If you have decided to automate part of your business, you will quickly meet three names: Make, n8n and Microsoft Power Automate. They all connect your tools and move information between them. They differ in who they suit, where they run and who ends up maintaining them.
The short answer
- Make is the best fit for most small businesses. It runs in the cloud, you build workflows on a visual canvas, and you can open a finished workflow and read it yourself. That makes it easy to hand over.
- n8n is the better fit when the work involves AI, high volumes or sensitive data. It can run on a server you control, and it is more technical to look after.
- Microsoft Power Automate is the natural choice when your business already lives in Microsoft 365, because it connects to those tools directly.
Our own default rule is simple: Make first, n8n for AI or volume, Power Automate for Microsoft 365 businesses.
Side by side
| Make | n8n | Power Automate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Everyday small-business workflows | AI, large volumes, sensitive data | Businesses that run on Microsoft 365 |
| Where it runs | Make’s cloud | Its cloud, or a server you control | Microsoft’s cloud |
| Handing it over | Easy: readable visual workflows | Needs someone comfortable with technical tools | Easy for people who already use Microsoft tools |
| Weak spot | Less suited to very heavy or custom logic | More setup and upkeep | Less natural outside the Microsoft world |
What each one does well
Make. You build a workflow by connecting modules on a canvas, and each step shows what went in and what came out. That visibility is what makes it practical for a small business: the owner or a trusted employee can open a workflow and see how it works, change a message or pause it, without reading code. It runs in Make’s cloud, so there is no server to look after.
n8n. It is built for workflows that need more control: calling AI models, searching your own documents, handling large volumes or keeping data on infrastructure you manage. It can run on a server you control, which matters when data must stay put. The price of that control is more setup and more upkeep, so it suits businesses with someone technical, or an adviser, to look after it.
Microsoft Power Automate. If your email, calendar, files and forms are all in Microsoft 365, it connects to them directly and uses the sign-in your team already has. Basic flows may already be included in your Microsoft 365 licence, so check what you have before paying for anything extra. Outside the Microsoft world it becomes less natural.
Three examples of how the choice plays out (illustrative)
These are made-up businesses, not clients, to show the reasoning.
- A twelve-person office on Microsoft 365 wants new form submissions to land in a shared list and alert a manager in Teams. Everything it needs is already in one suite, so Power Automate is the simplest answer.
- A home-service company on Google Workspace wants every web lead texted within a minute and saved to its CRM. This is a standard multi-app workflow with no heavy logic, so Make fits.
- A professional-services firm wants an assistant that answers staff questions from its own procedures, and cannot send the documents to a public service. Searching documents and keeping control of where they go points to n8n.
Five questions that decide it
- Which suite does your business live in? If everything is Microsoft 365, start with Power Automate. If it is Google Workspace or a mix, look at Make.
- Does the workflow handle sensitive or regulated data? If you need to control exactly where the data goes, n8n on your own server may be worth the extra work.
- Is AI involved? Workflows that call AI models, or search your own documents, are where n8n tends to earn its keep.
- How many runs a month? Very high volumes change the cost picture for all three, so check each vendor’s current pricing page before you decide. Plans and prices change, so we do not quote them here.
- Who will look after it? A workflow nobody understands is a liability. Choose the tool your team, or your adviser, can actually maintain.
What it really costs
The monthly subscription is only part of the bill. Someone’s time to design, build, test and document each workflow counts too, and so does the time to look after it when an app changes its settings or a connection expires. When you compare the three tools, ask what it will take to keep your workflows healthy a year from now, not just what the plan costs this month.
That is also why handing over matters. A workflow that your own team can read and adjust costs less to keep alive than one only its builder understands.
Can you switch later?
Yes, but it is work. Workflows do not copy from one tool to another; they are rebuilt. The good news is that the hard part is knowing what the workflow should do, and that knowledge travels with you if it is written down. Keep a one-page description of each workflow: what triggers it, what it changes, who is told when it fails and how to pause it. With that in hand, moving from one tool to another is a small project, not a restart.
Three mistakes to avoid
- Building in someone else’s account. If a contractor builds your workflow in their own account, you do not own it. Build it in yours.
- No alerts when it breaks. Every workflow should tell a person when it fails. Silence is not the same as working.
- No documentation. Write down what each workflow does, what triggers it and how to pause it. It takes an hour and saves a week.
Where to start
Pick one repetitive task, not a grand plan. Our post on seven tasks to automate first shows which ones usually pay off. If you want a second opinion on the tool, a Tech Clarity Assessment compares your options against your actual workflows, and our workflow automation for small businesses builds the one you choose in your own account. Or book a free Tech Bottleneck Call and we will talk it through.