n8n alternatives: 8 tools compared (October 2026)

Shortlist: which n8n alternative fits which situation

Activepieces

A match for teams that want per-run billing like n8n's without per-step multiplication. A run is one credit however many steps it has, the cloud runs in Frankfurt, and the core is MIT licensed.

Make

Suits teams that want a hosted visual builder at a low entry price. Core lists from 9 dollars for 10,000 credits, and the data center is the EU or the US.

Zapier

Worth a look if you value the breadth of ready app connections (9,000+ apps according to its pricing page) and accept per-task billing. Professional starts at 19.99 dollars a month for 750 tasks, billed annually.

Microsoft Power Automate

Makes sense when you already license Microsoft products and prefer per-user pricing to per-run billing. Premium lists at 15 dollars per user a month, paid yearly.

Workato

Aimed at large organizations that buy integration platforms through sales. It runs an EU data center on AWS EU Central, and its price is not published by the vendor (as of October 5, 2026).

What one workflow costs at 1,000 and 10,000 runs

The vendors do not count the same thing. n8n's pricing page defines an execution as a single run of the entire workflow, whatever the number of steps. Zapier counts each successful action as a task and leaves the trigger out. Make counts a credit per module call, with the trigger check as one. Activepieces says a run is one credit however many steps it has. Power Automate prices licensed users and caps requests per day.

So I fixed one reference: a trigger and three actions, no AI steps, no filters. At 1,000 runs a month that is 1,000 n8n executions, 3,000 Zapier tasks and 4,000 Make credits. At 10,000 runs it is 10,000 executions, 30,000 tasks and 40,000 credits. The table lists the cheapest plan that covers each volume at list price. n8n Pro and Activepieces Plus sit exactly on their limits at 10,000, so a growing month needs the next tier or extra credits.

What this means for you: if your workflows have several steps, run-based units (n8n, Activepieces) stay flat while per-step units multiply; with one or two steps per run the gap shrinks. Count your own steps before you trust any headline price.

Sources: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Stay or switch: three questions, then the evidence

Not everyone should leave. n8n's pricing page argues that its unit is the point: a workflow with ten steps costs the same as one with two. If that describes your workflows, the price argument favors n8n.

License. n8n's code sits under the Sustainable Use License, which n8n's docs call fair-code and distinguish from an open source license. The text permits use or modification only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use, and distribution only free of charge for non-commercial purposes. Files with .ee. in the name fall outside the license and need an Enterprise license.

What this means for you: if you build for your own company, or run client automations that only you edit, the license rarely forces a move. If clients configure workflows themselves, you need a commercial agreement with n8n or another product, and that is partly a legal question. Write to license@n8n.io before migrating.

Features. The free Community edition leaves out custom variables, environments, external secrets, external storage for binary data, log streaming, multi-main mode, projects, SSO (SAML and LDAP), sharing of workflows and credentials, and Git version control. Business adds them at 667 euros a month billed annually for 40,000 executions, self-hosted only, with a Cloud version on a waitlist. Pro at 50 euros has three shared projects but no SSO. Business targets companies under 100 employees.

What this means for you: a team that needs SSO and Git on n8n pays from 667 euros a month even at low volume. That jump is where Activepieces Team (200 dollars, SSO included) or Zapier Team (from 69 dollars, SAML SSO) start to look cheaper, with different limits and units.

Data. On n8n Cloud, the pricing FAQ says data stays in the EU, in Frankfurt. The sub-processor list, updated September 22, 2026, names Microsoft Azure in the EU, for example Germany and Sweden, and lists AI providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic with processing in the US. The two documents do not name the same places. Self-hosting takes n8n out of the processor chain, but telemetry is on by default (counts, no execution data) and paid license keys report production execution counts to n8n daily.

What this means for you: if GDPR is your reason to leave, check first whether the gap sits in the AI features' sub-processors rather than in the workflow engine. Switching tools moves the question to another processor list.

Sources: [1][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][5][2]

The five alternatives, and who each one is not for

Activepieces keeps both of n8n's traits, a self-hostable core and a run-based unit. Its docs say the core is MIT licensed and enterprise features sit under a commercial license, which matches the repository's LICENSE file. Free gives 1,000 credits a month, Plus is 20 dollars flat for 10,000 credits and up to 5 users, Team is 200 dollars for 50,000 credits and 25 users, and extra credits cost 0.007 dollars each. AI steps cost 2, 10 or 20 credits by model tier unless you bring your own keys. The pricing table says Free credits reset daily, the FAQ says monthly, so I treat 1,000 a month as the ceiling. The vendor writes that its SOC 2 program is in progress. Teams that must hand a customer an audit report this quarter should look elsewhere.

Make counts credits. Its help center says one operation is one credit, and a trigger counts once per check however many bundles it returns, while later modules run once per bundle. A scenario that reads ten new rows therefore spends one credit on the trigger and ten per later module. The pricing page lists Free with 1,000 credits, then Core from 9 dollars, Pro from 16 and Teams from 29 at the 10,000-credit tier, with a slider up to 8 million credits. US or EU is chosen when the organization is created and cannot be changed later. If you need it on your own servers, it will not do: the help center names only those two data centers.

Zapier counts successful actions only, so filters, paths and failed steps cost nothing. Professional runs from 19.99 dollars for 750 tasks to 289 dollars for 50,000, billed annually, and Team from 69 dollars adds 25 users and SAML SSO. Long workflows at volume are the weak spot: my reference run costs three tasks, so 10,000 runs land on the 50,000-task tier at 289 dollars, against 50 euros on n8n Pro.

Power Automate prices people and bots. Premium is 15 dollars per user a month paid yearly, an unattended Process bot 150 dollars, a hosted one 215 dollars, and a 30-day trial exists. Microsoft says listed prices are for marketing purposes only. A Premium user may make 40,000 requests per 24 hours, a Process license 250,000. An environment created in the EU or EFTA keeps data in the EU Data Boundary. Anyone who wants one all-in monthly figure will be disappointed, because user, bot and add-on prices stack.

Workato's pricing page prints no amount and sends you to a demo. Its docs list data centers in the US (AWS US East), the EU (AWS EU Central, for customers in the EEA who prefer local storage), Japan and Singapore. Small teams that need a price before a sales call will not get one.

What this means for you: per-run billing and self-hosting point to Activepieces, a low-priced hosted builder to Make, breadth of app connections to Zapier, a Microsoft estate to Power Automate, and sales-led enterprise governance to Workato.

Sources: [2][17][16][18][4][19][3][5][6][7][8][20][9][21]

What leaving costs: terms, cancellation, export, deletion

I read each vendor's terms on October 5, 2026. n8n's Self-Serve Terms (last updated August 28, 2026) let you cancel a monthly plan at any time and keep access to the end of the month. An annual plan is paid 12 months in advance and is non-refundable. Customer content is usually deleted six months after deactivation, with an email 30 days before. n8n gives no pro-rata refunds on Business.

Enterprise customers sign the Master Enterprise Terms (version 08.2026). The term comes from the order form and then renews automatically for 12 months at n8n's then-current list price, unless one side gives written notice at least 30 days before the end. Export is the easy part: workflows are JSON, downloadable from the editor or movable with the n8n CLI. The files carry credential names and IDs, so plan to re-create the connections. On a self-hosted instance you delete user data yourself.

What this means for you: the notice period is rarely the expensive part. Paying two tools while you rebuild is, plus re-creating credentials. Annual n8n and Zapier plans are paid in advance, so a mid-term switch means paying twice. Time the move to the renewal date.

Sources: [22][23][24][14][1][25][26][27][28][2][9]

Corrections, contradictions and what I left out

I corrected two entries in our own data. Our Activepieces profile listed SOC 2 Type II; the vendor's pricing page says the program is in progress and that it will not claim a certification it does not hold, so the entry is wrong. Our n8n entry marks SSO as an enterprise-only feature, while the pricing page lists SSO, SAML and LDAP under Business as well.

Two sources disagreed. n8n names Frankfurt for Cloud data in one place and Azure in Germany and Sweden in another. Activepieces describes Free credits as resetting daily in its table and monthly in its FAQ.

I left out review-site complaints and community threads, because they are not primary sources, and I did not cost Make at 10,000 runs, because its higher tiers sit behind a slider. In our data, 4 of the 7 tools in the main niche list an EU hosting option; that is a hint, and each vendor's own page decides.

Sources: [2][1][15][3]