# Automation Stack Monthly TCO & Break-Even Calculator

Canonical: https://aideal.kr/en/tools/automation-tco-calculator

Calculate all-in monthly automation costs combining workflow runs, operation multipliers, Firecrawl/Apify scraping, LLM calls, and self-host maintenance hours.

- Monthly total operations: 60,000
- Self-host break-even runs/mo: 19,335+ runs/mo favors self-host

| Automation stack | Platform / Host | Scraper + LLM + Ops labor | Total monthly TCO |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Make Cloud (Ops) | $55.59 | $23.80 | $79.39 |
| n8n Cloud (Executions) | $65.00 | $23.80 | $88.80 |
| n8n Self-Host (Vultr Seoul ($6/mo)) | $6.00 | $123.80 | $129.80 |
| Zapier Cloud (Tasks) | $654.00 | $23.80 | $677.80 |

## Methodology & cost drivers

- Make and Zapier meter every step/operation inside loops and filters, which amplifies billable volume 6x to 15x per run.
- n8n Self-Host lowers platform fees to $4.50-$10/mo on Vultr or Hetzner, so modeling monthly DevOps maintenance hours prevents hidden undercounting.
- Scraper and LLM call costs are added equally across all four automation platforms for apples-to-apples TCO comparison.