Make prices credits, and the credit is a module action. The pricing page states it plainly: adding a Google Sheet row or fetching Gmail account data counts as one credit. Free allows up to 1,000 credits a month with no time limit, a no-code visual workflow builder, more than 3,000 apps, routers and filters, customer support and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs. Core is $9 a month at the 10,000-credit tier and adds unlimited active scenarios, scheduling down to the minute, increased data transfer limits and access to the Make API. Pro is $16 a month and adds priority scenario execution, custom variables and full-text execution log search. Teams is $29 a month and adds teams and team roles and shared scenario templates, while Enterprise is custom-priced with custom functions, enterprise app integrations, 24/7 support, overage protection and advanced security. Credit tiers are selectable from 10,000 up to 8 million and beyond, and annual billing saves 15% or more.
TL;DR
Make bills credits and n8n bills executions, and that single difference drives most of the price gap. Make's Free plan allows up to 1,000 credits a month, Core is $9 a month for 10,000 credits, Pro is $16, Teams is $29 and Enterprise is custom; every module action in a scenario, such as adding a row to a sheet, costs one credit. n8n Cloud is 20€ a month billed annually for 2,500 executions with unlimited steps and unlimited users, Pro is 50€ for 10,000 executions and 20 concurrent runs, Business is 667€ for 40,000 executions on self-hosted only, and Enterprise is quoted; the Community Edition is free to self-host from GitHub. A workflow with fifty steps costs Make fifty credits and n8n one execution.
n8n prices executions and includes unlimited users on every cloud plan. Starter is 20€ a month billed annually for 2,500 executions with unlimited steps, one shared project, five concurrent executions, 2,300 AI credits a month and forum support. Pro is 50€ a month billed annually for 10,000 executions, three shared projects, 20 concurrent executions, seven days of insights, admin roles, global variables and up to 13,700 AI credits a month. Business is 667€ a month billed annually and is self-hosted only, with 40,000 executions, six shared projects, SSO, SAML and LDAP, 30 days of insights, Git version control and different environments. Enterprise is quoted and adds unlimited shared projects, 200+ concurrent executions, 365 days of insights, log streaming and an SLA. The Community Edition is a standard self-hosted build on GitHub, companies with under 20 employees can apply for 50% off Business, and annual billing saves 17 percent.
That leaves a straightforward test. Count what a run costs in each model. In Make, a scenario with twenty modules costs twenty credits each time it runs, so 10,000 credits is 500 runs of that scenario. In n8n, the same scenario costs one execution no matter how many steps it contains, so 2,500 executions is 2,500 runs. If your automations are short and frequent, Make's credit ladder is cheap and its $9 entry price is hard to beat. If your automations are long and chained, with branching and error paths, n8n's execution model prices far lower at the same workload, and its unlimited users mean the cost does not rise when colleagues need access. Make's advantage is a gentler learning curve and a credit price you can start at for $9; n8n's is code when you need it, self-hosting, and a billing unit that does not punish complexity.
| Feature | Make | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Up to 1,000 credits a month, no time limit | Free self-hosted Community Edition on GitHub; no free cloud plan |
| Entry paid plan | Core at $9 a month for 10,000 credits | Starter at 20€ a month billed annually for 2,500 executions |
| Mid plan | Pro at $16 a month, Teams at $29 a month | Pro at 50€ a month billed annually for 10,000 executions |
| Top published plan | Enterprise, custom pricing | Business at 667€ a month billed annually, self-hosted only |
| Billing unit | One credit per module action, so steps multiply the cost | One execution per whole workflow run, regardless of steps |
| Users included | Plan and credit based | Unlimited users on every cloud plan |
| AI allowance | AI features including Maia, MCP server and AI agents across plans | 2,300 AI credits a month on Starter, up to 13,700 on Pro, non-rolling |
| Concurrency | Free plans wait 15 minutes between runs; paid plans schedule to the minute | 5 concurrent executions on Starter, 20 on Pro, 200+ on Enterprise |
| Self-hosting | Not a published option on the plan ladder | Community Edition free on GitHub; Business plan also self-hosted |
| Annual saving | 15% or more | 17% |
Pick Make if
Make is the easier entry and the cheaper one if your scenarios are short. Free allows up to 1,000 credits a month with more than 3,000 apps and a 15-minute minimum interval, Core is $9 a month for 10,000 credits and unlocks the API, Pro is $16 and adds priority execution and log search, and Teams is $29 with team roles and shared templates. Credit tiers scale from 10,000 up past 8 million, so you can buy volume precisely, and annual billing saves 15% or more. The risk is complexity: because every module action costs a credit, a long branching scenario eats the allowance fast, and a team that grows its automation surface should model the credit cost before committing.
Pick n8n if
n8n prices the run rather than the step, which makes it the predictable choice for anything with many modules. Starter at 20€ a month billed annually covers 2,500 executions with unlimited steps, unlimited users and 2,300 AI credits, Pro at 50€ covers 10,000 executions with 20 concurrent runs and up to 13,700 AI credits, and Business at 667€ adds SSO, SAML, LDAP, Git version control and environments on a self-hosted deployment. The Community Edition on GitHub means the software costs nothing if you supply the server, and companies under 20 employees can apply for 50% off Business. The trade is that there is no permanently free hosted plan, AI credits do not roll over, and concurrency is capped below Enterprise.
Neither vendor publishes third-party review data we are willing to restate as fact, and we did not run either product. Every figure here comes from the two vendors' own pricing and product pages as published when this comparison was written. The lists headed 'vendor-published claims' are the vendors' own statements, not user reviews.
Make's published entry is lower at $9 a month for 10,000 credits against n8n Starter at 20€ a month billed annually, and Make has a free plan with up to 1,000 credits while n8n's free option is self-hosted only. At the same workload the answer flips: Make charges one credit per module action, so long scenarios consume many credits per run, while n8n charges one execution per whole run.
Make's credit is a module action: adding a Google Sheet row or fetching Gmail data each costs one credit, so a twenty-module scenario costs twenty credits per run. n8n bills the full execution, and states that it charges for runs rather than each step or user, so the same twenty-step workflow costs one execution.
n8n can be self-hosted using the Community Edition, a standard build available on GitHub, and the Business plan at 667€ a month is also self-hosted only. Make's published plan ladder does not include a self-hosted option; its Enterprise tier is custom-priced and covers enterprise app integrations, overage protection and advanced security.
n8n bundles AI credits per cloud plan: 2,300 a month on Starter and up to 13,700 on Pro, capped monthly and non-rolling, with extra credits not currently purchasable, and on self-hosted instances you bring your own key. Make includes AI features across the plan ladder, including Maia for building by conversation, an MCP server, AI agents in beta and an AI toolkit that can use Make's own provider or your own LLM key.
On Make, Free scenarios wait a minimum of 15 minutes between runs while paid plans schedule down to the minute, and priority scenario execution starts at Pro. On n8n, Starter allows five concurrent executions and Pro allows 20, with 200+ reserved for Enterprise, and Business is capped below that while being self-hosted only.
Spot an outdated price or feature? Let us know and we'll verify it.