Both connect apps together. The real difference is what happens as you grow: Zapier charges by the task and keeps your workflows on their platform, while n8n can be self-hosted, so volume is close to free and the workflows are yours to export.
Where Zapier is the right answer
Low volume, non-technical team, common apps, and nobody who wants to think about hosting. Zapier is genuinely excellent at this and the pricing is fine until the task count climbs. For a business running a few hundred tasks a month it is hard to beat.
Where n8n pulls ahead
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Volume
Self-hosted n8n does not charge per task, so a workflow that fires four hundred times a month costs the same as one that fires four times. On Zapier that difference is your bill.
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Data residency
Self-hosting means you choose the region. For UK businesses handling personal data under UK GDPR, being able to say the workflow runs in a UK or EU region matters and is often the deciding factor.
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Complex logic
Branching, loops, custom code where needed. Once a workflow has more than a few conditions, n8n handles it more comfortably.
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Not being locked in
Workflows are JSON you can export. If you stop working with whoever built it, you keep the thing itself rather than losing access to a platform account.
The honest catch
Self-hosted n8n needs somebody to run it: updates, backups, monitoring, and a plan for when the instance falls over. That is a real cost and it is why we host and monitor what we build rather than handing over a server and wishing you luck. If nobody in your business wants that responsibility and volumes are low, Zapier is the more honest recommendation.
Most of what we build runs on self-hosted n8n in a UK or EU region.
Questions we get asked
Which is cheaper?
At low volume, Zapier. Once you are running thousands of tasks a month, self-hosted n8n is dramatically cheaper, because the hosting cost is flat and the task cost is nil.
Can we move from Zapier to n8n later?
Yes, though it is a rebuild rather than an import. The logic transfers easily because you already know exactly what the workflow does.
Is n8n harder to use?
Slightly, and much more capable. The interface is comparable; the difference is that it does not stop you doing complicated things.
Do we have to self-host it?
No, n8n offer a cloud version. But self-hosting is where the data residency and volume advantages come from, so it is usually the reason to choose it at all.