When a small business in Mallorca decides to automate something, the first question that comes up on Google is usually "n8n, Make or Zapier". All three are automation tools that connect applications to each other (email, WhatsApp, CRM, spreadsheets, invoicing) through visual workflows, and all three do the job. But they differ in how they charge, where they keep your data, how much complexity they can handle and how much maintenance they demand. And there is a fourth option that nobody selling licences will ever put to you: that for your particular case, none of them is needed.
What the three do and how they are alike
All three tools follow the same principle: an event in one application (an email arrives, a booking is created in Booking, someone fills in a form) triggers a sequence of actions in other applications (create a record in the CRM, send a WhatsApp message, add a row to a spreadsheet, generate a PDF). They are configured visually, with boxes and arrows, and they have ready-made connectors for hundreds of services, including Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Holded, Airbnb through intermediaries, and the WhatsApp Business API.
For a simple workflow, of the "web form to CRM plus email notification" kind, any of the three will solve it in an afternoon. The differences appear when the workflow grows, when volume rises, or when personal data comes into play.
Pricing model: where the catch is
Zapier charges per "task": every action a workflow executes counts. It is convenient to start with and very expensive once volume grows. A workflow that processes every booking at a 40-room hotel in high season, with five or six steps per booking, burns through tasks at a rate that comes as a surprise on the August bill.
Make charges per "operation", a similar concept but with lower unit prices and more granular plans. It usually works out cheaper than Zapier for medium volumes, and its editor allows more complex logic (loops, branches, error handling) without charging extra for it.
n8n comes in two forms. In the cloud, it charges per workflow execution rather than per individual step, which already changes the sums considerably for long workflows. Hosted on your own server (self-hosted), the basic licence is free and the real cost is the server and whoever maintains it.
The practical rule: if you are going to run a few workflows with a few steps, any of them will do and the price difference is small. If you are going to process hundreds of events a day with many-step workflows, Zapier's per-task model becomes by far the most expensive.
Data in the European Union: n8n hosted on your own server
For a clinic, an estate agency or a hotel, workflows handle customers' personal data: names, phone numbers, passports, records. GDPR requires you to know where that data is processed and under what guarantees.
Zapier and Make are cloud services run by their manufacturers; Make offers EU hosting in its plans, while Zapier processes mainly in the United States under the transfer mechanisms currently in force. Both are legitimate options with the right paperwork, but they mean your data passes through a third party's infrastructure.
n8n hosted on your own server, in a data centre in the European Union, means your customers' data never leaves a machine you control. It is the configuration we use by default for our clients in Mallorca whenever personal data is involved. The trade-off is that someone has to maintain that server: updates, backups, keeping watch that the workflows are still running. That someone is us under the managed agent service, or the client themselves if they have a technical person on staff.
Complexity: how far each one goes
- Zapier is the easiest to learn and the most limited. Perfect for linear workflows of two to five steps. When elaborate conditional logic, data transformation or careful error handling is needed, it becomes awkward.
- Make handles considerably more complexity in its visual editor and is a good middle option for anyone who does not want to manage servers but needs workflows with branches and loops.
- n8n is the most powerful: it lets you write code inside the workflows when the connector falls short, integrate with artificial intelligence models to build agents, and grow without changing tools. It is also the one that demands the most from whoever sets it up.
An important nuance: the most powerful tool is not the best one by default. A three-person company with nobody technical and a simple workflow may be better served by Make than by an n8n installation nobody knows how to maintain.
When none of the three is needed
Before paying for a licence or commissioning a workflow, it is worth checking three things:
Does your current tool already do it? Google Workspace has filters, automatic replies and forms that feed into spreadsheets. Microsoft 365 includes Power Automate in many plans. Holded sends payment reminders on its own. Doctoralia sends appointment reminders. Booking has scheduled messages to guests. Many of the "automations" we are asked for are an unticked box in a programme that is already being paid for.
Is it a twenty-line script? Moving a file every night, generating a report from a spreadsheet, renaming documents according to a rule. For tasks like these, a small script on a server costs less, fails less and does not depend on any subscription.
Does it happen often enough? Automating something that happens twice a month and takes ten minutes rarely pays off. The time spent building and maintaining it exceeds the time saved.
When we carry out an assessment (a fixed €1,500), part of the value lies precisely in saying "do not automate this" or "switch this on in the tool you already have". Bespoke automation, in the €3,000 to €6,000 range, is reserved for the processes where there really are hours and errors to eliminate.
Our recommendation by type of business
Without knowing your case, and with every caveat, this is what we tend to propose:
- Very small business, one simple workflow, no sensitive data: Make in the cloud, or even what your office suite already includes.
- Business of 5 to 50 people with international customers, bookings or appointments, and personal data: n8n hosted in the EU, maintained by someone who knows what they are doing.
- Business already using Zapier and happy with it: carry on, and review the bill when volume grows.
We build with the tools the client already has and choose the automation layer according to the case, not according to our preference. When n8n is the right call, we host it in the EU. When Make is the right call, we say so. When nothing is needed, we say that too.
What we do ourselves (and why we use none of the three)
At Automatiza Mallorca we build automations in our own code, installed on a server of yours or ours within the European Union, and we build agents on open-source platforms. We work this way for three practical reasons: the workflow belongs to your business and does not depend on a platform's licence or price changes; there is no limit on executions or steps, which matters in high season; and the pieces an AI agent needs (memory, approvals, limited access to your systems) integrate better without a layer in between. If your business already has workflows in n8n, Make or Zapier, we respect them and connect to them; if you are starting from scratch, the usual outcome is that you do not need them.
Frequently asked questions
Can I start with Zapier and migrate to n8n later?
Yes, and it is a reasonable route if the first workflow is simple. The concepts are the same and a Zapier workflow can be rebuilt in n8n in a short time.
Is n8n hard to maintain for a small business with no IT person?
Hosting it properly requires knowledge: server, updates, backups, alerts if a workflow fails. A small business with no technical profile can use n8n's cloud version, which can also be configured in the EU, or contract the maintenance as part of a managed service.
Are these tools any use for building AI agents?
n8n integrates directly with artificial intelligence models and serves as a base for agents that read messages, decide and act. Make can also call these models. Zapier's AI features are more limited. For an agent that replies to customers on WhatsApp with access to the diary or the CRM, n8n is the one we usually use.
If you are not sure which tool fits your business, or whether what you need is already done by something you pay for, the assessment answers exactly that. Request an assessment
We implement it for you
We work at the leading edge of artificial intelligence and agents: we build on the most advanced agent platforms of the moment and we do it at your business, in Mallorca, with published prices and a person from your team approving anything that goes out. We start with an initial assessment and a written plan.