The verdict
The verdict
These two are close, and the honest split turns on what you value most: the easiest path or the most power for the money. Zapier wins ease and app coverage outright. It is the trusted default, the cleanest no-code builder in the category, and the largest integration catalogue by a wide margin, which is why most teams reach for it first. Make wins workflow power and pricing. It bends further on complex, branching, multi-app logic, and it is cheaper at every comparable rung, with a generous permanent free plan.
Reliability lands as a tie. Both are established, cloud-hosted incumbents with mature error handling, and neither offers the self-hosting control an open-source tool would. There is no honest gap between them on dependability.
So pick on where you sit. If you want the easiest path and the biggest catalogue, choose Zapier. If you want deeper power for less money and you are willing to climb a steeper curve, choose Make. Both tools pay us a commission on the same terms, so neither side has been favoured here, and nothing on this page has been tilted by money.
Side by side
| 11 points compared | ||
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | $9/mo | $19.99/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
| AI / LLM nodes | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in AI | Yes | Yes |
| Custom code steps | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations & API | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | No |
| Self-hosting | No | No |
| Visual builder | Yes | Yes |
| Links |
Plans and pricing
Make
- FreeFree
- Core$9/mo
- Pro$16/mo
- Teams$29/mo
Zapier
- FreeFree
- Professional$19.99/mo
- Team$69/mo
Who each is for
Choose Make if…
Pick Zapier if you want the easiest path and the biggest catalogue
You are a non-technical operator or a small team, and you want automation that simply works without learning a new mental model. Zapier is the category default for a reason: the cleanest no-code builder in the field, and the largest app catalogue by a wide margin, with 9,000-plus integrations and over 30,000 actions. If you run a long-tail SaaS stack, the odds that everything you use is already supported are highest here. The AI layer is deep too, with multi-model agents and Copilot even on the free tier.
Know where the costs land. The free plan caps you at two-step Zaps, the features most teams want, multi-step workflows, Paths and Webhooks, open on Professional at 19.99 USD a month, and task-volume pricing climbs hard as your automations get busy. If breadth and ease are what you are buying, that is a fair trade.
Choose Zapier if…
Pick Make if you want more power for less money
You are an operations, marketing or RevOps person who has outgrown simple two-step automations, and you want deeper branching and routing without paying Zapier's premium or running your own server. Make is built for exactly that gap. The visual scenario builder handles genuinely complex, multi-app logic with routers, filters and error handling, the permanent free plan is generous, and the entry Core plan undercuts Zapier at 9 USD a month while carrying a richer feature set. The AI and API tooling is strong, with 300-plus AI apps and custom code steps.
Go in clear-eyed on the trade. The learning curve is steeper than Zapier's, the app catalogue is roughly a third the size, and the credits model is harder to forecast than per-task pricing. If you want price-per-power and you are willing to climb the curve, that is the deal you want.
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