n8n vs Zapier: One Price per Run or One Task per Action

The short answer: if your marketers build short flows across many SaaS tools themselves, Zapier is the easier fit: it connects 9,000+ apps, its Free plan carries 100 tasks a month, and Professional starts at $29.99 a month billed monthly, checked on 26 October 2026 on Zapier's pricing page. If one flow runs a dozen steps with branches, code and an AI agent, n8n bills the whole run once, at $24 a month on monthly billing for 2,500 runs on Starter (n8n pricing).

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What Zapier changes is reach. The app directory is large, Tables and Forms come with every plan, and its own Filter, Formatter, Paths, Delay and Looping steps use no tasks (pricing FAQ). A marketer can wire a form to the CRM and to Slack without asking anyone, and that is the job it wins: short chains across many tools, built by the people who use them. Its homepage now pitches building a workflow inside Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor through Zapier MCP, then running and governing it on Zapier (Zapier).

n8n wins the long flow. An execution is one run of the entire workflow, whatever its number of steps or the amount of data it moves (pricing FAQ).

Count before you compare:

1. Run one real flow through both meters. For example, a trigger, a Formatter step and four app actions, run 1,500 times a month: Zapier counts 4 x 1,500 = 6,000 tasks, because the trigger and the Formatter are free (task usage); n8n counts 1,500 executions, inside Starter's 2,500 (n8n pricing).
2. Add the AI steps on their own line. An AI by Zapier step uses 1, 3 or 5 tasks a run depending on model tier, plus the same again for each tool call (model tiers). On n8n the AI Agent node sits inside the same single execution, and the model is billed by your provider or through Gateway credits (Gateway credits).
3. List the apps you already pay for. An app with no native n8n node becomes an HTTP request someone has to configure, since n8n ships 500+ native integrations and reaches other APIs over HTTP (n8n).
4. Agree what you will read after a month. Zapier emails you near the task limit and again when you reach it (pricing FAQ); n8n's Insights dashboard counts production executions (pricing FAQ).

Attribute by attribute

The differences that settle it

Length

On Zapier the bill grows with every successful action; on n8n it grows with the number of runs. A trigger and two actions is two tasks on one meter and one execution on the other. A trigger and twenty actions is twenty tasks against one execution, and that gap is most of the decision.

Who is building

Zapier's Free and Professional plans are for one user, and shared Zaps, shared app connections and SAML SSO arrive with Team, which holds 25 users (pricing). Every n8n plan includes unlimited users, code steps in JavaScript or Python and custom API requests (n8n pricing). My view: a marketing team with no technical builder ships more on Zapier, and a team with one gets further on n8n.

Where the data sits

Zapier is a hosted service, with advanced deployment options listed only on Enterprise (pricing). n8n's hosted plans keep data in Frankfurt, Germany, and the self-hosted route keeps it on infrastructure you choose (pricing FAQ).

An AI step with a reviewer, on Zapier

The job: score inbound demo requests before sales sees them. A form trigger starts the Zap. An AI by Zapier step on the Advanced tier gets two tools, a CRM search action and a knowledge source holding your ideal-customer notes, and writes a score and a routing note. By Zapier's formula that run uses (1 x 3) + (2 x 3) = 9 tasks (model tiers). A Human in the Loop step with the Request Approval action then pauses the Zap until a sales lead approves or corrects the note, and only then does the CRM update run (Human in the Loop). As a second guard, an AI step that reaches its per-run task limit, 75 by default, pauses and waits for approval in Zap history. On n8n the same design is an AI Agent node whose CRM tool sits behind human review.

Prices, checked on 26 October 2026

From the Zapier pricing page, where yearly billing is marked as a 33% saving, and the n8n pricing page, whose annual prices came up in dollars on some loads and in euros on others:

Zapier's figures are entry task tiers; a larger task allowance on the same plan costs more (pricing).

When you add a new AI by Zapier step on a paid plan, the model tier starts on Premium, the 5x rate, according to Zapier's model tier article. The default that earns Zapier the most per step is the one you get unless you change it, and the same article describes the Standard tier, at 1x, as suitable for simple prompts without tools. Set the tier before you publish the Zap.

Run both at zero first

A new Zapier account starts a 14-day Professional trial with no card (pricing FAQ). n8n's Community Edition is free to self-host, and its Cloud trial gives 1,000 executions without a card (n8n pricing). Rebuild your busiest flow on both and feed it a week of real data. Then set Zapier's task usage beside n8n's execution count and price each against the table above.

Choose Zapier if your job is

• Connecting tools your team already pays for, where one of them has an integration only Zapier's directory carries.
• Letting marketers build and change short flows themselves, with filters and formatting that use no tasks.
• Giving an AI assistant actions across those apps through Zapier MCP.

Choose n8n if your job is

• Long flows with branches, code and an AI agent, run thousands of times a month at one unit per run.
• Keeping data on your own servers, or in n8n's Frankfurt-hosted cloud.
• A group of builders on one plan without paying per seat.

FAQ

Do Zapier triggers use tasks?

No. Trigger steps, Filter and Paths steps, Tables and Forms steps, and actions that error or halt are not counted (task usage).

Does n8n have a free plan?

Not in the cloud. The free route is the self-hosted Community Edition, which has almost the complete feature set; n8n Cloud offers a 14-day trial (choose n8n).

Are Zapier Agents billed in tasks?

No. Agents draw on a separate monthly activity quota, 400 on Free and 1,500 on Pro, and Zapier says it is moving Agents to AI by Zapier (Agents usage).