Tasks, credits, executions: what your automations really cost per month (and the VPS renewal trap)

Description and use

For 5,000 runs/month with 5 steps each, Zapier costs ~$433.50, n8n Cloud $60, and self‑hosted n8n can be as low as $3.70. VPS renewal prices can double, making self‑hosting often cheaper.

Problem

Determining the true monthly cost of automation workflows across different platforms and VPS providers.

Outcome

For 5,000 runs/month with 5 steps each, Zapier costs ~$433.50/month, n8n Cloud $60/month, and self‑hosted n8n can be as low as $3.70/month. VPS renewal prices can be 85–100% higher than intro rates, making self‑hosting often cheaper.

Workflow

• Collect current prices for Zapier, Make, n8n Cloud, and VPS providers
• Build a calculator to compute monthly cost based on runs and steps
• Compare costs for 5,000 runs/month with 5 steps each
• Highlight VPS renewal price differences
• Provide guidance on when n8n Cloud is cost‑effective
• Publish calculator at https://selfhostcost.dev

Evidence

Zapier bills tasks. Each successful action step is one task. Triggers and built‑in tools like Filter, Formatter and Paths don’t count. A 5‑step Zap that runs once uses 5 tasks.

Source

Make bills credits. Roughly one credit per module action, and polling triggers spend a credit on every check, even when nothing is new.

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n8n Cloud bills executions. One execution is one full workflow run, however many steps it has.

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For this workload, Zapier costs roughly 7× as much as n8n Cloud on monthly billing ($433.50 vs $60). Self‑hosting is an order of magnitude cheaper again, if you’re willing to run it.

Source

The intro price means paying the term upfront: $155.76 for KVM 1 or $215.76 for KVM 2. That isn’t necessarily a bad deal. But if you compare hosts on the first‑month price, you’re comparing the wrong numbers. Compare year‑2 cost.

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