Forever-free tiers vs time-boxed trials, based on the 10 builders we track (checked 2026-10-16).
Not every "free" plan is the same. Some builders give you a lasting free tier (or free forever if you self-host). Others only offer a short trial or one-time credits. Below we split them using each vendor's own pricing pages.
These keep working after signup without a paid subscription — within plan limits. n8n's Community Edition is free to self-host; Make and Zapier Agents include ongoing free allowances; Activepieces, Botpress, and Dify Sandbox also have lasting free tiers.
| Builder | Starts at | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | €20/mo (Starter, billed annually) | Self-hosted Community Edition free; Cloud has a free trial (1,000 executions, no card) | Technical builders who want control and self-hosting |
| Make | $9/mo (Core, from 10k credits; Make compare page) | Yes: 1,000 credits/month, 2 active scenarios, 15-min interval | Non-developers building branching visual workflows |
| Zapier | $19.99/mo (Professional); Agents Pro $33.33/mo billed annually | Yes: Zapier Free plan; Agents free tier 400 activities/month | Teams already on Zapier wanting agents across 9,000+ apps |
| Activepieces | $20/mo flat (Plus) | Yes, free forever (no card); self-host option | Budget/open-source teams wanting n8n-style control |
| Botpress | $150/mo billed annually (Plus) | Yes: 100 conversations, no overages | Customer-facing chat agents |
| Dify | $590/workspace/yr (Professional) | Yes: Sandbox (200 message credits); Community Edition self-host | Developers building LLM apps and RAG agents |
Useful to evaluate, but they expire or have no free plan:
| Builder | Starts at | Free plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lindy | $29.99/user/mo (3,000 credits) | $50 free credits for 7 days, no card | Teams wanting a ready-made AI assistant in Slack/email |
| Gumloop | $37/mo (Pro) | 14-day free trial of Pro | Ops/marketing teams building agents without code |
| Relevance AI | $19/mo billed annually (Pro; $29 monthly) | No: the Free plan is retired (per Relevance AI docs) | Companies building sales/support agent teams |
See also our full best AI agent builder guide and the comparison table.
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