What automation costs over three years.
Automation is sold by the month and paid for by the year. This guide does the arithmetic properly: Zapier against self-hosted n8n at three real volumes, over thirty-six months, with the server costs and the build cost both in the total rather than left out of it.
Every price was checked against the providers' own pages on 1 September 2026. Where the numbers argue against paying us to build anything, the guide says so — there is a volume below which they do.
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Four things, all shown working.
The three-year table
Zapier against self-hosted n8n at 1,000, 10,000 and 50,000 tasks a month, over 36 months, with every figure shown rather than summarised.
What the server actually costs
Which size of box each volume needs and what it is priced at today — plus the running costs a spreadsheet comparison usually leaves out.
The break-even point
The volume at which paying someone to build it stops being a gamble, worked from the published build price rather than asserted.
When the answer is still Zapier
Three situations where the cheaper column is the wrong one to pick, including the one that decides it on its own.
The shorter version, with no email asked for, is the n8n vs Zapier article. The guide is where the three-year table and the break-even arithmetic live.