n8n vs Zapier for Enterprise: Complete 2026 Comparison Guide

Head-to-Head Comparison: n8n vs Zapier for Enterprise

The following table summarizes 12 critical enterprise evaluation criteria. Each rating reflects our hands-on testing, customer deployment data, and publicly available documentation as of February 2026.

Score summary: n8n leads in 8 out of 12 criteria, with 2 ties and 2 Zapier wins. For enterprise teams prioritizing cost control, data sovereignty, and technical flexibility, n8n is the stronger platform. Zapier remains competitive for organizations that value breadth of integrations and ease of onboarding for non-technical teams.

Pricing Deep Dive: n8n vs Zapier at Every Scale

Pricing is the single biggest differentiator between these platforms. Zapier charges per task (each action step in a Zap counts as one task). n8n's self-hosted edition has zero per-execution costs — you only pay for infrastructure. Let's model three real-world scenarios.

Tier 1: Small Team — 100 Executions/Month

At this scale, the cost difference is marginal. Zapier's simplicity may justify the slightly higher price for teams without DevOps capacity. For organizations that already run cloud infrastructure, n8n can piggyback on existing servers at near-zero marginal cost.

Tier 2: Growth Stage — 1,000 Executions/Month

This is the inflection point. With n8n Community Edition, you're paying a fraction of Zapier's cost. If you need Enterprise features (SSO, RBAC), the costs are comparable — but n8n's price stays flat as execution volume grows, while Zapier's escalates.

Tier 3: Enterprise Scale — 10,000 Executions/Month

At enterprise scale, the economics are stark. Even with n8n Enterprise licensing and dedicated infrastructure, the 3-year TCO is 50–85% lower than Zapier. The gap widens further as execution volumes grow because n8n's cost curve is flat while Zapier's is linear.

Self-Hosting: n8n's Killer Advantage

For many enterprises, the ability to self-host is not a preference — it's a requirement. Regulated industries, government contracts, and organizations handling sensitive data need automation platforms that keep data within controlled environments. This single capability is why n8n wins enterprise evaluations where Zapier isn't even considered.

Data Sovereignty & Compliance

• GDPR Article 28: Self-hosted n8n eliminates the need for a Data Processing Agreement with a third-party automation vendor. Your workflows, credentials, and execution data never leave your infrastructure.

• SOC 2 / ISO 27001: Self-hosting means n8n inherits your organization's existing security controls and audit framework. No separate vendor security assessment required.

• HIPAA: Healthcare organizations can deploy n8n in HIPAA-compliant infrastructure (encrypted at rest, audit logging, access controls) without relying on a vendor's BAA.

• Israeli Privacy Protection Regulations: For Israeli companies, keeping automation data within Israeli or EU data centers satisfies IPPRA requirements without complex cross-border data transfer agreements.

Deployment Options

n8n supports multiple deployment models to fit enterprise infrastructure:

• Docker Compose: Simplest setup. Ideal for teams managing 10–50 workflows. Single-server deployment with PostgreSQL backend.

• Kubernetes (Helm Chart): Production-grade deployment. Horizontal autoscaling, rolling updates, and high availability. Recommended for 50+ workflows or high-throughput use cases.

• Queue Mode (Redis + Workers): Separates webhook processing from workflow execution. Enables dedicated worker pods that scale independently based on queue depth.

• Air-Gapped / On-Premises: Full offline deployment for defense, government, or ultra-sensitive environments. All node packages bundled in the container image.

Customization & Extensibility

Self-hosting unlocks capabilities impossible on cloud platforms:

• Custom Nodes: Build proprietary integrations for internal APIs, legacy systems, or specialized protocols. Package as npm modules and deploy alongside n8n.

• Environment Parity: Run identical n8n instances in dev, staging, and production. Promote workflows through CI/CD pipelines with Git-based version control.

• Network Integration: Direct access to internal databases, private APIs, and services behind firewalls — no tunneling or IP whitelisting required.

• Resource Allocation: Dedicate specific CPU/memory to n8n workers based on workload. No shared tenancy, no noisy-neighbor performance issues.

Enterprise Features Comparison

Beyond core automation, enterprise teams evaluate SSO, role-based access, audit capabilities, and support SLAs. Here's how both platforms stack up.

Single Sign-On (SSO)

Both platforms support SAML-based SSO on their enterprise tiers. n8n Enterprise Edition supports SAML 2.0 and LDAP, integrating with Okta, Azure AD, OneLogin, and other IdPs. Zapier offers SAML SSO starting on the Company plan ($750/mo). The key difference: with n8n self-hosted, your IdP communicates directly with your infrastructure — authentication tokens never traverse external networks.

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

n8n Enterprise provides granular RBAC: Admin, Editor, and Viewer roles with workflow-level permissions. You can restrict who creates, modifies, or merely views specific workflows. Credential sharing is explicit — teams can use shared credentials without seeing the underlying secrets.

Zapier's permissions are folder-based: you organize Zaps into folders and assign team members access at the folder level. This is simpler but less granular. Individual Zap-level permissions require the Enterprise plan.

Audit Trails & Compliance Logging

n8n stores complete execution data locally — every input, output, and error for every workflow run. Because it's self-hosted, these logs are subject to your organization's retention policies and accessible to your SIEM/logging stack (Datadog, ELK, Splunk). The Enterprise Edition adds structured audit events: user logins, workflow modifications, credential changes, and role assignments.

Zapier provides an Activity Dashboard on Team plans showing Zap runs and errors. Full audit logging (user actions, configuration changes) is available only on the Enterprise plan. Export capabilities are limited — you can't pipe Zapier audit logs directly into your SIEM.

Support & SLAs

A critical nuance: Zapier's 99.9% uptime SLA applies to their infrastructure, but doesn't cover integration-side failures. n8n's uptime is your responsibility — and your achievement. Teams running n8n on AWS/GCP with proper redundancy routinely achieve 99.95%+ uptime.

AI & Automation Capabilities

AI integration has become a top evaluation criterion in 2026. The ability to chain LLM calls, route decisions through classifiers, and process unstructured data with ML models is now table stakes for enterprise automation platforms.

n8n's AI Stack

n8n built AI as a first-class capability, not an add-on:

• Native LangChain Integration: Build RAG pipelines, multi-agent systems, and retrieval-augmented workflows directly in the visual editor. Connect to vector stores (Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate, Supabase) without code.

• AI Agent Workflows: Define autonomous agents that plan, execute, and iterate. Feed tool results back into LLM context for multi-turn reasoning chains.

• Model Flexibility: OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Ollama (local models), Azure OpenAI, and custom endpoints. Switch models by changing a single node configuration.

• Code Nodes for ML: Execute arbitrary Python or JavaScript within workflows. Call Hugging Face models, run scikit-learn inference, or invoke custom TensorFlow models.

• Structured Output Parsing: Built-in output parsers for JSON, CSV, and custom schemas. Chain LLM outputs into downstream workflow steps with type safety.

Zapier's AI Features

Zapier's AI offering is functional but surface-level:

• AI Actions: Pre-built AI steps for text generation, summarization, classification, and extraction using OpenAI under the hood.

• Natural Language Zap Creation: Describe workflows in plain English. Useful for simple Zaps but falls short for complex logic.

• AI Chatbot (Zapier Central): A conversational assistant for managing automations. More of a UX improvement than a workflow capability.

• Limitations: No LangChain, no vector stores, no custom model hosting, no code execution nodes for ML libraries, no multi-agent workflows.

When to Choose n8n

n8n is the clear winner for enterprises in these scenarios:

When to Choose Zapier

Zapier remains the better choice in specific contexts:

Migration Guide: Zapier to n8n

Migrating from Zapier to n8n is a structured process. Based on our experience migrating 20+ enterprise clients, here's a proven 4-phase approach.

Phase 1: Audit & Inventory (Week 1)

• Export a full list of active Zaps from Zapier's dashboard (Settings → Data Management)

• Categorize each Zap by complexity: Simple (2–3 steps, no branching), Medium (4–8 steps, basic Paths), Complex (9+ steps, multi-path, filters, formatters)

• Document all integrations used — map each Zapier trigger/action to n8n equivalents

• Identify credentials needed and plan secure credential migration

Phase 2: Infrastructure Setup (Week 1–2)

• Deploy n8n on your chosen infrastructure (Docker Compose for small teams, Kubernetes for enterprise)

• Configure PostgreSQL backend, Redis for queue mode (if needed), and SSL/TLS termination

• Set up SSO integration, create user accounts, and configure RBAC roles

• Establish monitoring: health checks, execution success rate dashboards, alerting for failures

Phase 3: Workflow Recreation (Week 2–4)

• Start with simple Zaps — each takes 15–30 minutes to recreate in n8n

• Tackle medium Zaps next, leveraging n8n's superior branching and error handling

• Rebuild complex Zaps last — many will actually be simpler in n8n due to native loops and sub-workflows

• Run parallel: keep Zapier active while testing n8n workflows with real data

Phase 4: Cutover & Decommission (Week 4–5)

• Switch webhook endpoints from Zapier to n8n (update source applications)

• Monitor n8n execution logs for 1 week with Zapier Zaps paused (not deleted) as fallback

• Once validated, deactivate and archive Zapier Zaps

• Cancel Zapier subscription and redeploy budget toward n8n infrastructure or new automation initiatives

Case Study: B2B SaaS Company Saves $48,000/Year by Switching to n8n

The Challenge

The company's Zapier bill had grown to $750/month as automation adoption expanded across departments. With multi-step Zaps averaging 5–7 actions each, the 50,000-task limit on the Company plan was constantly at risk of overage charges. Additionally, the DevOps team needed workflows that processed sensitive customer data — PII for user provisioning and billing integration with Stripe. Zapier's cloud-only model meant this data passed through US-based third-party servers, creating GDPR compliance friction with their EU customer base.

The Migration

HostingX managed the full migration over 4 weeks:

• Week 1: Audited all 87 Zaps. 52 were simple (2–4 steps), 28 were medium complexity, and 7 were complex multi-path workflows.

• Week 2: Deployed n8n on AWS EKS (Kubernetes) with PostgreSQL on RDS, Redis for queue mode, and integrated with the company's Okta SSO instance.

• Week 3: Recreated all 87 workflows in n8n. 12 complex Zaps were simplified using n8n's native sub-workflows and error branching, reducing total workflow count to 78.

• Week 4: Parallel testing, webhook cutover, and Zapier decommission. Zero-downtime transition with no missed triggers.

Results After 6 Months

The headline savings of $4,800/year on direct platform costs tells only part of the story. The real ROI came from unlocked capacity: the team deployed 15 new AI-powered workflows (lead scoring, support ticket classification, automated reporting) that weren't feasible on Zapier. These workflows eliminated 30+ hours/week of manual work across departments, equating to an additional $43,200/year in labor savings at blended team cost. Total first-year value: $48,000.

Frequently Asked Questions