose neither if a partial run has consequences somebody must answer for. That is a durable queue, not a canvas.
An n8n workflow running unattended
Common questions
01Can you use both n8n and Zapier?
Yes, and plenty of teams should. Zapier handles the long tail of SaaS connections nobody wants to build, while n8n runs the workflows that touch internal systems. Splitting them along that line is cleaner than forcing one tool to do both. The cost is two places to look when something breaks, so document which system owns which process.
02Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
The billing units differ, so shape decides it rather than a headline rate. Zapier counts each successful step as a task. n8n Cloud counts one run of a whole workflow as a single execution, whatever the step count. A twenty-step workflow running often is where that gap shows up most. Self-hosting removes the meter altogether, in exchange for running a server.
03Is n8n open source?
Not in the OSI sense. The licence is called the Sustainable Use License. It allows you to use and modify the software for your own internal business purposes, and to self-host it. Selling it on as a competing hosted service is not allowed, and distribution to others is permitted only free of charge for non-commercial purposes. For most teams that is invisible. Read the licence before you build a product on top of it.
04How hard is it to migrate from Zapier to n8n?
The thinking carries over and the wiring does not. Each Zap has to be rebuilt as an n8n workflow, because triggers, connectors and credentials are all vendor-specific. What survives is your understanding of the process, which is the part that took the longest. Rebuild the highest-volume workflow first, since that is where the billing difference pays for the effort.
05Does Zapier support custom code?
Yes. Code by Zapier runs JavaScript or Python steps inside a Zap. It covers reshaping data and small pieces of logic. It cannot reach a system that is not exposed to the public internet. That limit is what usually sends teams to a self-hosted tool.
Related
- where n8n stops being the right tool →Our full review, from running it in production.
- n8n automation agencies →How to tell a specialist from a reseller.
- n8n alternatives →Temporal, Windmill and Make, and when to stay put.
- automating the work nobody wants to do →How we build automation that runs unattended.
