Which AI Automation Tool Is Right for Your Small Business?

Small business owners now must choose between a limited selection of an automation platform. The space is dominated by three vendors: n8n.io, Make.com and Zapier.com.

These three automation applications promise to connect the dots across all your operations and workflows. But will they do so in the manner you require for your business?

This post assesses the key distinctions that matter most - price, usability, and scalability - to assess which one is worth your investment of time and finances.

The Automation Experience

Small businesses have transformed because of AI automation. Small tasks that once took hours now take minutes.

Your email marketing integrates automatically with your client database. Your CRM registers new leads from your website as soon as they fill out their information. You can automatically create invoices without ever opening your Quickbooks book.

The proper automation application can save you 10-15 hours weekly, time that could better be spent scaling your business instead of resolving menial tasks.

The two most critical considerations when choosing are: Make.com has a starting price of $12 CAD/month for 1,000 operations. Their second tier of $22 CAD gives you 10,000 operations. The price goes up to $39 CAD for 40,000 operations.

n8n.io has a self-hosted version that's free. Their cloud service is $27 CAD/month for 2,500 executions. Their next tier is $68 CAD for 12,500 executions.

What is a "task" or "execution"?

Every single thing you do in your workflow. Sending one email is one task. Adding one contact to your CRM is another. A simple lead capture workflow could require 3-5 tasks every time someone submits.

Check your usage to understand how much you need per month. A restaurant doing 50 online orders per day needs about 4,500 tasks per month for Zapier n8n. You'd have to choose either Zapier's $66 CAD option or Make's $22 CAD option.

Ease of Use: Get Going Quickly

Zapier.com wins for beginners. The interface is like puzzle pieces coming together. You choose a trigger (a new email)—which leads to an action (adding it to a spreadsheet)—and you're done.

Furthermore, many workflows come with pre-built templates. Connecting Gmail and Google Sheets can take under five minutes. The learning curve is straightforward.

Make.com has more power but requires more thought. The visual editor shows everything like a flow chart. You can add conditions, filters and trigger logic. Therefore, it takes longer to set up as well. What you think would be an easy task may take 15-20 minutes instead of 5.

n8n.io is definitely made for developers. Even the interface looks like coding programs. You literally connect the nodes and make various expressions to get what workflows you want.

Yet, if you're not a programmer, you're lost in this area. But that's okay because developers love the nuance and options for customization.

At this point, you've established your original platform. Perhaps you're wondering how to connect it to other platforms that may already exist for automation. Many companies use multiple automation solutions at one time because they all have their strengths; check out our blog on integrating varying automation solutions to create a streamlined system of workflow to boost productivity.

Scalability: Growth Potential with Your Business

Platforms needed by small businesses need to be scalable. What works at 10 employees will collapse at 50.

Zapier.com scales well. Its enterprise plan can handle millions of tasks. Rarely does the system go down; it's favored by major companies like BuzzFeed and Typeform.

However, it's expensive, and it's expensive, fast. When your company grows in two years, you're looking at $270+ CAD a month.

Make.com scales differently. It scales not by limiting the number of tasks completed but by how many data points can be transferred through those tasks. You can create intricate tasks and engage in multiple scenario-based workflows without hitting task limitations too quickly.

Thus, it's better suited for high volume enterprises than Zapier; however, when multiple workflows are happening (12 or more) at once, it can be quite overwhelming on the interface.

n8n.io scales infinitely because it is self-hosted; it can all depend on your own server's capabilities. The cloud version scales automatically, but you'll incur expenses as you use up resources over time. Technical needs will grow as you expand. Developers will be necessary if you wish to keep self-hosted instances.

Where do you project yourself in five years? Do you think you'll have 5 workflows or 50? Are there technical resources on your end to handle more complex setups?

Make.com AI Automation Scenario.

Support and Community: Get Help When You're Stuck

Zapier has excellent support. Live chat options respond within hours. The help center is filled with videos and step-by-step guides.

The community forum is strong, where other users post answers or solutions and share templates. Enterprise users have access to phone support.

Make.com has excellent support response time, but not as a high as Zapier. Make's academy offers free courses on automation within. The documentation is more advanced for use when you get more familiar.

Response time lags slightly behind Zapier, but Make's support team operates through technical problems with much more success.

n8n.io relies on community support mostly. There is an active GitHub repository with many contributing developers. The documentation is extensive but also very technical in nature.

Those who pay for the cloud will get priority; those with self-hosted options will get left out to dry, limited to poking around the community forum or documentation.

Consider your comfort level with self-service support—can you troubleshoot yourself? Will a quick question to a phone support rep save a downed system?

In the end, it's up to you

• What's your monthly budget for automation moving forward?

• How tech-savvy is your team?

• How many workflows do you expect to be building in year 1?

• Is phone support even necessary, or are email responses going to be fine? For the average SMB, Zapier is the best starting point. It's more expensive, but you'll have to spend less time programming and training.

  
  

Go with Make.com if you want control but don't want it to get too complicated. It's the best middle of the road for power vs. simplicity and should work well with a growing company.

Only go with n8n if you have the technical resources and need control as it comes. It will take a while to learn, but the customization opportunities are endless.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself for a final choice. Each of these three options has a free trial and allows you to import your most necessary workflows at least. Whichever feels most intuitive to the team is probably the best option.

Also remember that needs change over time in business. Most solutions allow for imports down the road. Use the one that gets you automated the fastest and pivot when you're larger.

Ready to get started with automation for your business? Knowbie's experts are ready to assist small businesses in deciding and training upon the best avenues for any automation solution.

We can evaluate your current workflow, suggest a solution, and help you set it up. Contact us today to learn how we can use automation to transform your operations and give you hours back each day to focus on growing your business.