n8n, Make or custom code: choosing your automation stack
Workflow automation tools have made it possible to connect systems in an afternoon. But the tool you choose decides how far you can go, what it costs at scale and where your data lives. Here is our honest comparison.
Make: fastest start
Make (formerly Integromat) is a hosted, visual tool with hundreds of ready-made connectors.
- Great for: simple flows between popular SaaS tools, quick wins, teams without developers.
- Watch out for: pricing per operation (costs grow with volume), limited options for complex logic, and your data passing through a third-party cloud.
n8n: control and flexibility
n8n is also visual, but it can be self-hosted on your own server or cloud.
- Great for: workflows with sensitive data (finance, HR, health), higher volumes, and flows that need custom code steps or AI.
- Watch out for: someone has to host, update and monitor it. That is a small but real responsibility.
Custom code: when the workflow is the product
Sometimes a visual tool becomes the bottleneck: dozens of nodes nobody understands, hard-to-test logic, or performance limits.
- Great for: core business processes, complex rules, high volumes, and anything that needs proper tests and version control.
- Watch out for: higher upfront cost. You need a developer to change it.
Our rule of thumb
| Situation | Our choice |
|---|---|
| Connect two SaaS tools, low volume | Make |
| Sensitive data or must stay in the EU / your cloud | n8n, self-hosted |
| AI steps, branching logic, medium volume | n8n with code nodes |
| Core process, strict rules, needs tests | Custom code (often Python) |
Mixing is fine. Many of our projects use n8n for the integrations and a small custom service for the part that needs to be bulletproof.
Do not forget the boring parts
Whatever you choose, every workflow needs error handling (what happens when an API is down?), alerts and documentation. A silent failure in an automation is worse than no automation, because everyone assumes it worked.
Not sure which fits your process? Tell us about it and we will recommend the simplest option that will hold up.