7 n8n Workflows That Replaced $500/Month of SaaS Tools

I was spending over $500/month on various SaaS tools — Zapier, Make, custom scripts on AWS Lambda — just to keep my workflows running. Then I discovered n8n, and within a weekend, I'd replaced almost all of them with self-hosted workflows that cost me exactly $0/month to run. Here are the 7 workflows that made the biggest difference. 1. Lead Capture to CRM Pipeline Replaces: Zapier ($29/mo) + custom webhook scripts When someone fills out a contact form, n8n catches the webhook, enriches the data using a free API, scores the lead based on criteria I set, and routes it to the right CRM pipeline. The whole thing runs in under 2 seconds. { "trigger" : "Webhook" , "nodes" : [ "HTTP Request (enrich)" , "IF (score > 70)" , "CRM Create Deal" , "Slack Notify" ] } The key insight: n8n's IF node with expressions lets you build scoring logic that would require a paid Zapier plan. 2. AI-Powered Email Categorization Replaces: Custom Python script on EC2 ($15/mo) This one monitors an inbox via IMAP,