Tools & Workflows · Cloud, self-hosted or manual?
How much of the time saved is left?
Automation does not automatically save work. Add up handling time, the checking that remains, upkeep and software costs. All figures are your own inputs; they are not current vendor prices.
Your own monthly calculation
Is the workflow worth it?
Enter your figures and choose “Calculate”. The preset values are a worked example.
How to read the result
Hours freed already deducts ongoing upkeep. Economic comparison values that time at your hourly rate and deducts additional costs. It is not cash income, not revenue and not a promised saving.
One-off setup is valued separately. A calculated payback period only results from a positive monthly comparison. With an hourly value of zero euros, the calculator cannot claim a time-based payback. Taxes, outages, new tasks and fluctuating workload are not included.
Your inputs stay on this page. They are neither sent to a vendor nor stored in the browser. If you reload or close the page, your inputs are lost.
Three sensible choices
Manually or with your existing tool
Suitable if you have few cases, frequently changing exceptions or a negative monthly comparison. A unique ID, a list of required fields and a fixed time for checking already help, without a new subscription.
Cloud
Suitable if you want to hand off running the servers and the specific plan meets your requirements for modules, volume and data. You remain responsible for access rights, content, error handling and the connected systems. Check the actual prices and contract terms with the vendor.
Self-hosted
An option for n8n if you can genuinely take on updates, backup, recovery, monitoring and security. Licence and modules have to be checked case by case. “No cloud fee” does not mean “no running costs”. This article contains no tested self-hosted variant for Make.
A good next step
First calculate with realistically high upkeep and the lower end of your expected case volume. If the result still looks attractive, test the free package in a separate environment. Choose the vendor only after a complete run through all error cases, and based on the integrations you already have.
