HexaHQ vs Zapier & n8n: whose connectors, whose credentials.
Zapier, Make, and n8n are strong at automation, and repeatability is their home turf. We are not going to claim they don't repeat, they do, well. The contest is elsewhere: your AI acts on a bounded, third-party-run connector catalog you didn't build and don't control. HexaHQ turns anything in your stack into a governed tool your AI authors itself, with your org holding the credentials.
The catalog is the ceiling
These tools get compared on catalog size, because the connector catalog decides what's possible. A 9,000-app list sounds unbounded, but it's still a fixed list someone prebuilt: when the tool you need isn't in it, or the connector was written by a third party you've never heard of, you're stuck. HexaHQ has no catalog ceiling: describe any REST or GraphQL API and the AI authors the connector on the spot, so your niche or internal tool is callable the same day, cataloged or not.
Self-hosting is real, but it isn't free
n8n's self-hosting is a genuine strength if you want to keep infrastructure in-house, but the honest
contrast is "an afternoon of Docker and an .env of credentials" vs. one click. And when someone
asks how to hand n8n workflows to a non-technical teammate, the common answer today is literally "I host
them for my clients and charge per hour." HexaHQ's answer is: share the workflow, they run it on their own
account.
Governance: identity and the ask, not "do they have controls"
Zapier is not ungoverned, and we won't pretend it is. It manages credentials centrally, keeps them out of the chat, offers admin toggles for which actions are allowed, and logs every run in an account history. The honest contrast is finer. On Zapier, actions run through the connection that authorized the agent, so the record shows the shared setup, not the individual who asked for the work. On HexaHQ, every teammate connects with their own credential and acts as themselves, so identity is keyed to the person on every action. And Zapier's controls are toggles an admin sets ahead of time; HexaHQ adds a gate at the moment of the action, allow / ask / deny, that can pause a specific write for approval before it happens, then records it against the person who ran it.
| Zapier / Make / n8n | HexaHQ | |
|---|---|---|
| Repeatable automation | Yes, strong | Yes |
| Reach a tool that isn't prebuilt | Wait for the catalog | AI authors it from the API |
| Who wrote the connector | Often a third party | Authored against your API, in your org |
| Whose identity each action runs as | The connection that set up the agent | The person who ran it, as themselves |
| Setup to run | Builder UI, or Docker (n8n) | One click, nothing to host |
| How the AI decides what to run | You wire the flow | Resolves the workflow from your intent |
| Control before a write | Admin picks allowed actions up front | allow / ask / deny, an ask gate before each write |
| Activity log | Yes, account history | Yes, per person and per action |
If you want a visual builder to wire fixed triggers between apps, these tools are mature and good at it. If you want your AI to do the work, across any API, with your org holding the keys and a policy on every write, that is HexaHQ.
Any API, governed, no catalog to wait on.
Connect the tool you actually need. Free to start.