No-code AI agent builders for small businesses, November 2026

All five at a glance

n8n showed euro prices for its cloud plans; your page may show local currency. Lindy's homepage says plans start at $29.99 per user for 3,000 credits; its pricing page lists $49.99 for 5,000.

What changed recently

• Relay.app shut down in September 2026. Its homepage says all accounts, workflows and run history were permanently deleted. If a builder runs your business processes, check how you would export them.
• Zapier folded Agents into AI by Zapier (6 Oct). AI steps can now call tools you attach, and they are billed in tasks. The pricing page still lists Agents "activities", so billing is mid-migration.
• n8n launched n8n Agents (25 Sep), which work out the steps themselves. Each agent turn counts as one execution.

Workflow or agent: what's the difference?

A workflow runs the same steps every time: when a form is submitted, add a row and send an email. An agent gets a goal and a set of tools, and decides which tools to use and in what order. Agents handle messy inputs such as customer emails better, but they cost more per run and are harder to predict.

• Workflow-first, with agents added: Zapier (AI by Zapier steps with tools), Make (AI Agents, in open beta on all plans) and n8n (the AI Agent node, which decides which tools to call).
• Agent-first: Lindy works like an assistant in Slack and email and picks its own skills. Gumloop builds agents from a description of the task, alongside classic workflows.

Which is cheapest?

Prices are hard to compare because each tool counts work differently. Zapier charges a task for each action step that runs. Make charges credits per module action, with AI and code steps costing more. n8n counts a whole workflow run as one execution, however many steps it has, which makes it far cheaper for long workflows.

• Free to start: Make's free plan (1,000 credits, 2 active scenarios) does more than Zapier's (100 tasks, two-step Zaps only).
• Free forever, if you can run a server: n8n's self-hosted Community Edition. Its Sustainable Use License allows internal business use but is not an open-source licence.
• Cheapest paid: Make Core at $9 a month billed annually, then n8n Starter at €20 and Zapier Professional at $19.99.
• Agent-first tools cost more: Lindy is billed per user, and Gumloop charges the list cost of tokens and tools plus an 8% fee.

How is AI usage billed?

Watch the defaults: Zapier's new AI steps start on the Premium tier (5x tasks), and Zapier caps a single run at 75 tasks unless you raise it.

Security and where your data lives

Zapier and Lindy both state that they do not train AI models on your data.

Which one should you pick?

• You want it to just work with the apps you already use: Zapier. Start on the free plan and expect to pay for Professional.
• You want the lowest bill for many simple automations: Make.
• You have someone technical, long workflows or strict data rules: n8n, self-hosted or on its EU cloud.
• You want an assistant that handles email and Slack tasks for the team: Lindy or Gumloop; use the trial on one real task before paying per user.

Compare them in detail: n8n vs Zapier, Lindy vs Zapier and Gumloop vs n8n. See also AI agents and the best AI tools for small businesses.

How we checked

Every plan, price and security claim comes from the vendor's own pricing, documentation and security pages, opened on 4 November 2026. Prices are monthly unless marked as annual.