Workflow automation tools look interchangeable until you read the meter. Every one of these five connects apps and runs actions, but they bill on four different axes: Zapier per task, Make per credit, n8n per complete execution (or nothing at all if you self-host), Microsoft Power Automate per user or per bot, and Workato per negotiated contract. That choice, not a feature checklist, decides what your bill looks at 10x volume. We priced all five on their official pages so the comparison is arithmetic you can do yourself: Zapier (4.2/5) free for 100 tasks/mo then $19.99/mo annual at 750 tasks; Make (4.0/5) free for 1,000 credits then $12/mo at 10,000; n8n (4.0/5) free self-hosted with unlimited executions or EUR 20/mo cloud at 2,500; Power Automate (4.3/5) $15/user/mo with no free plan; Workato (3.7/5) quote-only with no published price. Alongside the meter we weigh what the builder can express, whether self-hosting is an option, and how much governance ships on the entry tier. The meter choice gets concrete once you price the entry tiers. Zapier's free 100 tasks a month is enough to prove a workflow, and the paid step is $19.99 a month for 750 tasks on annual billing — the pay-monthly view of the same plan is about $29.99, so annual billing saves around a third. Make's free 1,000 credits a month steps to $12 a month at 10,000 credits, with annual billing saving 15% or more. n8n is the only one where you can remove the meter entirely: self-hosted it is free with unlimited executions, and the managed Starter is EUR 20 a month at 2,500 executions on annual billing, with month-to-month priced higher and annual saving around 17%. Power Automate has no free plan at all — $15 per user a month paid yearly, with the Process tier at $150 per bot a month — so it is the pick when you are already paying for Microsoft, not when you are shopping for a first automation tool. Workato publishes no price: every edition is quote-only, an edition fee plus usage on a single consumption unit, which makes it a procurement conversation rather than a self-serve signup. Bursty volume is where the meters diverge most: tasks bill what was scheduled, credits bill what actually ran, and executions stop costing anything at all the moment you self-host.
Power Automate (4.3/5) leads the class on predictable per-user pricing ($15/user/mo paid yearly), tenant-level governance and DLP, attended plus unattended RPA in one product ($150/bot/mo), and the best localisation of the five. The caveats: no free plan, and its depth is concentrated inside the Microsoft estate.
Free tier: No — trial only · 30-day free trial
Paid from: $15/user/mo (Premium, paid yearly) (Per-user and per-bot licensing rather than usage metering. Premium ($15/user/mo) covers cloud flows, attended desktop flows (RPA) and process mining with 50MB of stored data, plus 250MB Dataverse database and 2GB file capacity. Process ($150/bot/mo) licenses an unattended bot for a core business process that unlimited users in the organisation can access; Hosted Process ($215/bot/mo) adds a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine on Azure. The Process Mining add-on is $5,000/tenant/mo per 100GB. Limited cloud-flow use rights are bundled with select Microsoft 365 licences. There is no free plan - only a 30-day trial.)
Power Automate is the Microsoft 365-native automation layer: $15/user/mo for cloud and attended desktop flows, $150/bot/mo for unattended RPA, and per-user or per-bot licensing instead of usage metering.
Zapier (4.2/5) has the largest catalogue at 9,000+ apps, unlimited Zaps on every tier and the gentlest learning curve. Filters, Paths and Formatter steps do not consume tasks. It is the most expensive per unit of work at volume — Professional is $19.99/mo annual at just 750 tasks.
Free tier: Yes · 14-day free trial on paid plans
Paid from: $19.99/mo (Professional, annual) (Task-based: one task = one action a Zap successfully completes, and the trigger does not count. Free gives 100 tasks/mo, unlimited Zaps but two-step Zaps only, and 1 seat. Professional starts at 750 tasks/mo and scales by tier (1,500 $29.99, 3,000 $49.99, 5,000 $69.99, up to 2M at $5,999/mo); Team starts at 2,000 tasks and includes 25 seats with SAML SSO. Filters, Paths and Formatter steps do not consume tasks. Every plan includes unlimited Zaps, Tables, Forms and Zapier MCP. Enterprise is quote-only.)
Zapier connects 9,000+ apps with the shallowest learning curve in the class — free for 100 tasks a month, paid from $19.99/mo, and priced per completed task rather than per step or per seat.
Make (4.0/5) gives 10,000 credits for $12/mo, roughly an order of magnitude cheaper than Zapier for equivalent volume, with routers, iterators and visual error routes on a canvas. Credits are consumed by triggers and filters too, and AI modules cost 2-50 credits each.
Free tier: Yes
Paid from: $12/mo (Core, 10k credits) (Credit-based: every module execution counts as one credit, including triggers, routers and filters. Free gives 1,000 credits/mo, 2 active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs. Core, Pro and Teams all start at 10,000 credits/mo and differ by feature: unlimited active scenarios and minute-level scheduling from Core, priority execution plus full-text log search from Pro, team roles and shared scenario templates from Teams. AI modules cost 2-50 credits each and the Make Code app bills 2 credits per second of execution. Data transfer caps are 512MB on Free and 5GB per 10k operations on paid tiers. Enterprise is custom.)
Make trades Zapier's linear steps for a visual canvas with routers, iterators and error routes — free for 1,000 operations a month, paid from $12/mo, and the best price per unit of work for complex branching.
n8n (4.0/5) is the only tool here you can self-host free with unlimited workflows and executions, and cloud bills per complete execution rather than per step from EUR 20/mo. JavaScript and Python nodes plus 70+ LangChain nodes; you own the infrastructure.
Free tier: Yes · 14-day free trial on cloud plans
Paid from: €20/mo (Starter, annual) (Priced per complete workflow execution, not per step - a workflow counts as one execution no matter how many nodes it contains, and every plan includes unlimited users, unlimited workflows and every integration. Starter gives 2,500 executions/mo with 5 concurrent executions and 1 shared project; Pro gives 10,000 with 20 concurrent, admin roles, global variables, workflow history and execution search; Business gives 40,000 with SSO/SAML/LDAP, Git version control, environments and a self-hosted option. The Community Edition is free to self-host under the fair-code Sustainable Use License with unlimited workflows, executions and users - you pay only for infrastructure. Enterprise is quote-only.)
n8n is the only tool in the class you can self-host free with unlimited workflows, executions and users — and on cloud it bills per complete workflow execution, not per step, with JavaScript and Python anywhere in the flow.
Workato (3.7/5) reaches deepest into SAP, Oracle, Workday, NetSuite and ServiceNow with on-prem agents, recipe lifecycle management and RBAC. It is the only member with no published price and no free plan, so it is a procurement decision, not a trial.
Free tier: No — trial only · Trial and developer sandbox (no free plan)
Paid from: Quote-only (no published self-serve price) (No published tiers. Workato sells four editions (Standard, Business, Enterprise, and the 2026 Workato One tier for agentic automation) on a sales quote that combines a platform edition fee with usage-based billing driven by recipe count, task volume and connector mix. There is no free plan - only a trial and a developer sandbox. Because nothing is published, third-party procurement trackers circulate typical contract values; Workato publishes none of these, so treat any figure you see elsewhere as an unofficial estimate rather than a list price.)
Workato is the enterprise iPaaS of the class — 1,200+ connectors including SAP, Workday and ServiceNow, recipe lifecycle management and on-prem agents, sold entirely on a sales quote with no published price.
Bottom line: Bottom line: Power Automate when cost predictability, governance and localisation matter most and you already live in Microsoft 365; Zapier when non-technical people must ship this week and breadth beats price; Make when branching complexity and volume are both rising; n8n when you want per-execution economics or a zero-licence self-hosted option and can own the server; Workato when the integration touches ERP or HRIS under change control. If you are unsure, start on a free tier — Zapier, Make and n8n all have a usable one, and Power Automate and Workato do not.
Microsoft Power Automate (4.3/5) on the strength of predictable per-user pricing at $15/user/mo, tenant governance, RPA in the same product and the best localisation. Zapier (4.2/5) is the better answer when ease of use and third-party app breadth are the deciding factors.
n8n, because it bills per complete workflow execution rather than per step — and the self-hosted Community Edition is free with unlimited executions. Make is the cheapest managed option at $12/mo for 10,000 credits. Zapier's task metering is the most expensive at volume.
Three of the five: Zapier free gives 100 tasks/mo (two-step Zaps only), Make free gives 1,000 credits/mo (2 active scenarios, 15-minute interval), and n8n's Community Edition is free to self-host with unlimited workflows and executions. Power Automate and Workato have no free plan — only trials.
When the integration touches systems of record — SAP, Oracle, Workday, NetSuite — and needs on-prem agents, recipe lifecycle management across environments, RBAC and compliance coverage. Workato is quote-only with no published price, so it is a procurement decision rather than a self-serve upgrade.