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Make is one of the two tools most people land on when they decide to automate something without writing code. It is cheaper than Zapier and friendlier than n8n, and it has a free plan that never expires — which makes it the obvious place to start. It also has one pricing quirk that catches almost everyone out. Here is what a month of using it actually costs, and who should choose something else.
The short version
Verdict: Make is the automation tool to start with if you have never automated anything. The free plan never expires, the visual builder hides the technical plumbing, and there are around 3,600 app integrations, so whatever you already use is probably supported. Paid plans start at $12/month.
The catch: Make charges per step, not per workflow. A five-step automation burns five credits every time it runs. If you build long workflows, or anything that fires every few minutes, the bill climbs fast — and that is the one thing to check before you commit.
Who it is for: beginners, non-technical users, and anyone with short workflows and a lot of different apps to connect.
Who should skip it: anyone running long workflows, anything on a tight schedule, or anyone who needs their data to stay on their own server.
What Make actually is
Make (formerly Integromat) is a no-code automation platform. You build a “scenario” on a visual canvas: a trigger on the left, then modules connected in sequence — read a row from a spreadsheet, send it to an AI model, post the result to Slack, save a copy to Drive. No code, no server, nothing to install.
It competes with Zapier and n8n, and its position between them is fairly clear: friendlier than n8n, cheaper than Zapier, and more capable than either at branching and data manipulation once you have learned it.
Pricing: read this part twice
Make bills in credits. One credit is one module run, so the unit you are buying is steps, not automations.
In January 2026 Make renamed its billing unit from “operations” to “credits.” The conversion was 1:1 and for ordinary app modules one operation still equals one credit, so older reviews remain broadly accurate. AI modules can cost more than one credit per run — some cost 2 or 10 — and Make’s own AI provider bills dynamically by tokens.
| Plan | Price (10,000 credits) | Active scenarios | Minimum interval | Data transfer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 (1,000 credits) | 2 | 15 minutes | 512 MB |
| Core | $12/mo | Unlimited | 1 minute | 5 GB |
| Pro | $21/mo | Unlimited | 1 minute | 5 GB |
| Teams | $38/mo | Unlimited | 1 minute | 5 GB |
| Enterprise | Custom | Unlimited | 1 minute | 5 GB |
Feature gates worth knowing: custom variables and high-priority execution start at Pro; teams, roles and SSO at Teams; custom functions are Enterprise-only. Maximum execution time is 5 minutes on Free and 40 minutes on every paid plan.
Prices checked on September 2, 2026 on make.com/pricing. Make’s page states “Save 15% or more” on annual billing but shows a single figure per tier rather than a monthly/annual split, so confirm the exact number at checkout. Its extra-credit bundle price is set per subscription and is not published.
The arithmetic that decides whether Make is cheap or expensive
The free plan gives you 1,000 credits a month, permanently. That sounds generous until you count steps:
- A 3-step workflow: about 330 runs a month on the free plan.
- A 5-step workflow: about 200 runs.
- A 10-step workflow: about 100 runs — roughly three a day.
Now scale it. One 3-step scenario running every 5 minutes needs roughly 25,900 credits a month. Core’s $12 buys 10,000, so you are already shopping several tiers up the volume slider.
This is the most common complaint in Make reviews on Capterra, phrased almost identically each time: it “charges per operation, it can become somewhat expensive.” That is not a bug, it is the pricing model. Make rewards short, infrequent workflows and punishes long or frequent ones.
Before you subscribe: count the steps in the automation you actually want, multiply by runs per month, and compare that number to the credit tier you are about to buy. Two minutes of arithmetic saves a surprise.
What it is like to use
The canvas is the reason people recommend Make to beginners. Modules are visual blocks you drag and connect, and each one shows you the data it received and the data it produced, which is how you actually learn what is happening. One reviewer describes it as “drag-and-drop… like piecing together a puzzle,” and that is accurate.
The parts that take longer to click:
- Iterators and aggregators — the modules for handling lists. Conceptually simple, unintuitive the first time.
- Error handling — the most-cited drawback on G2, tied with learning curve at 7 mentions each. Routes for failed steps exist, but you have to build them deliberately, and it is easy to ship a scenario that fails silently.
- Data mapping — fine for simple fields, fiddly for nested data.
Give it an evening for something simple and a weekend for something with branching. You do not need to know what an API is to get started, which is not true of n8n.
Integrations and templates
About 3,600 app integrations, roughly 1,500 more than n8n. For anything mainstream — Google Workspace, Slack, Notion, Airtable, Stripe, the major CRMs — coverage is a non-issue. The gap shows up with niche or regional apps, and that is exactly where Make’s breadth earns its keep: a native module instead of a hand-built HTTP request.
There are around 8,250 official templates, and they are the fastest way to learn. They are more polished and more beginner-oriented than n8n’s community library, even though n8n has more of them.
AI features
Make ships an official AI Agents product line, and there are modules for the major AI providers, so wiring an LLM into a workflow is a normal drag-and-drop job rather than a project.
Two things to keep in mind. AI modules can consume more than one credit per run, and Make’s own AI provider bills by tokens, so an AI-heavy scenario burns credits faster than the step count suggests. And custom functions are Enterprise-only, so if you need arbitrary code inside a workflow, Make is the wrong tool.
Support and reviews
Make offers tiered support with escalation on higher plans, plus an Academy and a community forum. That is meaningfully better than n8n’s entry plans, which get the community forum only.
| Source | Score | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| G2 | 4.6/5 | 334 |
| Capterra | 4.8/5 | 408 |
| Capterra ease of use | 4.3/5 | — |
Recurring complaints in those reviews: support responsiveness, the learning curve on complex scenarios, the per-operation cost at scale, and occasional integration instability.
There is also an official mobile app for iOS and Android — a small thing, but neither n8n nor most competitors have one.
What Make cannot do
Being clear about the limits is more useful than another feature list:
- No self-hosting. Your data passes through Make’s cloud. If that is a problem for what you are automating, it is a dealbreaker, and self-hosted n8n is the alternative.
- No arbitrary code outside Enterprise.
- No Git version control on individual plans.
- The free plan cannot run frequently. A 15-minute minimum interval rules out anything near real-time.
- Cost scales with workflow length, not with the value the workflow delivers.
Is Make worth paying for?
Stay on the free plan if you have one or two short scenarios running a few times a day. It genuinely does not expire, and there is no reason to pay.
Upgrade to Core ($12) when you hit either wall: you need a third active scenario, or you need runs more often than every 15 minutes. This is the tier most solo users land on and stay on.
Go to Pro ($21) if you need custom variables, or your scenarios are time-sensitive enough that high-priority execution matters.
Skip Make entirely if your workflows are long or high-frequency, or your data cannot leave your own infrastructure. Both cases point at n8n.
How to test it properly in one evening
- Sign up for the free plan. Make free plan → No card required, and it does not expire.
- Pick the one task you already do by hand every week. Not the ambitious one — the boring one.
- Find a template that resembles it and modify that, rather than starting from a blank canvas.
- Count the modules in your finished scenario. That is your credit cost per run.
- Multiply by how often it needs to run per month. Over 1,000 and you know your plan; over 10,000 and you should price the tier before committing.
- Deliberately break it — feed it bad data — and watch what happens. Build the error route now, not after it has failed quietly for a week.
Frequently asked questions
Is Make free?
Yes, permanently: 1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios, and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs. There is no time limit and no card required. The limits are real, but the plan is not a trial.
How is a Make credit different from an automation run?
A credit is one step. One run of a five-step scenario costs five credits. This is the most important thing to understand about Make’s pricing, and it is where most cost estimates go wrong.
Is Make cheaper than Zapier?
Generally yes, especially at volume, which is most of why people switch. Zapier does not run an affiliate program, so we have no commercial relationship with it either way — but if app coverage is your only concern, price it yourself before deciding.
Make or n8n?
Make if you are new to automation or your workflows are short. n8n if your workflows are long, run frequently, or need to stay on your own server — it charges per workflow run rather than per step, which makes it far cheaper at that shape of usage.
Do I need to know how to code?
No, and that is Make’s main advantage over n8n. Custom functions require an Enterprise plan, so if you find yourself wanting to write code, you have outgrown the tool rather than hit a skill gap.
How we reviewed this
We checked Make’s official pricing page, help centre and product documentation on September 2, 2026, and cross-referenced ratings and recurring complaints on G2 and Capterra. We have flagged in the text every figure Make does not publish openly, including the monthly-versus-annual split and the extra-credit bundle price.
Some links in this review are affiliate links: if you subscribe through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change what we write — this review tells you to stay on the free plan where the free plan is enough, and to choose a competitor where a competitor is better. See our Affiliate Disclosure.