The four pricing models
Before comparing prices, understand what you're buying. Almost every platform uses one of four models, and the right model depends far more on your volume pattern than on your budget.
- Per-task (Zapier): you pay per billable action; simple to understand, expensive at scale
- Per-operation (Make): more units counted, but each costs a fraction as much
- Flat rate (Pabbly Connect): a fixed monthly or lifetime fee regardless of run count
- Self-hosted (n8n, Activepieces): software is free, you pay for a server and your own time
What each costs at low volume (under 1,000 runs/month)
At this level, price barely matters — pick for capability and app coverage instead. Most platforms have a free tier that covers a small stack entirely.
- Zapier Free: 100 tasks, two-step Zaps only
- Make Free: 1,000 operations/month, full builder features
- n8n Cloud starter or self-hosted: effectively free self-hosted
- Pabbly: paid from the start, so it's usually overkill here
Mid volume (1,000–10,000 runs/month) is where money starts moving
This is the band most growing businesses land in, and where the models separate sharply.
- Zapier: roughly $50–240/mo depending on actions per run
- Make: roughly $18–70/mo for the same workflows
- Pabbly Connect: flat, from about $16/mo — often the cheapest at the top of this band
- n8n self-hosted: $10–40/mo in server costs, plus maintenance time
High volume (10,000+ runs/month)
Metered pricing stops making sense here. Whatever you save by tuning workflows, a flat or self-hosted model saves more.
- Flat pricing removes overage risk entirely — the bill is the bill
- Self-hosting is cheapest in dollars but costs engineering hours in upgrades and monitoring
- Metered platforms still win if a single niche connector only exists there
The hidden costs nobody quotes
Total cost of ownership includes more than the subscription. These are the line items that surprise teams six months in.
- Rebuild time when migrating — there are no cross-platform importers
- AI steps billed as extra usage unless you supply your own model key
- Premium app connectors gated behind higher tiers
- Faster polling intervals gated behind higher tiers
- Retries on flaky APIs re-billing the same work
How to pick without over-thinking it
Estimate your monthly runs, multiply by the number of billable actions per run, then compare cost per unit rather than headline price. If your volume is unpredictable, choose flat pricing — the certainty is worth more than a slightly lower base rate.