Comparisons/July 30, 2026(updated Aug 1, 2026)

n8n vs Make (2026): Pricing, Hosting, and Buyer Fit

Compare n8n and Make on 2026 pricing, billing units, hosting, licensing, security, governance, and the best fit for your automation team.

n8nmakeworkflow-automationself-hosted

MethodDesk research

CheckedAug 1, 2026

Sources9

Limits: We did not create paid accounts, run workflows, benchmark execution speed, or test support response times. Prices are public list prices viewed from the United States; tax, currency conversion, negotiated terms, AI usage, and third-party API charges can change the final bill. Make's public pricing page was protected by an anti-bot challenge during research, so plan details were cross-checked against Make's dated Help Center pages; buyers should confirm the checkout total.

Editorial verdict+/- Conditionalhigh confidence

Choose n8n when self-hosting, execution-based billing, or infrastructure control is a requirement. Choose Make when a managed visual platform and its broader prebuilt app catalog matter more than self-hosting and per-module credit exposure.

Best for

• Technical teams that need n8n self-hosting or code-capable workflows
• Business teams that prefer Make's managed visual automation and broad app catalog

Avoid if

• You have not mapped real workflows to each vendor's different billing unit
• You need enterprise identity, audit, support, or licensing terms but have not obtained a written quote

On this page

n8n and Make can automate the same broad category of work, but they are not interchangeable purchases. n8n offers a managed cloud and a self-hosted edition. Make is a managed cloud platform, with an Enterprise on-premise agent for reaching systems on a private network rather than hosting the Make platform yourself.[S2][S6]

The other major difference is metering. n8n’s paid plans count complete workflow executions, regardless of the number of steps. Make uses credits: most non-AI modules consume one credit per operation, while some AI and advanced features use dynamic credit amounts based on tokens or other usage factors.[S1][S5]

Verdict

Choose n8n if deployment control is mandatory, your workflows have many steps, or your technical team wants to operate and extend the platform. The free Community edition is attractive for internal automation, but it transfers patching, encryption, backups, monitoring, and recovery to you. It also omits several collaboration and governance features available in paid editions.[S2][S3]

Choose Make if the priority is a managed, visual automation service with a large prebuilt app catalog and no platform infrastructure to run. Before committing, model credits from actual scenarios, especially AI-heavy ones, and identify which governance features require Teams or Enterprise.

Neither is a universal winner. A buyer comparing only the headline monthly prices will miss the more important differences in billing units, operational ownership, licensing, and plan-gated controls.

At a Glance

Prices and allowances above are dated August 1, 2026. Confirm currency, tax, billing term, and checkout price before purchase.[S1][S4][S5]

Current Pricing and What It Measures

n8n pricing

n8n’s public prices were displayed in euros with annual billing selected:[S1]

All listed plans include unlimited users and workflows. That does not mean unlimited compute or concurrency. n8n also says self-hosted Business and Enterprise license keys report production execution usage to its license server, and overages may be charged.[S1]

The Community edition is not simply the paid product with support removed. n8n documents exclusions including projects, workflow and credential sharing, SSO, environments, external secrets, log streaming, external binary storage, multi-main mode, and Git-based version control. Registered Community adds folders, editor debugging, and custom execution data at no charge.[S2]

Make pricing

Make’s pricing page listed Free, Core, Pro, Teams, and Enterprise tiers during research.[S4] The lowest paid configuration was Core at USD9/month for 10,000 credits at the annual-billing rate. Free included 1,000 credits per month. Pro and Teams add progressively stronger execution, development, and collaboration features; Enterprise is quote-based.

Treat the credit allowance as the comparison input, not the scenario count. Make’s July 31, 2026 credit documentation says:[S5]

• Most non-AI modules use one credit for one operation.
• Third-party AI app operations generally use one Make credit, while the AI vendor bills tokens separately when you bring that vendor connection.
• Make-provided or automatic AI connections can consume credits dynamically based on tokens, operations, file size, page count, processing time, or other factors.
• Paid customers can buy extra credits. Make documents a 25% premium over the plan’s per-credit rate for manual or automatic extra-credit purchases.

Make’s annual billing is also not identical across plans. Its Help Center says Core continues to receive monthly credit allocations, while Pro and Teams annual subscriptions receive a yearly pool that can be used across the year.[S5]

How to Compare the Bill

Do not convert executions to credits with a universal ratio. Build three representative workflows and count them separately.

For n8n, estimate:

monthly trigger events x resulting production workflow executions

For Make, estimate:

module operations per run x runs, then add dynamic AI or advanced-feature credits.

A ten-module Make scenario does not always consume exactly ten credits: routers, bundles, iterators, retries, polling, and dynamic-credit modules can change usage. Conversely, one business event can trigger more than one n8n workflow execution if the design uses sub-workflows or retries. Validate both estimates in each vendor’s usage dashboard before moving a critical process.

Also add costs that neither headline price necessarily includes: third-party APIs and AI models, storage, data transfer, implementation, monitoring, and, for self-hosted n8n, infrastructure and operator time. This article does not project those costs because they depend on the buyer’s architecture and workload.

Hosting, Data Control, and Licensing

n8n

n8n Cloud handles installation, updates, and scaling. n8n says its cloud service runs on Microsoft Azure and currently stores platform data in the European Union. Self-hosting lets the buyer choose the environment, but the buyer must configure TLS and encryption at rest and operate the database, backups, updates, monitoring, and recovery.[S2][S8]

n8n is source-available, not OSI open source. Its Sustainable Use License permits internal business, non-commercial, and personal use, modification, and redistribution under stated limits. It does not permit selling hosted access to n8n or white-labeling it for customers without a separate commercial agreement. Product builders embedding n8n should review the license examples and obtain written terms where the use case is unclear.[S3]

Make

Make does not publish a self-hosted edition. Its Enterprise on-premise agent runs inside the buyer’s network and lets Make scenarios access private HTTP APIs without opening inbound firewall access. The scenario orchestration still belongs to Make’s cloud service; the agent is not a self-hosted Make control plane.[S6]

That distinction matters for data-residency and architecture reviews. Buyers should document which payloads, execution logs, credentials, and AI prompts leave their network, then compare required retention, regional hosting, and deletion terms with Make’s contract and security documentation.

Building and Maintaining Workflows

Both products now support more technical work than the old “developer versus no-code” shorthand suggests.

n8n provides a node canvas, HTTP and GraphQL requests, webhooks, JavaScript and Python Code steps, custom nodes on self-hosted deployments, APIs, and CLI controls. Some lifecycle features, including environments and Git version control, require Business or Enterprise.[S1][S2]

Make provides a visual scenario builder, HTTP and webhook modules, custom apps, API access on relevant plans, and JavaScript or Python through Make Code.[S7] Its visual routing and app breadth can reduce custom connector work, but the buyer should verify the exact trigger and action needed, not merely whether an app logo exists.

For either platform, run a proof of concept that covers:

• A high-volume workflow with realistic branching and retries
• The least common app integration and its required trigger
• Credential rotation and least-privilege access
• Promotion from development to production
• Error alerting, replay, log retention, and data redaction
• Export, backup, and recovery of workflows and credentials

Security, Governance, and Support

n8n publishes SOC-oriented security information for its cloud service, encryption details, and separate self-hosting responsibilities. Its pricing page places dedicated support with an SLA, external secret stores, log streaming, and extended retention in Enterprise. Business includes SSO, environments, and Git version control but only forum support.[S1][S8]

Make publishes security and data-processing information and reserves several centralized governance capabilities for higher tiers.[S9] The on-premise agent is Enterprise-only.[S6] Ask Make to map SSO, roles, audit logs, log retention, support response commitments, data region, and AI subprocessors to the exact quote. Do not infer Enterprise controls from the Free or Core trial experience.

For regulated or business-critical use, the product decision should follow a control review, not substitute for one. Self-hosting n8n can satisfy an infrastructure-control requirement, but self-hosting alone does not provide compliance, secure configuration, an SLA, or an incident-response team.

Who Should Buy n8n?

n8n is the better shortlist candidate when:

• Policy or architecture requires a self-hosted automation control plane.
• Workflows contain many steps and execution-based pricing maps better to expected use.
• Engineers need custom code, custom nodes, APIs, or direct infrastructure control.
• The team can own production operations, or the budget supports n8n Cloud or a paid self-hosted plan.

Look elsewhere or obtain a paid n8n quote when customer-facing embedding conflicts with the Sustainable Use License, the team cannot operate self-hosted infrastructure, or required governance features are absent from Community.

Who Should Buy Make?

Make is the better shortlist candidate when:

• Business users need a managed visual platform without maintaining the automation server.
• Its app catalog contains the exact modules and triggers the project needs.
• The team can measure and govern module-level and dynamic AI credit use.
• Enterprise buyers need the on-premise agent to reach private HTTP services while retaining cloud orchestration.

Look elsewhere if the Make platform itself must run in your environment, or if a realistic proof of concept shows that credit consumption or plan-gated governance does not fit the budget.

Buyer Checklist

1. Price three real workflows under both billing models, including retries and AI usage.
2. Decide whether “on premises” means private-system connectivity or a self-hosted control plane.
3. List required SSO, roles, audit, secrets, environments, retention, and support terms.
4. Review n8n’s Sustainable Use License if workflows support a customer-facing product.
5. Confirm data location, subprocessors, deletion, backup, and incident terms in writing.
6. Test export and recovery before moving a revenue, finance, or customer-support process.

Sources

1. n8n Plans and Pricingn8n, accessed Aug 1, 2026
2. Choose how to use n8nn8n, accessed Aug 1, 2026
3. Sustainable use licensen8n, accessed Aug 1, 2026
4. Make PricingMake, accessed Aug 1, 2026
5. CreditsMake Help Center, accessed Aug 1, 2026
6. On-premise agentMake Help Center, accessed Aug 1, 2026
7. Custom logic inside Make: Meet the Make Code AppMake, accessed Aug 1, 2026
8. Security at n8nn8n, accessed Aug 1, 2026
9. Automation SecurityMake, accessed Aug 1, 2026