An honest comparison of n8n and Zapier across 8 dimensions — pricing, self-hosting, error handling, complexity ceiling, ease of use, integrations, support, and production-readiness. No fanboyism, just tradeoffs.
If you are evaluating n8n vs Zapier for workflows that need to run reliably in production — not just a quick Slack notification, but real business logic with error handling, data sovereignty, and scale — this post is for you. I consult exclusively on n8n, so I will be upfront about my bias. But I have migrated enough teams off Zapier to know
where each tool genuinely wins and where it falls short.
Quick Verdict
Choose Zapier if your team is non-technical, you need fewer than 50 tasks per day, and your integrations are straightforward (connect App A to App B, maybe with a filter).
Choose n8n if you need self-hosting, your workflows involve branching logic or custom code, you are processing hundreds or thousands of events per day, or you operate in a regulated industry where data cannot leave your infrastructure.
Both are good tools. They solve different problems at different scales.
What Is Zapier?
Zapier is a cloud-hosted automation platform that connects over 6,000 apps through a trigger-action model. You pick a trigger ("new row in Google Sheets"), add one or more actions ("create contact in HubSpot, send Slack message"), and Zapier runs it for you. The UI is polished, onboarding is fast, and for simple automations it genuinely works well.
Zapier handles hosting, scaling, and maintenance — you never touch infrastructure.
What Is n8n?
n8n is an open-source workflow automation tool that you can self-host on your own infrastructure or run on n8n's managed cloud. It uses a visual node-based editor where workflows can branch, loop, merge, and include inline JavaScript or Python code. n8n has 400+ built-in integrations, but its real power is that any API accessible over HTTP is a first-class citizen — you are never locked out of a service because the platform has not built a connector yet.
The Comparison: 8 Dimensions
1. Pricing at Scale
Zapier charges per task — and a "task" is any action that executes, not any workflow run. A five-step Zap running 1,000 times per month consumes 5,000 tasks. A mid-size e-commerce operation processing 500 orders/day through a 6-step Zap hits 90,000 tasks/month. On Zapier's Team plan, that is $400-$700/month — for one workflow.
n8n self-hosted has no per-execution pricing. You pay for the server ($20-$40/month VPS handles most workloads) and your own time. n8n Cloud has usage-based pricing too, but counts workflow executions, not individual node steps — significantly cheaper at scale.
Winner: n8n. The gap widens with every workflow step and volume increase. For low-volume use (under 500 tasks/month), Zapier's free tier is actually cheaper than running a server.
2. Self-Hosting and Data Sovereignty
Zapier is cloud-only. Your data flows through Zapier's infrastructure on every execution. For healthcare (HIPAA), finance (SOC 2, PCI), or European operations (GDPR), this can be a non-starter.
n8n runs in a Docker container on your own server, inside your VPC, behind your firewall. Webhook payloads, API credentials, execution logs — everything stays on infrastructure you control.
Winner: n8n. Zapier has no self-hosted option. If data sovereignty is a requirement, the decision is already made.
3. Error Handling and Reliability
Zapier provides basic error handling: auto-replay for failed tasks and email notifications. But the handling is largely binary — succeeded or failed — with limited custom recovery logic.
n8n gives you granular control. The Error Trigger node fires dedicated error-handling workflows per failed workflow.
Per-node retry settings let you configure custom counts and intervals. IF and Function nodes inspect error types and route failures differently — retrying transient errors, dead-lettering permanent ones, alerting on critical ones. You can build exponential backoff, circuit breakers, and dead-letter queues directly.
Winner: n8n. Zapier's error handling works for simple cases. n8n's composability lets you build production-grade resilience patterns.
4. Complexity Ceiling
Zapier's ceiling shows up when you need multi-branch conditional logic, loops with runtime conditions, sub-workflows with parameters, or code that runs for more than a few seconds. The execution model is fundamentally linear.
n8n workflows are directed graphs, not linear chains. Branch, merge, loop, call sub-workflows, include JavaScript or Python Function nodes. I have built n8n workflows with 40-node decision trees, conditional sub-workflows, parallel API aggregation, and partial-failure handling.
Winner: n8n. The moment you need branching logic, sub-workflows, or non-trivial code, n8n pulls ahead.
5. Ease of Setup for Non-Technical Users
This is where Zapier legitimately wins.
Zapier's onboarding is excellent. Sign up, search for apps, authenticate with OAuth, and you have a working Zap in under 10 minutes. Templates for common use cases work out of the box.
n8n's learning curve is steeper. The node-based editor is powerful but less intuitive for first-time builders. Self-hosted n8n adds another layer: server provisioning, Docker, SSL, environment variables.
Winner: Zapier. For pure non-technical self-service, Zapier's UX is meaningfully better. The gap narrows if you have a developer on the team.
6. Integration Count
Zapier advertises 6,000+ integrations. n8n has 400+ built-in nodes. On raw numbers, Zapier wins. But n8n's HTTP Request node means any REST API is accessible without waiting for a dedicated connector. The real
question is not "how many integrations exist" but "is the one I need available?"
Winner: Zapier on breadth, n8n on depth.
7. Community and Support
Zapier offers enterprise support with dedicated account managers, SLAs, and phone support. n8n has an active open-source community, solid documentation, and professional support on Cloud/Enterprise plans.
Winner: Depends on your needs. Enterprise SLAs lean Zapier. Source code access and community knowledge lean n8n.
8. Production-Readiness
This is the dimension I care about most, and where the gap is widest.
Production-readiness means: Can this workflow survive a webhook storm? Can it handle duplicate events without creating duplicate records? Can you trace exactly what happened and when? Can failures queue for retry instead of disappearing?
In n8n, all of this is buildable — idempotency, retry/backoff, audit trails, secrets management, dead-letter queues, and monitoring. Every one of those patterns is implementable using built-in nodes, Function nodes, and the Error Trigger system.
Zapier's execution model makes several of these patterns difficult or impossible. No built-in deduplication. Error handling limited to auto-replay and notifications. No custom DLQ logic.
Winner: n8n. The ability to build production-grade patterns is what separates "it works" from "it works in production."
When to Choose Zapier
- Your team is non-technical
- Your volume is low (under 50 tasks/day)
- Your integrations are straightforward linear chains
- You need it today
A marketing team connecting Typeform to HubSpot to Slack does not need a self-hosted n8n instance.
When to Choose n8n
- You have technical capacity (developer or DevOps resource)
- You are scaling (hundreds/thousands of executions per day)
- Data sovereignty is non-negotiable
- Your workflows are complex (branching, sub-workflows, custom error handling)
- Production reliability matters (idempotency, DLQ, audit trails)
If three or more apply, n8n is almost certainly the better fit.
Migration Path: Zapier to n8n
There is no "export Zap, import to n8n" button. The typical migration:
- Audit existing Zaps — catalog every active Zap, its volume, and criticality
- Rebuild in n8n with error handling and idempotency from day one
- Parallel run both simultaneously on a subset of traffic
- Cutover — disable the Zap, route all traffic to n8n, monitor for 48 hours
- Decommission — cancel Zapier once n8n workflows have been stable for 2+ weeks --- Score: n8n 5 · Tie 2 · Zapier 1. If you are evaluating either tool for production use, the tradeoffs above should help you decide.
