Microsoft Power Automate vs Zapier

Microsoft Power Automate

• Organizations already licensed for Microsoft 365 or Dynamics 365
• Automating older Windows applications that have no API
• Approval processes that run through Teams and SharePoint

Zapier

• Connecting a wide range of cloud apps, including less common ones
• Solo users with light needs who can stay within 100 tasks a month
• Teams that want shared workflows with single sign-on and admin controls

Microsoft Power Automate

• The free license and Microsoft 365 licenses cover standard connectors only; premium and custom connectors need Premium at $15 per user / month.
• Unattended desktop flows need a Process license at $150 per bot / month, and the machine must be registered by a Premium user.
• The desktop app runs only on Windows 10, Windows 11 and Windows Server, and devices with ARM processors are not supported.
• The standalone iOS and Android app reached end of support on August 31, 2026; Microsoft points mobile users to the browser portal and Teams.

Zapier

• The Free plan is limited to 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps, and checks for new data only every 15 minutes.
• Free and Professional include a single user; sharing workflows with colleagues needs the Team plan.
• Cost rises with volume: Professional runs from $19.99 a month for 750 tasks to $3,389 a month for 2 million, billed annually.
• Tasks beyond the plan limit are billed per task at a higher rate that depends on plan and billing cycle; the rate is not published, and Zaps pause at 3 times the plan's limit.

Microsoft Power Automate

Cloud flows

Automated, scheduled and instant flows connect cloud apps, and on-premises services through a data gateway. Microsoft cites more than 1,400 prebuilt, certified connectors, and custom connectors can be built.

Desktop flows (RPA)

Power Automate for desktop builds or records flows that operate Windows and web applications through their interfaces. Attended runs happen with a person present; unattended runs need a Process license.

Copilot authoring

Copilot in Power Automate creates, edits and extends flows from a natural-language description, in both the cloud designer and the desktop app.

Process and task mining

Analyzes how a process actually runs to find steps worth automating. Premium includes 50 MB of mining data per user, and a tenant-wide add-on provides 100 GB.

Microsoft 365 integration

Flows can be built and run from inside Teams, Excel, SharePoint and OneDrive. Microsoft 365 licenses include the right to create and run cloud flows with standard connectors.

Governance and hosted machines

Managed Environments and data loss prevention policies give admins control over flows. Hosted Process runs unattended bots on virtual machines that Microsoft manages.

Zapier

Zaps

Workflows that start from a trigger and run one or more actions. Free accounts are limited to two-step Zaps; Professional adds multi-step Zaps, filters, paths and webhooks.

App directory

Zapier connects more than 9,000 apps, including Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack and HubSpot. Premium apps are unlimited from the Professional plan.

Task-based billing

A standard step uses 1 task when it completes; triggers, polling and built-in tools such as Filters and Paths use none. Some steps use more: an MCP tool call 2, a Lead Router step 5, and AI steps 1 to 5 by model tier.

Tables, Forms and Canvas

Tables store the data that workflows read and write, Forms collect it, and Canvas maps out a process. Tables and Forms are unlimited on every plan, including Free.

Agents, Chatbots and MCP

AI agents take actions across connected apps, and Zapier MCP gives assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT access to them. Agents and Chatbots are optional add-ons with free tiers.

Team and admin controls

Team covers 25 users with shared Zaps, folders and app connections plus SAML SSO. Enterprise adds SCIM provisioning, app controls and custom data retention.

Microsoft Power Automate

• Power Automate Free$0

  Free license described in Microsoft's licensing docs: cloud flows with standard connectors only, no sharing, and desktop flows run locally in attended mode.

• Power Automate Premium$15

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Cloud flows with standard, premium and custom connectors, attended desktop flows, process and task mining with 50 MB of data, and 250 MB of Dataverse database capacity.

• Power Automate Process$150

  per bot / month, paid yearly

  One bot for unattended desktop flows, or a license for a cloud flow that any number of users can run, with up to 250,000 actions a day.

• Power Automate Hosted Process$215

  per bot / month, paid yearly

  Unattended desktop flows on a virtual machine that Microsoft manages and hosts on Azure, so there is no machine of your own to maintain.

• Process Mining add-on$5,000

  per tenant / month, paid yearly

  Add-on for the Premium plan only: 100 GB of process mining data, with 2 GB of Dataverse database and 1 TB of file capacity.

Zapier

• Free$0

  100 tasks a month for 1 user, limited to two-step Zaps, with unlimited Zaps, Tables and Forms and 15-minute polling.

• Professional$19.99

  per month, billed annually, for 750 tasks ($29.99 monthly)

  1 user. Multi-step Zaps, unlimited premium apps, webhooks, filters and paths, AI by Zapier and 2-minute polling. Task tiers run up to 2 million a month.

• Team$69

  per month, billed annually, for 2,000 tasks ($103.50 monthly)

  25 users, shared Zaps, folders and app connections, SAML single sign-on, priority support and 1-minute polling.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Unlimited users, advanced admin and app controls, SCIM provisioning, custom data retention and annual task limits.

Microsoft Power Automate

No public discounts listed.

Zapier

• Annual discount

  33% off with annual billing

  Zapier's pricing page says annual subscriptions are billed yearly at 33% off the monthly rate: Professional is $19.99 a month instead of $29.99, and Team $69 instead of $103.50.

• Nonprofit

  Extra 15% off for nonprofits

  The pricing page lists an additional 15% discount for non-profit organizations. It does not apply to pay-per-task charges.