Which is cheapest for processing wholesale orders?

At wholesale volumes, usually n8n, because it charges one execution per workflow run however many steps and order lines that run contains. Zapier charges a task for every successful action, including each pass through a loop, and Make charges a credit per module action per item. An order with twenty lines therefore costs about twenty times more on the per-action platforms, and the same on n8n.

Why does the number of lines on an order change the cost?

Because matching each line to a product is a separate action. On Zapier every action after a loop counts once per item looped over, and on Make each module runs once per bundle an iterator produces. A six-line order means six product lookups, so six tasks or six credits. On n8n the whole run, all six lookups included, is a single execution.

Do checks that find no new orders cost anything?

On Make they do: its help centre counts a polling trigger's check as one operation, whether or not it finds anything, and a standard operation is one credit. A check every five minutes through a ten-hour working day is 120 credits a day. Zapier doesn't count triggers or polling as tasks, and n8n says polls that return nothing don't count as executions.

The self-hosted Community Edition costs nothing to license, but someone has to run, update and back up the server it sits on. It is licensed for your own internal business purposes, so processing your own orders is fine. Selling access to it, or building it into something your customers pay for, needs a separate agreement with n8n.

Where is our order and customer data held?

n8n Cloud is hosted in Frankfurt, and Make offers EU or North American hosting, so UK data sent to either stays in the EEA, which the UK treats as adequate. Zapier is a US company that has self-certified to the UK Extension of the Data Privacy Framework. Self-hosting n8n on a UK server keeps the data in the UK.

When is none of the three the right choice?

When the automation reserves stock, sets prices or posts to your accounts from inside an ordering portal, the rules belong in the portal's own code, where they can be tested and can't drift from the system they protect. Platforms are better at connecting systems than at being the system. We say so on the first call if that's where your workflow sits.

Are you a partner of n8n, Make or Zapier?

No. We aren't a partner, reseller or affiliate of any of them, and there are no affiliate links on this page. We build on n8n, on Make and in code, and we choose whichever is cheapest to run and easiest to maintain for the job. The prices quoted here come from each vendor's own pricing page.

n8n vs Make vs Zapier: Cost per Order for Wholesalers

In short: for a wholesaler, the choice between n8n, Make and Zapier comes down to what each one counts as a billable unit. Zapier bills a task for every successful action, Make bills a credit for every module action on every item, and n8n bills one execution for a whole workflow run. Orders have lines, and every line is a lookup, so a 40-orders-a-day inbox can cost ten times more on one platform than another while doing exactly the same work. The calculator below shows how many units your own volume uses on each.

From our side

Our rule is the one on our automation page. A few hundred simple runs a month, Make is fine. Long orders, daily volume or AI steps, and we reach for n8n, usually on a server the client controls. Anything that reserves stock or posts to the accounts from inside an ordering system, we write as code.

— Avi Singh, Founder

How each one counts what you pay for

	Zapier	Make	n8n
Billing unit	Task	Credit	Execution
What uses one	Each successful action step	Each module action, run once per item ("bundle")	One complete run of a workflow
Free of charge	Triggers, polling, filters, paths, Formatter, Looping and other built-in tools; failed steps	Very little: every module run uses credits, triggers included	Manual and test runs, polls that find nothing, sub-workflow calls, error workflows
Each line in a loop	One task per action, per line	One credit per module, per line	Included in the single execution
A check that finds nothing	Free	One credit	Free
Entry paid plan (checked 6 Oct 2026)	Professional: 750 tasks, $19.99 a month billed yearly or $29.99 monthly	5,000 credits for $9 a month billed monthly	Starter on n8n Cloud: 2,500 executions, €20 a month billed yearly
If you go over	Pay-per-task at 1.25× (yearly) or 2.5× (monthly) the base rate, stopping at 3× your plan price	Move to a bigger credit tier	Upgrade the plan

Sources for every row are linked at the end. Prices exclude tax, and all three change their plans regularly, so check the live page before you sign.

The row that matters most for wholesale is "each line in a loop". Matching order lines to your products is a lookup per line, and wholesale orders are long. A 20-line order costs about twenty times as much as a one-line order on Zapier or Make, and the same on n8n.

Calculate your monthly usage

Enter one workflow, such as emailed orders turned into draft sales orders. "Other actions per order" means every step that isn't a per-line lookup: reading the email, finding the customer, creating the order, telling someone to approve it.

Enter your volumes to see the result.

The calculator runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. It counts one Make credit for the iterator that splits the lines, and assumes standard, non-AI steps. AI steps cost more: Zapier says some steps use several tasks depending on the model, and Make's own AI provider bills by tokens on top of operations. On n8n you pay the AI provider directly, and our guide to what AI automation costs shows that this is usually cents per order.

With the defaults — 40 orders a working day, six lines each — Zapier needs about 8,800 tasks, nearly twelve times its entry plan. Make needs about 12,300 credits, roughly two and a half times its entry tier, and more than a fifth of that is checks that found nothing. n8n needs at most 880 executions, well inside its entry plan. Higher tiers on Zapier and Make are priced on sliders on their pricing pages, so put your figure into the slider rather than multiplying the entry price.

Three things the price table doesn't show

Idle checks on Make add up. A check every five minutes, round the clock, is 8,640 credits a month before a single order arrives. Limit the schedule to trading hours, or trigger the workflow from your mail system instead of polling for it.

Zapier's overage has a ceiling, not a stop. With pay-per-task switched on, a busy month carries on at 1.25 or 2.5 times the base task rate until usage reaches three times your plan price. That's better than orders silently stopping, but it belongs in the budget.

n8n's licence matters if you sell what you build. Its Sustainable Use License covers "your own internal business purposes". Automating your own order desk is internal use. Charging your trade customers for access to something running on n8n is not, and needs an agreement with n8n first.

Automation workflow for one emailed purchase order with six lines: new email, read the order with AI, find the customer, split into lines, match each line to a product, create a draft sales order and ask a person to approve. Below, what that one run uses on each platform: 1 execution on n8n, 10 tasks on Zapier, and 11 credits on Make plus the inbox check. — One six-line order, seven steps. The per-line lookup is what multiplies the count on Zapier and Make; on n8n the whole run is one execution. Illustrative screen, sample data.

Where your order data goes

Order emails carry customer names, addresses and phone numbers, so for a UK business the platform's location is a data-protection question as well as a technical one.

	Where it runs	What that means under UK GDPR
n8n Cloud	Frankfurt, Germany	EEA country; the UK has adequacy regulations covering the EEA, so no extra safeguards are needed
n8n self-hosted	Wherever you put the server	On a UK server there is no international transfer at all
Make	AWS in the EU or North America	Choose the EU and it's covered by the EEA adequacy regulations
Zapier	US company	Relies on the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which Zapier has self-certified to

For a US provider, the ICO says you must only send personal data under the UK Extension to a business that is active on the Data Privacy Framework list, and only for the types of data it has registered to receive. Check the list before you connect, and keep a note that you did. Whichever platform you choose, sign its data processing terms: it is processing your customers' data on your behalf.

Which one we'd pick, and when

A handful of simple jobs, hundreds of runs a month, no developer on staff: Make, kept to working-hours schedules. It is quick to build and cheap at low volumes.
Your team already uses Zapier for everything else, and volumes are low: stay on it. Watch the task count each time an order format grows longer.
Order inboxes, long orders, AI steps, or data you want in the UK: n8n, on its Cloud plan or self-hosted. The per-run billing is the reason.
Rules about stock, prices or money inside your ordering system: none of the three. That logic belongs in the portal's code; see AI order processing for how we split the reading of an order from the posting of it.

For the jobs we automate first, and our rule of thumb on whether a job is worth automating at all, see AI automation for business.

How we can help

We build on n8n, on Make and in code, and we aren't a partner of any platform, so the recommendation follows your volumes, not a commission. Show us one workflow on a 20-minute call and we'll count its steps on all three, or send us the numbers. You get a fixed quote before work starts, with platform and AI running costs listed as separate lines. Our team is in India and works across UK and UAE hours.

Sources

n8n, Plans and pricing (accessed 6 October 2026)
n8n docs, Understand executions (accessed 6 October 2026)
n8n, Sustainable Use License
Make, Pricing (accessed 6 October 2026)
Make Help Center, Operations and Credits (both updated 5 October 2026)
Zapier, Pricing (updated 6 October 2026)
Zapier Help Center, How is task usage measured in Zapier? (updated 21 August 2026) and Understanding Looping by Zapier
Zapier, Data Privacy Framework notice
ICO, Is the restricted transfer covered by adequacy regulations?
ICO, How does the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework work? (updated 30 July 2026)
ICO, International transfers: a guide (updated 15 January 2026)
DSIT, UK-US data bridge: factsheet for UK organisations
The Data Protection (Adequacy) (United States of America) Regulations 2023

Last reviewed 6 October 2026. Prices are each vendor's published list prices on that date and exclude tax. This guide isn't legal advice on data transfers.

n8n vs Make vs Zapier: what each one costs per order, for wholesalers