Zapier → n8n
What it saves, what actually moves, what you rebuild — and the thing that catches people.
What it costs, and what it saves
Zapier's pricing page, as listed on 2026-10-03: Free is $0 for 100 tasks/month with two-step Zaps only. Professional starts at $19.99/month billed yearly, or $29.99 billed monthly, for 750 tasks. Team starts at $69/month billed yearly, or $103.50 monthly, for 2,000 tasks. With pay-per-task turned on, overage costs 1.25x the base rate on annual plans and 2.5x on monthly plans. Zapier counts one task per completed action; its pricing page says triggers and the built-in Filter, Formatter and Paths steps don't count. n8n Cloud, as listed on n8n.io the same day: Starter €20/month and Pro €50/month, both billed annually, for 2.5K and 10K workflow executions (annual billing saves 17%). An n8n execution is one full run of a workflow, however many steps it has. Self-hosted n8n Community edition has no licence fee, so you pay only for a server. As an example, DigitalOcean lists a 2 GiB Basic droplet at $12/month.
Moves cleanly
Nothing moves automatically: n8n has no Zapier importer, and its own community forum confirms there is no automatic path. What you can carry over is the design. In Zapier, Settings → Security and data → Export my data produces Zapfile.json, which holds every undeleted Zap's steps, input values and the links between steps. Zap History exports up to 5,000 runs at a time as CSV or JSON. Use the first as the spec for each rebuilt workflow and the second as test data.
You rebuild
Everything. Each Zap is rebuilt node by node as an n8n workflow, and each app connection is set up again as an n8n credential. Zapier's built-in Formatter, Filter and Paths steps become n8n core nodes such as IF, Switch and Code. Catch Hook URLs change, so every system that posts to Zapier must get the new n8n webhook URL. Zapier Tables, Interfaces and Forms have no import path and must be replaced separately.
What Zapier costs you today
Free tier of 100 tasks/month; Professional from about $29.99/month (750 tasks, ~$19.99/month billed annually); Team about $103.50/month; Enterprise is custom-priced. Billing is per successful task, and usage above the plan allowance is charged automatically.
What actually holds you in
Workflows (Zaps), connected-app credentials, and stored data live inside Zapier's cloud with no self-hosted deployment. There is no standard export/import format to move a library of Zaps to another platform, so migration means rebuilding automations by hand. You depend on Zapier's uptime, pricing, and continued support for each integration.
What you are moving to
n8n is the tool most people mean by "self-hosted Zapier." It offers a visual workflow editor with 400+ integration nodes, branching logic, and code steps, plus AI/agent nodes for LLM-driven automations. You can self-host it for free with Docker and keep every workflow and credential on your own server, or use n8n's paid cloud. Note the license: n8n uses the source-available Sustainable Use License, not an OSI-approved open-source license.
Free to self-host; paid n8n Cloud tiers available
n8n strengths
- Runs entirely on your own server via Docker; workflows and credentials stay on your infrastructure
- Very large node library (400+ integrations) plus HTTP and code nodes to reach almost any API
- Strong branching, error handling, and built-in AI/agent nodes for LLM workflows
- Very active project and large community (190k+ GitHub stars, near-daily commits)
- Workflows export as JSON, so they are portable between your own n8n instances
What you give up
- License is source-available (Sustainable Use License), not OSI open-source; it permits internal/self-hosted business use but restricts offering n8n itself as a hosted service to third parties
- Self-hosting requires running and maintaining a server and database
- Fewer prebuilt app integrations than Zapier's 7,000+ catalog; some connections need HTTP/API setup
- Steeper learning curve than a pure no-code tool for complex flows
The migration, step by step
- 1Export Zapfile.json (Zapier → Settings → Security and data → Export my data). For each Zap, list its trigger, actions, monthly task count and owner from Zap History, then rank the Zaps by business impact.
- 2Set up n8n: use n8n Cloud, or self-host with Docker Compose as the n8n docs recommend, keeping /home/node/.n8n on a persistent volume. Behind a reverse proxy, set N8N_WEBHOOK_URL=https://n8n.example.com/ and N8N_PROXY_HOPS=1. Set and back up the encryption key that protects stored credentials.
- 3Rebuild the two or three simplest high-value Zaps first. Recreate the credentials, map each Zapier step to an n8n node, and send sample payloads from the Zap History export to the Webhook node's test URL while 'Listen for test event' is running.
- 4Parallel run: publish the n8n workflow but send its last step to a sandbox, such as a test sheet, a staging CRM or a test Slack channel, while Zapier keeps doing the real work. Compare outputs run by run for one to two weeks.
- 5Cut over one workflow at a time. Switch each sender from the Zapier Catch Hook URL to the n8n Production URL (or turn on the n8n polling trigger), point the last step at the real destination, then turn the Zap off. Never let both tools write to the same system.
- 6After the last Zap is off, check n8n's Executions tab daily for a week and set up failure alerts. Then downgrade the Zapier plan at the end of its billing period.
The gotcha
n8n's Webhook node has two URLs. The Test URL listens only while you have 'Listen for test event' or 'Execute workflow' running in the editor. The Production URL is registered only once the workflow is published, and its runs appear under Executions rather than in the editor. A common mistake: you paste the test URL into Stripe, a form tool, or whatever used to call Zapier's Catch Hook. It works during the build, then every event is lost once the editor is closed. On self-hosted n8n behind a reverse proxy, n8n builds webhook URLs from its internal host and port 5678 unless N8N_WEBHOOK_URL is set. That wrong address is what gets registered with outside services. Copy the Production URL only after publishing, and check the host name in it.
When to stay on Zapier
Stay on Zapier if the people who build automations are non-technical and nobody can run a server, read execution logs or debug JSON. It also makes sense when your task volume is low enough that Free or Professional costs less than the hours needed to rebuild and monitor workflows. Zapier also handles hosting, polling and uptime for you. n8n is distributed as 'fair-code' under its Sustainable Use License, so read those terms before building a paid hosted service for customers on it.
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Figures verified 2026-07-06 against vendor pricing pages. Prices change and migrations differ by estate — treat the cost delta as a starting model, not a quote. Rankings and recommendations here are merit-only; affiliate income never changes a verdict. See our methodology.