Category · Operations

AI Workflow Automation

The three leaders bill on completely different units. Zapier charges per task, Make charges per operation, and n8n charges per execution or nothing at all if you self-host. A workflow that costs $80 a month on one platform can cost $9 on another, doing exactly the same job.

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Products tracked: 8
With a free plan: 7
Typical spend: Free tiers everywhere; realistic small business spend runs $20 to $100 per month, or near zero self-hosted.

Every workflow automation we track

Sorted alphabetically, not by commission

Product	Best for	Starting price	Free plan	Score	Visit
Browse AIPoint-and-click web scraping and change monitoring	Tracking competitor pricing and monitoring pages without code	From $19/mo	Yes	Not tested	Visit site
GoHighLevelAgency CRM with built-in voice and SMS automation	Marketing agencies reselling automation to their own clients	From $97/mo	No	Not tested	Visit site
HubSpotCRM platform with AI across service, sales and marketing	Businesses that want CRM, marketing and support in one place	Free CRM; paid from $20/seat/mo	Yes	Not tested	Visit site
LindyAI agents that handle email, meetings and follow-up	Teams wanting an agent that acts rather than a flowchart to maintain	From $49.99/mo	Yes	Not tested	Visit site
MakeVisual automation with branching, loops and error routes	Anyone whose automations have real branching logic	From $9/mo	Yes	Not tested	Visit site
n8nSource-available automation you can self-host	Technical teams that want control, low cost and AI agent workflows	Free self-hosted; cloud from €20/mo	Yes	Not tested	Visit site
Pabbly ConnectAutomation with unlimited internal steps per workflow	Budget-conscious operators running many multi-step workflows	From $16/mo	Yes	Not tested	Visit site
ZapierThe largest automation network, now with AI agents	Teams that need the widest possible app coverage	From $19.99/mo	Yes	Not tested	Visit site

What to check before you buy

The billing unit is the decision

Count the steps in your typical workflow. If it has eight steps, a per-task platform charges you eight times per run and a per-execution platform charges once.

Self-hosting is free but not costless

n8n self-hosted removes subscription fees and adds server maintenance, updates and uptime responsibility. That trade is good only if you will actually do the maintenance.

Features you should expect as standard

Trigger and action workflows
Branching and filters
AI agent steps
Error handling and retries
Scheduling
Webhooks and custom API calls

Common questions

Which is cheapest: Zapier, Make or n8n?

Self-hosted n8n is cheapest in cash terms and most expensive in time. Between the hosted options, Make is usually significantly cheaper than Zapier for multi-step workflows because of how operations are counted.

What should a small business automate first?

Lead routing, invoice reminders, and getting form submissions into your CRM. These are high frequency, low judgement, and break visibly when they fail, which makes them easy to justify.

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