ThriveAI vs n8n and Zapier

Zapier and n8n let your own staff connect apps and build automations, and both offer AI agents. ThriveAI is an AI engineering company in Ottawa that builds private AI systems for manufacturers and distributors in Ontario and Quebec, on their own data, and works hands on with your team. This page shows you how each option charges, where each one stores your data and who does the building, so you can match each job to the option that fits it.

Derik Lawlis Founder, ThriveAI

The short answer

• Zapier fits when someone on your team will build and look after the automations in a no-code editor, the job moves data between cloud apps, and you accept that the data is stored in the United States.
• n8n fits when you have a developer or IT person who can run it on your own server, or when storage in Frankfurt, Germany suits you. It bills per workflow run, however many steps the workflow has.
• ThriveAI fits when the job depends on records in your ERP, email, drawings and spreadsheets, you want a system designed to keep that data on your own server in Canada, and you want an engineering team building it with your staff.

Every Zapier and n8n fact on this page comes from the vendor’s own site and was checked on September 23, 2026. For prices, see each vendor’s pricing page, linked below.

ThriveAI, Zapier and n8n side by side

The table sets the three options against each other on the questions an owner or operations lead asks first. The sections after it give the detail and the sources.

How each option charges

Zapier and n8n publish their prices. Zapier lists them in US dollars and in Canadian dollars, and n8n lists them in euros. Their prices cover the software. The hours to design, build and maintain each workflow come from your staff, or from a partner you hire.

Zapier pricing

Zapier has four plans, and the paid ones are sold in task tiers, billed monthly or yearly. The table shows each plan’s lowest task tier, from the Zapier pricing page, checked on September 23, 2026.

Zapier also lists its prices in Canadian dollars. More tasks cost more, because each plan’s price rises with its task tier.

Zapier counts a task each time an action completes successfully. Built-in steps such as Filter, Formatter, Paths and Delay use no tasks, and some actions use more than one. AI steps, code steps and MCP calls draw from the same pool, and one Zapier MCP tool call uses two tasks. Past your limit, you either move to pay-per-task billing at a higher rate per task, or your Zaps pause. The free plan checks for new data every 15 minutes, Professional every 2 minutes and Team every minute.

Yearly billing costs less than monthly billing. You can cancel at any time and keep access to the end of the billing cycle. Invoice or wire payment is available only on annual Team or Enterprise plans. Professional has a 14-day trial with no credit card.

n8n pricing

n8n lists prices for three plans, each sold in execution tiers and billed monthly or yearly, and sells Enterprise by quote. The table shows each plan’s lowest execution tier, from the n8n pricing page, checked on September 23, 2026.

n8n counts one execution for each full workflow run, however many steps it has, and every plan includes unlimited users and workflows. Higher execution tiers cost more, and yearly billing costs less than monthly billing.

n8n describes the Business plan as for companies with fewer than 100 employees, and companies under 20 employees may qualify for a discount on it. Business overage is charged for each extra 300,000 executions. Business support runs through the community forum, and dedicated support with an SLA comes only with Enterprise.

The self-hosted Community edition is free. n8n says it includes almost the complete feature set, and it leaves out SSO, environments, projects, workflow and credential sharing, Git version control and log streaming, among other features.

Monthly plans end at the close of the current billing cycle, annual plans end at the close of the term, and n8n does not offer pro-rata refunds. The Cloud trial runs 14 days with no credit card.

ThriveAI pricing

ThriveAI publishes no rates, and every project is planned and quoted on its own. Stage one is a working prototype for the one job that costs you the most, at a fixed price, delivered in weeks. If you stop there, you keep it.

Who builds and maintains it

The biggest practical difference between these options is who does the building and the upkeep.

With Zapier, you build it

Zapier’s pricing FAQ says you do not need to know how to code. You design, build and maintain each Zap yourself in the no-code editor. If you want help, the Zapier partner directory lists Solution Partners you can hire. Zapier publishes no typical engagement size. The directory filters partners by project budget.

With n8n, you build it and may host it

n8n Cloud runs on n8n’s servers, so there is nothing to install. Self-hosting n8n requires setup with npm, Docker or a server, and n8n says maintenance is your responsibility. Its Expert Partner program is a closed pilot with no published rates, open to partners in the UK and Ireland, Northern Europe or North America who have at least three customers using n8n.

If nobody on staff can maintain a self-hosted server, you can hire that help by the hour or on staff. Job Bank lists a median wage of $48.08 an hour for software developers and programmers in Ontario and $45.67 in Quebec. For software engineers and designers, the median is $56.73 in Ontario and $53.60 in Quebec. Both figures come from Statistics Canada survey data for 2023 to 2024.

With ThriveAI, an engineering team builds it with you

ThriveAI works hands on with your team and builds each tool on your own data, in French or English. Derik Lawlis, the founder, leads every project and stays close to the build. The people who will use the tool shape it while it gets built, and anything going to a customer or a supplier waits as a draft until someone on your team sends it. For more on Derik’s background and how a project runs, see About ThriveAI.

Where your data is stored

The records that pass through an automation at a manufacturer or distributor often include customer orders, prices and drawings. Each vendor states on its own site where it keeps them.

Zapier: the United States

Zapier says it hosts data on AWS servers in the United States, including the data it processes for customers. Its data transfer impact assessment says customer data is both transferred to and stored in the US.

Zap content and Zap history stay in your account for 29 to 69 days, in logs for 7 days and in backups for up to 4 months. Customers on Zapier’s Company or Enterprise plans can set a custom retention period of 7 to 30 days. Zapier opts Enterprise customers out of AI training automatically, and on every other plan you opt out by filling out a form.

n8n: Frankfurt, or your own server

For hosted plans, n8n says data is stored in the EU, on servers in Frankfurt, Germany. When you self-host, the data stays wherever you run n8n, and that can be a server in Canada. n8n Cloud keeps up to 2,500 saved executions for 7 days on Starter, 25,000 for 30 days on Pro, and 50,000 with no time limit on Enterprise, pruning the oldest first.

A self-hosted Business or Enterprise license checks in with n8n’s license server every day and sends usage data, such as production execution counts. Telemetry is on by default and can be turned off, and n8n says it excludes execution data and credentials.

Make: AWS in the EU or North America

Make, another visual automation tool, lists its hosting as AWS in the EU or North America on every plan. It keeps execution logs for 7 days on the free plan, 30 days on Core, Pro and Teams, and 60 days on Enterprise.

ThriveAI: designed for your own server in Canada

The platform ThriveAI builds on is designed to keep each client’s data on its own server in Canada that only your company uses. You choose the AI model that reads it: one that runs on that server, or a larger hosted model under a written agreement that the provider keeps nothing after answering. A hosted model may process requests outside Canada, so the contract names the model and its service tier.

What the AI features do

Zapier and n8n both offer AI agents alongside their workflows, and both connect to Anthropic’s Claude models.

Zapier Agents work across Zapier’s 9,000+ apps with company knowledge you give them. They sit next to Copilot, AI by Zapier, Chatbots, Canvas and Zapier MCP. Agents has its own meter: the free plan includes 400 activities a month, and Agents Pro is billed yearly for 1,500 activities.

n8n builds agents as their own kind of object, in Preview. An n8n agent runs a reasoning loop, picks its tools, reads a knowledge base, and keeps session memory plus episodic memory that recalls earlier sessions. You can require a person to approve sensitive tool calls. Workflows can also store chat memory in Postgres or Redis.

With either tool, you still decide which of your records the agent can reach, and you or a partner you hire connect them. A ThriveAI system brings what your ERP, email, drawings and spreadsheets hold into one database that belongs to your company. Your team asks it questions in plain language, and each answer links to the document or ERP record it came from. When your data cannot answer a question, the system says what is missing. It also drafts routine work, such as order entries and purchase orders, for someone on your team to approve. For examples at each desk in a plant, see AI for manufacturing, desk by desk.

When to pick each

Pick Zapier when

• The job moves structured data between cloud apps that Zapier already connects, such as a web form into your CRM.
• Someone on your team will build the Zaps and fix them when an app changes.
• Your volume fits a task tier, or the free plan’s 100 tasks a month.
• You and your customers accept that the data is stored in the United States.
• You want to try before you pay. Professional has a 14-day trial with no credit card.

Pick n8n when

• You have a developer or IT person who can install and maintain a self-hosted server.
• You want workflow data on a server you choose, including one in Canada.
• Your workflows have many steps. n8n bills per execution, and Zapier bills per successful action, apart from built-in steps such as Filter and Formatter.
• You plan to use it for your own internal business processes, which n8n’s Sustainable Use License allows.

Pick ThriveAI when

• The job depends on records spread across your ERP, email, drawings and spreadsheets, including an older ERP installed on your own server.
• You want a system designed to keep that data on your own server in Canada, read by a model you choose.
• Nobody on staff has time to build and maintain automations, and you want an engineering team working hands on with yours.
• Your team works in French, or in both languages.
• You want to see one job working before you commit to more. Stage one is a fixed-price prototype, and you keep it if you stop there.

Keep what already works

If your team runs Zaps or n8n workflows that do their job, keep them. The systems ThriveAI builds read your existing software and change nothing in it, so the two can run side by side.