For many of us, the word ‘Zapier’ has become interchangeable with the word ‘automation’. They are undoubtedly the most prominent and loved integration service out there. Yet it doesn’t mean that Zapier is the best option for everyone, forever. If you are on this page right now, it means you’ve been searching for Zapier alternatives because it just stopped working for you the way it used to.
In this article, what you won’t find is an exhaustive list of all possible alternatives to Zapier. Simply because there are just too many of them, and new Zapier competitors seem to spring up like mushrooms after the rain every month or so.
What you will find instead is a number of high-quality, established integration tools that users of Zapier might want to switch to for various reasons.
In addition to that, we grouped these Zapier alternatives according to the potential user needs. Sometimes, let’s face it, Zapier just gets too expensive for the small tasks you automate with it.
Other times, the pricing is OK but your integration scenarios grow more complex, requiring more flexibility and scalability that Zapier can offer.
Last but not least, if you’re a SaaS vendor who’s looking to build more powerful native integrations for your SaaS product, Zapier just won’t cut it for this very specific job simply because it lacks any embedding capabilities.
Below you will find:
Free Zapier alternatives
Let’s start by acknowledging that rarely any SaaS service is really completely free. And so, in the context of “free alternatives to Zapier”, we will take a look at a number of integration tools and services that provide the so-called “free forever” tier in their pricing plans.
As such, these free tiers are always limited in their functionality and / or available options. Many times, though, a free tier is actually quite enough for integration jobs that are, let’s say, not ambitious and require only 2-3 applications to be connected with each other.
Further down below, we’ll dive into more details on what is included in free tiers of each of the listed Zapier competitors. Jumping ahead, though, I can already tease that there is indeed one Zapier alternative that is really, truly free due to their unusual business model. So, let’s start, shall we?
Make (aka Integromat)
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that any listing of Zapier alternatives usually starts with Make (formerly known as Integromat), and that is for a good reason. After Zapier, Make has probably the most comprehensive library of available applications it connects to. But that’s not the only thing that makes Make (no pun intended) / Integromat so impressive.
The Key Features of Make:
- An amazing, visual drag-and-drop visual builder for integrations
- Extremely user-friendly
- Easy-to-use both for business users and tech-savvy folks
The screenshot above is not just a graphic designer’s representation of Make’s interface; this Zapier competitor does look that cool for real. Admittedly, this extra touch of cuteness might not be to everyone’s taste, but hey – as long as it works, and it does work great, that’s all that really matters.
In fact, Make / Integromat is so user-friendly that even a business user with very limited technical understanding can use its REST element to call a REST API. Yes, I’m speaking from experience here 🙂
Make / Integromat free tier pricing:
On a free tier, a user can already enjoy quite a number of cool features:
- No-code workflow builder
- Unlimited access to 1000+ standard apps
- Custom applications
- Unlimited users
- Two-factor authentication
- Parallel scenario execution
- Real-time execution monitoring
Mind you that on a free tier, you won’t be able to create and manage teams with granular permission rights, the integration execution interval is limited to 15 minutes (on a paid tier, it’s only 1 minute), and you won’t have access to premium and enterprise apps.
Having said that, most enterprise business applications such as Salesforce, Shopify, Asana, or Jira are considered to be standard apps on Make, meaning that even on a free plan, you’ll have a great collection of applications to work with.
Make free plan pros:
- The first pro is that there is a free plan to begin with
- You get access to an insanely large number of apps, both consumer and business oriented
- You can totally use together with your colleagues since there is no limit on users
Make free plan cons:
- It’s rather unsuitable if you need to have user role-based permissions access
- You can have only 2 integration scenarios that are active and running at the same time
- Support is rather limited
Make features compared to Zapier
Out of all Zapier competitors, Make is probably the one that comes the closest to it. It’s extremely easy to use and has a great self-service onboarding tour to help new users find their way around the tool and understand how it works faster.
While Zapier wins in the number of apps it can connect to, Make offers more sophisticated functionalities like text parsers, data transformations and routers to help translate even complex business logic into integration tasks.
Compared to Zapier, though, several users of Make left pretty negative reviews on the poor quality of support with regard to both promptness and helpfulness, and an overwhelming number of users mentioned that though Make pricing is more compelling, it’s much harder to work with than Zapier. All in all, with a free tier provided, it’s easier to test Make as long as possible and see for yourself if it’s something that can fully address your needs.
IFTTT
IFTTT used to be very present on many lists of direct Zapier alternatives a few years ago, but it seems to be less so nowadays. This is mainly because IFTTT has placed more focus on automating home-related apps rather than business-related ones. Triggering home devices through Alexa, automatically turning lights on at sunset or asking Google Assistant to preheat your oven is where IFTTT stands out clearly against Zapier. Still, they are building their business-related assets as well, that’s why we’re including IFTTT on our list as a potential Zapier alternative.
The Key Features of IFTTT:
- Exceptionally easy to set up an automation
- Over 700 services and products available to connect
- There is a mobile IFTTT app, both for Android and iOS
Many users have praised the ease-of-use that IFTTT provides, and after testing it a bit, I can only agree with that. You can either select each app individually and set up an integration flow step by step, or you can use one of the many pre-built recipes, for example, for tracking your work hours in a calendar using integration with a map (you’d need to enter your work location when setting up the integration and every time your phone’s map registers that you’ve arrived at / left this location, this will be logged in your calendar – I think it’s pretty awesome).
IFTTT free tier pricing:
The free tier at IFTTT includes the following:
- 5 applets (applets are same as zaps – meaning, they are an entire workflow)
- Standard applet runtime speed, individual to a specific applet
- Create your own or use already pre-built applets
- Unlimited applet runs
- Free access to the IFTTT mobile app
- Simple no-code integrations
What the free tier is missing in comparison with the much more advanced Pro+ plan is the ability to add custom integration logic with the help of queries and the filter code. In addition to that, there is limited customer support (if any) and no developer tools whatsoever. But if you’re a regular consumer who just wants to connect a few of your smart home devices with each other, you generally won’t need any developer tools in the first place.
IFTTT free plan pros:
- The free plan gives you access to absolutely ALL 700+ services and products on IFTTT
- You can access your applets (read: control you home devices) even on the go with a mobile app
- This plan is free forever. I originally created my IFTTT account about 6-7 years ago, and it’s still working reliably
IFTTT free plan cons:
- While 5 applets is not bad, you might run out of these pretty quickly
- You cannot control the speed at which your applets run (read: how quickly tasks are executed)
- You can’t have applets that have several actions triggered by one and the same event – such as “when my location is pinned next to home, pre-heat the oven, switch on the lights and start playing my Spotify list”
IFTTT features compared to Zapier
As already mentioned before, IFTTT has a much stronger focus on the so-called “Internet of things” than on business applications. They do have a number of connectors that can be used in a business setup such as Trello, SurveyMonkey, Salesforce, or Notion, but the number of devices and “things” they connect to is undoubtedly much, much higher.
In this sense, IFTTT can hardly be considered as a direct Zapier competitor but some users have indeed used rather IFTTT to e.g. automate content management after content creation, content distribution, or changes alerting and logging.
What many users have mentioned to miss with IFTTT is the ability to create multi-step workflows that Zapier and Make can handle, on the contrary, really well. But the overall ease-of-use and value-for-price comments seem to be in favor of IFTTT.
Apiway
Out of all available alternatives to Zapier, Apiway is this one integration services provider I mentioned earlier that is completely free for all, with no other pricing tiers available. This is due to their unique business model, where software vendors buy ads on their marketplace. Apiway seems to focus primarily on automating business processes that are common for marketing and sales teams, and bearing this in mind, it does provide an impressive number of apps to connect to.
The Key Features of Apiway:
- Over 50 social media, CRM, and communication applications
- No-code API integration platform
- It has a nice, clean interface
For marketing and sales teams, Apiway provides a solid number of applications one can connect to, including Hubspot, Pipedrive, Google Analytics, MailChimp, Facebook, etc. It is also indeed a no-code platform – unlike many other Zapier alternatives, Apiway doesn’t offer connections for webhooks or REST / SOAP APIs.
Apiway pricing:
Since there is no pricing in general, there is no comparison between the free tier and any other tiers – simply because there are none 🙂 The model is unusual, though, and the product seems to be in beta at the moment. It is unclear if Apiway will manage to keep it that way – considering that there are many comparable providers that don’t charge vendors anything.
Apiway features compared to Zapier
Apiway seems to have launched quite recently and being at such a young stage, it misses some of the advanced features that Zapier provides. In addition to that, compared to Zapier’s several thousand apps, this service’s 50 applications look like a really modest offering. Nevertheless, if you’re in marketing or sales, this might be just enough for you.
One issue I had with Apiway is that the logic behind its interface is somewhat unconventional and as such, a bit confusing. After signing up, you land in the “My apps” area, and judging by the way how most integration services go, you’d think that by selecting and connecting to an app, you’d automatically start building a flow but that’s not the case here. For flow building, there is a separate area called “My ways”, from where you can still select and connect to apps as you go.
But the overall feedback on ProductHunt is very favorable. As one user put it: “With Apiway, we can’t make complex integrations yet, but I can reduce the amount of my task consumption in other competitor apps.”
Coupler.io
Coupler.io is another Zapier competitor that is rather specialized in specific use case scenarios than being generic like Make. Particularly, with its so-called “destinations” consisting only of three applications – Google Sheets, Google BigQuery, and Microsoft Excel – it seems to be more about data collection for forecasting, reporting, dashboards creation, and other similar purposes.
The Key Features of Coupler.io:
- Data imports in near real-time
- Provides JSON API to connect to application not yet available by default
- Comes with additional services on demand such as data visualization and business analytics
Coupler.io allows you to set up schedules for data imports on an hourly, daily, and monthly basis. In addition to that, it supports the import of historical data – something that Zapier, for one, still doesn’t provide. Plus Coupler.io delivers not only the product for getting more out of your data but also a number of services. Its own data exports can help companies with the analysis of customer demographics and behavior, creation of sales dashboards, and more.
Coupler.io free tier pricing:
On a free tier, this Zapier competitor offers quite a number of solid features to its users:
- Unlimited number of users
- Unlimited number of integrations
- 100 runs monthly (a run is a one-time activity when data is moved from one app to another)
- 1,000 rows of data to pull per one run
- Automatic data refresh every one hour
So, if you’re unsure if Coupler.io is something you’d like to move to from Zapier or the data volumes you’re working with are not very large, this free tier will probably cover all your needs. However, if you’re working on data-intensive tasks and need near-real time updates, that’s when you’ll have to consider one of the Coupler.io’s paid pricing plans. The nice thing about the paid tiers is that they come with a 14-day trial.
Coupler.io free plan pros:
- No limitations on the types and number of apps you can connect
- You can share the workspace with any number of your colleagues
- Even on the free tier, you’re getting a fully-functional integration tool
Coupler.io free plan cons:
- Not suitable if you need to sync data more than once-twice a day or for more than 2 source applications (otherwise you’ll run out your monthly 100 runs – no pun intended)
- If data updates are time-sensitive, the automatic refresh on an hourly basis won’t do the trick
- If you have very large datasets, you’ll run out of your quota pretty fast
Coupler.io features compared to Zapier
In comparison to Zapier, Coupler.io undoubtedly has much less applications to offer, but at the same time, the use cases that this Zapier alternative offers are very clear and focused, and so is its value proposition.
In fact, on Hubspot, for example, Coupler.io has received 5 stars out of five from absolutely all reviewers – I think, it’s fair to say that this is a rare case.
However, this integration tool has its limitations, too. For one, you cannot fetch data based on a specific trigger such as “new deal created”. Coupler.io seems to be largely suitable for data migration and data collection purposes than for sophisticated, event-driven business processes.
Integrately
Judging by the sheer number of applications that Integrately allows you to connect with, it is one of the few true Zapier competitors with a free-tier option. This integration tool provides connectors for over 800 apps and seems to address a variety of use cases, both in a B2C as well as B2B setting.
The Key Features of Integrately:
- An insane amount of recipes
- Awesome in-app user onboarding & support
- Very easy-to-understand visual integrations builder
Recipes are essentially automation scenarios that are pre-built and can be activated with just a few clicks. This is not a standardized term but it’s still used quite widely in the integration community. And so, Integrately seems to have over 6 million (get that!) of such 1-click integrations.
In addition to that, Integrately makes it extremely easy to connect applications. Whether you want to just activate an available recipe or build a flow from scratch, you obviously need to authorize Integrately’s access to each of the participating apps. Generally, sometimes it’s as easy as signing up to a service with your Google or Facebook account. At other times, you require an API key or a token.
Integrately goes as far as providing you a short in-app video that shows how you can find this API key or token in a respective application. This kind of user support is rare, believe me. I cannot say for sure if this kind of help is provided for absolutely all recipes (after all, there are over 6 million of them), but the ones I checked did have it.
Integrately free tier pricing:
The free forever tier provides a number of great features:
- 200 tasks (in other words, occurrences of data changes)
- 15-minute intervals for data updates checks
- 5 automations (aka recipes)
- Single step automations (i.e. only one trigger and one action)
- Webhooks
To sum it up, the free tier provided by Integrately will satisfy your needs if you have only a few processes that you’d like to automate, and these processes are neither data-heavy nor time-sensitive.
In fact, Integrately directly states their advantage over Zapier when it comes to the number of tasks available at each pricing tier, including the free one: 200 with Integrately vs 100 with Zapier. So it seems that Integrately themselves clearly position themselves as a direct Zapier competitor.
Integrately free plan pros:
- Offers enough features and quota to evaluate Integrately properly
- Provides more value when compared to Zapier’s free plan
- Includes webhooks which is cool for some event-driven automations
Integrately free plan cons:
- It’s not possible to add complex logic such as sending data to different directions if certain parameters are met (or not met)
- Not suitable of you require frequent and / or time-sensitive data updates
- Support is very limited
Integrately features compared to Zapier
Out of all Zapier competitors, Integrately seems to be really, really close to it in terms of its offering package. It supports not only a large number of apps and services, but offers a huge selection of pre-built automations – much like Zapier does.
This being said, Integrately seems to be a bit less mature than Zapier and as such, misses to support some quite simple automation scenarios such as automatically adding a name and an email address of a GSuite email sender to one’s own email service provider.
Generally, though, it looks like Integrately is a very solid Zapier alternative which offers more value for money. In fact, many users reported switching to Integrately from Zapier only because of the pricing reasons, which indicates that feature-wise, these two integration tools seem to be on a par.
Automate.io
The only reason I wanted to mention Automate.io is because all the listings of alternatives to Zapier that you find in the first search results missed the fact that Automate.io is discontinuing its product and doesn’t accept new users.
Automate.io was indeed one of the main Zapier competitors out there, and they do have an awesome product. However, they were acquired by none other than Notion in 2021. Apparently, the team of Automate.io made a decision in May 2022 to focus on building sort of a new product together with Notion, and as a result of this decision, they want to focus all their development resources on this goal.
Honorable mentions
- KonnectzIT – a young European startup that launched its no-code integration product in 2020 and already supports a large number of various applications
- Quabbly – supports only 30 apps at the moment, with the main focus being seemingly on automating marketing and office, but provides dozens and dozens of automation templates
- Exalate – provides very few connectors but its area of expertise seems to be very focused anyways on sync scenarios with Jira, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Azure DevOps, Zendesk, HP ALM and Github
- LeadsBridge – is a very solid Zapier alternative for Marketing and Sales teams, focusing on applications and platforms for paid advertising, social media, chatbots, etc., and of course customer relationship management (CRM)
- Sheetgo – the use cases include spreadsheets in this way or another, hence the name of the company and the product. But considering how often spreadsheets are still used to collect and exchange data, it’s probably a very smart business focus
Paid Zapier alternatives
If pricing is not the reason why you’re looking for alternatives to Zaper but it’s rather about missing features or you’re looking for a solution that can support more complex integration scenarios with sophisticated data transformation and manipulation, conditions, and more depth, here comes a list of Zapier alternatives that don’t have a free pricing tier at all. Instead, they make up for it with their powerful integration product.
Tray.io Platform
Tray.io offers a very comprehensive product geared towards several user groups. Business users can use the intuitive UI to build some simple integrations on their own, while IT teams can leverage the low-code approach to speed up development of more complex integrations.
The Key Features of Tray.io:
- Support for about 400 applications and services
- Use cases focus particularly on the needs of marketing, sales and eCommerce
- A visual builder that offers an excellent balance between complexity and usability
A word of clarification first: While Tray.io claims on their website that they have over 600 apps, when you navigate to the list of their connectors, you’ll find only 386 (and since I prefer to believe my own eyes than words, I’ll stick to “about 400”). But hey – I don’t know an integration vendor who doesn’t get a bit economical with the truth when it comes to showing off the number of apps they support.
Generally, though, the vast majority of users praise the superb integration builder of this Zapier alternative.
Tray.io Platform pricing:
- Professional: $1000 per month / billed annually
- Team: $2000 per month / billed annually
- Company: Custom pricing
Out of all alternatives to Zapier that don’t have a free tier, Tray.io has one of the steepest pricings which indicates that this tool is not for a regular consumer or small business. On a plus side, it has a 14-day free trial during which you can get to know their platform better.
Tray.io Platform pros:
- A powerful automation platform with a large selection of apps and services
- Lots of utility elements to add complex business logic and extend connectors functionality
- Team collaboration thanks to identity and access management
Tray.io Platform cons:
- Seems to be more fit for tech-savvy people than line of business folks
- Pricing is high and there doesn’t seem to be much flexibility there
- Many users complained about outdated documentation which makes the learning curve even steeper
Tray.io Platform compared to Zapier
Tray.io might not be a direct alternative to Zapier because its pricing is definitely not something small businesses can afford. But for larger companies and enterprises, this seems to be an excellent tool.
After testing it myself, though, I can say with certainty that the Tray.io interface is not as intuitive as the one from Zapier (or in fact, any other of the free Zapier alternatives). They do provide an awesome onboarding package with a number of follow-along tutorials, but even with those – this Zapier competitor is hardly a tool that a regular user will find to be easy to use.
On the plus side, though, Tray.io offers some superb advanced features such as data management and logic conditions.
elastic.io iPaaS
elastic.io positions itself as a low-code integration tool for mid-size and larger companies. Compared to Zapier, it supports far fewer applications and systems, but it makes up for it by the depth of each app integration. In addition to that it offers advanced functions for data manipulation, routing, logic, and transformation.
The Key Features of elastic.io iPaaS:
- Provides support for nearly 100 enterprise-grade apps and services
- Large number of the so-called utility connectors to build custom connectors
- Granular access management and environments separation for better team collaboration
The focus of elastic.io lies clearly on business applications such as SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft Navision, and others. The number of supported systems isn’t nearly as large as Zapier’s, but instead each connector provides a variety of triggers and actions that not only cover the common entities but also allow to sync custom objects.
elastic.io iPaaS pricing:
- Self-service: €199 – €999 per month / billed quarterly
- Enterprises: Pricing is provided upon request
elastic.io has probably the most granular pricing compared to other Zapier alternatives, plus it has two different pricing plan groups – for self-service and enterprises. Training and professional services are not included in the tiers and are calculated on top of the subscription fee.
On the other hand, users on any pricing plan receive access to absolutely all available connectors and functionalities, except for real-time flows (i.e. integration flows that are always “on”, syncing data in the very millisecond that the change happens) – these are included by default only starting from the Self-service / Large tier.
There is a free trial for 14 days that gives full access to all platform functionalities.
elastic.io iPaaS pros:
- Advanced data transformation and manipulation capabilities
- The very specific IT architecture of the platform allows for extremely high scalability when needed
- Integrates on-premises applications via a secure VPN tunnel
elastic.io iPaaS cons:
- The product is rather technical and is not suited for a regular business user
- Compared to other Zapier alternatives, its pricing is quite steep
- Some users mentioned they’d welcome a more interactive onboarding & training
elastic.io iPaaS compared to Zapier
Although this Zapier competitor, unlike some others listed below, doesn’t focus on any specific use cases, its connector collection as well as pricing do indicate that it targets rather large companies who have a dedicated budget for integrations and the need to sync data between enterprise-grade business applications, on-prem databases and complex systems. As one user put it: “Think ‘Zapier for grown-ups’”.
Out of all free and paid alternatives to Zapier, elastic.io is the one with the strongest orientation towards tech-savvy users which, on the one hand, supports the needs of IT better, but on the other hand, leaves line-of-business users completely out.
All in all, if you’re a business user and looking for a more powerful Zapier alternative, elastic.io will hardly be your first (or even second) choice for replacement, but if you’re in IT – then you might very much like what it has to offer to you and your fellow developers.
Microsoft Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow)
Power Automate by Microsoft positions itself as a robotic process automation (RPA) solution and comes with a number of features that are missing in most Zapier alternatives – such as artificial intelligence (AI) builder and process advisor. The interface is quite user-friendly and intuitive, although it looks considerably less “chick” than other comparable tools.
The Key Features of Microsoft Power Automate
- Connectors for nearly 600 applications and services + pre-built templates
- Advanced features for intelligent automation of integrations and better analytics
- It is quite easy to use even for business professionals without any IT knowledge
It must be added that most of these 600 applications and services supported by Microsoft Power Automate are marked as “premium” – which is confusing because “premium vs standard” is not reflected in the pricing. And so, it is unclear what exactly Microsoft wants to say here by using this label.
But if we ignore this, Power Automate does offer a very impressive number of various apps and features to choose from, and as such, can rightfully be seen as a sound Zapier alternative.
Microsoft Power Automate Platform pricing
Per-user plans
- Regular: $15 per user / per month
- Advanced: $40 per user / month (including RPA flows credits for AI Builder)
Per-flow plan
- $100 per flow / per month with minimum purchase of 5 flows
Power Automate also offers two add-ons – the AI Builder for $500 per unit / per month and RPA to automate back-end processes $150 per bot / per month.
I have to be honest here – I find this pricing strategy extremely confusing and there is not much information on the pricing page to clarify some questions. Also, $100 per flow seems to be a lot, considering that I have to buy the minimum of 5. The advanced per-user plan looks to me much more sensible and it comes with features that are not included on the per-flow plan by default.
While there is no free option, there is a free trial, however, Microsoft doesn’t specify its duration. One user in the community mentioned that it would expire in 30 days.
Microsoft Power Automate pros
- It’s approach is more no-code than low-code, which makes it easier to use for any type of user
- If you’re a user of the Microsoft Suite, this is probably the only Zapier competitor that you should absolutely check out
- Advanced features such as AI and RPA for more automation
Microsoft Power Automate cons
- The interface looks a bit clunky
- Unclear licensing policy: Some users indicated that the apps marked as premium need to be purchased on top, which is not mentioned on the pricing page
- For a tool that promotes intelligent automation, it lacks some important features such as process mining, process intelligence and process mapping
Microsoft Power Automate compared to Zapier
When it comes to the available templates, this tool seems to be a good Zapier alternative for companies who already use the Microsoft Suite programs such as Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, and others.
Unlike Zapier, Power Automate provides robotic process automation (RPA) and the power of AI to complete certain tasks faster and provide higher levels of automation.
In general, though, this tool is more suitable for users with a solid IT background, as getting the most of it can be difficult for the line of business users, despite the seemingly easy-to-follow interface.
Workato Enterprise
Out of all Zapier alternatives, Workato is one of the few that simply cannot be missed on the list. Just like Power Automation by Microsoft, it provides some additional features such as robotic process automation (RPA) and a certain level of integration intelligence, and in addition to this, it comes with Workato workbot – a conversational interface that helps companies build their own enterprise chatbots.
The Key Features of Workato Enterprise:
- Connectors for roughly 600 applications and services
- Around 2000 pre-built community recipes
- Easy creation of chatbots for Slack and Microsoft Teams
A bit of clarification upfront: Workato does claim on their website that they have 1000+ pre-built connectors and about 400,000 recipes available. We did our own, thorough research though, and we weren’t able to corroborate this claim. You can read more about it in our overview of Workato pricing.
Workato Enterprise pricing:
- Pricing is provided upon request
Having said that, as already mentioned above, we conducted our research on this topic and were able to find some indication that this Zapier competitor has plans that start at around $15K per year. Read more about our research on how much Workato really costs.
There is a free trial but it is quite tricky to find.
Workato Enterprise pros:
- Lots of pre-built connectors for a large variety of applications
- Tools to develop custom connectors if certain applications are missing
- Easy reusability with copying and pasting parts of recipes, slick interface
Workato Enterprise cons:
- Many users mentioned that the learning curve can be very steep for complex integration jobs
- Costs can skyrocket pretty quickly depending on the number of running flows
- Maybe tricky if your use case includes attaching and transferring files as there are some strict file size limitations
Workato Enterprise compared to Zapier
This Zapier alternative, though having a very much similar offering, is a bit less intuitive to use when it comes to building an integration flow from scratch. In addition to that, the number of available connectors is considerably less.
On the other hand, based on its pricing alone, Workato targets predominantly a very different user group than Zapier does, namely mid-size and enterprise companies. And so, while Zapier wins when it comes to providing connections to a large number of niche and low-cost applications, Workato covers many more enterprise-grade apps and systems.
Zoho Flow
Zoho Flow is the native product of Zoho that allows you a deep integration of other Zoho products such as SalesIQ, Zoho CRM, WorkDrive, Zoho Subscriptions and others with a large number of other apps. It is a classic integration tool with a slick drag-and-drop flow builder, data routing and transformation tools, and flows monitoring dashboard.
The Key Features of Zoho Flow:
- Nearly 650 applications and systems are supported
- Advanced tools for flow scheduling, if/then splitting, and custom functions creation
- Drag-and-drop visual interface
We’ve counted ourselves – Zoho Flow does provide a huge number of connections comparable to many other alternatives to Zapier. So, at least in this context, Zoho Flow is quite on a par with the others.
In addition to that, it provides a number of advanced tools and functionalities, such as webhooks usage, third-party API calls, branching and more – basically, everything what you might need to create an integration flow with a more or less complex business logic.
Zoho Flow pricing:
- Standard: €10 per month / billed annually
- Professional: €24 per month / billed annually
The plans differ in the number of flows and monthly tasks per organization, plus the Professional plan includes versioning and premium apps.
Zoho Flow also provides an option to get billed monthly, although in such a case, the prices get a slight increase. Generally, you can test the services with all premium functions for 15 days absolutely free.
In addition to that, Zoho Flow allows you to buy additional flows and tasks in the form of add-ons, although judging by the price, you might be better off switching from the Standard to Professional plan if you need additional tasks and flows, rather than buying the add-ons.
Zoho Flow pros:
- Deep integration with the absolutely majority of other Zoho products
- The interface allows to create complex flows visible in one go (you don’t need to scroll back and forth)
- The price is quite affordable compared to many other paid Zapier alternatives
Zoho Flow cons:
- Many users noted that the documentation is either poorly written or missing altogether
- A few users mentioned quite slow speed with data transfer
- Support is limited depending on a country
Zoho Flow compared to Zapier
In general, Zoho Flow seems to be the rightful Zapier competitor when it comes to integration with Zoho products. Many of the users who switched from Zapier to Zoho did it exactly for this reason – to connect more Zoho applications and in better ways.
Other than that, Zoho Flow doesn’t necessarily provide a distinct advantage over Zapier when it comes to features and functionalities; it does have an overall lower pricing, however.
ZigiOps
ZigiOps by ZigiWave claims to be a no-code integration platform that particularly focuses on connecting ITSM, monitoring, DevOps, and CRM tools. It offers both an on-premises installation as well as a cloud iPaaS version, and, in fact, an OEM version, too, but we’ll come back to that later on in our section “Zapier Alternatives for SaaS”.
The Key Features of ZigiOps:
- Focus on very specific integration use cases such as DevOps, IT service and operations management
- Advanced data mapping to support sync of attachments, tickets, and comments
- Nearly 100 pre-built templates i.e. recipes for AppDynamics, ServiceNow, SolarWinds, and more sync scenarios
This Zapier alternative seems to have shaped its integration use cases around all things DevOps and IT management. With nearly 50 dev-related applications and systems supported, it’s fair to say that ZigiOps has a unique value proposition particularly to DevOps teams.
ZigiOps pricing:
- Pricing is provided upon request
While ZigiWave – the company behind ZigiOps – doesn’t provide any pricing information on its website, we were able to find out through direct contact that the subscription fee starts from $6000 per year.
However, the actual fee will depend on the use case: whether the applications that require integration are hosted on-prem or in the cloud, what kind of data types need to be transferred, whether there are a lot of custom fields, etc.
Free trial seems to be available, although it’s not openly offered on the website.
ZigiOps pros:
- Specialized in DevOps and ITSM applications and systems
- No-code approach for integrations setup (we weren’t able to verify if it’s really no-code, so let’s just take ZigiOps’ word for it)
- Team collaboration thanks to identity and access management
ZigiOps cons:
- If considered a true Zapier competitor, it supports far less applications than others
- Pricing plans as well as a trial option are not made public
- Founded in 2019, the product has still lots of room for improvement
ZigiOps compared to Zapier
One must say that judging by the user reviews alone, it is really, really hard to find any cons of ZigiOps whatsoever. The overwhelming majority of its users are highly satisfied with the product and with the quality of support.
The stark difference lies rather in the type of apps and systems that ZigiOps support. While Zapier tries to address as many use cases as possible, ZigiOps focuses on rather niche integration scenarios that are common for DevOps and IT services and operations management.
The pricing is also considerably higher than Zapier’s but considering the use cases (rather enterprise-grade) and the depth of integrations, this seems to be absolutely justified.
Honorable mentions
- Outfunnel – this Zapier alternative has focused mainly on the use cases related to marketing and sales. Its pricing starts from $6 per month / billed annually, which offer a really low entry point. A free trial of 14 days is also available
- n8n.cloud – is a tool built upon the open-source technology by n8n.io. While n8n provides its open-source code for free, the n8n.cloud – the ready-to-use cloud platform – does come with a price tag of €20 monthly as a starter. Free trial option is also available, although it’s unclear what its default duration is
- Actiondesk – another alternative to Zapier with a clear focus; this time on focus on simplifying reporting, creation of data dashboards, and improving business intelligence. It’s pricing starts from $99 per editor / per month and you can test the tool for free 7 days long
Alternatives to Zapier for SaaS
One more reason why you might be looking for an alternative to Zapier is because you’re a SaaS vendor who seeks to provide native integrations with your SaaS product for existing and potential customers.
There’s no way an app can do everything on its own. Instead, great apps concentrate on their core functions and rely on integrations with dozens of other apps to handle the rest. The Zapier platform makes this possible but it comes with a price, and not necessarily in the literal sense.
Once you publish your app, there is not much you can do to ensure data security and quality of integrations. Will your customers know who they should contact should they experience technical issues or require extra triggers and actions?
Furthermore, as integration use cases become increasingly more complex, Zapier might not be quite fit to handle them, or you might end up dealing with such a large amount of data that providing any ROI becomes prohibitively expensive.
Bearing this context in mind, below you will find a number of great Zapier alternatives specifically for SaaS businesses. At least half of them come from the same integration tool providers that we’ve already listed under paid alternatives. Therefore, we’ll focus less on the features per se but rather on the pricing, the tools that enable custom connector development, and on integrations embedding options.
Paragon
Paragon is a young company (founded in 2019) that delivers a dedicated integration tool for SaaS companies. It provides authentication on integrations and a white-labeled configuration UI for SaaS end users.
With Paragon, we start a very special list of Zapier competitors – the ones that developed or enhanced their products to address the specific integration needs of SaaS businesses.
Paragon pricing plans:
- Free: upon request
- Pro: upon request
- Enterprise: upon request
Paragon doesn’t reveal pricing for any of its tiers. The free tier seems to serve testing purposes only since you will be able to merely develop your integrations but not publish them.
The Pro and Enterprise tiers differ, among other things, in the number of integrations and connected users (i.e. SaaS’ own end users). Additional integrations can be purchased as add-ons.
Paragon embedding options & features:
- Dedicated Paragon API
- SDK for API-based custom integrations
- Embedding via plugin
- Low-code approach
Paragon pros:
- Integration platform that is dedicated to native integrations development
- SOC II Type I certified
- Can be deployed on-premises
Paragon cons:
- Number of already existing integrations is quite small – only 37 applications are marked as fully functional
- Pricing that restricts the number of integrations and users might result in extremely high costs over time, when your SaaS product grows more popular
- It’s a very young company and several users mentioned that some functionalities are not quite mature and require testing
Paragon compared to Zapier
Within the very specific context of Zapier alternatives for SaaS businesses, the main difference of Paragon as compared to Zapier is that the latter assumes the role of a marketplace for a SaaS product. Paragon, on the contrary, allows you to actually embed integrations right into your own SaaS product and serve your customers from there.
elastic.io Embedded
elastic.io has already been featured in this article under paid alternatives to Zapier.
It offers, however, a second product specifically for SaaS vendors – namely an embedded integration platform. SaaS businesses have a choice between a fully re-brandable, i.e. white-label integration platform that they can use to create their own integration marketplaces, or embedded native integrations via elastic.io’s own API.
elastic.io Embedded pricing plans:
- Upon request
elastic.io embedding options & features:
- Full platform usage with complete UX/GUI, URL & docs customization
- Native embedding of connectors, recipes and functionalities via various API endpoints
- Advanced toolkit for data manipulation and transformation
- Node.js and Java SDKs for custom connector development
- About 100+ pre-built connectors for mainstream applications
elastic.io Embedded pros:
- Integration toolkit purposefully built for embedded integrations
- ISO-27001 certified, GDPR compliant
- Low-code approach helps SaaS IT teams save weeks if not months on integrations development
elastic.io Embedded cons:
- It’s a comprehensive toolkit with many features and functionalities, therefore the learning curve may be a bit steep
- POS is not part of the free trial phase (although pricing for POS is flexible depending on the SaaS business’ needs and requirements)
- Some users wished the error alerts contained more details for faster self-service debugging
elastic.io Embedded compared to Zapier
Essentially, this Zapier competitor serves the same purpose as Zapier itself does – it enables smooth data exchange between two or more applications. Being a full-fledged iPaaS, though, elastic.io provides far more superior features such as mutli-tenancy, workflow linking (i.e. when the execution of an entire integration workflow can become a trigger for another workflow), high levels of data manipulation, and more importantly in this specific context – native embedding integration capabilities.
Contrary to using Zapier, these capabilities allow SaaS businesses to fully own their own connectors and integrations, ensure their quality and efficiency, and serve them to their customers directly from their own SaaS products, as opposed to sending them away to a third-party tool.
Cyclr
Cyclr is yet another Zapier alternative that has focused specifically on SaaS native integration use cases. In addition to that, they also target system integrators and agencies that build integrations on behalf of their clients. In essence, Cyclr is an iPaaS for SaaS that comes with an embedding functionality (something that regular iPaaS products don’t necessarily have).
Cyclr pricing plans:
- Startup: $899 per month / billed monthly
- Growth: $1799 per month / billed monthly
- Scale: upon request
Cyclr is one of the few Zapier competitors for SaaS vendors that openly reveal their pricing. Though billed monthly, the subscription terms are a yearly contract. Cyclr also charges a one-time onboarding fee of $1000 – $10,000 (depending on the size of the SaaS business) on top of the subscription that covers the dedicated connector development and team training costs.
The main difference between the three plans is the number of application connectors a vendor can use for his/her integration purposes, the number of API calls, data polling time intervals, and the absence or inclusion of certain options like custom connectors creation and Cyclr API access for custom UI.
Cyclr embedding options & features:
- Dedicated Cyclr API for native embedding
- Marketplace with pre-built integrations & 1-click activation
- Authentication via Cyclr’s own framework
- White-labelled UI
- About 100+ pre-built connectors for mainstream applications
Cyclr pros:
- Templates (aka pre-built integrations) are easily embeddable
- Low-code approach saves time for SaaS IT teams
- Many users particularly praised support from the very early stage
Cyclr cons:
- The pricing structure can be a bit too costly for small-scale businesses
- A few users mentioned that the interface is not as intuitive as it is with some other tools
- If your SaaS is in a niche market, you’ll probably won’t find the connectors you need
Cyclr compared to Zapier
Similar to Paragon, Cyclr belongs to a very specific group of alternatives to Zapier – the ones that address not regular end-users but rather SaaS companies who want to build more native integrations. Cyclr is undeniably more expensive than Zapier but then the use cases that it addresses with its technology are considerably more complex than Zapier can support.
Workato Embedded Integrations
Workato is another Zapier competitor that has already been featured on this list. Just like elastic.io, though, Workato addresses SaaS vendors in addition to “regular” mid-size and enterprise businesses.
Workato Embedded pricing plans:
- Upon request
While we couldn’t find any mention of the pricing model specifically for SaaS vendors, we did find a few users commenting on Workato pricing in general. Hopefully, this review will give you some idea of how much it can cost you to use Workato’s embedded integrations.
Workato embedding options & features:
- Templates (aka recipes) customization & white-labeling
- Workato’s own APIs to call functionalities
- Embedding of the entire platform via iframe
- Partial embeds of templates & Co via a connection widget
- Potential access to all ~600 available connectors
Workato Embedded pros:
- Ruby and Python SDK to build custom connectors
- Automatic access to Workato’s workbots and RPA features
- SOC 2 Type 2 certified, GDPR-friendly
Workato Embedded cons:
- Reportedly very high pricing; hardly suitable for a small / mid-scale business
- Embedding via iframe prohibits white-labeling the branding the experience
- Some users mentioned that finding why a workflow is failing can be challenging
Workato Embedded compared to Zapier
Just like it is the case with elastic.io, Workato’s difference to Zapier lies in the typical iPaaS-related features and capabilities. In addition to that, this Zapier competitor allows SaaS companies to leverage other capabilities that make Workato’s offering stand out in general – namely the RPA and workbots.
API Fuse
Here is one more Zapier competitor that offers a product geared specifically towards SaaS vendors. With API Fuse, companies can build their own native integrations and monetize them through this marketplace-like integration tool.
API Fuse pricing plans:
- Growth: upon request
- Platform: upon request
- Enterprise: upon request
Full white-labeling and embedding is included in all three pricing tiers, and so do analytics as well as custom and templated integrations. The main difference lies in the number of API calls – 500,000 on the Growth plan vs. 5,000,000 on the Platform plan – and the availability of the SDK. Additional API calls can be purchased at $100 per 100,000 calls.
API Fuse embed options & features:
- White-labeled integration platform in a marketplace-style
- Embedding via iframe
- In-built analytics on the usage of integrations
- Java-based SDK for custom connectors creation
API Fuse pros:
- No-code / low-code in-app customization of the workspace
- Integration monetization functionality is in-built
- Many users noted that the technical support is very responsive
API Fuse cons:
- A young product (founded in 2019) hence a number of functionalities, according to several users, require further development and testing
- No multi-tenancy
- It appears that API Fuse doesn’t provide its own API which limits integration options
API Fuse compared to Zapier
When understanding how this alternative to Zapier works, think of Zapier itself that you can serve to your customer under your own brand. In addition to that, API Fuse allows SaaS businesses to easily monetize their own integrations – something that Zapier doesn’t provide at all (its partner program doesn’t seem to include any kind of revenue share).
ZigiOps OEM Partner
Last on this list is an offering from ZigiWaves who has already been featured above. ZigiOps, their integration platform, is also available as an OEM version. And so, if we consider ZigiOps an alternative to Zapier for non-SaaS companies, why not consider it one for SaaS businesses, right?
ZigiOps OEM pricing plans:
- Upon request
ZigiOps OEM embed options & features:
- Templates aka recipes
- High scalability inherited from the enterprise offering
- Full re-brand
- Professional services provided for additional connector development
ZigiOps OEM pros:
- You’ll get an entire ZigiOps platform with all its features and functionalities under your own brand
ZigiOps OEM cons:
- It doesn’t seem that there are any true embedding options, such as via an iframe or API endpoints
- No SDK for custom component development appears to be provided
ZigiOps OEM compared to Zapier
Out of all alternatives to Zapier for SaaS companies, ZigiOps OEM has the most unclear value proposition, tbh. It seems like SaaS vendors will just get the entire ZigiOps integration platform only under their own brand, where they can develop their own integration recipes. In a sense, SaaS companies will be acting in such a scenario like resellers of the ZigiOps platform.
Honorable mentions
- Zoho Flow – This Zapier competitor seems to have a very similar offer when it comes to providing its product to SaaS vendors. You can build your connection on their portal and then invite your customers to visit it if they want to integrate your app with other 3-party software apps (just like Rebrandly does it)
- n8n.embed – For $50,000 a year you can embed the n8n integration technology into your own SaaS product and offer your customers the flexibility to build the integrations they need themselves
- Integrately SaaS Partner – This Zapier competitor, in addition to an awesome product for regular consumers, also allows SaaS companies to add native integrations built on Integrately into their product. This is enabled via a widget code that you can easilyy embed anywhere
- Tray Embedded – In addition to the regular integration tool, you can also use Tray.io either as a fully white-labeled solution or embed it via its connectivity API
