Zapier is the default pick for most readers, because its app library is the widest here and its Professional entry plan starts at $19.99 per month billed annually, while Make is the budget pick and n8n is the pick for technical teams. The billing unit matters more than the headline price: Zapier counts tasks, Make counts credits, n8n counts whole workflow executions, and Power Automate counts licensed users. Make charges the same 10,000 credits a month on Core, Pro, and Teams, so a higher Make plan buys features such as priority execution, not more monthly capacity.
Pick by billing unit first, then by app coverage. A five-step Zapier workflow can burn four tasks per run, while the same logic on n8n counts as one execution. AI steps add another layer: several vendors charge more for model calls than for plain steps. Prices and limits in this article were checked on vendor pricing pages on 2026-11-12.
On this page
Best platforms for ai-powered workflows: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zapier | Solo builders and small teams starting with simple automations | $19.99 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 2 | Make | Visual builders who want low cost per run | $9 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 3 | n8n | Technical teams who want code control and self-hosting | $20 per month | Free trial (14 days) | Visit |
| 4 | Microsoft Power Automate | Microsoft 365 teams automating Office and Teams work | $15 per user/month | Yes | Visit |
| 5 | UiPath | Large firms automating desktop and back-office work | $25 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 6 | Workato | IT teams connecting enterprise apps at scale | $75 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 7 | IFTTT | Home users and solo builders linking consumer apps | $2.99 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 8 | Activepieces | Small teams who want open-source automation on a budget | $20 per month | Yes | Visit |
The 8 best best platforms for ai-powered workflows, in detail
Zapier
Best for: Solo builders and small teams starting with simple automations
Zapier Professional starts at $19.99 per month billed annually, or $29.99 billed monthly, for 750 tasks a month. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only, and 400 Agent activities a month. Team starts at $69 per month billed annually for 2,000 tasks and up to 25 users, with tiers running up to 2,000,000 tasks a month.
- Zapier counts one task for each action step that completes, while triggers and built-in tools such as Filter, Formatter, and Paths do not count.
- A Zap with five actions burns about four tasks per run.
- AI steps cost 1x, 3x, or 5x tasks by model tier, and Premium is the default for new AI steps on entry plans.
- Choose Zapier when app coverage matters most and your monthly task count is modest.
Pros
- Widest app library in this list
- AI steps, Agents, and MCP tool calls built in
- no-code builder suits non-technical users
Cons
- Free plan allows 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only
- AI steps cost 1x, 3x, or 5x tasks by model tier
Make
Best for: Visual builders who want low cost per run
Make Core costs $9 per month billed annually, or $10.59 billed monthly, for 10,000 credits a month. Pro costs $16 per month billed annually for the same 10,000 credits, and Teams costs $29 per month billed annually for the same 10,000 credits. The free plan gives 1,000 credits a month and two active scenarios.
- Entry plans include unlimited active scenarios and a one-minute minimum interval.
- Make meters credits, and most module actions consume one credit, while routers and error handlers are free.
- Moving from Core to Pro buys priority execution, custom variables, and full-text log search, not extra credits, so heavy users must buy larger credit
- Choose Make when you want a visual builder with a low entry price.
Pros
- Core starts at $9 per month billed annually for 10,000 credits
- visual builder shows data flow clearly
- unlimited active scenarios on entry plans
Cons
- Core, Pro, and Teams all include the same 10,000 credits, so volume does not rise with the plan
- annual credits on Pro and Teams expire at year end
n8n
Best for: Technical teams who want code control and self-hosting
n8n Cloud Starter costs $20 per month billed annually, or $24 billed monthly, for 2,500 executions a month. Pro costs $50 per month billed annually for 10,000 executions, with a 50,000-execution option at $120 per month billed annually. Business, a self-hosted license, costs $800 per month billed annually for 40,000 executions.
- Every Cloud plan includes unlimited users and workflows.
- An execution is one production run of a workflow, from trigger to finish, no matter how many nodes, branches, loops, or AI steps it contains.
- That rule makes n8n the cheapest option here for long workflows that run often.
- Starter includes 5 concurrent executions, 1 shared project, and 2,300 AI credits a month, while Pro raises those limits to 20 concurrent executions an
Pros
- One execution covers a whole workflow run no matter how many nodes it has
- self-hosted Community Edition is free
- unlimited users and workflows on Cloud plans
Cons
- No free Cloud plan, only a 14-day trial
- Starter allows 5 concurrent executions and 1 day of workflow history
Microsoft Power Automate
Best for: Microsoft 365 teams automating Office and Teams work
Power Automate Premium costs $15 per user per month billed annually. Process costs $150 per bot per month, and Hosted Process costs $215 per bot per month. Microsoft 365 business plans include limited rights for cloud flows with standard connectors, capped at 6,000 requests per user per day.
- Premium raises that cap to 40,000 requests per user per day and adds premium connectors and attended desktop flows.
- The bill follows headcount and bot count rather than run volume, which suits a Microsoft shop where every user already has a license.
- The trade-off is complexity: per-user, per-bot, and hosted-process licenses interact in ways that confuse buyers, and unattended bots at $150 each add
- AI Builder credits that once came with Premium and Process licenses are being removed from 1 November 2026, with AI features drawing on Copilot Credit
Pros
- Premium includes premium connectors, attended desktop automation, and 40,000 requests per user per day
- standard flows are included in many Microsoft 365 plans
Cons
- Premium connectors and desktop flows sit behind the Premium license
- unattended automation needs the Process license at $150 per bot per month
UiPath
Best for: Large firms automating desktop and back-office work
UiPath Automation Cloud Basic starts at $25 per month. Standard and Enterprise are quote only, with no dollar figure on the pricing page. The Community plan is free, with one Pro user, one Plus user, one unattended robot, and a monthly credits pool.
- A 60-day trial includes 5 attended, 5 unattended, and 5 test robots, plus Studio and AI Center.
- UiPath sells licenses for Studio, Orchestrator access, robots, and AI consumption separately, so the $25 Basic figure covers tier access only and not
- Basic covers personal automations at limited scale, with 99.9 percent uptime and Bronze support, and it is hosted in the European region, which matter
- Choose UiPath when you need desktop robots, document processing, and governed agent work in one platform.
Pros
- Community plan is free with attended and unattended robots for learning and small use
- Automation Cloud bundles Orchestrator
- agents and robots run under one platform
Cons
- Basic starts at $25 per month but is hosted in the European region only and has limited agentic capability
- Standard and Enterprise have no published price
Workato
Best for: IT teams connecting enterprise apps at scale
Workato Pro costs $75 per month for 2,500 credits, $100 for 3,500 credits, $275 for 10,000 credits, $780 for 30,000 credits, and $1,275 for 50,000 credits, billed monthly by card. The free plan gives a one-time grant of 50,000 credits, not a monthly allowance, and unused Pro credits expire at month end. The four enterprise editions, Standard, Business MCP, Enterprise MCP, and Workato ONE, are quote only.
- Workato calls its workflows recipes, and one shared credit balance covers recipe steps, API requests, agent prompts, and document processing.
- The conversion rate is unpublished, so the real price per task only becomes clear in a quote or after running real recipes.
- Standard keeps job history for 30 days, while only Enterprise keeps 90 days and lets you adjust retention.
- Choose Workato when IT needs governance and a broad enterprise connector set.
Pros
- Self-service Pro starts at $75 per month for 2,500 credits
- free plan gives a one-time grant of 50,000 credits
- enterprise editions add SSO, audit history, and multi-region hosting
Cons
- Enterprise editions have no published price
- Workato does not publish how many credits each recipe step, API request, or agent prompt consumes
IFTTT
Best for: Home users and solo builders linking consumer apps
IFTTT Starter costs $2.99 per month billed monthly, or $2.09 per month billed annually, for 5,000 credits a month. Pro costs $7.99 per month billed monthly for 20,000 credits a month. Pro+ costs $19.99 per month billed monthly for 100,000 credits a month.
- The free plan gives 1,000 credits a month and unlimited Applets, with trigger checks every hour.
- IFTTT moved to credit billing on 28 October 2026, when it also added an AI Agent service.
- Every plan now gets the same Applet features, and plans differ by monthly credits, trigger-check speed, and support.
- Each trigger firing and each successful action, query, or filter uses credits, while failed or skipped steps use none, and unused credits do not roll
Pros
- Free plan includes 1,000 credits a month with unlimited Applets and every Applet feature
- Starter starts at $2.99 per month for 5,000 credits
Cons
- Pro+ at $19.99 per month still checks triggers every 5 minutes and adds no branching logic
- no team accounts on any plan
Activepieces
Best for: Small teams who want open-source automation on a budget
Activepieces Plus costs $20 per month for 10,000 credits, and Team costs $200 per month for 50,000 credits. The free cloud plan gives 1,000 credits a month, unlimited flows, and up to 5 users. Ultimate is custom quoted.
- The self-hosted Community Edition is free under an MIT license, with unlimited tasks, flows, and users, though single sign-on and audit logs live on t
- A credit covers a full flow run regardless of how many steps are inside it, so a workflow with ten steps costs the same single credit as one with two
- AI actions cost 2 to 20 credits by model tier, though bringing your own API key drops every AI step to a single credit.
- Choose Activepieces for open-source automation with a low flat cloud price and full control over AI costs.
Pros
- Plus costs $20 per month for 10,000 credits and allows bring-your-own AI keys
- self-hosted Community Edition is free with no cap on runs, users, or flows
Cons
- AI steps cost 2 to 20 credits by model tier unless you bring your own key
- single sign-on and audit logs sit on the higher Team and Ultimate tiers
How we chose
We chose platforms with a live product, an official pricing page, and a real AI or automation workflow builder, then ranked them by fit for common buyers. Prices and plan limits come from official vendor pricing pages and docs opened on 2026-11-12, and the Sources section lists one pricing URL per platform. We did not test any tool hands-on. Where a vendor hid the price, we wrote quote only. We did not use customer counts, awards, or review scores to rank items.
Pick by monthly volume and budget
| Monthly volume | Best fit | Entry cost | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 1,000 runs | IFTTT Free or Zapier Free | $0 | 1,000 IFTTT credits or 100 Zapier tasks cover light use |
| 2,500 to 10,000 runs | Make Core or n8n Starter | $9 to $20 per month | Make gives 10,000 credits for $9; n8n gives 2,500 executions for $20 |
| 10,000 to 50,000 runs | n8n Pro or Make with a larger credit pack | $50 per month and up | n8n counts whole runs, so long workflows stay cheap |
| Microsoft shop, any volume | Power Automate Premium | $15 per user/month | Per-user billing suits steady daily use inside Microsoft 365 |
| Enterprise, governed use | UiPath or Workato | $25 per month and up, then quote only | Desktop robots, audit history, and single sign-on sit here |
Frequently asked questions
How much do AI workflow platforms cost per month?
Entry prices run from $2.99 per month for IFTTT Starter to $75 per month for Workato Pro, with Zapier at $19.99, Make at $9, n8n at $20, Power Automate at $15 per user, UiPath at $25, and Activepieces at $20, all billed annually unless stated otherwise. Free plans cover light use, from 100 Zapier tasks to 1,000 Make credits a month.
Which is best for a small team on a budget?
Make Core is the budget pick at $9 per month billed annually for 10,000 credits, with a visual builder and unlimited active scenarios. Activepieces Plus is the next best value at $20 per month for 10,000 credits, with bring-your-own AI keys. Pick Make for the lowest entry price.
Which is best for technical teams who write code?
n8n is the best pick for technical teams, because it allows code steps, custom nodes, and self-hosting, and it bills one execution per whole workflow run. Starter costs $20 per month billed annually for 2,500 executions, and the self-hosted Community Edition is free.
Which is best for a Microsoft 365 team?
Power Automate Premium is the best pick for a Microsoft 365 team, at $15 per user per month billed annually, because standard flows are already included in many Microsoft 365 plans and Premium adds premium connectors and attended desktop automation.
Do I need a subscription plan to try these platforms?
No. Zapier, Make, Power Automate, UiPath, Workato, IFTTT, and Activepieces all offer a free plan, and n8n offers a 14-day free trial on Cloud plus a free self-hosted Community Edition. Start on the free tier, count your monthly runs for two weeks, then pick the entry plan that covers that volume.
Why does the same workflow cost different amounts on different platforms?
Zapier counts each completed action step as a task, Make counts module actions as credits, n8n counts one whole workflow run as one execution, and Power Automate counts licensed users. A long workflow with many steps is cheapest on n8n or Activepieces, while a short workflow can be cheapest on Zapier or Make.
Sources
- https://zapier.com/
- https://zapier.com/pricing
- https://www.make.com/
- https://www.make.com/en/pricing
- https://n8n.io/
- https://n8n.io/pricing
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-automate/
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-automate/pricing
- https://www.uipath.com/
- https://www.uipath.com/pricing
- https://www.workato.com/
- https://www.workato.com/pricing
- https://ifttt.com/
- https://ifttt.com/plans
- https://www.activepieces.com/
- https://www.activepieces.com/pricing
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.