n8n vs Zapier (2026)

n8n's self-hosted Community edition is free, and its Cloud Starter plan runs from €20 a month (about $22) for 2,500 executions. Zapier has a free tier, and its paid plans start at $29.99 a month. Neither sells by the seat in the usual way. n8n allows unlimited users on every plan and meters executions. Zapier bundles users by plan: one on Free and Professional, 25 on Team, unlimited on Enterprise, with price driven by task volume. On n8n's hosted side, the Cloud Business tier jumps to €667 a month (about $745), with no hosted tier between Pro and Business.

n8n installs with Docker, npm or Helm on your own machines, air-gapped if required, and the Community edition needs no licence key. n8n Cloud keeps data in Frankfurt, with no other region published. Zapier cannot be self-hosted. Its privacy statement commits site data to US processing, and no in-region hosting option is offered. On Enterprise, only AI inference can move to a customer's Bedrock account.

Zapier says it holds SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, GDPR and CCPA. n8n is SOC 2 audited with external pen tests and runs a public Trust Center. Its GDPR cover is a pre-signed DPA. Zapier says it connects 9,000+ apps. n8n offers 500+ integrations, with custom HTTP and API connections for anything else.

Both run agents autonomously and both offer an MCP server. n8n builds workflows from a plain-language description, and its CLI manages workflows and executions over the API from any machine. Zapier's Code step runs code you supply. Its terminal tools are for developers only, and the automation product itself works in a browser. n8n supports bring your own key, open models, model choice and multi-agent work. Zapier names none of these. Complex agent logic can get unwieldy on n8n's visual canvas.