Power Automate vs n8n vs Zapier: which automation tool fits

Power Automate vs n8n vs Zapier comes down to three things: where the automation runs, what it needs to reach, and who has to govern it. Power Automate lives inside Microsoft 365 and Power Platform, is governed by the same admins and data policies, and is the only one of the three with desktop automation (RPA) of its own. n8n is the one you can run on your own servers. Zapier is fully hosted and lists the most app integrations. All three now have AI agent features.

Who each one is for

Hosting: SaaS or your own servers

Power Automate is a Microsoft cloud service. Cloud flows run in Microsoft's cloud, and Microsoft documents no self-hosted version. Two parts reach into your own network: desktop flows run on Windows machines you register, and the on-premises data gateway lets cloud flows read and write data held on your own servers.

n8n offers both. n8n Cloud is fully managed. Self-hosting runs n8n on your own infrastructure, on-premises or in a private cloud, with Docker or Docker Compose (n8n has deprecated the npm install from version 3.0). n8n's own guidance is plain about the trade: self-hosting needs technical expertise for installation, configuration and maintenance, and is its recommended route when you need full control. Of the paid plans, Business is self-hosted only; Enterprise is either.

Zapier is cloud-only. Its own n8n comparison describes it as fully managed cloud infrastructure, and says it can't replace n8n where an automation must run self-hosted, air-gapped or on-premises.

Connectors and integrations

The raw count matters less than whether the services you use have the triggers and actions you need. For a Microsoft 365 organisation, Power Automate's depth on SharePoint, Teams, Outlook and Dataverse is the deciding factor more often than the long tail of SaaS apps. For a team living in non-Microsoft SaaS tools, Zapier's catalogue is the widest.

Pricing models (October 2026)

The three count usage in completely different ways, so compare a real workload, not the headline price.

Power Automate

From Microsoft's pricing page, in US dollars, paid yearly:

Many Microsoft 365 licences already include cloud flows with standard connectors, so a lot of automation costs nothing extra. Usage is counted in Power Platform requests: the trigger and every action count, retries and loop iterations included, against a daily limit (6,000 on Microsoft 365 licences, 40,000 on Premium, 250,000 per Process licence). What each licence covers, and whose licence a run uses, is in Power Automate licensing explained.

n8n

From n8n's pricing page, which showed prices in euros, billed annually (n8n says annual billing saves 17%):

Every plan includes unlimited users, unlimited workflows and every integration. An execution is one run of a whole workflow, whatever its number of steps. SSO, environments and Git version control start at Business.

Zapier

From Zapier's pricing page, in US dollars:

Zapier says paying yearly saves 33%, and the price rises with the task tier you pick. A task is each successful action; triggers don't count, and neither do built-in tools such as Filter, Formatter and Paths. Each Zapier MCP tool call uses two tasks. When you reach your limit, pay-per-task billing (if turned on) keeps Zaps running at a higher per-task rate. Zapier Agents is a separate add-on, with 400 activities a month free and a Pro tier at $33.33 a month billed annually.

The same workload, three ways

Take a workflow with one trigger and five actions that runs 1,000 times a month:

Add a loop over ten items and the gap widens: Microsoft counts each action inside a loop once per item, while n8n still counts one execution per run. Check Zapier's rates page for how its looping steps count.

Governance and security in a Microsoft 365 organisation

This is where the three differ most for a company already on Microsoft 365.

Power Automate runs inside your tenant. People sign in with their Microsoft Entra ID work accounts, flows sit in Power Platform environments, and admins govern them from the Power Platform admin center. Data policies decide which connectors can be used, and which can be combined in one flow: a connector in the Business group can't be mixed with one in Non-Business, and Blocked connectors can't be used at all. Policies apply to a tenant or an environment, never to a single user, and cover desktop flow actions too. Our data policy checklist walks through designing them.

n8n and Zapier sit outside those controls. Power Platform data policies don't reach them, so governance moves to two other places:

• Microsoft Entra ID consent. When someone connects n8n or Zapier to their Microsoft 365 account, the app asks for permission to their data. Admins decide whether users may grant that themselves in the Microsoft Entra admin center under Identity > Applications > Enterprise apps > Consent and permissions > User consent settings; Microsoft recommends allowing user consent only for apps from verified publishers.
• The tool's own admin features. Zapier offers SAML single sign-on from Team, and on Enterprise adds user provisioning (SCIM; Microsoft Learn has a tutorial for provisioning Zapier users from Entra ID), app access controls, action restrictions and domain restrictions. Its pricing page notes that Zapier Agents doesn't yet support Enterprise app and action restrictions. n8n supports SAML or OIDC single sign-on on self-hosted Business and Enterprise and on n8n Cloud Enterprise, plus external secret stores and log streaming on Enterprise.

Desktop automation (RPA)

Power Automate has it built in. Desktop flows click, type and read the screen in Windows applications, web pages and terminal emulators, with more than 400 prebuilt actions and a recorder. Attended runs come with Premium; unattended runs need a Process licence. Our guide to cloud, agent and desktop flows explains when to use one.

n8n documents no desktop or UI automation of its own. The nearest thing is the Execute Command node, which runs shell commands on the machine hosting n8n; it's self-hosted only and disabled by default from n8n 2.0.

Zapier documents no desktop automation either. Its agents can browse the web and work through a Chrome extension, which isn't the same as driving desktop applications.

Where UiPath fits

If RPA is the main job rather than a side need, the usual comparison is with UiPath, which lists RPA and agentic AI among its platform's capabilities and describes the platform as governed agentic automation. Compare it with Power Automate's desktop flows on the applications you need to drive, not on feature lists.

AI and agents

If your agents live in Microsoft 365 and Copilot Studio, Power Automate and agent flows keep everything in one governed place. If you're building agents around other models and tools, n8n and Zapier both connect to MCP clients.

How to choose

• You're a Microsoft 365 organisation and the automation touches SharePoint, Teams, Outlook or Dataverse: Power Automate. It's often already licensed, and it's governed by the admins and policies you have. For heavy, IT-owned integration, compare cloud flows with Azure Logic Apps too.
• You need to drive desktop applications: Power Automate desktop flows, or a dedicated RPA platform such as UiPath.
• Data must stay on your servers, or you want to self-host for control: n8n, checking its licence terms.
• Your work lives in many non-Microsoft SaaS apps and you want nothing to run yourself: Zapier, or n8n Cloud if your workflows have many steps per run.

Mixed estates are common: Power Automate for anything touching Microsoft 365 data, with another tool sanctioned for a team's own SaaS stack. Whatever you choose, write down which tool owns which kind of automation.

Sources

• What is Power Automate? — Microsoft Learn
• Power Automate pricing — Microsoft
• Types of Power Automate licenses — Microsoft Learn
• Power Automate licensing FAQ: what counts as an action — Microsoft Learn
• Custom connectors overview: connector count — Microsoft Learn
• Power Automate migration to Azure Logic Apps (Standard): connector count — Microsoft Learn
• Implement a data policy strategy — Microsoft Learn
• Connector classification — Microsoft Learn
• Configure how users consent to applications — Microsoft Learn
• Configure Zapier for automatic user provisioning with Microsoft Entra ID — Microsoft Learn
• Introduction to desktop flows — Microsoft Learn
• Use generative actions in cloud flows (preview) — Microsoft Learn
• Agent flows overview — Microsoft Learn
• n8n pricing — n8n
• Choose how to use n8n — n8n Docs
• Configure SSO — n8n Docs
• Execute Command node — n8n Docs
• Build and manage agents — n8n Docs
• n8n integrations — n8n
• Sustainable Use License (LICENSE.md) — n8n on GitHub
• Zapier plans and pricing — Zapier
• n8n vs Zapier (16 September 2026) — Zapier
• UiPath platform — UiPath