Should I self-host Make?
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.
Make's visual scenario debugger is best-in-class
The same integration long-tail caveat as Zapier
visual automation scenarios · app integrations · routers & filters · scheduling
* Percent of the subscription price. Your time is priced at the slider's rate — $0/h ("my homelab time is free and I love it") is a legitimate position. Every number is derived from the record, never hand-written. Price source, checked 2026-08-07.
Runs comfortably on a real VPS (2 GB+).
# 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.
FULL TIMED LOG
# 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.