n8n

n8n earned its place in this category by adding agent capabilities the right way: as nodes that compose with everything else. The AI Agent node lets you define tools (which are just other n8n nodes), give the agent a goal, and let it figure out the sequence — so an agent can read your Gmail, query your Postgres database, post to Slack, and write to a Google Doc as a single operation. Compared to Zapier or Make, n8n is dramatically more flexible because of the Code node and the self-hostable model; you're not stuck waiting for the platform to add an integration.

Where it falls short is the learning curve. n8n is more powerful than Zapier and it shows — workflows have a complexity ceiling that's higher in both directions, meaning you can build more but you can also break more. Debugging a misbehaving agent inside a workflow is genuinely harder than debugging a script, because the failures span node boundaries. The hosted plan is also cheaper than competitors but still adds up fast at scale; serious users often end up self-hosting on a $5 VPS.

Use n8n if you have automations that span multiple systems and you want AI agents to be one of the building blocks rather than the whole product. It's especially good if you have any technical comfort — you don't need to write code, but knowing what an API or a JSON path is will save you hours. If you're a non-technical user with simple two-app automations, Zapier is probably faster to get running. If you're a developer who wants total control, write the script directly.