n8n against Zapier, Make, IFTTT and Power Automate: why self-host your automations
Zapier, Make, IFTTT and Power Automate made automation easy: connect two apps, and something happens by itself. They all share one design: your data goes through their cloud, and you pay by the step. For an agent network that runs every minute and calls models on private data, both are deal-breakers. n8n runs the same kind of workflows at home.
The field
| Tool | Where it runs | How you pay | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | their cloud only | per task | proprietary |
| Make (ex-Integromat) | their cloud only | per operation | proprietary |
| IFTTT | their cloud only | subscription tiers | proprietary |
| Power Automate | Microsoft cloud (plus a Windows desktop agent) | per user or per flow | proprietary |
| n8n | your server (or their cloud) | self-hosted: nothing per run | fair-code (source available, Sustainable Use License) |
| Node-RED | your server | free | open source (Apache-2.0) |
| Activepieces | your server or theirs | self-hosted community edition free | open source core (MIT) |
| Windmill | your server or theirs | self-hosted free tier | open source (AGPL) |
| Huginn | your server | free | open source (MIT) |
Prices and plans change often: check the vendors' pages for current numbers. The models of payment above are what matter for an agent network.
Why n8n for local agents
- The runs stay home. Your mail, your files, your home sensors never cross a third party.
- No meter. A clock that ticks every minute is more than 40,000 runs a month. Billed per step, that is a budget; self-hosted, it is a few hundred MB of RAM.
- Your models. An HTTP node reaches your local model gateway like any API; nothing forces you towards a hosted AI.
- Your database. Workflows read and write PostgreSQL directly: events, registries, queues become plain tables you can query.
- Code when you need it. A Code node runs JavaScript; the workflows themselves are JSON, so they can be generated and versioned (see the third article of this series).
When the SaaS is still the better choice
If you need one of thousands of ready-made connectors to commercial apps, no server to maintain, and someone to call when it breaks, a hosted service does that better. n8n at home means you are the operator: updates, backups, the encryption key. This series is for those who want that control.
Honesty about n8n's licence: it is free to self-host for your own use, but it is not open source in the strict sense. If that matters to you, Node-RED, Activepieces or Windmill are truly open alternatives; the patterns of this series apply to them too.
Sources
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