Last checked October 15, 2026
Best Free Alternatives to Zapier (2026)
Zapier connects thousands of SaaS apps with a visual builder. The headline plan price is rarely the bill, because multi-step Zaps consume tasks quickly.
What Zapier costs
A 2026 pricing write-up puts Professional at $19.99/month billed annually, or $29.99 monthly, for 750 tasks. Confirm the current task tiers on Zapier's site.
The free plan is commonly described as 100 tasks a month. Those figures are unverified against Zapier's live pricing page in this check. Team and Enterprise sit above Professional.
Ranked by Drop-in score
How we rank#1 is the highest-scoring alternative that is not sponsored. A featured listing, when one is sold, is labeled and sits after #1.
- 91#1Source-available
n8n
A source-available workflow tool with a large integration list.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · Sustainable Use License
WebSelf-host - 82#2Open source
Activepieces
A MIT-licensed automation core with commercial enterprise features.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · MIT (core); commercial license for enterprise packages
WebSelf-host - 74#3Open source
Node-RED
A flow-based wiring tool for developers, Apache-2.0.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · Apache-2.0
MacWindowsLinuxWebSelf-host - 71#4Open source
Huginn
Self-hosted agents that watch the web and act on events.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · MIT
WebSelf-host
Feature by feature
Full is the whole job. Partial is a real version with a gap. Missing means it does not do this. Not checked counts as zero in the score.
| Feature | n8n#1 · 91 | Activepieces#2 · 82 | Node-RED#3 · 74 | Huginn#4 · 71 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breadth of ready-made app connectorsWeight 10 | PartialHundreds of integrations, far fewer than Zapier. | PartialA growing catalog that is still much smaller than Zapier's. | PartialNodes exist for many systems. You assemble them. There is no Zapier-style app store of maintained SaaS connectors. | Partial |
| Triggers and multi-step actionsWeight 10 | Full | Full | Partial | Partial |
| Visual builderWeight 7 | Full | Full | Full | PartialAgents are composed in a web UI that is nothing like Zapier's. |
| Self-hostingWeight 8 | Full | Full | Full | Full |
| Code stepsWeight 5 | Full | Partial | Full | Full |
| SchedulesWeight 4 | Full | Full | Partial | Full |
| Retries and error handlingWeight 5 | Full | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| WebhooksWeight 6 | Full | Full | Full | Full |
Real cost
n8n
- Free tier
- The Community Edition is free to self-host for your own workflows.
- Hosted plan
- Cloud plans are priced by monthly executions. The Starter figure did not render completely in this check, so no price is shown. Unverified.
- Self-hosting
- Moderate. Docker Compose is the documented path. Queue mode and workers are optional once volume grows. Approximate server cost: $8–20/mo. Unverified estimate.
Activepieces
- Free tier
- Cloud Free includes 1,000 credits a month, unlimited flows, and up to 5 users. Credits on the free plan reset daily.
- Hosted plan
- Plus is $20/month and Team is $200/month, billed monthly, with larger credit pools.
- Self-hosting
- Moderate. Docker Compose is documented. The MIT core does not include every enterprise control. Approximate server cost: $8–20/mo. Unverified estimate.
Node-RED
- Free tier
- The software is free.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Easy. A Node.js process. People run it on a small VPS, a NAS, or a Raspberry Pi. Approximate server cost: $0–8/mo. Unverified estimate.
Huginn
- Free tier
- Free to self-host.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Hard. A Rails app with background workers. Expect to operate it, not click through a setup wizard.
Top pair
Rebuild Zapier workflows in n8n
There is no Zap import. You rebuild each workflow, reconnect accounts, and decide whether n8n's Sustainable Use License fits how you want to run it.
Read the migration guide