Make vs n8n

Both put a readable branching chain on a canvas, but the machinery differs. Make leans on data shaping: routers, filters, aggregators and iterators explicitly reshape data between steps, sub-scenarios keep workflows modular, and JavaScript/Python code steps fill gaps. Its breadth is the headline — 3,500+ apps, custom integrations for anything with an API, and AI app nodes for OpenAI, Perplexity, DeepSeek and Gemini plus AI Content Extractor and AI Web Search (beta) inside scenarios. Three build paths converge on one canvas: manual dragging, prompting Maia by Make (released 2026-08-13) for plain-language automations and agents, or driving Make from Claude/ChatGPT/Gemini via the Make MCP Server. Make Grid gives a live map of every automation and third-party resource.

n8n is narrower on apps (500+ native, plus HTTP/GraphQL for the rest) and deeper on traceability. Every step shows inputs and outputs beside its settings, so the workflow is its own documentation; any past run reopens in the same workflow. Agents launched 2026-10-09, including multi-agent and RAG setups, with structured inputs and outputs, human approval before tool calls, guardrails, and hosted or embedded chat. The MCP Server Trigger, MCP Client and instance-level MCP are first-class. Escape hatches are developer-shaped: JS/Python steps, custom nodes and bash on self-hosted installs, plus cURL import. Make's edge is apps and prompt-building; n8n's is auditability, approval gates and self-hosting for agent work.

Both list as freemium, and neither side's entry price is stated here, so the structural difference matters more than a headline number. Make meters usage in credits consumed per module executed. That is invisible at low volume and punishing when a workflow fires constantly with many steps — the module count multiplies against you. The vendor's own positioning flags high-execution-volume workflows as a poor fit where per-credit module costs dominate the budget. If your automations are chatty (polling triggers, per-record loops), model the credit math before committing.

n8n meters differently: plans include a monthly n8n Assistant credit allotment, and as of 2026-10-14 you can top up Assistant credits to cover usage beyond that allotment instead of jumping to a higher tier. That is a genuine cost lever for teams that use the assistant heavily but don't otherwise need the next plan up. n8n also carries a tiering constraint worth naming: SSO, environments and Git version control sit at a Business tier the vendor says small teams may struggle to absorb. Self-hosted installs shift spend from subscription to your own Docker upkeep — cheaper on paper, real labor in practice. Make's enterprise tier adds SSO, audit logs and SOC 2 Type II; n8n's adds on-prem, SSO, LDAP and audit logs.