The short answer
- Moving from Zapier Professional to n8n costs $1,100 more in the first year, after setup and upkeep time (Stackcut's model: modeled, not measured).
- n8n's official guide covers setting up, but nothing carries over from Zapier automatically; 2 things stay behind. Details
- 1 public account of making this switch: 1 switched. Read them
- 3 comparison pages checked, each labeled with who wrote it. What they claim
- Switching help: n8n's sales team offers to help migrate existing workflows off task-based tools like Zapier onto n8n; framed as personalized help, not a self-serve importer. n8n-community.typeform.com
What Zapier and n8n cost
List prices from each vendor's pricing page, as stored in the Stackcut catalog. Each price links its source.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier Professional | $29.99/mo | $19.99/mo | 750 tasks/mo tier; multi-step Zaps, premium apps, webhooks |
| Zapier Team | $103.50/mo | $69/mo | 2,000 tasks/mo tier; 25 users, shared Zaps, SAML SSO |
| Zapier Professional 1.5K tasks | $58.50/mo | $39/mo | 1,500 tasks/mo |
| Zapier Professional 2K tasks | $73.50/mo | $49/mo | 2,000 tasks/mo |
- Zapier free plan: 100 tasks/month, two-step Zaps only, 15-minute polling zapier.com
- n8n free plan: Self-hosted Community edition is free n8n.io
n8n's plans aren't in the Stackcut catalog yet; check n8n's own site.
What comparison pages say
Each claim as the page makes it, and who it favors. Vendor pages are labeled; weigh them accordingly.
3 pages compared, 1 of them written by one of the two vendors. Claims are the pages' own, paraphrased; prices in them may be older than the catalog prices above.
| About | The page says | Favors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Zapier's per-task model becomes expensive at scale; n8n offers fixed costs with unlimited executions when self-hosted. | n8n | rnikhil.com independent |
| Features | n8n supports JavaScript/Python code nodes, multiple triggers, parallel processing and direct database access; Zapier is limited to basic JavaScript with time restrictions. | n8n | rnikhil.com independent |
| Other | n8n runs natively on-premise for self-hosters, unlike cloud-only Zapier. | n8n | rnikhil.com independent |
| Price | n8n prices its cloud service by workflow execution rather than by the number of steps, unlike Zapier's task-based plans. | n8n | Activepieces independent |
| Other | n8n offers a free self-hosting option for anyone who prefers to manage their own setup; Zapier has no self-hosting. | n8n | Activepieces independent |
| Features | n8n workflows can branch, merge or loop, versus Zapier's step-by-step if-this-then-that pattern. | n8n | Activepieces independent |
| Price | n8n charges per full workflow execution with no limit on workflows, tasks or steps; Zapier charges per task within a workflow. | n8n | n8n vendor page |
| Other | n8n offers self-hosting on a VPS, Heroku, your own server or a personal computer; Zapier is cloud-only with no self-hosting option. | n8n | n8n vendor page |
| Features | n8n supports branching, merging and looping workflow logic, including a native loop feature for processing datasets; Zapier's architecture is fundamentally linear. | n8n | n8n vendor page |
| Ecosystem | n8n lists 1,000+ integrations and unlimited users on all plans versus Zapier's 8,000+ apps and a 25-user cap on its Team plan. | Unclear | n8n vendor page |
Moving from Zapier to n8n
What n8n's importer carries over, what it leaves behind, and any help it offers switchers.
To n8n
Official guide n8n.io
Doesn't move: Zap workflow logic/steps; Zap trigger/action configurations (no importer). n8n.io
Watch out for:
- No self-serve Zapier importer; the only official migration help is a sales-contact form, not an automated tool. n8n.io
Switching help: n8n's sales team offers to help migrate existing workflows off task-based tools like Zapier onto n8n; framed as personalized help, not a self-serve importer. n8n-community.typeform.com
From each destination's own migration docs and switching pages, plus community write-ups where no official guide exists, each checked against its page. Confirm terms on the linked page before you rely on an offer.
People who moved from Zapier to n8n
1 public accounts of leaving Zapier: 1 switched. Summaries are ours; each links the original, and each was checked against its page before it appeared here.
A self-hosted n8n user who had also used Make.com and Zapier says they switched to n8n for its open-source, self-hostable model with no usage limits and native JS/Python code nodes; the noted downside is n8n's polling-based triggers versus Zapier's and Make's instant connectors. Hacker News
How to leave Zapier
Export first, then cancel. Every step links the vendor's own help page, checked on the date shown.
How to leave Zapier
Export first
- Zaps, task history, tables and more: Settings → Security and data → Export my data (ZIP of JSON and CSV). zapfile.json holds every undeleted Zap; an email tells you when the export is ready. help.zapier.com
What you lose
- Multi-step Zaps on the Free plan, which runs 2-step Zaps only
Cancel
- Export your Zaps first (see export).
- Billing and usage → Manage → select the Free plan.
- Takes effect
- At the end of the current billing cycle; paid features work until then.
- Refunds
- Zapier subscriptions are non-refundable.
- After you cancel
- Pay-per-task usage from the current cycle can still be charged after you cancel, and add-ons aren't cancelled with the plan.
FAQ
Is n8n cheaper than Zapier?
Modeled, not measured: moving from Zapier Professional to n8n costs $1,100 more in the first year, after setup and upkeep time at $50/hour. It depends on your plan, seats and usage. the math
Can I move my Zapier data to n8n?
It doesn't move: Zap workflow logic/steps; Zap trigger/action configurations (no importer). n8n.io
What do I lose when I leave Zapier?
Per Zapier's own pages, leaving or downgrading loses: Multi-step Zaps on the Free plan, which runs 2-step Zaps only. help.zapier.com
Does n8n help people switch from Zapier?
n8n's sales team offers to help migrate existing workflows off task-based tools like Zapier onto n8n; framed as personalized help, not a self-serve importer. n8n-community.typeform.com
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