Which Automation tool is best for you?

In the world of automation, there’s no shortage of tools to streamline your workflows, save time, and increase efficiency. But how do you choose the right one for your needs or for your clients?

In this guide, we compareZapier, Make.com, n8n, and FlowiseAI across:

Table of Contents

1. 📊 Feature Comparison

2. 💰 Pricing and what “free” really includes

3. 🔐 Can You Use These Tools for Clients?

4. 🚀 Beginner to Advanced: Which Automation Tool to …

📊 Feature Comparison

💰 Pricing and what “free” really includes

⚡ Zapier

• Free Plan: 100 tasks/month

• Paid Plans:

  • Pro: $19.99/month – multi-step, filters, paths

  • Teams: $69/month – shared workspaces, SSO

  • Enterprise: Contact for pricing

• License: Private licence

  • ☠️ can’t buy a plan and sell Zap (workflow) as a service

  • ✅ Clients have to pay for plan, and you can charge money as an independent contractor or employee

  • ✅ Buy an enterprise licence if you want to provide software as a service

🧠 Make.com

• Free Plan: 1,000 operations/month, 15-min interval

• Paid Plans:

  • Core: $9/month – Unlimited active scenarios

  • Pro: $16/month – execution priority, custom variables

  • Teams: $29/month – collaboration tools

• ☠️ unlimited internal users but not external users, so you can’t sell as a service

• ✅ The client owns their Make.com account

• ✅ You can manage one organization per client and share the workflows

• ✅ Buy an enterprise licence if you want to provide software as a service

🔓 n8n

• Free: Self-hosted core is fully free

• Cloud Pricing: Starts at ~$20/month

• Enterprise: Adds SSO, audit logs, High Availability

• License: Sustainable Use License (Fair-code)

  • ☠️ can not host it for clients and charge money

  • ✅ Clients have to pay for hosting, and you can charge money as an independent contractor

  • ✅ Buy an enterprise licence if you want to provide software as a service

🤖 FlowiseAI

• Free Plan: 2 flows, 100 predictions/month

• Paid Plans:

  • Starter: $35/month – unlimited flows, 10k predictions

  • Pro: $65/month – multi-user, auth, team access

• License: Core is Apache 2.0; commercial license needed for white-label SaaS resale

  • ✅ Use for client builds

  • ☠️ Can’t resell hosted version white-labelled without a license

🔐 Can You Use These Tools for Clients?

Zapier & Make.com

• You can legally use these platforms to build workflows for clients, and they can either:

  • Use their own accounts, where you’re granted access as a collaborator or admin.

  • Or, you manage everything under your own account (e.g., agency-style service); depending on the service, you might need Teams or Enterprise plans.

⚠️ Responsibility:

• If you operate under your own Zapier/Make account, you are liable for:

  • Downtime, task overages, or breaches (e.g., if client data is lost).

  • Any legal, GDPR, or contract-related issues depending on your client agreements.

⚠️ Considerations:

• If you're handling sensitive data, clients may require:

  • SSO, audit logs, or admin controls → available only in Zapier's Teams or Enterprise plans.

n8n (Fair-Code License)

• You can:

  • Self-host n8n for a client.

  • Charge for setup, maintenance, and workflow development.

• ☠️ But you cannot offer it as a SaaS product – i.e., hosting n8n and offering it to multiple clients as a commercial automation platform (like Zapier).

• ✅ One self-hosted deployment per client is fine.

  • The client must pay for self-hosting; you can’t provide self-hosting as a service.

• ☠️ You cannot white-label or resell a hosted version of n8n to the public without a commercial licence.

FlowiseAI (Apache 2.0 Core)

• You may:

  • Self-host FlowiseAI for a client.

  • Build and manage AI agents for them.

• You may not:

  • ☠️ Sell a white-labelled version of Flowise as your own product/SaaS.

  • 💀 Offer Flowise as a managed multi-tenant AI SaaS without purchasing a commercial license.

• ✅ Client can pay for hosting (e.g., on Render, EC2, Railway, etc.) while you bill for engineering time.

🚀 Beginner to Advanced: Which Automation Tool to Use?

👶 Beginner (Non-technical, solo founders, admin staff)

Tool: Zapier

• Why:

  • No coding or hosting needed

  • App integrations are simple to set up

  • Use templates like “If Gmail → Add to Sheet”

• Limitations:

  • Multi-step flows and filters require paid plan

  • Custom APIs, Webhooks and logic branching are limited

🧠 Intermediate (Freelancers, marketers, productivity nerds)

• Tool: Make.com

• Why:

  • Flowchart UI makes complex logic visual

  • Affordable pricing at higher usage volumes

  • Can handle routers, variables, JSON, and APIs

• Learning Curve: Medium — easier than coding, but deeper than Zapier

🧩 Power User / Developer (API-heavy, in-house automations)

• Tool: n8n

• Why:

  • Full control over API calls, authentication, scheduling

  • Run logic-heavy flows with JS functions

  • Self-hosted option for privacy & compliance

• Bonus: GitHub integrations, Docker deployments, queues, version control

🤖 Advanced + AI Workflows (LLM agents, RAG, GPT Apps)

• Tools: FlowiseAI or n8n

• Why:

  • FlowiseAI lets you build ChatGPT-like agents, Q&A over docs, etc.

  • Use n8n to automate file ingestion, API coordination, flow orchestration and custom agents

  • Self-host both for privacy + scalability

💬 Conclusion

Each tool shines in its own lane:

• 🧠 Zapier = Simple, no-code automations

• 🎛 Make.com = Flexible, logic-rich workflows

• 🧩 n8n = Developer-first, API-heavy automations

• 🤖 FlowiseAI = AI-native tool for building GPT agents & RAG pipelines

Choosing the right platform depends on your technical ability, client needs, and whether you want AI in the loop.