Head-to-head
Make vs n8n: which one in 2026?
Make is a hosted visual automation platform from Celonis, Inc. with 3,500+ apps and a free plan. n8n is a workflow tool from n8n GmbH, with a registered address in Berlin, that bills by workflow execution and offers self-hosting. Make did not publish paid prices on the page fetched, while n8n lists four plans.
Verdict
n8n takes this pair for buyers who need to budget before talking to anyone: four plans carry prices, executions are the unit, and a no-training sentence sits in the policy. Make wins on the free plan, the app count and its security statement, but its paid prices were not published on the page fetched and its privacy policy could not be opened. Make suits a first experiment, n8n a team planning production spend.
Make and n8n side by side
| Make | n8n | |
|---|---|---|
| Price entry | Quoted | 20 euros per month (Starter, billed annually) |
| What a plan is metered by | Credits. The free plan has 1,000 a month, and credits expire at the end of the term. | Workflow executions: 2.5K a month on Starter, 10K on Pro and 40K on Business, with concurrency caps of 5, up to 50 and a higher Enterprise limit. |
| Paid prices | Core, Pro, Teams and Enterprise exist, but the pricing page as fetched gave no amounts. Annual payment is stated to be cheaper than monthly. | Starter is 20€ a month and Pro 50€, billed annually. Business is 667€ a month, and Enterprise is by contact. |
| Free access | A permanent Free plan with 1,000 credits a month, 1 MB of storage and one data store, which suits trying workflows. | No free tier on the pricing page. Starter and Pro have a free trial without a credit card, and a self-hosted Community Edition on GitHub is mentioned without a price. |
| Hosting choice | Hosted by Make. The pages we opened did not describe any self-hosted option, so assume a cloud-only product. | Hosted on Starter and Pro, self-hosted only on Business (its hosted version is on a waitlist), and either on Enterprise. |
| Integration count | 3,500+ apps out of the box, and any app with an API can be added as a custom integration. | 2,000+ advertised, with the integrations page showing 2,629. Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, Microsoft SQL, Redis and Supabase connectors are named. |
| AI agents and MCP | AI Agents with visible reasoning, plus an MCP server for building and running automations from Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. | An AI Agent node, 13 AI building block subcategories and MCP features on every hosted plan, with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini models listed. |
| Privacy policy and training | The privacy policy URLs returned 404 when fetched, so training, retention and hosting region were not checked. The homepage cites GDPR, SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3. | The policy says personal data is not used to train AI or machine-learning models, but allows de-identified data sets from customer content. Hosting region and certifications are not stated there. |
| Team and governance features | SSO, role-based access and audit logs are listed in the homepage security statement, with no plan-by-plan breakdown on the pages opened. | SSO and LDAP, Git version control, multiple environments and queue mode start on Business. Log streaming and an SLA come with Enterprise. |
Where each one wins
Make wins on
- A permanent free plan and more than 3,500 ready-made app connections.
- SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 certifications are stated on the homepage.
- Hosted for everyone, so no server needs to be run or patched.
n8n wins on
- Four plans with published euro prices, against none shown for Make's paid tiers.
- Self-hosting is available, and billing counts whole workflow executions instead of credits.
- A written statement that personal data is not used to train AI or machine-learning models.
Which to pick
Pick Make if
Pick Make if you want to start free, need the widest app catalog and are fine asking sales or the app for paid prices.
Pick n8n if
Pick n8n if you need published prices, self-hosting or database connectors, and your team can handle some technical upkeep.
Each tool in context: Make, n8n, and the full Best Workflow Automation Software in 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is Make or n8n cheaper for a small team?
n8n lists Starter at 20€ a month billed annually for 2.5K executions, so the cost is known. Make has a free plan with 1,000 credits, but its paid prices were not published on the pricing page we fetched. Compare after checking Make's current paid plans in your account.
Can I self-host Make like n8n?
The Make pages we opened describe a hosted platform and do not mention self-hosting. n8n offers self-hosting: Business is self-hosted only, Enterprise can be either, and a Community Edition on GitHub is mentioned. Self-hosting means you run the server and its backups yourself.
Where is n8n based, and where is Make based?
The n8n pages give a registered address at Novalisstr. 10, 10115 Berlin, Germany, without calling it the headquarters. The Make pricing page carries a copyright notice for Celonis, Inc. and states no headquarters. Neither page names a hosting region, so check data location with each vendor.
Do Make and n8n connect to Claude and ChatGPT?
Make lists an MCP server for building and running automations from Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini. n8n lists MCP features in its hosted plans and nodes for OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Gemini models, plus an AI Agent node. The pages do not compare actions or limits, so test one workflow on each.