n8n vs Zapier: how each bills, and the open-source system for open-ended work
n8n charges per workflow run and Zapier charges per task, so the same work can land at very different bills. Both are fixed-flow tools. Kortix is open source, and it is the system a team owns when the job is not a flowchart.
Kortix and Zapier, side by side
Every Zapier cell comes from Zapier's own pricing page; the Kortix column quotes Kortix.
| Criteria | Kortix | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| 01Open source | Yes: Yes. Read it, fork it, audit it. — Kortix | No: No. A hosted platform, with no self-host. — Zapier |
| 02Billing unit | Credits per month. — Kortix | Tasks: one per successful action; AI steps and code use more. — Zapier |
| 03Entry price | Free is $0 with 200 credits per month and 1 project. — Kortix | Free: 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps. — Zapier |
| 04Paid plans | The team plan is $40 per seat per month with 2,500 credits per month per seat, pooled. — Kortix | Professional, Team and Enterprise; the price rises with the task tier. — Zapier |
| 05Where you run it | Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or on-prem network. — Kortix | Zapier's hosted service. — Zapier |
| 06App reach | 3,000+ apps in a click, plus MCP, OpenAPI and raw HTTP. — Kortix | 9,000+ apps. — Zapier |
| 07How work lands | Session work reaches main through a change request. — Kortix | The Zap runs and acts in the connected apps. — Zapier |
| 08Where it fits | Open-ended work whose steps you cannot list first. — Kortix | Repeatable app-to-app steps, set up without code. — Zapier |
Three commands to a running project
$ curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash$ kortix init my-agent && cd my-agent$ kortix shipThe CLI installs, scaffolds kortix.yaml with your agents, and brings the project live on the cloud.
How n8n and Zapier bill, and where the two split
Both tools run a path you draw, and the bill is where they differ most.
Zapier bills per task, and a task is one successful action. Every step in a Zap and every external connector call spends tasks, and the count moves with the AI model tier, the code runtime and the connector type (Zapier's pricing). The free plan carries 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps; the paid plans are Professional, Team and Enterprise, and the price rises with the task tier.
n8n bills per execution, and one execution is a full run of a workflow no matter how many steps it holds (n8n's pricing). Starter is $20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions, Pro is $50 for 10,000, and the Business plan at $800 for 40,000 runs is self-hosted only.
The two models diverge at the edges. A long, branching workflow counts once on n8n and once per action on Zapier, which can favor n8n as a flow grows. Thousands of tiny one-step automations spend roughly the same either way. The number to compute before you choose is how often your busiest workflow runs: a workflow that fires every five minutes is about 8,600 runs a month by n8n's own estimate, past the Starter tier before a single branch is added.
Where each of the two fits
Zapier is the managed option, and its own page sets the bar low: it moves data between apps "without being a developer". n8n is the self-hostable option. The Community edition runs on your infrastructure with no paid key, and its paid tiers add team controls such as SSO, shared projects and environments (n8n's edition comparison).
If your backlog is a list of repeatable app-to-app steps, one of these two is the right tool, and the choice between them comes down to the bill.
What a team runs when the job is not a flowchart
Research a market and write a brief. Reproduce a bug and open a fix. Reconcile a month of records. No one can draw those paths in advance, and that is the work a fixed canvas cannot hold. For it, Kortix is the system a team owns. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, skills, company memory and connectors live in one git repo you own. One isolated sandbox per session. Each session has its own isolated machine and branch, and the finished work lands as a change request a person reads as a diff. Because the setup is files in git, it reviews like code and stays with your team.
The source is yours to read, fork and audit at Kortix on GitHub. The n8n vs Kortix comparison and the wider alternatives list cover the rest of the field, and the Kortix blog carries the longer head-to-head.
n8n vs Zapier, answered
The billing questions buyers ask first.
It depends on the work. n8n charges per workflow run, so a long workflow counts once; Zapier charges per action, so a multi-step Zap spends more tasks. Compare both against your busiest workflow's run count and step count.
An n8n execution is one full run of a workflow regardless of its steps; a Zapier task is one successful action, and AI steps and code can spend several.
Yes. The Community edition is free to self-host and runs without a paid key, and the paid tiers add SSO, shared projects and environments.
No. Zapier is a hosted platform, and its plans are priced per task in its cloud.
Kortix is the open-source system for that work: agents run on their own machines and land a change request a person approves, and the whole setup is files in one repo you own.
Move the work a flowchart cannot hold.
Kortix is open source; start with one job and grow from there.
Open source · Any model, your keys · Self-host, VPC, or on-prem