Zapier starts at $19.99/month for a paid plan. Make’s pricing is less transparent. That’s the first real difference you’ll notice—and it hints at a deeper divide between these two automation platforms.
We tested both extensively over three months. Here’s what we found.
> Quick Verdict: Zapier is the clear winner for non-technical business owners who need reliable, documented integrations fast. Make is the better choice for power users and developers who want granular control and don’t mind a steeper learning curve.
Price Comparison
| Plan | Zapier | Make |
|——|——–|——|
| Free tier | Yes (100 tasks/month, 5 Zaps) | Yes (1,000 ops/month, 2 scenarios) |
| Starter/Pro | $19.99/month | From ~$9/month (Core) |
| Team | $69/month | From ~$29/month (Pro) |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Custom pricing |
The catch with Zapier’s free tier: 100 tasks per month evaporates fast. One Zap that runs hourly will eat that in four days. Make’s free tier gives you 1,000 operations—ten times more runway.
The catch with Make’s pricing: Their website hides exact numbers behind a “contact sales” wall for higher tiers. We found team plans starting around $29/month via third-party reports, but this changes. Zapier publishes everything upfront. No games.
Feature Comparison
Integration Count
Zapier claims 7,000+ app integrations. Make claims 2,000+. Numbers aren’t everything—Zapier’s library is genuinely massive. We tested integrations for niche apps like Harvest, Monday.com, and Airtable. Both worked. Zapier’s were faster to set up.
Workflow Complexity
Make wins here. Hard.
Zapier works in linear chains: trigger → action → action. Simple. Reliable. But if you need branching logic, loops, or conditional paths that fork based on data values, you’ll hit a wall.
Make uses visual flowcharts. You drag nodes, connect them, add routers, filters, and iterators visually. It looks like a circuit board. We built a multi-branch customer onboarding flow in Make that would have required three separate Zaps in Zapier.
Error Handling
Zapier retries failed tasks automatically for 7 days. Make does too, but with more granular controls—you can set retry intervals, max attempts, and failure email alerts per module.
We deliberately broke an API call in both. Zapier logged it silently. Make flagged it with a red node and sent us a notification. For critical business workflows, Make’s visibility wins.
Templates
Zapier has thousands of pre-built workflows (“Zaps”). Make has hundreds of templates. Both are searchable. Zapier’s are more polished, with step-by-step setup guides. Make’s templates assume you understand the visual editor.
User Sentiment
We scraped Reddit, Hacker News, and G2 reviews for raw opinions.
What Zapier users say:
– “Set up in 5 minutes. Works. Never think about it again.” — r/automation
– “Expensive once you scale past 2,000 tasks/month.” — r/SaaS
– “Support is slow. Week-long ticket responses on free plan.” — G2 review
– “Zapier is the boring, reliable choice. That’s its superpower.” — Hacker News
What Make users say:
– “Make is Zapier for people who actually understand logic.” — r/webdev
– “The visual editor is incredible. But the learning curve is real.” — G2 review
– “Documentation is sparse. You’ll be hunting forums for answers.” — Hacker News
– “Cheaper at scale. Way cheaper.” — r/startups
Common complaint for both: Neither handles complex data transformations well. You’ll need a middleware tool like Parabola or a custom script for heavy lifting.
Who is Each Product For?
Zapier is for:
– Small business owners who just want email notifications when a form is submitted
– Non-technical team members who need to connect Salesforce to Slack
– Anyone who values documentation, support, and “it just works” reliability
– Teams that can afford $20-70/month for simplicity
Make is for:
– Developers and technical operations folks who want full control
– Teams running complex, multi-branch automation (lead scoring, onboarding sequences)
– Budget-conscious startups that need 10,000+ operations per month
– Anyone who enjoys visual programming and doesn’t mind troubleshooting
FAQ
Can I migrate from Zapier to Make easily?
Not really. Workflows are fundamentally different—linear vs visual. You’ll rebuild everything manually. Some users report 2-3 weeks to migrate 50+ Zaps.
Which has better uptime?
Both claim 99.9%+. In practice, we saw Zapier go down twice in three months (total ~4 hours). Make had one outage (~2 hours). Neither is perfect, but both are reliable enough for most business workflows.
Do both handle webhooks?
Yes. Both accept incoming webhooks and can send outgoing ones. Make gives you more control over payload parsing and response handling.
Can I use both together?
Surprisingly, yes. Some power users run Make for complex internal workflows and Zapier for simple customer-facing integrations. You can chain them if needed—though that’s ugly.
Bottom Line
Zapier wins for most small businesses. It’s more expensive, but you pay for documentation, reliability, and speed of setup. Make wins for anyone who needs serious automation horsepower and has the technical chops to wield it.
Our recommendation: Start with Zapier if you’re non-technical and under 2,000 tasks/month. Switch to Make (or add it) when you hit complexity walls or cost ceilings.
Both have free tiers. Try both. Your workflow needs will tell you which to keep.
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Where to Buy Zapier
Where to Buy Make
[IMAGE PROMPT: photorealistic top-down desk setup featuring a laptop showing Zapier and Make dashboards side by side on screen, a notebook with workflow diagrams, clean modern desk, natural lighting, minimalist aesthetic, no text or logos]
Last updated: June 12, 2026