Should I self-host Make?

What you lose

• Make's visual scenario debugger is best-in-class
• The same integration long-tail caveat as Zapier

What you're paying Make for

• visual automation scenarios
• app integrations
• routers & filters
• scheduling

Ranked alternatives

1. Automatisch

Trigger-and-action flows on your own box, with a connector list you can count and no credit meter.

automatisch/automatisch · ★ 13,928 · last commit 180d ago · AGPL-3.0

2. Activepieces

Trigger-and-action automation with a visual builder, run on your own box, with no task meter.

activepieces/activepieces · ★ 23,710 · last commit 0d ago · MIT

Hardware

Runs comfortably on a real VPS (2 GB+).

The tested compose file (our evidence, CI-booted)

# Activepieces — workflow automation; app + postgres + redis. Sidecar probe, slow first boot.
services:
  activepieces:
    image: activepieces/activepieces:latest
    container_name: activepieces
    restart: unless-stopped
    depends_on:
      ap-db:
        condition: service_healthy
      ap-cache:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment:
      AP_FRONTEND_URL: http://localhost:8109
      AP_POSTGRES_DATABASE: activepieces
      AP_POSTGRES_HOST: ap-db
      AP_POSTGRES_PORT: "5432"
      AP_POSTGRES_USERNAME: activepieces
      AP_POSTGRES_PASSWORD: activepieces
      AP_REDIS_HOST: ap-cache
      AP_REDIS_PORT: "6379"
      AP_ENCRYPTION_KEY: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef
      AP_JWT_SECRET: 0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef
      AP_ENVIRONMENT: prod
    ports:
      - "8109:80"

  probe:
    image: busybox:stable
    network_mode: "service:activepieces"
    depends_on:
      - activepieces
    command: sh -c 'while true; do sleep 30; done'
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "nc -z localhost 80 || exit 1"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 120
      start_period: 60s
  ap-db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: activepieces
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: activepieces
      POSTGRES_DB: activepieces
    volumes:
      - ap-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U activepieces"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 12
  ap-cache:
    image: redis:7-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "redis-cli", "ping"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 12
volumes:
  ap-db:

Want a guided install instead? caniselfhostit.com/make has AI-agent prompts that assume a bare machine — that's their half of the stool, and it's good.

Verification

# Make — verdict log

- **Date:** 2026-08-10
- **Verdict:** KINDA — worth it if…
- **Protocol:** v1 (2GB reference env, Docker preinstalled, AI assistant: claude-code)

## Setup evidence (shared)

- This verdict rides on the same replacement verified for `zapier-activepieces` — see `compose/zapier-activepieces.yml` and its log.

## The call

Make's $9/mo entry is far cheaper than Zapier, which softens the math — but operations pricing still scales with usage. Worth moving to Activepieces if you're past the starter tier or automating anything sensitive; below that, $9 is hard to beat.

Verdict history

• 2026-08-10: unscored → KINDA — Initial verdict: Make's $9/mo entry is far cheaper than Zapier, which softens the math — but operations pricing still scales wi.