n8n vs Make: Which Automation Platform Is Right for Your Business?

When clients ask us which platform to use for automation, the honest answer is: it depends. n8n and Make are both excellent tools, but they serve different needs. Here's how to think about the choice.

What They Are

Both are visual workflow automation platforms — you connect apps and define logic with a drag-and-drop interface, no code required. You can connect CRMs, email tools, databases, AI models, webhooks, and hundreds of other services. The difference is in how they're priced, hosted, and how technical you need to be to use them.

Make: Best for Getting Started Fast

Make (formerly Integromat) has the most polished interface of any automation platform. If you've never built an automation before, Make is the easiest place to start. The visual flow is intuitive, the error messages are readable, and the documentation is excellent.

• Plans from free to €16/month for small usage
• Pricing based on 'operations' — each step in a workflow counts
• Hosted in the cloud — nothing to install or maintain
• Best for: non-technical teams, simple to medium complexity workflows

The main limitation: at higher volumes, operations-based pricing adds up quickly. A workflow that runs 1 000 times per day with 10 steps uses 10 000 operations per day — that's 300 000/month, which requires a paid plan.

n8n: Best for Power and Control

n8n is open-source and can be self-hosted on your own server. This means no per-operation limits — you pay for compute, not for usage. For high-volume automations, this makes n8n dramatically cheaper than Make at scale.

• Self-hosted: pay only for your server (€5–20/month for most use cases)
• Cloud version available from €20/month with unlimited executions
• More powerful for complex logic: code nodes, sub-workflows, error handling
• Best for: developers, high-volume workflows, data-sensitive use cases

The trade-off: n8n requires more technical comfort to set up and maintain. The interface is slightly less polished than Make, and some integrations require more configuration.

The Decision Framework

• Non-technical team, low to medium volume → Make
• Developer on the team, high volume, or budget-sensitive → n8n
• Need to keep data on your own infrastructure → n8n self-hosted
• Want the fastest path to a working prototype → Make

What We Use

We use both, depending on the client. For e-commerce clients with high order volumes, we almost always use n8n — the cost savings are significant. For marketing agencies and smaller teams who need to manage their own workflows, Make is usually the better fit.

Not sure which fits your situation? Book a free 30-minute call and we'll give you a clear recommendation based on your actual workflows and volume.