Zapier

So what does Zapier do? It watches one app and does something in another. Think "when someone pays on Stripe, add a row to Google Sheets and tell me on Slack".

The reason to pick it is the app list. It has more than 9,000 apps, where Make lists more than 3,000. So if there's one odd tool in your mix, like a niche booking system, Zapier is the likeliest to have it.

You don't need to code. Their FAQ says so, and one non-coder on Hacker News says they were obsessed with it when it first came out.

We like how it counts, too. Checking for new stuff is free, and so are built-in steps like filters, paths and delays. Only actions that really run use up tasks.

And it's grown well past Zaps. There are Tables to hold your data, Forms to collect it, AI agents, chatbots, and an MCP server so Claude or ChatGPT can do things in your apps for you.

The bill. Zapier charges by the task, and tasks go faster than you'd think.

Say a Zap has three actions and runs 20 times a day. That's 60 tasks a day, so about 1,800 a month. The $19.99 plan gives you 750.

AI steps can eat more than one task each. Zapier's rates page lists 3 tasks for a step on an advanced model and 5 on a premium one. A call from your AI assistant through MCP costs 2.

The free plan is small. 100 tasks a month, two steps per Zap, and it only checks for new data every 15 minutes. So that Slack ping can turn up a quarter of an hour late.

It's also just you. Free and Professional are for one user, so sharing Zaps with a colleague means the Team plan.

And we couldn't find a phone app. It's a browser thing, with a Chrome extension.

Start free. 100 tasks a month costs nothing, and new accounts get 14 days of Professional thrown in, no card needed.

Professional starts at $19.99 a month on yearly billing for 750 tasks, or $29.99 if you pay monthly. That adds multi-step Zaps, webhooks, filters and paths, and it checks for new data every 2 minutes.

Team starts at $69 a month on yearly billing for 2,000 tasks, or $103.50 monthly. You get 25 users, shared Zaps and SAML single sign-on.

Now the bit to watch. Go over your tasks and Zapier keeps your Zaps running and charges the extras at a higher rate. Their help page says that's on by default, up to three times your plan's limit, and that you can switch it off.

Is it worth it? If Make has your apps, we'd go there first: $9 a month for 5,000 credits. If it doesn't, the extra is the price of Zapier's bigger list.

Yearly billing is 33% cheaper than monthly, and nonprofits get another 15% off.

There's no App Store listing to go on, because Zapier lives in the browser. So we read this year's Hacker News comments about it instead.

The first thing you notice? Everybody knows it. Zapier is the name people reach for when they mean "automation tool", and freelancers list it on their CVs right next to Make and n8n.

People trust it to do the same thing every time. One commenter comparing it with AI agents that click around a browser said the agents are buggy, and folks have more faith in something predictable like Zapier.

Not everyone's a fan. One called it an impenetrable mess aimed at marketers, and said it always seems to be missing the one feature you need.

A few have moved on, like the non-coder who loved Zapier early and now gets an AI to write small Python scripts instead. Another admitted they know all about tools like this and still never automate anything. Fair enough!