Drag the slider to your monthly automation volume and see the cheapest plan on each major platform — Make.com, Zapier, n8n, and Pabbly Connect — side by side.
Each platform measures volume differently, so the same workflow can cost very different amounts depending on how it's counted:
Estimates are based on published self-serve plans, verified May 2026. A multi-step workflow run is not 1:1 across platforms — set your volume above based on how each tool counts. Always confirm current pricing on the vendor site before subscribing.
Running high volume long-term? Pabbly's $249 lifetime deal covers unlimited tasks forever — it pays for itself in roughly 13 months versus a $19/mo plan, sooner at higher tiers.
It depends on your monthly volume. At low volume (under 1,000 runs), Make.com's Core plan at $9/mo is usually cheapest. At high volume, Pabbly Connect — which only charges for trigger events and offers a $249 lifetime deal — is typically the most cost-effective. Zapier is the most expensive at scale because it charges per task step.
Zapier charges one "task" for every action step in a Zap, while Make's operations are cheaper per unit and its plans include far more volume at each price point. A workflow that costs $69/mo on Zapier Team can often run on Make's $9 Core plan.
n8n is free and unlimited if you self-host it on your own server — but that requires technical setup and ongoing maintenance. n8n Cloud (Starter $20/mo, Pro $50/mo) is the no-maintenance option and is what this calculator compares.
This is the catch — every platform counts differently. Make counts each module step as an "operation," Zapier and Pabbly count action steps as "tasks," and n8n counts one "execution" per full workflow run. Read the platform notes in the calculator to set your volume correctly.