Make vs Zapier vs n8n: which automation tool should a small business use?

Choose the tool for the work, not the logo. A freelancer sending a few invoices a month does not have the same problem as an agency routing every enquiry through three people. Zapier, Make and n8n can all connect a form to a spreadsheet. They stop feeling similar when the workflow branches, fails overnight, or handles customer data you would rather not park on someone else’s platform.

This guide is a decision aid. It is not a benchmark. I have not measured their servers against each other, and I am not going to invent a percentage saving. Prices move. Check the live pricing pages before you buy, and treat any number you saw on another blog as expired.

What you are actually buying

All three sell the same idea: when something happens in one app, do something in another. The differences that matter are:

• How usage is counted. Zapier talks about tasks. Make talks about credits or operations, depending on the current plan. n8n Cloud talks about executions. Self-hosting moves the meter to a server bill and your time. Open the pricing page and run your real volume through it.
• Who hosts it. Zapier and Make are cloud products. n8n is n8n Cloud or software you run. That decides where customer data sits, and who is on call when it falls over.
• How much structure you need. A straight line is cheap everywhere. Branches, retries and a human approval are where Make and n8n usually feel clearer than a pile of tiny Zaps.
• Who maintains it. If that person likes servers, n8n is on the table. If they will not open a terminal, do not leave them a Docker host.

Zapier: the fastest start

Zapier is the tool people mean when they say “just zap it”. The catalogue of app connections is large, the editor is friendly, and a non-technical owner can ship a first workflow during a lunch break. That speed is the product.

Use it when the workflow is shallow and the apps are mainstream: a form to a sheet, a payment to a message, a new lead to a CRM. Paths and filters exist, but once branches nest inside branches the Zap becomes harder to explain than it was to build. The cost trap is volume. A workflow that feels free in a trial gets expensive when it runs on every email, or when one process is split into five Zaps that each spend a task.

Zapier is a cloud service. Using it is not, by itself, a GDPR answer. You still need a lawful basis, a privacy notice, and a look at their data-processing terms. The section on data below is the same test for all three tools.

Make: the visual middle

Make (formerly Integromat) is built around scenarios on a canvas. You can see branches, iterators and error routes without pretending the work is a simple recipe. For operators who have outgrown a pile of two-step Zaps, this is often the comfortable cloud option.

You are not administering Docker. You are learning Make’s vocabulary: modules, routers, and how a scenario consumes usage as it walks each item. Learn that vocabulary before you estimate a bill. A scenario that loops over a large sheet is not “one run”. Make is a weaker fit if the data must stay on a machine you administer, or if nobody will open the scenario after the person who built it leaves.

n8n: the one you can run yourself

n8n is the tool I reach for when the workflow is part of the system. You can use n8n Cloud, or you can run it yourself. The editor is a canvas of nodes. The licence has conditions: read it on their site before you embed n8n in a product you sell. “Open source” is the wrong shorthand.

Self-hosting is why many technical founders pick it, and why many should not. n8n’s installation docs say self-hosting is for people who can run servers, and that mistakes can mean data loss and downtime. If that sentence makes you tired, use n8n Cloud, Make or Zapier. The server path is a separate guide: self-host n8n on a cheap VPS with Docker.

Choose n8n when someone will own the box, when credentials should sit on infrastructure you control, or when you are calling awkward APIs and want an HTTP node without waiting for a marketplace connector. It is a poor fit as a surprise for an office manager. The AI nodes are useful and easy to misuse. A draft is fine. A model that sends the reply and invents a discount is not. That pattern is in the email assistant guide. The read-only version is the AI Agent tutorial.

A comparison you can use in a meeting

The cells are judgements about product shape, not measured scores. Confirm anything commercial on the vendor’s site. This table refuses to quote a price, because the number would be stale.

Data, and the UK question

A workflow that copies a name, an email and a message into three tools has created three processing locations. For a UK business that is a privacy notice and a contract, not a vibe. Before you connect a CRM, ask what personal data moves, where the vendor says they process it, whether an AI step sends the text to yet another company, and who can export the history if a customer asks. You still need a lawful basis you can explain.

Self-hosting n8n removes the automation vendor from that list. It does not remove the CRM, the email provider or the model provider, and it adds you as the person who must secure the server. A careful Zapier setup beats a forgotten VPS with the editor open to the world. The lead capture guide walks the form-to-CRM path with those checks included.

A simple way to choose

Write the workflow in one sentence, then pick.

• “Form in, row and a notification out.” Zapier or Make. Do not stand up a server.
• “Form in, drop spam, classify, create the CRM contact, draft a reply.” Make, or n8n if you want the AI step beside your own credentials. Still do not auto-send.
• “The data has to stay on the client’s machine.” Self-hosted n8n, with a named operator. Read the Docker guide before you quote.
• “The product we already pay for can do this.” Use that. The invoicing guide starts from the same idea.
• “We have a pile of little chores.” List them. The ten tasks article is a menu, not an instruction to do all ten on Friday.

If two tools still look equal, choose the one the maintainer can explain without you in the room.

How not to waste the subscription

Trigger on the narrowest event you can. “Every new email” is how bills and privacy reviews get worse. Prefer a label, a folder, or a form that exists only for this job.

Log a failure somewhere a human looks. Write the workflow in ordinary sentences next to the scenario, so the third branch is not a mystery later. Review the invoice in month two. If one workflow dominates usage, simplify it or move that one workflow. You do not have to move everything.

Build one workflow rather than signing up for all three. For “enquiry in, CRM and a draft out”, use the lead capture guide. If you have already chosen a server, use the n8n Docker guide.