n8n vs Make for e-commerce automation: the real cost per 10,000 operations

"Make costs $9 a month and n8n is free" is true and unhelpful. The two tools count usage in different units, so the same store workflow can cost ten times more on one than on the other. This guide puts both on the same footing: what 10,000 operations actually buy for common e-commerce workflows, what a typical store's month costs on each, and the point at which paying for a VPS and your own maintenance time for self-hosted n8n beats a Make subscription.

1. Credits vs executions: why "10,000 operations" means different things

The gap grows with every step that runs once per item. A Make scenario that loops over 500 SKUs and updates each one uses at least 500 credits per run. The same n8n workflow is still one execution.

How one abandoned-cart alert is billed

2. What 10,000 operations buy, by workflow

These are typical builds for a Shopify or WooCommerce store. Your own scenarios may use a step more or less, so count yours the same way: one credit per module that runs, multiplied by how many times it runs.

Two things stand out:

• Event workflows are cheap on both. Webhook-triggered alerts and order exports use a handful of credits each, and 10,000 credits cover a small store's month.
• Batch and polling workflows are where Make gets expensive. A scheduled check uses a credit every time it runs, even when nothing changed: a 15-minute poll is 2,880 runs a month before it does any work. Per-SKU updates multiply that again. On n8n, the batch run is still one execution.

On Make you can often cut the count by using an app's bulk endpoint, so one HTTP module updates many SKUs for one credit, and by using webhooks instead of polling wherever the app supports them. Do that before you compare platforms. It's free and often halves the bill.

3. Current prices

Make's Pro and Teams plans include the same 10,000 credits as Core. They add features such as priority execution and team roles, not more runs. The 10,000-credit prices are current as of October 2026. The larger Core tiers are from a September 2026 tracker, so check them on Make's pricing page. n8n prices are from n8n's pricing page in October 2026, in euros.

4. A typical store's month on each platform

A worked example for a store doing about 3,000 orders a month. The volumes are illustrative. Swap in your own.

• Make: the subtotal fits the 40,000-credit Core tier ($38 a month billed annually). With the catalog sync, you need the 80,000-credit tier ($72), or the 40,000 tier plus extra credits.
• n8n Cloud: 7,410 executions fit Pro (€50 a month billed annually), with room to spare. Adding the catalog sync costs 30 executions.
• Self-hosted n8n: the server bill doesn't change. About $14.40 a month (section 5), plus your time.

5. When self-hosting n8n pays off

What self-hosting really costs

Maintenance isn't optional. In January 2026, n8n disclosed CVE-2026-21858 ("Ni8mare"), a CVSS 10.0 flaw that let unauthenticated attackers reach files on self-hosted servers with certain form workflows exposed. The fix was version 1.121.0. On n8n Cloud, n8n patched it for you. If you self-host, keeping up with updates is part of the price.

The break-even calculation

Self-hosting is cheaper when:

Make plan price  >  VPS + backups + (maintenance hours × your hourly rate)
                    $12 +  $2.40  + (2 h × rate)

The brackets are the same with monthly billing. Buying extra credit bundles instead of moving up a tier shifts them a little. The example store from section 4 uses about 47,000 Make credits, so it needs the $72 tier: self-hosting wins there if your two hours a month are worth less than about $29 an hour.

Monthly cost: Make Core vs self-hosted n8n

Don't skip n8n Cloud in the comparison

Self-hosting isn't the only way to get n8n's per-execution pricing. n8n Cloud Pro costs €50 a month (billed annually) for 10,000 executions, with no server to maintain. For batch-heavy stores where Make needs 80,000 credits or more but n8n sees fewer than 10,000 runs, Cloud Pro is often the cheapest option that doesn't cost you any time. Self-hosting makes sense when you also need unlimited runs, local AI models or data that stays on your own server.

6. If you self-host: the maintenance checklist

# Monthly: update n8n (read the release notes for breaking changes first)
cd /opt/n8n && docker compose pull && docker compose up -d

# Nightly via cron: dump the database and keep 14 days
0 3 * * * docker compose -f /opt/n8n/docker-compose.yml exec -T postgres \
  pg_dump -U n8n n8n | gzip > /opt/backups/n8n-$(date +\%F).sql.gz \
  && find /opt/backups -name 'n8n-*.sql.gz' -mtime +14 -delete

• Back up the encryption key. n8n encrypts stored credentials with N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY. A database backup without that key can't restore your store, email and Slack connections.
• Copy backups off the server to object storage or another machine. A backup on the same disk doesn't survive losing the server.
• Watch uptime. When n8n is down, webhooks from your store fail. Most platforms retry for a while, but not forever. A free uptime monitor on n8n's /healthz endpoint tells you before your customers do.
• Don't expose more than you need. Put the editor behind HTTPS and strong authentication. Only workflow webhooks need to be public.
• Know the license. The Community Edition uses n8n's Sustainable Use License: running it for your own business, or building workflows for a client, is allowed. Selling hosted access to n8n is not.

7. Which one to pick

8. Tools

Top picks

Alternatives: free tools and tools we have no affiliation with

We don't earn anything from these. They're here because for some readers they're the better choice.

• Zapier: the largest app library and the simplest builder. Triggers are free and you pay per successful action. Professional starts at about $20 a month (billed annually) for 750 tasks, and it usually costs more than Make at the same volume.
• n8n Community Edition: the self-hosted version this guide's break-even math is based on. Free under the Sustainable Use License.
• Activepieces: an open-source automation tool you can self-host, with a simpler builder than n8n.
• Shopify Flow: Shopify's built-in automation for tagging orders, inventory alerts and similar store tasks, at no extra cost.

9. Pitfalls

• Comparing plan prices instead of usage. Count credits per run and runs per month first. The plan price means nothing without them.
• Polling when a webhook exists. On Make, a 15-minute poll costs 2,880 credits a month before it does anything useful. Use the app's webhook trigger where you can.
• Per-item loops on Make. Updating 500 SKUs one by one costs 500 credits per run. Look for a bulk endpoint first.
• Treating self-hosting as free. The server is cheap. Your time, the backups and keeping up with security updates are the real cost.
• Losing the encryption key. Without N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY, a restored n8n database can't decrypt your saved credentials.
• Running out of credits mid-month. Make stops scenarios when credits run out. Turn on automatic credit top-ups on paid plans, or watch usage before a sale.