n8nVSMake
Published · Last updated
| n8n | Make | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | €20/mo (Starter, billed annually) | $9/mo (Core, from 10k credits; Make compare page) |
| Free plan | Self-hosted Community Edition free; Cloud has a free trial (1,000 executions, no card) | Yes: 1,000 credits/month, 2 active scenarios, 15-min interval |
| Integrations | All integrations on every plan (count not stated on pricing page) | 3,500+ apps |
| Billing unit | Workflow executions (whole run, not per step) | Credits (most module actions = 1 credit) |
| Best for | Technical builders who want control and self-hosting | Non-developers building branching visual workflows |
| Key features | AI Agent node MCP server trigger + MCP client Human approval for tool calls Self-hosting Code steps (JS/Python) Git version control (Business+) | Visual scenario builder AI agents & Make AI Provider Routers and filters Start-up plan: 50% off Business for <20 employees |
How we tested
Prices, free plans, and plan limits come from each vendor's official pricing and docs pages (linked on each builder profile), last checked 2026-11-10. Hands-on coverage: 3 of 10 builders. On Oct 16, 2026 we built one simple agent (summarize text into exactly 3 bullets) on the free tier or trial of n8n and Make, and ran only the AI step in Activepieces (not a full published flow). The other 7 builders have not been tested hands-on; their facts come from vendor pages only. This test shows signup friction and basic model execution. It does not measure reliability, integrations, error recovery, or ongoing cost. We don't accept payment for placement.
- n8n: Tested hands-on
- Make: Tested hands-on
- Zapier Agents: Not tested hands-on yet
- Lindy: Not tested hands-on yet
- Relevance AI: Not tested hands-on yet
- Gumloop: Not tested hands-on yet
- Activepieces: Tested hands-on (AI step only)
- Botpress: Not tested hands-on yet
- Dify: Not tested hands-on yet
- Voiceflow: Not tested hands-on yet
Build an agent that summarizes text into exactly 3 bullets, free tier/trial only.
- Setup time: ~7 min from signup start to a working run (~4 min after the instance was ready)
- Card / API key: No card, no API key
- Free AI credits: $2.00 of AI credits included with the trial
- Limits: 14-day trial, 1,000 executions
- What we built: Chat Trigger → AI Agent (gpt-5-mini via n8n gateway). Correct run: 4.5s, ~179 tokens, exactly 3 bullets.
- Friction: required 5-question survey; AI Agent node added unconnected (had to drag it in manually); first system-message edit silently didn't save; starts in AI Assistant view.
Build an agent that summarizes text into exactly 3 bullets, free tier/trial only.
- Setup time: ~4 min of setup in Make (about 7 min wall-clock including our tooling lag)
- Card / API key: No card, no API key
- Free AI credits: One run used 1 operation / 1.03 credits (Free plan)
- Limits: Maia AI builder locked on Free (trial ended); Large / GPT-5.x / 6 models are paid-only; default schedule every 15 min
- What we built: Set variable → Make AI Toolkit "Simple Text Prompt" (gpt-5-nano, "Small"). About 12 actions; worked on the first run.
- Friction: auto-generated scenario name had to be renamed; a popup covered the editor.
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