Zapier vs Make vs n8n: The Credentials War Explained

Zapier vs Make vs n8n: Understanding the “Credentials War” in Automation Platforms

The biggest difference between Zapier, Make, and n8n isn’t features. It’s who holds your credentials, where your automations run, and who owns the workflows.

• Think location of secrets and tokens, not just triggers and actions.
• Think cloud-only convenience vs self-hosted control.
• Think long-term portability, not just “can it post to Slack?”.

Pick the platform philosophy first, then worry about the buttons.

What Is the “Credentials War” in No-Code/Low-Code Automation?

In plain terms, it’s a contest over where authentication lives and who you must trust. That choice shapes security, compliance, and vendor lock‑in.

• Zapier and Make: cloud SaaS only; tokens and account connections live in the vendor’s cloud.
• n8n: can be self‑hosted or cloud; secrets can stay on your servers and in your network.
• All three can hit the same APIs; the trust and hosting models differ.

Once you see the trust model, noise in feature lists fades fast.

Quick Comparison: Zapier vs Make vs n8n

Why Credentials, Infrastructure, and Ownership Matter More Than Features

Fancy actions don’t help if you can’t meet policy, scale costs, or debug failures. Architecture drives outcomes.

• Security and compliance: some teams must keep tokens and data in‑house (or at least in a private VPC).
• Reliability and debugging: access to raw runs, replays, and logs determines how quickly you fix issues.
• Cost and control: cloud convenience scales fast; self‑hosting can be cheaper at volume and avoids lock‑in.

Features come and go; ownership and control stick.

Core Component 1: Credentials Management and Authentication Models

Credentials management decides how you store and refresh OAuth 2.0 tokens, API keys, and service accounts. It also decides who can see or export them.

Rule of thumb: the closer tokens live to your data, the easier compliance getsand the more responsibility you accept.

For highly sensitive tokens (e.g., Salesforce, banking, or internal APIs), keeping secrets on your side can be decisive.

# n8n self-hosting essentials (conceptual)
export N8N_ENCRYPTION_KEY="<strong-unique-key>"
export N8N_USER_FOLDER="/var/lib/n8n"
# Pair with a secret manager (e.g., mounted env or vault) to avoid hardcoding.

Where Your Automations Run (Infrastructure and Hosting)

Automations either run in a vendor’s multi‑tenant cloud or inside infrastructure you control. That split shapes latency, egress costs, and data residency.

If your policy says “no third‑party holds tokens,” the hosting choice answers itself.

API Access, Integrations, and Social Posting Limits

API access isn’t just “does an app exist.” It’s how deeply you can call endpoints and handle rate limits.

When official actions fall short, the “generic HTTP” escape hatch becomes your best friend.

{
  "service": "salesforce",
  "auth": "oauth2",
  "rate_limit_strategy": "vendor | custom",
  "token_storage": "cloud-vendor | self-hosted",
  "debug": "task log | execution replay | raw HTTP"
}

Debugging, Error Handling, and Developer Experience

Faster feedback loops reduce downtime. The more raw detail and replay control you have, the quicker you fix thorny bugs.

At this point, a diagram of “request - node - output - error - retry” would clarify differences in log depth.

Workflow Ownership, Version Control, and Vendor Lock‑In

Owning the graph matters when auditors ask “who changed what, when, and why.” So does your exit strategy.

Ownership isn’t glamorous, yet it saves real money and drama later.

Security, Compliance, and Data Governance Considerations

Security posture is a shared‑responsibility story. The split changes with hosting.

Choose who signs the riskyour vendor, your team, or a mix.

How to Apply This: When to Choose Zapier, Make, or n8n

Use platform philosophy to guide fit, not hype. Map yourself to an archetype and decide with eyes open.

You can also mix tools: SaaS for rapid experiments, n8n for durable, sensitive, or high‑volume automations.