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Zapier vs Make: cheaper automation for solo founders
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The short answer
You want the most automation per dollar and don't mind a canvas that takes an afternoon to learn.
Try Make freeZapier is the name most people hear first. Make is the one that usually turns up when someone looks at their Zapier bill and asks whether there is a cheaper way. Both connect thousands of apps without code. The real question for a solo founder is what you get for your money once your automations grow past a couple of steps.
The quick comparison
| Make | Zapier | |
|---|---|---|
| How you pay | Credits: roughly one per module that runs, trigger included | Tasks: one per action step that runs; the trigger is free |
| Free plan | Up to 1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios, multi-step allowed | 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only |
| Entry paid plan | Core: about $9/month (billed yearly) for 10,000 credits | Professional: about $20/month (billed yearly) for 750 tasks |
| Fastest schedule | Every minute on paid plans | Every 1 to 2 minutes on paid plans, 15 on free |
| Builder | Visual canvas with branches and loops you can see | A simple top-to-bottom list of steps |
| App library | Large | The largest |
| Best for | Multi-step, branching or high-volume automations on a budget | A few simple "when this, do that" jobs, set up in minutes |
Where the money actually goes
Sticker prices hide the real difference, which is how much work each plan buys. Take a typical small-shop automation:
- A new order comes in (the trigger)
- Add a row to a Google Sheet
- Send the customer a thank-you email
- Post a note in Slack
Say it runs 500 times a month.
- On Zapier, the trigger is free and each of the three actions is a task: 3 × 500 = 1,500 tasks. That is past the 750-task entry tier, so you move up to the 1,500-task tier, whose price Zapier's pricing page shows when that tier is selected.
- On Make, all four modules use a credit: 4 × 500 = 2,000 credits. That fits comfortably inside the 10,000 credits of the Core plan, about $9/month billed yearly.
Same job: Make's cheapest paid plan covers it with room to spare, while Zapier needs a tier above its entry plan. The gap widens as you add filters, branches or loops, and it narrows if you only run a handful of two-step automations a few dozen times a month, where Zapier's free plan or entry tier is fine.
Ease of use
Zapier is the easiest tool in this category. You pick a trigger, add actions underneath it, and Zapier fills in sensible defaults. Most people have their first Zap running in ten minutes.
Make asks for a little more patience. Scenarios live on a canvas of circles joined by lines, and you will meet ideas like routers, iterators and mapping fields between modules. The pay-off is that you can see the whole automation at a glance, branches included, and fix problems by clicking on the exact step that failed.
Apps and integrations
Zapier connects to more apps than anyone else, so if you rely on a niche tool, check it there first. Make covers every app most small online businesses use: Google Workspace, Slack, Shopify, Etsy, Gumroad, Stripe, Notion, Airtable, email tools and more. When an app is missing, Make's HTTP module can call its API directly.
Free plans compared
Make's free plan is the more useful one. It allows multi-step scenarios and around ten times as many runs as Zapier's free plan, which is limited to two-step Zaps and 100 tasks. If you are testing the waters with no budget, Make lets you build something real before paying anything.
Which one should you pick?
Choose Make if
- You want the lowest cost as your automations grow
- Your workflows have several steps, filters or branches
- You are happy to spend an afternoon learning the canvas
Choose Zapier if
- You need two or three simple automations and want them running today
- You depend on an app only Zapier supports
- Your time is worth more to you than the price difference
Already on Zapier and feeling the bill? You don't have to move everything at once. Rebuild your most-used Zap in Make's free plan, compare the numbers for a month, and move the rest only if it pays off. If you are also weighing up n8n, read Make vs n8n.