It’s no secret that I love Zapier. After all, I teach people how to use it to automate their business.
But on the flip side, I understand that it isn’t always the best choice for everyone.
There are usually two main reasons people look for a Zapier alternative.
- It’s too expensive
- It can’t do what they want
If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to Zapier and the only reason is the cost, it’s not always a good idea. Zapier has been around a long time and it is a solid, reliable product.
When you consider the time saved, against the cost, it’s incredibly easy to justify.
In our business I estimate around 150 hours saved per month, for a $60 subscription. 40 cents per hour is pretty easy to justify.
In this post you’ll learn about a few Zapier alternatives and what I like/dislike about each.
tl;dr
Don’t want to read all of this and just want my #1 recommendation?
Easy. Sign up for Make (formerly Integromat).
- It has a generous free plan
- It’s cheaper
- It’s more powerful and extremely flexible
The downside is that it’s harder to learn.
To get your free account, and 1 month free on the Pro plan, sign up here.
Video version
You can also watch a video version of this post to get a better idea of what each tool looks like.
Make / Integromat (best & affordable)
Make, formerly known as Integromat, is one of the most popular Zapier alternatives. It’s also my favourite. It allows much more complex workflows, and is better at visualizing an overall workflow. On the flip side, it’s more difficult to use.
If you’re brand new to automation, it might be a bit difficult to start out with. If you’re experienced, or have a little coding experience, Integromat will blow your mind. It’s an extremely capable product.
Get a free month of Make here. After that month, you can always revert to the free plan, which is quite generous.
Make Pros
- Create very complex workflows
- Lower cost than Zapier
- Generous free plan
- Easy to see the full workflow on one screen
Make Cons
- Harder to use, almost requires prior experience
- Easy to lose changes that you make
- Triggers are counted in task usage – this can eat up your plan allowance
To see a detailed comparison check out my post on Zapier vs Integromat, or watch these videos.
This first one digs into a pricing comparison, the second into more detail about the power Make has.
Get a FREE month of Integromat on the Basic plan using the button below.
Get a free month of Integromat
IFTTT
IFTTT has been around for a long time, and is a rock solid workflow automation product.
This used to be free, but they changed to a paid model. That’s not too bad, because it’s extremely cheap – from $4 a month.
It’s more focussed on home automation and Internet of Things (IoT). Browser through the app directory and you’ll see all kinds of home devices in there, which you don’t see in Zapier.
The interface looks simple on the surface. For the most part it is, but I find it’s a bit of a pain when it comes to editing workflows.
For business, the capabilities are fairly limited compared to Zapier & Integromat.
Read my more detailed comparison of Zapier vs IFTTT here, or watch the video below.
IFTTT Pros
- Super cheap
- Simple interface
- Great for home automation
IFTTT Cons
- Too simplistic for many workflows
- Limiting for business use-cases
Microsoft Power Automate
Microsoft Power Automate is a cool tool, but very Microsoft heavy. If you’re deep in the Microsoft ecosystem, it’s a good option. For example, Zapier doesn’t have a Sharepoint integration, so you’d need to use Power Automate (or Integromat) to talk with it.
My friends in IT say it gets expensive quickly, and you have to pay on top of your Office 365 subscription. I can’t back that up because I haven’t used it to extremes yet.
If you’ve created workflows before, the interface is pretty similar. The ability to create parallel branches and if/then/else conditions is better than Zapier. It can also have data manipulation and storage.
Power Automate Pros
- Very flexible and allows complex workflows
- Integrates with basically everything by Microsoft
- Powerful options for data storage and manipulation
Power Automate Cons
- Additional cost to your Microsoft subscription
- Doesn’t integrate with as much outside Microsoft
- Fairly complex to use
SureTriggers
This one is a little different, as you need to have a WordPress site and install the SureTriggers plugin. So in a way, it’s kind of self-hosted. Self-hosted often means more cost effective, although their pricing is still based on tasks.
It’s brought to you by the same team as other high-quality themes and plugins, such as Astra, CartFlows & Presto Player. Currently in Beta, it’s free! So it’s absolutely worth trying it out and keeping an eye on SureTriggers.
Outfunnel
Outfunnel isn’t a direct Zapier competitor, but it has a specific use case where it excels.
It’s aimed at moving sales and marketing data between your systems.
For example: synchronizing contacts between systems.
Zapier isn’t great at this as you need one workflow in each direction.This can end up creating infinite loops, where one system updates another, and the other tries to update back.
If you just want to keep contacts in sync and share marketing data between departments, give Outfunnel a look.
N8n.io
N8n is an attractive option for some because it’s free and open source.
That means you have to install it and maintain it yourself, which can be a turn off. Personally, I don’t want to have to maintain my workflow automation tool and work out what’s wrong when something inevitably breaks. However, for people with data storage or privacy concerns, this gives you full control over that data.
For those that don’t want to install it, there is a cloud version. That is not free, but pricing is very generous. They only charge for an entire workflow executing, not every step like the others.
N8n doesn’t have as many apps as Zapier yet.
The UI looks nice on the surface, but creating workflows can be unintuitive.
It’s one to keep an eye on though.
N8n.io Pros
- Open source & free
- Low cost for the cloud version
N8n.io Cons
- Not as intuitive as others
- Not many integrations
Tray.io
Tray is an enterprise-level automation solution. That’s pretty obvious when you see it starts at $695 a month.
It’s often used by larger companies and SaaS companies to add a suite of integrations to their own product, without having to build it themselves. If you run a SaaS product, that part alone is worth looking at – it’s called Tray Embedded.
If you’re in the market for a robust, enterprise level Zapier alternative, take a look at Tray.
Integrately
Integrately is a newer competitor. I get asked about this one a lot because they did a lifetime deal, making it very popular among lifetime deal groups and freelancers.
My opinion is changing quickly on this one. At first I was apprehensive to use it, as the UI was clunky and slow. But they are improving – I guess this comes with the territory of building a new app.
It doesn’t offer much beyond Zapier, other than being cheaper. When the only differentiator is price, that doesn’t make me think very highly of it. Being newer, it has fewer integrations and reliability is always going to be a question in my mind.
The marketing claims “1-click integrations”. I don’t buy this. This is the same as saying Zapier have workflow templates. In reality no workflow is ever one-click. You’ll need to customize it.
If pricing is really important to you, give Integrately a try.
Sign up with this link to get an extra 500 tasks per month for free.
Integrately Pros
- Lower cost
- Fairly simple UI
- Improving rapidly
Integrately Cons
- New – which can mean teething issues
- Not many integrations (yet)
- I’ve had some issues with the UI, but it seems to be improving
- Simple workflows only (mostly like Zapier)
Sign up with this link to get an extra 500 tasks per month for free.
Other Zapier Alternatives
Here are a few that didn’t make the list, but you might want to check out.
- Automate.io – reasonably priced, nice interface
- Workato – expensive, enterprise-level
- Zoho Flow – worth it if you’re using Zoho, not otherwise
- OneSaaS – ecommerce specialist
- Leadsbridge – focussed on CRM and marketing integrations
What should you use?
Personally, I use Zapier and Integromat extensively. Occasionally IFTTT because it has a great Google Assistant Integration.
For the most part, you’ll get everything you need out of Integromat. It’s harder to use, but once you’re up to speed it is extremely capable.
My recommendation: Get your free Integromat account here (plus a bonus free month on the Basic plan)
