Both tools let you connect apps and automate workflows without writing code — but they have meaningfully different strengths, pricing models, and limits. Here's how to choose.
Automation platforms have become a standard part of the modern business tech stack — but choosing between n8n and Make (formerly Integromat) is a real decision with genuine implications for cost, flexibility, and long-term scalability. Having built hundreds of automation workflows on both, here's the honest comparison.
The Fundamental Difference
Make is a polished, cloud-hosted SaaS with a visual scenario builder optimised for non-technical users. n8n is open-source, self-hostable, and developer-friendly — more setup effort, but significantly more flexibility and no per-operation pricing ceiling. The right choice depends entirely on who will build and maintain your automations.
Make Excels When
- Non-technical business users are building and maintaining automations without developer involvement
- You need 500+ pre-built app connectors with no custom integration work
- Your workflows are relatively straightforward and don't need complex branching or custom code
- You want a guaranteed SLA and managed infrastructure without self-hosting overhead
n8n Excels When
- Your team includes developers comfortable writing JavaScript within workflow nodes
- You need self-hosted deployment for data privacy, compliance, or cost reasons
- You're building complex AI agent workflows with custom LLM integration and dynamic branching
- High-volume automations where per-operation SaaS pricing would become expensive at scale
- You need to extend functionality beyond what pre-built connectors offer
For AI-heavy workflows — LLM calls, RAG pipelines, AI agent orchestration — n8n's code nodes and AI agent modules give meaningfully more control than Make's visual-only approach. For straightforward CRM-to-email or form-to-spreadsheet workflows, Make's polish and connector library wins on speed of implementation.
Pricing Reality Check
Make charges per operation (each app action in a scenario counts). At low volumes this is fine; at high volumes (100,000+ operations/month), costs escalate quickly. n8n's cloud plan is flat-rate by workflow count; self-hosted n8n has no per-execution cost beyond your server bill — a major advantage for high-volume automations.
Our Recommendation by Use Case
- Marketing and ops teams building their own automations: Make
- Engineering teams building AI agent workflows or high-volume pipelines: n8n
- Compliance-sensitive businesses needing on-premise data handling: n8n self-hosted
- Businesses needing the most app connectors with zero coding: Make
