n8n vs Make vs Zapier vs a Custom Build: What a 50-Person Operation Pays in 2026

Short answer: for a 50-person company running about 40,000 automated workflow runs a month, n8n Business costs €667 a month (€8,004 a year, 40,000 executions, self-hosted only), Zapier Team starts at $69 a month but caps at 25 users and prints no price for a 40,000-task tier, and Make shows $12, $21 and $38 a month for 10,000 credits on Core, Pro and Teams and prints no price above that. A custom build of the one workflow that carries money or customer data costs $15,000 to $50,000 once. So use a platform for simple chains between tools you already own, and build only the workflow where a wrong run has to be caught, approved and explained. Every vendor figure below was read from the vendor's own page on 15 October 2026.

Key facts, read 15 October 2026:

• n8n counts one execution per full workflow run, however many steps it has; Zapier counts every step as a task; Make counts every module action as a credit.
• The same 40,000 runs can be 40,000 executions on n8n and several hundred thousand tasks on Zapier, so compare units before prices.
• None of the three prints a price for this volume on its public page, so ask each for a quote.

If you want a range for your own scope first, the AI development cost calculator gives one in about a minute.

The routes, with published prices

How to read these numbers. Subscription prices are the vendors' published list prices on the date shown, before taxes, overages, add-ons and seat growth. The custom-build figures are KUMO's published bands for the build only: hosting, model usage, third-party fees and ongoing engineering ($5,000 to $10,000 per month if you have no engineers) sit on top, and we say so wherever a total is compared. A standard tool is the right answer when your workflow fits it; configuration is enough when the gap is small; a custom build is justified only by a specific complexity named on this page, not by preference.

How to read the table. n8n quotes euros, says annual billing saves 17%, and does not print its monthly price. Make prints dollar figures without a currency code and does not print annual amounts. Zapier prints "starting from" figures and says yearly billing is 33% lower; which basis the headline uses is not stated. None includes your own time, self-hosting, or model usage for AI steps.

The arithmetic for one business

Take one business: a 50-person distributor and service company where 10 people build or approve automations, with about 40,000 workflow runs a month across order intake, invoice routing, customer updates and onboarding.

n8n. The 40,000 runs fit n8n Business at €667 x 12 = €8,004 a year. It is self-hosted only, so someone on your side or a contractor runs the server, backups and upgrades.

Zapier. Team allows 25 users, so with 10 builders it fits, and with 50 people logging in it does not. Zapier counts a task for each step, so a five-step Zap that runs 40,000 times is a count in the hundreds of thousands of tasks, a tier whose price the public page does not print. At the limit, Zapier moves you to pay-per-task billing at a higher rate it does not state, or the Zaps pause. Treat Zapier as a quote.

Make. Forty thousand runs at several modules each is far above 10,000 credits, and the price for that slider position is not printed. When credits run out, scenarios stop until you add credits.

Over three years. n8n Business is €24,012 for three years before hosting and upkeep, which is already inside the Starter Build band. Zapier and Make cannot be totalled from public pages at this volume, so ask each for a written quote at your run count.

Where custom fits. A custom workflow does not replace n8n, Make or Zapier for the simple chains. It replaces the one workflow where a mistake costs money. These are KUMO's calculations on the published prices above, before your own hosting and upkeep.

When each route is the right one

1. A chain of steps between tools you already pay for, where a failed run can simply be rerun: buy. Notify a channel, copy a row, create a task. Zapier or Make fit when a few thousand runs a month are enough.
2. High run counts and a technical person on staff: look at n8n. It counts a full run once, however many steps, and its Business plan covers 40,000 executions for €8,004 a year. Budget for the person who keeps the server running.
3. More than 25 people need to see and edit the automations: ask Zapier for Enterprise or choose a platform with no listed seat cap. Zapier Team stops at 25 users; n8n lists unlimited users on every plan.
4. The workflow moves money, customer records or approvals: build. An invoice approval, a refund rule or a customer onboarding check needs a record of who approved what and a way to correct a wrong run. That is a custom workflow in the $15,000 to $50,000 band.
5. The same logic is copied into 30 scenarios: build the shared part once. When pricing rules or approval steps are repeated everywhere, one built service that every platform workflow calls is cheaper to change than 30 copies.

Comparing other routes at the same stage? Power Apps vs AppSheet vs a custom internal app prices the internal-app side, and Monday vs Asana vs Smartsheet vs a custom workflow app prices seat-based work tools.

What a Starter Build buys

A KUMO Starter Build ($15,000 to $50,000) is a launched first production version of one workflow: the intake, the approval rules, the logging and the connections to your systems, tested on your real data, running in your own cloud account, with a handover another engineer can continue from. See AI workflow automation for how builds are scoped, and custom software development for the wider service.

The proof here is adjacent, not direct: Volopay is a spend-management product whose approvals, ledgers and audit trail are the parts that platform automations do not model; KUMO's founders built Volopay's first production version as its founding engineers. KUMO has not published an n8n, Make or Zapier case study, so treat the Volopay work as evidence for the approval and ledger layer only.

Costs after launch

Platform subscriptions recur and rise with run counts, and a self-hosted n8n adds server, backup and upgrade work. A custom workflow has hosting, monitoring and engineering time whenever a connected system changes its API or your rules change. Decide before you sign who owns those changes; if you keep adding workflows, the $5,000 to $10,000 monthly band applies.

How to get a real number this week

Count your workflow runs a month, the steps in each, and the two or three workflows that move money or customer records. The first two get you written quotes from n8n, Make and Zapier; for the third, a free 30-minute call with an engineer gives a band for your brief.

FAQ

How much does n8n cost for a 50-person company? On 15 October 2026 n8n listed Business at €667 a month billed annually for 40,000 executions a month, which is €8,004 a year, and it is self-hosted only. Starter is €20 and Pro is €50 a month for 2,500 and 10,000 executions, hosted by n8n.

How much does Zapier cost for a team of 25 or more? Zapier listed Team from $69 a month for up to 25 users, with 33% off billed yearly, and Enterprise as custom. It prints no price for high task tiers, so a business with tens of thousands of runs needs a quote.

How much does Make cost for 40,000 operations a month? Make prices in credits and prints $12, $21 and $38 a month for 10,000 credits on Core, Pro and Teams. The price at 40,000 or more credits is on a slider the page text does not show, so ask for it.

Is n8n cheaper than Zapier and Make? At high run counts n8n is usually the lowest published price, because it counts one execution per workflow run while Zapier counts every step as a task. That holds only if you can run a self-hosted server for Business, so compare at your real run count.

Should I build custom automation instead of using n8n, Make or Zapier? Use a platform for simple chains. Build custom, from $15,000 to $50,000, only for the workflow where a mistake costs money, such as invoice approvals or customer onboarding checks, and where you need a record of who approved what.

Last verified 15 October 2026. n8n prices from n8n.io/pricing, Make prices from make.com/en/pricing, Zapier prices from zapier.com/pricing, all read on that date. Annual totals are KUMO's calculations on those published prices at the volumes stated. KUMO bands are KUMO's published prices.