Compare / Make vs n8n
Make vs n8n for a small business
Written by Wanna AI. Checked on 17 Oct 2026, refreshed every 30 days. Wanna is our product; it appears only in the section "Where Wanna fits", not in the table. We ran neither tool; every fact is what a vendor page says that day. Prices change; open each link first.
Short answer. Both tools connect your apps and run flows between them. Make draws the flow on a visual canvas and bills in credits, usually one for each step. n8n bills one execution for each complete run, whatever the step count, and can run on your own server.
How we compared
- Same rows for both tools; a figure we could not read is printed as "not found".
- Make: its home page, its integrations page, its Make vs n8n page and its help center. Its comparison page has a stake, so its claims about n8n are marked as Make's. Make's price list blocked our reader, so Make's prices come from those pages.
- n8n: its pricing page at n8n.io and GitHub page.
Side by side
| Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Connects apps in a visual builder; lists 3,500+ apps and a library of ready AI agents | Workflow automation with AI steps: AI workflows, agents, a choice of model providers and human approvals, per its GitHub page |
| Free start | A Free tier of 1,000 credits a month | No free hosted tier found; hosted tiers list a free trial. The Community Edition is free to self-host |
| What the price counts | Credits. A module usually uses at least one; AI features can use more | Executions. One complete run is one execution, with unlimited steps |
| Price as listed | Make's comparison page: $9/mo for 10,000 credits, then $16 and $29 for the next two tiers, without saying monthly or annual billing. Help center, Core tier example: $113.85 for 150,000 credits a month | Billed annually: Starter 20 euros/mo for 2.5K executions, Pro 50 euros for 10K, Business 667 euros for 40K, Enterprise by contact. Billed monthly: 24, 60 and 800 euros |
| Where it runs | Make's cloud; no self-hosted option found | n8n's cloud or your own server. Business is self-hosted only. Community Edition is under the Sustainable Use License |
| Limits worth reading | Credit use varies with module and AI feature | Starter: 5 concurrent executions, 5 minutes longest run, 1 shared project |
| Honest minuses | Cost grows with step count, and AI steps make it harder to guess | You maintain what you self-host; the license is not plain open source; Business lists forum support, dedicated support is Enterprise |
A worked example, not a measurement
A flow has six steps and runs 1,000 times in a month. If each Make module uses one credit, that is about 6,000 credits. On n8n it is 1,000 executions, inside the 2.5K Starter tier. Credits and executions count different things, so price one real week of your own flows in each.
Criteria that decide it
- Long flows or short ones? Many steps per run favors counting executions.
- Who builds and fixes it? A canvas suits a non-developer; self-hosting needs someone who patches and backs up a server.
- Where must the data live? Only n8n lists a way to run on your own server.
- How much AI is in the flow? On Make, AI features can use extra credits.
Where Wanna fits
Wanna does a different job: it reads your site, proposes the week's growth tasks and drafts letters, posts and ads that wait for your OK. Read on Wanna's own site on 17 Oct 2026: Free for the first drafts; Starter $20 a month, 1 company, 200 credits (about 20 tasks); Growth $49, 5,000 credits; Scale $149, up to 5 companies. Honest minuses: it builds no flows and moves no data between your tools, and it is early, with 3 companies of people and 0 paying on the live page at 13:31 UTC on 17 Oct 2026. More options: workflow automation tools and no-code agent builders.
What neither replaces
Neither replaces the person who knows what the flow should do; a flow that sends a wrong email sends it faster. Neither replaces a security review of the data you connect. See how to choose an AI that runs your company.
FAQ
Is n8n cheaper than Make? It depends on your flows. n8n counts executions whatever the step count; Make counts credits, usually one for each module.
Is n8n free? The Community Edition is free to self-host, under a license that is not plain open source. The hosted tiers we read list a free trial. Make lists a Free tier of 1,000 credits a month.
Can I self-host Make? We found no self-hosted option on the Make pages we read. n8n lists a self-hosted Community Edition and a self-hosted-only Business tier.
Which is easier for a non-developer? We did not test either. Make's comparison page calls n8n harder to learn; that is Make's claim.
Can Wanna replace Make or n8n? No. Wanna drafts growth work for your OK; it does not build flows or connect apps to each other.
Paste your link and see the plan Wanna would make for your company.