Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows
n8n vs Manus 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
n8n
4.5Pick 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.
Manus
3.7Pick it if: People who want to hand off whole tasks and don't want to build the automation themselves.
Zapier
4.2Pick it if: Anyone who's sick of copying data between apps and has never written a line of code.
Overview
| Attribute | n8n | Manus | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Build automations and AI agents on a visual canvas, then host them yourself for free. | A general-purpose agent that takes a goal and works through it in its own browser. | When something happens in one app, Zapier does the next step in another. No code needed. |
| Pricing model | Open source | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | €20/mo | From $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 | n8n | Manus | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.5Winner | 3.7 | 4.2 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together. | 5.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 5.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | n8n | Manus | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | Yes | – |
| Desktop app | No | Yes | No |
| Browser extension | No | Yes | 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 | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | – |
| Makes images | No | Yes | No |
| Makes video | No | Yes | No |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | No | No | No |
| Works in many languages | – | Yes | – |
| Capabilities score | 10/ 17 | 15/ 17 | 9/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | n8n | Manus | Zapier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | Community Edition Free (self-hosted) Anyone comfortable running software on a server. | Free Free Quick questions and seeing what it can do. | Free Free Testing one or two simple automations. |
StarterOur pick €20/mo billed yearly A small business that wants n8n hosted for them. | ProOur pick From $20/mo, less with yearly billing Anyone who wants to hand off real research and build jobs. | ProfessionalOur pick From $19.99/mo billed yearly, or $29.99/mo One person running real automations for a business. | |
Pro €50/mo billed yearly Teams running several business-critical workflows. | Pro (higher tier) From $40/mo, less with yearly billing Heavier users and anyone publishing websites with it. | 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. | Team From $20/seat/mo Teams that want shared credits and admin controls. | Enterprise Custom Large companies with security and compliance needs. | |
Enterprise Custom Companies that need an SLA and dedicated support. | Enterprise Custom Large organisations. | ||
| Which plan to pick | 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. | Try the Free plan for a week to get a feel for how many credits a real task uses, then move to the $20 Pro tier. Only go higher if you run out most months or you want it to publish websites for you. | 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 | n8n | Manus | Zapier |
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Pros and cons
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | n8n | Manus | Zapier |
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How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability. The "Visit" buttons may use affiliate links, which never affect a score.
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