In this post, I'm going to cover, in detail, the differences between Make.com & N8N, including their UX, their concepts, a financial breakdown, and I'll go as far as actually building the same system on both platforms!
Here's an accompanying YouTube video (2hrs), or you can just read the post.
How this is going to work
So, as mentioned, this post is going to be primarily about viewing these tools from an economic perspective. I think there's a lot of people out there talking about N8N and Make.com that are great at the platform but haven't really made much money using automations, so that's the lens I'm going to be approaching this from, just because odds are that's probably what you want to do as well.
Let's start with a breakdown of each platform. I'm going to begin by giving you some context about where each are coming from, the problems they were meant to solve, the different terms like operations vs executions, etc, and we'll also run through their UX—i.e I'm going to walk you guys through their dashboards.
N8N
I'd like to dive into N8N right away, but it helps to have a bit of background context, so first, we're going to spend a few minutes talking about how it works and the concepts, and then I'm going to dive into the dashboard so we can actually play around with it a bit.
1. Context
First, let's cover some quick context. What exactly is N8N, and where did it come from?
Background
N8N was initially called "nodemation", and is very much the new kid on the block.
- They include a number of features that most other no-code tools do not, most importantly being self-hosting, i.e the ability to host this tool on your own server vs pay-per-use like most other platforms are.
- This is rare in the no-code space and resonates with dev-oriented teams who like controlling most facet of their tool stack, and people who want more cost control.
- That said, these features usually require more technical knowledge to set up. Nothing comes for free!
Open-source
On top of that, they're also open-source. That means, unlike the majority of other no-code tools out there, you can quite literally look at the code of the whole thing.
- If you were to hit a wall with a certain integration or feature, you could literally dive into the code and tweak it yourself (or commission a developer to do so).
- Obviously this is a double-edged sword, because more freedom also means more responsibility.
- But you don't actually have to self-host, or use any of their open-source features. N8N also gives you a cloud-hosted offering, which is much simpler, although it costs more.
Developer-friendly
As far as philosophy goes, N8N leans heavily on the developer-friendly side of the no-code spectrum. The interface is straightforward but not necessarily as polished as some older players. However, once you get familiar with it, you’ll likely find it pretty flexible.
2. Concepts
N8N’s architecture revolves around a few core concepts.
Workflows, nodes, & canvases
The first is the Workflow: a sequence of automated steps that connect different apps or data sources. Each step in a workflow is represented by a Node. Nodes handle specific tasks—like pulling data from a database, transforming that data, or sending it to a CRM. In N8N, these nodes live on a Canvas, where you drag and drop them into place and then connect them in the logical order you want.
Inputs & outputs
Inside a workflow, the movement of data from one node to another is governed by Inputs and Outputs. An input is simply the data a node uses to do its job; an output is the result a node generates. When you Execute a workflow, N8N processes each node in turn, chaining outputs to inputs as defined by your connections.
Credentials
N8N also uses Credentials to securely store API keys or login data so you don’t have to re-enter them every time. If a node needs to access, say, your Google Sheets account, you connect it to the relevant credential, which N8N encrypts and stores behind the scenes.
Executions
Finally, N8N tracks Executions—each run of a workflow. Executions can be manual, where you click “Execute,” or automatic, triggered by a Trigger Node (e.g., a webhook, a time-based schedule, or an incoming event). You can review past executions in the dashboard, see where something might have gone wrong, and make tweaks as needed. All of this underscores N8N’s flexible, node-based approach to automation.
3. AI Agents
One of the biggest and most decisive reasons for N8N's significant growth over the last few months has been their championing of "AI agent" flows.
To keep things simple—N8N has built-in functionality where you can connect an AI model, like GPT-4, to a bunch of tools (that you can choose or create). When your AI model receives a request or data, instead of merely responding, it can then choose to use a tool to fulfill the request.
This has basically built a new ecosystem of flows—instead of just prompting ChatGPT statically, you've now installed an AI agent module as basically a 'decision maker' in your business.
As of the time of this post, most of these flows are still in their early stages. But there's a ton of market enthusiasm behind them, and N8N going AI-native with this feature is a key reason why so many people have picked it up. More on this later.
4. Hands-on UX review
When you log into N8N, you’re greeted by a simple canvas with “nodes” that represent services, triggers, or other workflow logic. You connect these nodes with lines that visualize data flow. Each node can handle steps like fetching data, parsing inputs, or sending data onward. When you hit “Execute Workflow,” N8N runs through the sequence, showing you real-time logs that reveal exactly what happened at each node.
Adding a new node is straightforward: you pick from a growing list of integrations—Salesforce, Slack, Google Sheets, etc.—and configure your credentials. If you can’t find a node for your specific service, you can use an HTTP request node to roll your own. This approach is where N8N’s open architecture shines. You’re never totally stuck because you can always resort to a generic request/function node, although it requires a bit more proficiency.
Error handling is another plus. N8N makes it fairly easy to branch off in your workflow if a node fails. That can be critical when you’re automating complex processes that can’t simply blow up at the first hiccup. You can log errors, notify team members, or reroute the data for further troubleshooting.
However, building in N8N often feels more technical. The UI is basic compared to slicker tools like Make.com, and the learning curve can seem steeper. On the other hand, that simplicity can be liberating once you’ve mastered it. You’re not overwhelmed by fancy widgets—you just get in, set up your nodes, and move on.
Make.com
Now, let's learn about how Make.com works and the concepts therein. Then, we'll dive into the dashboard so we can actually play around with it a bit.
1. Context
Background
Make.com (formerly Integromat) was launched back in 2012. So they've had a very long time to refine their product & gather user feedback—but it also means that a fair bit of the platform was built using older technologies, so there's a bit of a tradeoff.
Simple & closed-source
If N8N brands itself as "open-source flexibility", Make.com positions itself as "robust SaaS that’s easy for anyone to pick up". You won’t be fiddling with code, servers, or self-hosting. Everything is in the cloud, managed for you, and all you really have to do is drag and drop modules across the screen. Even authentication is typically very straightforward—Make includes a ton of built-in native connections so that all you usually have to do is click "Create Connection" and then sign into the platform you want.
Breadth of integrations
One of Make.com’s biggest advantages is the breadth of integrations. If it has a ready-made module for your favorite service, connecting is a breeze. The platform also has a large user community, so you’ll find plenty of tutorials, templates, and pre-built scenarios shared online. That means you can often get a workflow up and running in minutes rather than spending hours reinventing the wheel.
Summary
In terms of philosophy, Make.com leans more toward a polished, user-friendly experience, where you pay for convenience and support. You log in, build your flows, test them, and you’re good to go. The emphasis is on speed, reliability, and not scaring away non-techy types with talk of self-hosting or code-level customization.
2. Concepts
Make has a variety of definitions not shared by N8N, and it's important to know the difference between them
Scenarios, Triggers, and Actions
Make.com’s core building block is the Scenario, which is basically a flowchart of interconnected modules. A Scenario starts with a Trigger Module, such as “Watch new records in Airtable,” that kicks off the automation. From there, you add Action Modules—individual tasks or services that perform specific actions like sending an email or updating a spreadsheet.
Bundles, Filters, and Routers
Data flows through these modules in “bundles.” Each bundle is a single data set (for example, one row from a spreadsheet). As data moves along, you can use Filters (conditional logic) and Routers (branching) to create complex paths. If certain criteria aren’t met, you can route data down a different branch or stop it altogether.
Operations
In Make.com, each module execution consumes an Operation. The total operations you use in a month determines which pricing tier you need. An operation can be something like “fetch one record” or “send one email.” This is how Make.com measures usage and scales costs.
Mapping & Execution History
Data Mapping is handled via a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. You pick which output fields from one module feed into the input fields of the next. If you need extra manipulation, Make.com provides functions and transformation tools. Another key feature is the Execution History, which logs every run of a scenario. This includes an interactive debugger that lets you inspect exactly how data looked at each step.
Overall, Make.com abstracts a lot of complexity with its visual approach, making it easier to build, manage, and troubleshoot automations—even for users with limited tech backgrounds.
3. Hands-on UX review
When you create a scenario in Make.com, you’ll see a flowchart-like interface with colorful, modular blocks. Each module corresponds to a service or a specific function (e.g., “watch new rows” in Google Sheets, “create a record” in Airtable, “send an email” in Gmail, etc.). You connect these modules and define how data gets passed along. Make.com’s mapping feature is particularly slick—select the data fields from one step and map them into the next step through a clean drag-and-drop interface.
Debugging is also user-friendly. You can run individual modules or the whole scenario step by step, with the platform showing exactly what data is traveling through each connection. The logs are neatly organized, and you can replay the scenario with different inputs. If something fails, Make.com typically points you to the precise module and the error message. That’s a big time-saver, especially if you’re juggling multiple complex scenarios.
Once your scenario is working in test mode, you schedule it to run on intervals or triggers. The scheduling options are flexible—you can run scenarios every 15 minutes, every hour, or on custom cron-like schedules. You can also set up real-time triggers depending on the integration. Overall, Make.com wraps sophisticated automation capabilities in an interface that feels approachable to novices.
However, this glossy UI can come at a cost. Power users sometimes feel that certain aspects are more rigid. If your use case veers off the beaten path, you might find yourself pushing against Make.com’s guardrails.
How about some actual building?
Now that you understand N8N and Make.com, let's build a simple system using each platform.
AI email categorization
Most companies still use email as their primary form of communication. But those emails can get pretty overwhelming after a while—especially for contact@, info@, and hello@ mailboxes that tend to aggregate mail from many sources.
So a common need is categorizing each email, usually done through labels. To demonstrate the differences between N8N and Make.com, I'm going to show you how to build a simple, powerful flow in both platforms that does the exact same thing.
To make things interesting, I'm going to do this categorization using AI, and you can use the core concept I'll be showing you to build basically any sort of email flow. I'll share the N8N and Make.com templates in the description.
Watch me build on both platforms here.
Major differences in UX & functionality
Next, let's cover some major differences between platforms that matter as a builder. I'll also show you which one "wins". Follow along here.
- Module availability: Make
- JSON & code integration: N8N
- Flow control: N8N
- Testing: N8N
- Authorizing & connecting: Make
- Webhooks & mailhooks: Make
- AI features: N8N
- Sharing & collaborating functionality: N8N
- Hotkeys: N8N
- Note-taking & documentation: N8N
Financial comparisons
Now that you know how each platform works realistically, let's turn to the last major topic: the financials.
How much money can you realistically expect to spend on each platform? I'll break costs down below so you can make the best decision for you. To keep things equal across each, I'll be using a hypothetical example where you need to run the system we just built 2,500 times per month, or a little under 100 times per day.
1. N8N Financial Breakdown
As I've alluded to, N8N has two pricing methods: cloud-based or self-hosted. We'll start by comparing cloud-based.
Cloud-based
Since N8N prices their cloud offering based on workflow executions, one run of the workflow is equal to one execution. To run the email categorization workflow 2,500 times would therefore consume 2,500 workflow executions. This is within the Starter plan of 2,500 executions, so your total cost would be €24/m.
It's worth noting that N8N is quite restrictive with the number of workflows they let you have—you're limited to 5. This is realistically a bottleneck for most people, and one of the reasons they choose to go self-hosted.
Self-hosted
When you self-host an N8N workflow, you don't pay them a dime. Your only costs are to the server you're using to manage. In practice, this usually comes out to ~$5-$10/m. It's difficult to be more precise than that, because there are a variety of options available, but a few common ones are Render, DigitalOcean, and EasyPanel.
2,500 workflow executions would be doable on any of the smallest server plans. In fact, you could probably scale to 100,000 workflow executions or more. Your only real restriction would be server load—sometimes, for externally triggered workflows, many requests may come in simultaneously and result in your server going over its limit, which can lead to errors.
Scaling
Though not captured in our example, the key point of value in N8N is how affordably it scales. Whereas with Make, as we'll see momentarily, a single scenario can consume many operations per run (on average 5-25), N8N only ever "counts" one workflow on their cloud offering. Additionally, with self-hosted, you can run a virtually infinite number of workflows for the same, or a slightly elevated, cost per month.
2. Make.com Financial Breakdown
Since Make.com is cloud-based, it has just one pricing structure: operations. Everything depends on the number of operations you use.
Operations cost
Since a single operation corresponds to one module being run, and the scenario we built included 5 modules, 5 × 2,500 = 12,500.
This is over the limit of most built-in 10,000 ops/month plans, so we'd need to upgrade. The Core plan would cost $18.82/month for 20,000 operations, which would let us run this scenario.
This makes Make.com a little more cost-effective than N8N's cloud-hosted offer, and less cost-effective than their self-hosted offer.
Scaling
At the same time, Make costs scale substantially higher. Most scenarios include significantly more modules than our example did—and thus include significantly more operations usage, too. In general, Make is more cost-effective than N8N cloud-hosted at low operations usages, but as you scale up, your cost balloons, and it's one of the main reasons why experienced Make.com users eventually start looking at more scalable, dev-friendly options.
So which one should you use?
I earnestly believe that the platform to choose depends on where you are in your automation journey.
To be clear: almost all no-code platforms are capable of the same things. If you can do it in Make, you can do it in N8N, and vice-versa. It's not a matter of "can you?" it's a matter of "how easy is it?".
A simple answer to that question: Make is easier for simpler applications, and N8N is easier for more complex, operationally-intensive applications.
N8N
N8N clearly markets itself as "for devs, by devs". It's also growing very quickly, especially in the last few months. This makes sense, logically—no-code is a relatively new concept, so as time has passed, the market has gotten more skilled, and users have begun looking for tools that accommodate that increased level of skill.
Make.com
Make.com clearly markets itself as "for everybody". It is a much simpler tool to get up and running with, and beginners often find it more intuitive. As you get more experienced with programming concepts, though, some of its built-in features get a little limiting, and cost scales quickly with operational complexity.
What I would do if I were starting over again
If it were up to me, and I were at the start line with 0 experience making this decision: I would go with Make.com. Why? The barrier to entry would be lower, and it would be easier for me to learn/start seeing a payoff for my efforts.
Over the course of several months/years, as my skills and needs developed, I would then start looking into N8N as a natural progression in my journey. Since no-code platforms are all reasonably similar, I'd be able to "repurpose" a lot of the time I spent learning those concepts in Make, and it would be a much easier learning curve.
Hope you enjoyed!
Had a lot of fun putting this together.
If you like the content:
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See you soon!