Short version: Make (the tool formerly called Integromat) has a beautiful visual canvas and is cheap to start, which makes it great for solo operators and simple SaaS-to-SaaS glue. n8n wins once workflows get complex or high-volume: it is source-available, self-hostable, priced on a near-fixed infrastructure cost rather than per-operation, has native AI/agent nodes, and leaves you owning the workflow as portable JSON. NexFlow builds on n8n for those reasons, but we will say so honestly when Make is the better fit.
The honest one-line answer
If you want the prettiest drag-and-drop builder, you are running a handful of simple scenarios, and you never want to touch a server, Make is a genuinely good product. If your automations have real branching logic, you care about per-operation cost at volume, you want data residency or self-hosting, or you are building AI agents, n8n is the stronger long-term home. The deciding question is usually how complex your workflows will get and how much you will run them.
Pricing: per-operation vs near-fixed
This is the difference that surprises people. Make bills per operation — and a single scenario can consume one operation per module per run, so a 12-step scenario firing every few minutes quietly burns tens of thousands of operations a month. n8n self-hosted decouples cost from volume entirely: you pay for a small server, and whether it runs 1,000 or 1,000,000 executions, the bill barely moves.
- Make: tiered plans priced on operations/month; complex multi-module scenarios consume operations fast.
- n8n cloud: priced on active workflow executions — simpler to predict than per-operation.
- n8n self-hosted: roughly A$5–A$50/month of infrastructure, independent of execution count.
- Lock-in: Make scenarios live on Make's cloud; n8n workflows are JSON you export, version, and own.
Features and ease of use
Both are visual, node-based builders, and both have large connector libraries. Make's canvas is arguably the most polished in the category and its router/aggregator modules make some branching patterns very tidy. n8n exposes more raw power: real code nodes (JavaScript and Python), richer expressions, queue-mode scaling, and first-class AI nodes including LangChain-style agents. For a one-person shop the gap favours Make's approachability; for a team that will own and extend the automation for years, n8n's transparency and code ownership tend to pay off.
- Choose Make when: you want the slickest visual builder, run simple-to-moderate scenarios, and never want to manage infrastructure.
- Choose n8n when: you need code-level logic, AI/agent nodes, self-hosting, data residency, or predictable cost at high volume.
- Either works for light SaaS-to-SaaS glue — pick the one your team will actually maintain.
Audit-grade by default
Whichever engine fits, NexFlow builds for governance: every step logged, timestamped, and replayable, with human-approval gates on anything above a threshold you set. Because we build on n8n, you own the workflow code from day one and can self-host it — no platform can hold your automation hostage.
Common questions
Is n8n cheaper than Make?
At low volume Make is very affordable and often cheaper to start than a hosted n8n plan. The picture flips at scale: Make charges per operation, so a multi-step scenario can burn thousands of operations a day, while self-hosted n8n runs at a near-fixed infrastructure cost of roughly A$5–A$50/month regardless of execution count.
Is Make easier to use than n8n?
Make has a polished visual canvas that many non-technical users find approachable, and its module library is large. n8n is also visual but exposes more logic — code nodes, expressions, and branching — which is more powerful but has a slightly steeper curve. For maintainable business automation that a team owns long-term, the n8n model usually wins.
Can I self-host Make like n8n?
No. Make is cloud-only SaaS — there is no self-hosted edition, so your scenarios and data live on Make's infrastructure. n8n is source-available and can be self-hosted on your own server, which matters for data residency, cost control at volume, and avoiding vendor lock-in.
The 15-minute map tells you yes, no, or “you don’t need us.”
Paid, focused, no deck. A single production workflow starts at A$2,400 (Spark) and ships in about two weeks; ongoing partnerships are A$1,800/month (Flow). Book a map or see pricing.