n8n vs Make.com in 2026: which to pick for B2B workflow automation

The honest comparison

Dimension	n8n (self-hosted)	Make.com
Cost at 50k ops/month	€20-€40 (Hetzner)	€120-€200
Cost at 500k ops/month	€60-€120	€600-€1,200
Setup time (first workflow)	2-6 hours	30-90 minutes
Custom code support	Full JavaScript + Python	Limited JS in Code module
Visual UX	Functional, less polished	Polished, stakeholder-friendly
Native AI integrations	OpenAI, Anthropic, custom HTTP	OpenAI, Anthropic, custom HTTP
EU data residency	Yes (self-host in EU)	Yes (Enterprise plan)
Git versioning	Yes (workflows as JSON)	Limited (export/import only)
Non-developer maintenance	Hard	Easy
Vendor lock-in risk	Low (open source)	Medium (proprietary scenarios)
Best for	Engineering-led teams, scale, custom AI	Ops-led teams, low-medium scale, visual review

When n8n is the right call

You have developer capacity (or hire it)

n8n's power comes from custom code. JavaScript code nodes let you do anything you could do in a normal backend. Python via subprocess for ML inference. Complex branching logic that would be a mess in a visual editor. If your team has at least one person comfortable with JavaScript, n8n unlocks a class of automation Make.com cannot match.

If your team has zero developer capacity and zero plan to add it, n8n is the wrong choice. The maintenance burden — keeping the server patched, debugging workflow errors at 2 a.m., updating community nodes when they break — needs someone who is not afraid of the terminal.

You are past 10,000 ops per month

Make.com pricing scales with operations volume. At 50,000 ops/month you pay ~€120 on Make.com vs ~€30 self-hosting n8n on a Hetzner VPS. At 500,000 ops/month the gap widens to ~€800 vs ~€100. The crossover where n8n pays back its setup time is usually 5,000-10,000 ops/month for most B2B workflows.

Important: \"ops\" in Make.com is one step in a workflow run. A workflow with 12 steps that runs 1,000 times counts as 12,000 operations. Real-world B2B automation crosses 10k ops/month surprisingly quickly — CRM sync, lead routing, and order processing alone often push past that.

You need strict EU data residency

Self-hosted n8n on Hetzner Falkenstein, Hetzner Helsinki, or AWS Frankfurt means data physically never leaves the EU. Easier sales conversation with security-conscious enterprise buyers. No legal due diligence on a SaaS vendor's data residency claims.

Make.com Enterprise does support EU data residency, but the conversation with the buyer is different — they have to trust Make.com's compliance posture instead of trusting their own infrastructure.

You want git-versioned workflows

n8n workflows export as JSON. You can commit them to git, do proper code review on changes, roll back if something breaks. This matters once you have more than 10 workflows and more than 1 person editing them. Make.com has export/import but the integration with git workflows is rougher.

When Make.com is the right call

You want zero infrastructure burden

Make.com is managed cloud. You sign up, build scenarios, run them. No servers, no patches, no monitoring stack. If your team's bandwidth is best spent on the business and not on running a small platform, this is worth real money.

For most B2B teams under 20 people, the infrastructure burden of n8n (even a managed Hetzner VPS) is a real cost. Maintenance time, on-call when it breaks, security patches — none of it is glamorous and all of it eats focus. Make.com removes that burden entirely.

Non-developers will maintain workflows

Make.com's visual scenarios are genuinely easy for non-developers to understand. A marketing operations lead can read a Make.com workflow and understand what it does. A sales operations person can edit it safely. n8n's visual editor is functional but less polished and less forgiving of mistakes.

If your reality is that workflows will be built by operations or marketing people without engineering supervision, Make.com is the right tool. n8n in that situation creates a debugging mess.

Your volume is under 10k ops/month

At low volume, Make.com's pricing is competitive or cheaper than n8n (because n8n still costs you the infrastructure floor of ~€15/month even at zero ops). Most early-stage automation projects sit under 10k ops/month for months. Make.com is the right call until you are sure volume is going to scale.

You need stakeholders to review automation visually

Make.com scenarios are presentable. You can walk an executive through a scenario in a meeting and they understand it. n8n workflows are technical artifacts that require translation. If your buying conversation is with non-technical stakeholders who want to see what they are paying for, Make.com is easier to demo.

What about Zapier?

Zapier is great for tiny prototyping (one or two simple automations, low volume, no budget for infrastructure). Past that, Zapier's pricing model becomes punishing.

At 50k tasks/month, Zapier bills approximately €600/month. The same workflow stack on n8n self-hosted costs ~€30/month. On Make.com it costs ~€120/month. We routinely migrate B2B teams off Zapier — typical bill reduction is 5-15x with no functionality loss.

Our honest take in AI agents vs Zapier and Make: Zapier wins for very small scope; it loses for any sustained B2B operation.

Where AI agents fit in either platform

Both n8n and Make.com have native nodes for OpenAI, Anthropic, and generic HTTP calls. You can pass data to an LLM, get back a classification or summary or routing decision, and continue the workflow.

The judgment call is where AI helps vs where it adds risk:

• Use AI for classification and triage. Inbound ticket / lead / document → classify into category. Both platforms handle this cleanly.
• Use AI for summarization and handoff. Long call transcript → CRM note. Long contract → key terms. Both platforms handle this.
• Use AI for routing with operator review on edge cases. Most classifications are obvious; flag the uncertain ones to a human queue. Both platforms support this pattern.
• Do not use AI for irreversible actions without human approval. Refunds, payments, contract execution. Either platform can be misused here; do not.
• Do not use AI for pure deterministic logic. If a rule is \"if X then Y,\" code the rule. AI adds latency and cost without value.

For complex multi-step AI workflows (agent loops, tool use, multi-turn reasoning), n8n is more flexible because of code nodes. Make.com works fine for single-shot AI calls.

Hybrid: n8n + Make.com together

Some teams run both. Make.com for visual stakeholder-friendly scenarios that non-developers edit; n8n for the heavy-lift integrations and AI workflows that engineering owns. Make.com calls n8n webhooks for the parts that need custom code or scale.

This is more setup work but can be the right answer for organizations where operations and engineering both touch workflows.

Frequently asked questions

Where Logitelia fits

Logitelia configures, hardens, and maintains workflow automations on n8n (self-hosted in the EU) or Make.com — plus AI judgment steps with operator review — as part of the Operations Team subscription. We pick the platform per project based on your team's developer capacity, volume, and stakeholder review needs. Pricing starts at €4,500/month. Book a call and we will sketch which platform fits your stack and which 3-5 workflows would pay for themselves first. Full details on the workflow automation service page.