{
  "reviewed": "2026-08-28",
  "method": "Documentation-based planning model, not an account benchmark or a bill quote.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "make-operations",
      "name": "Make: operations and bundles",
      "url": "https://help.make.com/operations"
    },
    {
      "id": "make-credits",
      "name": "Make: fixed and dynamic credits",
      "url": "https://help.make.com/credits"
    },
    {
      "id": "n8n-pricing",
      "name": "n8n: execution-based pricing and FAQ",
      "url": "https://n8n.io/pricing/"
    },
    {
      "id": "n8n-hosting",
      "name": "n8n: self-hosting options",
      "url": "https://docs.n8n.io/deploy/host-n8n"
    },
    {
      "id": "n8n-community",
      "name": "n8n: Community and paid editions",
      "url": "https://docs.n8n.io/deploy/host-n8n/community-edition-features"
    },
    {
      "id": "n8n-license",
      "name": "n8n: Sustainable Use License FAQ",
      "url": "https://docs.n8n.io/privacy-and-security/sustainable-use-license"
    }
  ],
  "rows": [
    {
      "question": "What is the main counting unit?",
      "make": "Credits. Standard non-AI modules usually consume one credit per operation; an operation is one module run.",
      "n8n": "Paid plans count production workflow executions, rather than each step within the workflow.",
      "sources": [
        "make-credits",
        "make-operations",
        "n8n-pricing"
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "What happens when a trigger returns ten records?",
      "make": "One trigger operation, then one operation for each record processed by each downstream action in the simple linear model below.",
      "n8n": "Items handled inside one workflow run do not each become a separate execution. Starting separate workflows changes this assumption.",
      "sources": [
        "make-operations",
        "n8n-pricing"
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Does a credit cover every AI expense?",
      "make": "No. AI connection type can introduce token-based or other charges. Your own provider connection can also have a separate provider bill.",
      "n8n": "Execution allowance is not a promise of included third-party model tokens. Budget provider usage separately from the workflow count.",
      "sources": [
        "make-credits",
        "n8n-pricing"
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Who operates a self-hosted n8n instance?",
      "make": "This review does not establish a self-hosted Make equivalent. Confirm hosting and data-handling requirements directly with Make.",
      "n8n": "n8n documents deployment on your own infrastructure. Assign infrastructure, backup, update and incident ownership before choosing that route.",
      "sources": [
        "n8n-hosting"
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Does free Community include team governance?",
      "make": "Plan-specific access controls need a separate requirements check; no feature-parity claim is made here.",
      "n8n": "Community excludes, among other features, SSO, projects, workflow/credential sharing and Git version control. Some paid editions provide them; check the exact plan.",
      "sources": [
        "n8n-community"
      ]
    },
    {
      "question": "Is source-available the same as unrestricted open source?",
      "make": "Not assessed as an open-source deployment option in this review.",
      "n8n": "No. n8n describes its license as fair-code and source-available, not OSI open source. Selling hosted access or embedding customer credentials needs a license review.",
      "sources": [
        "n8n-license"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "faqs": [
    [
      "Are Make credits and n8n executions equivalent?",
      "No. A Make credit is a billing unit attached to operations or other usage. An n8n execution covers a workflow run. Equal allowance numbers therefore do not describe equal workloads."
    ],
    [
      "Is n8n always cheaper for a long workflow?",
      "The unit counts alone cannot establish that. Compare the applicable plans, currency, billing period, provider charges, infrastructure and operating effort for the same workload."
    ],
    [
      "Does this calculator include AI agents, retries or subworkflows?",
      "No. It models one trigger and a fixed number of ordinary non-AI actions per returned item, all within one production workflow. Branches, aggregation, retries, separate workflows and AI charges are excluded."
    ],
    [
      "Were these numbers measured in Make and n8n accounts?",
      "No. They are calculated examples based on the linked vendor documentation. The verification worksheet records the evidence needed to compare the model with your own execution history."
    ]
  ]
}