Zapier alternatives: 9 free and paid tools compared (2026)
9 Zapier alternatives, free and paid, compared by billing unit, free plan and entry price. Prices checked October 2026.
Rebecca PearsonUpdated 16 min read
On this page
- Key takeaways
- What we'll cover
- Pick by situation
- What Zapier charges for
- Why teams look for a Zapier alternative
- Zapier alternatives compared
- The 9 alternatives
- Other tools worth knowing
- Free Zapier alternatives
- Open-source and self-hosted options
- How to choose
- Migrating off Zapier
- Frequently asked questions
- Related reading
The best Zapier alternatives are CodeWords for teams that would rather describe a workflow than build and maintain it, Make for multi-step logic at a lower price, n8n for self-hosting and billing per run, and Activepieces for an open-source licence. Power Automate suits Microsoft 365 companies, and Workato and Tray.ai suit enterprise IT. Integrately and Pabbly Connect cost less for simple automations. For a free option, start with Make's free plan, which has no step limit. Zapier's free plan stops at two steps.
Prices and plan limits on this page are as of October 2026, checked against each vendor's pricing page. They change often, so check before you buy.
Who this is not for: if your Zaps are short, they run reliably, and your bill is under about $30 a month, the time to rebuild them elsewhere will cost more than you save. Zapier also still has the largest app catalog. If you depend on a niche app that only Zapier connects to, check the alternative supports it before reading further.
Key takeaways
- Zapier counts one task for each action step that runs, so a five-step Zap (one trigger and four actions) that runs 200 times a month uses 800 tasks.
- Zapier's free plan allows two-step Zaps only. Make's free plan has no step limit (Make pricing page, 2026).
- n8n, Activepieces and Albato bill per run, so extra steps do not raise the bill.
- Only n8n and Activepieces self-host. Zapier and Make are cloud only.
- CodeWords builds the workflow from your description: Cody, the CodeWords builder, builds it, connects your tools and runs it.
- If your Zaps are short, work and cost under about $30 a month, staying on Zapier is usually cheaper than moving.
What we'll cover
- Key takeaways
- Pick by situation
- What Zapier charges for
- Why teams look for a Zapier alternative
- Zapier alternatives compared
- The 9 alternatives
- Other tools worth knowing
- Free Zapier alternatives
- Open-source and self-hosted options
- How to choose
- Migrating off Zapier
- Frequently asked questions
Pick by situation
The right Zapier alternative depends on what is wrong with Zapier for you. Find your situation in the left column. The middle column names the tool that answers it, and the right column says why. The last row is the case where staying on Zapier is the better call.
| Your situation | Best pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You would rather describe a workflow than build it | CodeWords | Cody builds, connects and runs it; you describe each change |
| Multi-step Zaps make the task bill grow | Make or n8n | Make credits are cheaper per step; n8n bills per run |
| You need branching, loops and data mapping | Make | Visual canvas with routers and iterators |
| Data must stay on your own servers | n8n or Activepieces | Both self-host |
| Your company runs on Microsoft 365 | Power Automate | Connectors for Microsoft apps plus desktop RPA |
| IT needs governance and security review | Workato or Tray.ai | Built for enterprise integration |
| Many simple two-app automations, low budget | Integrately or Pabbly Connect | Ready-made automations, low price per task |
| Personal or smart-home automations | IFTTT | Simple trigger-action applets |
| Short, working Zaps and a small bill | Stay on Zapier | Moving costs more than it saves |
What Zapier charges for
Zapier charges for tasks, and each action step that runs counts as one task. Zapier connects 9,000+ apps (Zapier, 2026). A Zap is a trigger plus one or more actions, and each action that runs counts as one task. A five-step Zap with one trigger and four actions that runs 200 times a month uses 800 tasks. So the bill grows with both volume and the number of steps.
As of October 2026 (Zapier pricing page, 2026):
| Plan | Price | Tasks a month | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 | Two-step Zaps only, 15-minute polling |
| Professional | $19.99/mo billed annually ($29.99 monthly) | 750 | Multi-step Zaps |
| Team | $69/mo billed annually ($103.50 monthly) | 2,000 | Shared workspace, more users |
| Enterprise | Through sales | Custom | Admin and security controls |
Zapier's Copilot builds and edits Zaps from a prompt. Zapier Agents, its AI agent product, is billed separately from Zaps.
Why teams look for a Zapier alternative
Teams look for a Zapier alternative for five main reasons: the task bill, the two-step free plan, awkward branching, no self-hosting, and Zaps that get hard to maintain. Each reason points to a different tool, so name yours before you compare prices.
The task bill grows with every step. Adding a filter, a lookup or a second destination to a Zap adds tasks to every run. Teams that improve their Zaps pay more to run them.
The free plan stops at two steps. A trigger and one action rules out most real processes, so the free plan works mainly as a test.
Complex logic is awkward. Zapier is built around a linear sequence. Paths and loops exist on paid plans, but large branching processes are easier to read on a canvas or in code.
No self-hosting. Zapier is cloud-only. If your data cannot leave your infrastructure, it is not an option.
Many Zaps become hard to maintain. Fifty Zaps built by different people, with no record of why each exists, break quietly. Changing one safely often needs the person who built it.
Zapier alternatives compared
The Zapier alternatives differ most in what they bill for: a step, a run or a user. The table puts the billing unit next to the free plan and the cheapest paid plan, so you can estimate the cost of your own workload. Prices are as of October 2026, from each vendor's pricing page. "Entry paid" is the cheapest paid plan.
| Tool | Billing unit | Free plan | Entry paid | Self-host | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Task (per action step) | 100 tasks, two-step Zaps | $19.99/mo annual | No | Widest app catalog |
| CodeWords | Workflow run | 100 runs/month | $39/mo | No | Describing workflows instead of building them |
| Make | Credit (per module action) | 1,000 credits/month | $9/mo annual | No | Multi-step logic at low cost |
| n8n | Execution (per run) | Self-hosted Community Edition | €20/mo annual | Yes | Technical teams, self-hosting |
| Activepieces | Credit (per run) | 1,000 credits/month | $20/mo | Yes | Open-source (MIT) core |
| Power Automate | Per user or per bot | 30-day trial | $15/user/mo annual | No | Microsoft 365 organisations |
| Workato | Platform fee plus usage | No | Through sales | No | Enterprise integration |
| Tray.ai | Plan tiers | Trial through sales | Through sales | No | Enterprise integration and AI agents |
| Integrately | Task | 100 tasks, single-step | $19.99/mo annual | No | Ready-made two-app automations |
| Pabbly Connect | Task | 100 tasks, 2 workflows | $14/mo (₹1,138 in India) | No | Low price, lifetime deals |
The 9 alternatives
The 9 alternatives below start with CodeWords, our own product, then run from the closest Zapier replacements to enterprise platforms and low-cost tools. Each entry gives pricing as of October 2026, who it suits, and what to watch out for.
1. CodeWords
CodeWords is workflow automation you describe. You describe the process, and Cody, the CodeWords builder, builds the workflow, connects it to your tools and runs it. When the process changes, you describe the change and approve it, instead of editing a Zap step by step.
Pricing (October 2026): Free at $0 with 100 workflow runs a month and unlimited projects. Pro is $39 a month for 2,500 runs with on-demand top-ups. Business is $100 a month for unlimited runs. Custom plans are through sales (CodeWords pricing page, 2026). API keys, the Claude connector and the ChatGPT plugin need a paid plan. Details are on the pricing page.
Best for: teams with recurring jobs they can describe, who do not want to maintain the Zap afterwards.
Watch out for: if you need a niche app that only Zapier's catalog covers, check CodeWords integrations first. If your Zaps are simple two-step syncs that already work, Zapier is fine. The CodeWords vs Zapier comparison goes through the trade in detail.
2. Make
Make, formerly Integromat, is the most common move from Zapier. You build "scenarios" on a visual canvas, with routers for branching, iterators for lists and detailed data mapping. Its execution history shows exactly what passed through each module, which makes debugging easier than in Zapier.
Pricing (October 2026): Free with 1,000 credits a month. Paid plans start at Core, about $9 a month billed annually for 10,000 credits, then Pro at $16 and Teams at $29 (Make pricing page, 2026). One credit is roughly one module action.
Best for: multi-step processes with branching or data reshaping, at a lower price per step than Zapier.
Watch out for: credits still count per module, so a long scenario costs more per run. Large canvases get hard to maintain. Make does not self-host. Our Make.com alternatives guide covers the reasons teams leave Make.
3. n8n
n8n is a node-based workflow tool you can run on your own servers. Code nodes take JavaScript or Python, so complex logic can be written rather than drawn. It is licensed under a sustainable-use licence, which allows internal use and self-hosting but restricts selling it as a hosted service.
Pricing (October 2026): the self-hosted Community Edition is free. Cloud plans are priced in euros: Starter €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions, Pro €50 for 10,000 (n8n pricing page, 2026). There is no free cloud plan, only a trial.
Best for: technical teams, self-hosting, and long workflows. An execution is one run however many steps it has, so complexity does not raise the bill.
Watch out for: it assumes someone comfortable with code and, if self-hosted, with running a server.
4. Activepieces
Activepieces is an open-source automation tool with an MIT-licensed core, which you can self-host or use in the cloud. Its builder is simpler than n8n's, and the licence lets you embed it in a product you sell.
Pricing (October 2026): Free at $0 for 1,000 credits a month with unlimited flows. Plus is $20 a month for 10,000 credits, Team $200 for 50,000 (Activepieces pricing page, 2026). Paid allowances reset monthly. A run costs one credit however many steps it has; AI steps cost more.
Best for: teams that want an open licence and per-run billing without n8n's learning curve.
Watch out for: a smaller app catalog and community than Zapier or n8n.
5. Microsoft Power Automate
Power Automate is Microsoft's automation tool, part of the Power Platform. It runs cloud flows between apps and desktop flows (robotic process automation, or RPA) for older systems with no API.
Pricing (October 2026): Premium is $15 per user a month and Process is $150 per bot a month, both billed yearly (Microsoft pricing page, 2026). Many Microsoft 365 business plans include Power Automate with standard connectors.
Best for: organisations already on Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and Azure.
Watch out for: licensing is complex, and the value drops quickly if most of your apps are outside Microsoft.
6. Workato
Workato is an enterprise platform for integration, API management and automation, used by IT and business teams. Its building blocks are "recipes", and it handles on-premise systems through agents.
Pricing (October 2026): not published. Workato charges a platform fee plus usage, quoted through sales.
Best for: mid-market and enterprise companies that need governance, audit trails and on-premise connections.
Watch out for: cost and setup are far beyond what a small team needs.
7. Tray.ai
Tray.ai, formerly Tray.io, is an enterprise integration platform with a low-code builder, role-based access, environment promotion and an AI agent builder.
Pricing (October 2026): Pro, Team and Enterprise tiers, all quoted through sales.
Best for: enterprise teams building integrations and AI agents under IT governance.
Watch out for: like Workato, it needs an owner and a budget well above Zapier's.
8. Integrately
Integrately offers a large library of ready-made automations for common app pairs, which you turn on with little setup.
Pricing (October 2026): Free with 100 tasks, single-step only. Paid plans are $19.99, $39, $99 and $239 a month, billed annually (Integrately pricing page, 2026).
Best for: small businesses running many simple automations between popular apps.
Watch out for: the free plan has no webhooks or if/else logic, and complex processes push you into the higher tiers.
9. Pabbly Connect
Pabbly Connect works much like Zapier, with triggers, actions, routers and filters, and is known for low prices and lifetime deals.
Pricing (October 2026): Free with 100 tasks a month across 2 workflows. Standard is $14 a month for 10,000 tasks and Unlimited is $59 a month. Lifetime deals start at $349 for 3,000 tasks a month (Pabbly pricing page, 2026). Visitors from India see rupee prices, with Standard at ₹1,138 a month.
Best for: cost-conscious teams that want a Zapier-style builder at a lower price.
Watch out for: a smaller app catalog and a less polished interface than Zapier.
Other tools worth knowing
Four other tools come up in Zapier comparisons but suit narrower jobs: IFTTT for personal automations, Pipedream for engineers, Albato for per-run billing, and Gumloop or Lindy for AI-heavy work.
IFTTT connects consumer apps and smart-home devices with trigger-action applets. As of October 2026, Free allows 2 applets and Pro is $2.99 a month (IFTTT pricing page, 2026). It suits personal automations, not business processes.
Pipedream is for engineers who want to write each step in Node.js or Python. As of October 2026 its free plan is for development only, and Startup is $99 a month billed annually (Pipedream pricing page, 2026).
Albato bills per transaction, one run of an automation however many steps it has. Pro starts at $15 a month billed annually (Albato pricing page, 2026).
Gumloop and Lindy are AI agent builders rather than app-sync tools. Look at them when most of a workflow is AI steps, such as summarising, classifying or drafting. See CodeWords vs Gumloop and CodeWords vs Lindy.
Free Zapier alternatives
Zapier's free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only. Two steps means a trigger and one action, so a condition, a lookup or a second destination is not possible. That rules out most real processes.
Several alternatives are free. The useful question is which free plan lets you run the process you need. The plans below are compared on their limits, because the limits decide what you can run. Limits are as of October 2026 and change often.
The limit that stops you
Every free plan restricts you in several ways, and usually only one of them stops you:
- Step count is the hardest limit, because it controls what you can build at all. Zapier and Albato both cap free automations at two steps, and Integrately at one.
- Run or task volume is the number everyone compares, but at small scale it is rarely the one you hit first.
- Automation count limits how many separate automations you can keep running.
- Daily caps do not accumulate. 100 a day is not 3,000 a month, and a workload that is quiet most days and busy on Mondays fails on Mondays. Check whether an allowance resets daily or monthly.
- Log retention decides whether you can debug something that failed last week.
Make's free plan
Make's free plan gives 1,000 credits a month with no step limit. You can use routers, iterators and error handling, as on a paid plan. That makes it the best free plan here for testing a real multi-step process.
What stops you: credits count per module, per run. A fifteen-module scenario uses the monthly allowance in about 66 runs. Core is about $9 a month billed annually, so the free plan works more as a trial than as a permanent home.
Activepieces' free plan
Activepieces' free plan gives 1,000 credits a month and unlimited flows. Most free plans limit how many automations you can have. This one limits only use, and a run costs one credit however many steps it has, so you can run a dozen small automations.
What stops you: the credit allowance, and AI steps use more than one credit. The pricing page also says the free allowance resets daily, and runs over the limit wait until the next day, so check before relying on bursty volume.
Albato's free plan
Albato's free plan gives 100 transactions a month, where a transaction is one complete run however many steps it has. Then come the other limits: five active automations, two steps each.
What stops you: the two-step limit, for the same reason as Zapier's. Use it to confirm Albato connects to your systems, not to run a process.
Google Apps Script, free with Workspace
If you already pay for Google Workspace, Apps Script is free. It runs JavaScript against Sheets, Docs, Gmail, Drive, Calendar and Forms, with time-based and event triggers, and it can call external APIs.
What stops you: you write code, per-account quotas apply (emails sent, script runtime), and it is awkward for anything outside Google. For a process that lives inside Workspace, such as a weekly Sheets report sent by email, it is free and permanent.
CodeWords' free plan
CodeWords' free plan is $0 a month for 100 workflow runs and unlimited projects. You describe the process, and Cody builds it, connects it to your tools and runs it.
What stops you: 100 runs a month, and API keys, the Claude connector and the ChatGPT plugin need a paid plan. Pro is $39 a month for 2,500 runs and Business is $100 a month for unlimited runs; details are on the pricing page.
The free plans compared
| Plan | Volume allowance | Step limit | Automation limit | What stops you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier Free | 100 tasks/month | 2 steps | Unlimited Zaps | Two-step cap |
| Make Free | 1,000 credits/month | None | Not stated on pricing page | Credits, multiplied by modules |
| Activepieces Free | 1,000 credits/month | None | Unlimited flows | Credit allowance |
| Albato Free | 100 transactions/month | 2 steps | 5 automations | Two-step cap |
| Integrately Free | 100 tasks/month | 1 action | Not stated | Single-step cap, no webhooks |
| Pabbly Connect Free | 100 tasks/month | 2 steps | 2 workflows | Workflow and step caps |
| Apps Script | Account quotas | None | Unlimited | Needs code; Google only |
| CodeWords Free | 100 workflow runs/month | None | Unlimited projects | Run count |
The short version: Make if you want to build something real and see how it behaves. Activepieces for several small automations. Apps Script if your work is inside Google. CodeWords if you'd rather describe the process than build it step by step. Zapier, Albato, Integrately and Pabbly free are for testing that a connection works, not for running a process.
When free stops being the right answer: when you spend more than an afternoon working around a limit, when a failed run would cost you something real, or when the shape of your automation comes from a pricing tier instead of the process. At that point you are paying in complexity instead of money. Also check that a "free plan" does not expire: some vendors call a 14-day trial a free plan.
Open-source and self-hosted options
The open-source and self-hosted options most teams compare are n8n and Activepieces. n8n is more mature and has the larger community. Activepieces has the more permissive MIT licence and is lighter to run. Other open-source names include Node-RED for event and device flows, Apache Airflow for scheduled data pipelines, and Automatisch, which copies Zapier's trigger-and-action model.
The licence is free and running it is not. Updates, backups and monitoring take someone's time every month. Self-hosting pays when someone already runs servers, and costs more than a subscription when someone has to learn it first. The open-source Zapier alternatives guide covers that trade in detail.
How to choose
To choose a Zapier alternative, answer five questions in order: where data must live, what IT needs, which apps you depend on, what your workload costs, and who will maintain it. The list usually narrows to one or two tools.
- Must data stay on your servers? If yes, n8n or Activepieces.
- Does IT need governance, audit trails or on-premise connections? If yes, Workato, Tray.ai or Power Automate.
- Are your core apps supported? Check each alternative's catalog for every app you depend on before anything else.
- What does your real workload cost? Count the action steps in a typical Zap and multiply by monthly runs for Zapier, or count every module that runs for Make. The run count alone is your n8n, Activepieces or Albato figure.
- Who will maintain it? A visual canvas needs someone who builds; n8n needs someone who codes; CodeWords needs someone who can describe the process.
Migrating off Zapier
Migrating off Zapier means rebuilding, not importing, so the work is mostly writing down what each Zap does. Five steps keep the move safe.
Inventory first. List every Zap, what it does, who owns it and when it last ran. Some will turn out to be unused.
Expect a rebuild. Zaps do not export into any other platform's format. Write down what each one does; that description is what you rebuild from. On CodeWords, the description is what you give Cody.
Start with a Zap that can afford a mistake, so the team learns the new tool on low-risk work.
Run both in parallel for a cycle on anything important, and compare outputs before switching off the Zap.
Set a date to cancel Zapier, or you will pay for two platforms with no end date.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Zapier alternative?
The best Zapier alternative for most teams is Make, which handles multi-step logic at a lower price per step. Choose n8n if you need self-hosting or billing per run, Power Automate if your company runs on Microsoft 365, and CodeWords if you would rather describe workflows than build them step by step.
Are there any useful free Zapier alternatives?
Yes, if you pick the free plan by its limits. Make's free plan gives 1,000 credits a month with no step limit, so it runs real multi-step processes. Activepieces gives 1,000 credits a month with unlimited flows. Both n8n and Activepieces are free to self-host. The CodeWords free plan includes 100 workflow runs a month.
What is cheaper than Zapier?
Make, Albato, Integrately and Pabbly Connect all cost less than Zapier at entry level, based on their pricing pages in October 2026. For long workflows, tools that bill per run, such as n8n, Activepieces and Albato, cost less again, because extra steps in a workflow do not add to the bill.
What is the difference between a task, a credit and an execution?
A Zapier task is one action step that runs. A Make credit is roughly one module action. An n8n execution is one full run of a workflow, however many steps it has. For a two-step automation the difference is small. For a ten-step automation, the billing unit decides most of the bill.
Is Make better than Zapier?
Yes, for complex and branching processes. Make's canvas handles routing and data mapping better, and its price per step is lower. No, for short linear automations or for apps that only Zapier supports. In those cases Zapier is faster to set up and has the larger app catalog.
Which Zapier alternative is open source?
The main options are n8n, which is source-available under a sustainable-use licence, and Activepieces, which has an MIT-licensed open-source core. Both can run on your own servers. Node-RED, Apache Airflow and Automatisch are also open source, but they serve narrower uses such as device flows, data pipelines or simple trigger-and-action automations.
Can I import my Zaps into another tool?
No, no other platform imports Zaps directly as of October 2026. Plan to rebuild each Zap from a written description of its trigger, its steps and its owner. Writing those descriptions also shows which Zaps nobody uses any more. On CodeWords, the description is what you give Cody to build from.