Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows
Dify vs n8n vs Zapier
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Small businesses and agencies that want a custom AI chatbot or agent trained on their own documents, without hiring a developer to build it from scratch.
Pick it if: Teams that want full control of their data and automations, or anyone building AI agents on a budget who doesn't mind getting a bit technical.
Pick it if: Anyone who's sick of copying data between apps and has never written a line of code.
Overview
| Attribute | Dify | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Build AI chatbots, agents and workflows on a visual canvas, hosted or on your own server. | Build automations and AI agents on a visual canvas, then host them yourself for free. | When something happens in one app, Zapier does the next step in another. No code needed. |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | $59/mo per workspace | €20/mo | From $19.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Dify | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.1 | 4.5Winner | 4.2 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.5 | 5.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Dify | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | No | – |
| Desktop app | No | No | No |
| Browser extension | No | No | Yes |
| API access | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | Yes | Yes | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | – | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | No | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | – | – |
| Capabilities score | 10/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 9/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Dify | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Community Edition Free (self-hosted) Anyone comfortable running it on their own server. | Community Edition Free (self-hosted) Anyone comfortable running software on a server. | Free Free Testing one or two simple automations. |
Sandbox Free Trying Dify Cloud before you pay. | StarterOur pick €20/mo billed yearly A small business that wants n8n hosted for them. | ProfessionalOur pick From $19.99/mo billed yearly, or $29.99/mo One person running real automations for a business. | |
ProfessionalOur pick $59/mo per workspace, or $590/yr A small business running a few AI apps for real. | Pro €50/mo billed yearly Teams running several business-critical workflows. | Team From $69/mo billed yearly, or $103.50/mo A team that shares Zaps and app connections. | |
Team $159/mo per workspace, or $1,590/yr Bigger teams with lots of apps and users. | Business €667/mo billed yearly Larger teams that need SSO and version control, self-hosted. | Enterprise Custom Large companies with security and compliance needs. | |
Enterprise Custom Companies that need a private deployment with support. | Enterprise Custom Companies that need an SLA and dedicated support. | ||
| Which plan to pick | Build your first bot on the free Sandbox. Move to Professional when it goes live, and plug in your own Claude or OpenAI API key so you don't run out of message credits. Self-host only if you or someone on your team is happy looking after a server. Prices exclude tax. | If you have anyone technical on hand, self-host the Community Edition on a small server and pay nothing. Otherwise Starter on the cloud is the right place to begin, and 2,500 executions covers a lot when each run of a long workflow counts as one. | Start on Free to confirm your apps connect, then move to Professional on yearly billing. Buy the smallest task tier and let Zapier tell you when you are close to the limit, because it is easy to overestimate how many tasks you need. |
Key features
| Attribute | Dify | n8n | Zapier |
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Pros and cons
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Dify | n8n | Zapier |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Dify, n8n or Zapier?
n8n scores highest overall in our ratings (Dify 4.1/5, n8n 4.5/5 and Zapier 4.2/5). Dify is best for A chatbot that answers from your own documents and Internal AI assistants for staff. n8n is best for AI agents that act on email or chat and self-hosted automation. Zapier is best for sending form submissions to spreadsheets and new lead alerts in Slack or email.
Which is cheaper, Dify, n8n or Zapier?
Dify: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $59/mo per workspace. n8n: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at €20/mo. Zapier: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $19.99/mo.
Which is easier to use, Dify, n8n or Zapier?
Zapier rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Anyone who's sick of copying data between apps and has never written a line of code.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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