Short answer: pick n8n if you are technical builders who want control and self-hosting; pick Zapier Agents if you are teams already on zapier wanting agents across 9,000+ apps.
| n8n | Zapier Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | €20/mo (Starter, billed annually) | $19.99/mo (Professional); Agents Pro $33.33/mo billed annually |
| Free plan | Self-hosted Community Edition free; Cloud has a free trial (1,000 executions, no card) | Yes: Zapier Free plan; Agents free tier 400 activities/month |
| Integrations | All integrations on every plan (count not stated on pricing page) | 9,000+ apps |
| Billing unit | Workflow executions (whole run, not per step) | Tasks (Zaps) / activities (Agents) |
| Best for | Technical builders who want control and self-hosting | Teams already on Zapier wanting agents across 9,000+ apps |
| Key features | AI Agent node MCP server trigger + MCP client Human approval for tool calls Self-hosting Code steps (JS/Python) Git version control (Business+) | Agents with web browsing & live data Chrome extension Chatbots Zapier MCP Canvas |
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