Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows
Lindy 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: Founders and small teams who want help with email, scheduling and customer replies without hiring someone.
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 | Lindy | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | An AI assistant that handles your email, meeting notes and follow-ups from Slack. | 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 | Paid | Open source | Freemium |
| Starting price | From $29.99/mo per active user | €20/mo | From $19.99/mo |
| Free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | No | Yes | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Lindy | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 3.8 | 4.5Winner | 4.2 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers the job it's built for, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 3.5 | 5.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Lindy | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | No | – |
| Desktop app | No | No | No |
| Browser extension | Yes | 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 | No | Yes | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | – | Yes | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | Yes | No | No |
| Works in many languages | – | – | – |
| Capabilities score | 9/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 9/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Lindy | n8n | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Free trial Free for 7 days Seeing whether it suits how you work. | Community Edition Free (self-hosted) Anyone comfortable running software on a server. | Free Free Testing one or two simple automations. |
TeamOur pick From $29.99/mo per active user Founders and small teams with a recurring admin load. | 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. | |
Enterprise Custom Companies with compliance requirements. | 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. | |
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 an SLA and dedicated support. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Use the seven-day trial on one recurring job, like meeting notes or inbox triage, and see how many credits it burns. Then pick the Team credit tier one step above what you used, since every active user is billed. | 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 | Lindy | n8n | Zapier |
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Lindy | n8n | Zapier |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Lindy | n8n | Zapier |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Lindy, n8n or Zapier?
n8n scores highest overall in our ratings (Lindy 3.8/5, n8n 4.5/5 and Zapier 4.2/5). Lindy is best for sorting and drafting email and meeting notes and follow-ups. 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, Lindy, n8n or Zapier?
Lindy: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at From $29.99/mo per active user. 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, Lindy, 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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