Zapier vs. Make: Which Automation Tool Saves More Time
Sarah, owner of “Pawsome Treats” bakery, spends an hour every morning manually transferring new online order details from Shopify to her accounting software, then copying customer emails into her marketing platform. This isn’t just tedious; it’s an hour she could be spending baking, marketing, or even sleeping. When it comes to automating these repetitive tasks, Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat) are the two titans. For small business owners like Sarah, Make is the undisputed champion for saving time, primarily due to its visual workflow builder and cost-effectiveness for complex scenarios.
While Zapier has a user-friendly interface that’s great for simple, linear automations, Make truly shines when your processes involve multiple steps, conditional logic, or branching paths. Imagine Sarah’s new order automation: with Zapier, she might need two separate “Zaps” – one for accounting, one for email. With Make, she can build a single “scenario” that pulls the Shopify order, checks if it’s a first-time customer (conditional logic!), sends details to accounting, and then, if new, adds the email to her welcome sequence in her marketing tool. This all happens within one visual canvas, making it incredibly easy to see exactly what’s happening at each step, debug issues, and modify the flow as her business grows. The ability to build complex, multi-step workflows in a single scenario dramatically reduces the number of individual automations you need to manage, thereby saving precious setup and maintenance time.
Let’s talk money, because for small businesses, every dollar counts. Zapier’s pricing model can quickly become expensive as your automations become more intricate or frequent. Its plans are primarily based on “tasks” (each action counts as a task) and “Zaps” (individual automations). For example, Zapier’s Starter plan at $19.99/month (billed annually) offers 750 tasks, while its Professional plan at $49/month offers 2,000 tasks. Make, on the other hand, offers significantly more operations (their equivalent of tasks) for the price. Make’s Core plan starts at $9/month (billed annually) for 10,000 operations, and their Pro plan is $16/month for 20,000 operations. This isn’t just a slight difference; it’s a massive discrepancy in value, especially when a single Make scenario can replace multiple Zapier Zaps, further amplifying the cost savings for the same amount of automation. This lower cost means Sarah can automate more of her business processes without breaking the bank, freeing up even more of her time.
The time savings from Make come from two key areas: the efficiency of building and managing complex, multi-step automations within a single visual scenario, and the sheer volume of operations you get for your money. Less time spent wrestling with multiple automations and less money spent on subscriptions means more time and resources focused on what truly matters: growing your business. For small business owners who need robust, scalable automation without the premium price tag, Make is the clear choice.
Sign up for Make’s free tier and build your first multi-step scenario today.