Comparisons · Automation
Make vs Zapier
Zapier for the easiest start. Make for busy multi-step workflows on a budget.
Decision box
| Make | Zapier | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Visual multi-step scenarios | Fastest setup, largest app catalog |
| Starting price | Free (1,000 credits/mo); Core from $9/mo source | Free; Professional from $19.99/mo source |
| Pick if | Your workflows are multi-step and run often, which is where builders say Zapier's costs climb fast. | You want automations running quickly with the least setup. |
| Our rating | Not scored yet | Not scored yet |
Our pick by use case
- Overall: Not enough evidence
- Beginners: Zapier
- Advanced: Make
- Cheapest: Make
- Fastest: Zapier
- Most apps: Zapier
- Best value: Not enough evidence
Built from the sources on this page. Prices from official pricing pages. Stars only for tools we tested, from documented test results.
Quick verdict
- Biggest tradeoff
- Ease versus cost at volume. Builders say Zapier gets expensive fast with multi-step, high-volume Zaps; Make's pain points are credit costs and debugging broken runs.12
- Bottom line
- A few simple two-app automations: Zapier's free plan is the quickest start. Multi-step workflows that run often: Make's entry price is lower, but credits and tasks aren't counted the same way, so check against your own workload.12456
Choose Make if…
- Your workflows are multi-step and run often, which is where builders say Zapier's costs climb fast.12
- You want a free plan that runs multi-step scenarios: our free-plan test ran an HTTP fetch plus a text parser for 2 credits a run.8
- You're fine learning a visual builder in exchange for more control than Zapier.12
What this means in practice
Builders describe a ladder: Zapier is the easiest start, Make is the visual middle ground with more control, and n8n is the flexible, self-hostable option.12
The billing units differ. Zapier counts a task for each successful action step; triggers and its built-in tools (Formatter, Filter, Paths and others) don't count. Make counts credits, by default 1 credit per module operation, and some AI modules use more.46
Zapier's free plan is limited to two-step Zaps (one trigger, one action). Multi-step Zaps, filters, paths and webhooks need Professional.4
Make's comparison page lists Core from $9/mo but doesn't say whether that's the monthly or annual rate. Its help center says annual Pro and Teams plans get the year's credits up front, while Core keeps a monthly allowance even when billed yearly.57
In our own free-plan test, a Make scenario that fetched our sitemap and parsed every URL used 2 credits per run, with a little editor friction on the first scenario. We haven't tested Zapier hands-on yet.8
Key differences
Winner by category
| Category | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | No single winner | Zapier for the easiest start, Make for multi-step workflows that run often.12 |
| Beginners | Zapier | Builders rate it the easiest to set up.12 |
| Advanced | Make | Builders put it between Zapier and n8n, with more control than Zapier. If you can self-host, n8n goes further.12 |
| Cheapest | Make | Paid plans start at $9/mo for 10,000 credits; Zapier Professional starts at $19.99/mo billed annually for 750 tasks. Units differ, so compare against your workload.45 |
| Fastest | Zapier | Quickest to set up, per builders.12 |
| Most apps | Zapier | Largest catalog per builders; Zapier lists 9,000+ apps and Make 3,000+ on their own pages.145 |
| Best value | Not enough evidence | Depends on how many steps run and how often; credits and tasks aren't counted the same way.46 |
Winners come only from the cited sources and official pages. "Not enough evidence" means our sources don't support a pick.
Weaknesses
Make
- Credit costs.12Why it matters: Busy scenarios burn credits, which builders find hard to budget.
- Debugging broken runs.12Why it matters: Failures take longer to trace in complex scenarios.
- Some first-scenario friction.8Why it matters: In our test, modules didn't auto-link on the first scenario, so expect a short learning curve.
Pricing
| Make | Zapier | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes: 1,000 credits/mo | Yes: 100 tasks/mo, two-step Zaps only |
| Starting paid price | Free (1,000 credits/mo); Core from $9/mo (10,000 credits/mo) source | Free (100 tasks/mo); Professional from $19.99/mo billed annually, $29.99 monthly (750 tasks/mo) source |
| Billing model | Subscription with credits per module operation6 | Subscription with tasks per successful action step4 |
| Usage limits | Core, Pro and Team each start at 10,000 credits/mo | Professional starts at 750 tasks/mo; over the limit, pay-per-task if you enable it |
| Cost predictability | Credit costs flagged by builders12 | Climbs with steps and volume; overage billed per task14 |
| Best for | Multi-step visual workflows on a budget | Quick, simple automations across many apps |
Prices from official pricing pages, checked 2026-10-22. "Not published" means we don't have this from an official or cited source yet.
Make guides: Is Make free? · Make pricing explained (credits) · Make for beginners · Make alternatives
Final verdict
Choose Make if
Your workflows are multi-step, run often, and you're happy to learn a visual builder.
Choose Zapier if
You want automations live fast, need the widest app catalog, and your volume is low.
Overall takeaway: Ship it with Zapier for a few simple automations. Swap it for Make when your Zaps get multi-step and busy, since that's where builders say Zapier gets expensive. Check credits vs tasks against your own workload first.1245
Sources
- r/n8n: n8n vs Zapier vs Make, honest take ↗
- r/ecommerce: Zapier vs Make vs n8n ↗
- r/nocode: tasks vs credits vs executions billing ↗
- Zapier pricing (official) ↗
- Make vs Zapier: Make's own comparison page (official, vendor-written) ↗
- Make Help Center: Credits (official) ↗
- Make Help Center: Monthly and annual subscriptions (official) ↗
- ToolsThatShip: our hands-on Make test (Oct 21, 2026) ↗
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