n8n vs Make: which to choose to automate your company

When a small business decides to automate its processes, the first technical question is usually the same: n8n or Make? They're the two most solid automation platforms for businesses, both connect hundreds of apps and both work on the same principle of visual flows. But they're less alike than they seem.

The introductions

Make (formerly Integromat) is a cloud platform with a very polished visual editor. You create a scenario, connect modules and pay according to the number of operations you run each month.

n8n is an open-source platform. You can use it on its official cloud or host it yourself, so your data never leaves your infrastructure and the cost doesn't depend on the number of runs.

Where Make wins

• A faster start. The editor is very intuitive and the template library helps you build your first scenario in an afternoon.
• Zero maintenance. Being 100% cloud, there's no server to watch and no updates to apply.
• Ideal for low volumes. If you run few operations a month, the free or basic plan is more than enough.

Where n8n wins

• Cost at scale. Make charges per operation; when your flows process thousands of items a month, the bill grows fast. On self-hosted n8n the cost is practically flat.
• Data control and privacy. With self-hosted n8n, your clients' data doesn't pass through third-party servers. For accountants, clinics and any GDPR-sensitive business, this matters a lot.
• Technical flexibility. n8n lets you insert code, build complex logic and deploy AI agents with more freedom. Tricky flows fit better in n8n.

Our rule of thumb

After building automations with both, here's how we decide on Nubia's projects:

| Your situation | Recommendation | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | | Few automations, low volume, no special privacy requirements | Make | | High or growing volume of operations | n8n | | Sensitive data (health, legal, financial) or strict GDPR | Self-hosted n8n | | Flows with AI, complex logic or custom code | n8n | | You want to set it up yourself without technical help | Make |

The key point? The tool is the easy part. The value lies in choosing the right process to automate, designing the flow so it doesn't fail silently, and leaving it documented. A bad automation on the best platform is still a bad automation.

And if you'd rather not decide yourself

It's literally our job: we analyse your case, recommend the platform that suits you —sometimes the answer is "neither, this is solved more simply"— and build the complete flow. Tell us what you want to automate and we'll give you a first assessment in under 24 hours.