If you look into building automations, you’ll immediately come across the two undisputed market leaders: Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat). But which of the two is the best choice for your website? In this comprehensive article, we’ll lay out their unique features, hidden costs, and fundamental differences in detail, so you can choose the right technical foundation right away.
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What do Zapier and Make Automations do?
Before naming the differences, it is important to understand what these platforms share. Both Zapier and Make act as the digital glue between all your separate applications. They work based on a simple "If this, then that" principle (Triggers and Actions). As soon as a specific event occurs in app A (for example: a new lead fills out a form on your website), the software automatically performs an action in app B (for example: the lead is immediately added to your Mailchimp list and a deal is created in your CRM). This eliminates manual and error-prone work, speeds up customer follow-up, and creates a scalable, automated ecosystem without having to hire a very expensive programmer.
Zapier: The king of usability
Zapier is the absolute pioneer and best-known name in the world of automations. Zapier's greatest strength lies in its unprecedented user-friendliness and gigantic range of standard links. The platform supports native integrations with more than 5,000 different applications. Virtually any business tool you can think of can be linked with a few clicks of the mouse. Zapier's interface is extremely linear. You work from top to bottom in a clear roadmap. This makes the platform extremely accessible to novice
users and marketers without any technical or programming knowledge. Need a simple automation, such as forwarding an email attachment to a specific Google Drive folder? Within Zapier, you literally have this up and running in five minutes. The platform seamlessly guides you through the entire process, provides clear error messages and provides a very stable connection between your favorite tools.
Make: The visual powerhouse for complex flows
Where Zapier opts for a linear, simple list view, Make takes a completely different tack. Make (the new name of the popular Integromat) works with an infinite, visual canvas on which you build your automations through an intuitive drag-and-drop system. Make's absolute superpower lies in handling highly complex, nonlinear workflows. With Make, you can easily add logical routes ( called routers). With these, you split a process into multiple paths based on specific conditions. If a lead comes from the United States, the data goes to path A (the Dutch sales team). If the lead comes from Belgium, it follows path B. Although Make, with over 1,500 standard applications, has a smaller offering than Zapier, the individual integrations are often much deeper and more advanced. In addition, Make has powerful modules to manipulate data, perform calculations and communicate directly with APIs, making it the absolute favorite of technical specialists and data analysts.
The difference between Zapier and Make Automations
To make choosing the right software easier, we have conveniently put the main features of both titans side by side.
| Functionality | Zapier | Make (formerly Integromat) |
| Interface & Design | Linear (Step by step, list view) | Visual canvas (Drag & drop, clear) |
| Learning curve | Very low (Ideal for beginners) | Medium to high (Requires logical understanding) |
| Number of Applications | 5,000+ (Huge selection) | 1,500+ (Focus on in-depth modules) |
| Complex Logic | Limited (Complicated with many ramifications) | Very strong (Easily split routes with routers) |
| Pricing model | Per 'Task' (Relatively expensive when scaling up) | Per 'Operation' (Very affordable, even at volume) |
The features of Zapier
Zapier has captured its position as a market leader for good reason. The platform offers a robust set of functionalities specifically designed to make building automations as accessible and effective as possible, without having to dive into the code.
A huge app library
Zapier's absolute crown jewel is its integration library. With more than 5,000 native supported applications, there is almost a hundred percent chance that the software you use every day is among them. From the big CRM systems like Salesforce and HubSpot, to specific email marketing tools and local accounting packages; Zapier seamlessly links it together without you having to rely on complex API documentation or webhooks. Built-in Zapier tools and formatters In addition to simply moving data from A to B, Zapier provides powerful internal tools
to edit that data along the way. With the 'Formatter' tool, for example, you can automatically split a full name into a first name and last name, standardize date displays
standardize or convert currencies before they end up in your accounting system. You can also use "Filters" to make an automation run only if a specific, hard condition is met.
specific, rock-solid condition is met.
Multi-step Zaps for long processes
Where before you could only link one action to one trigger (a 1-to-1 connection), with Multi-step Zaps you build complete chain reactions. Once a customer pays an invoice (the trigger), Zapier can instantly send a thank-you email, update the customer record in your CRM AND send a message in your team's internal Slack channel. With this, you streamline an entire business process in one orderly flow.
Zapier AI for lightning-fast building
Zapier is betting heavily on artificial intelligence to make the platform even more accessible. With the built-in AI assistant, you can simply type in normal human language what you want to accomplish, for example, "If I get an e-mail with an attachment, save it to Google Drive and send me a text message." The AI then builds the full, working base of this Zap for you within seconds.
The features of Make
Where Zapier focuses on ultimate ease of use, Make (formerly Integromat) positions itself as the dream for technical marketers and data specialists. Its features are designed for maximum control and handling highly complex, layered scenarios. The visual drag-and-drop editor Make completely abandons the traditional, linear list view. You work on an infinite, visual canvas. You simply drag applications (modules) to the right place and visually connect them by drawing lines. This visual overview is absolutely indispensable
when you are building processes that consist of twenty or thirty different steps. You can see at a glance exactly how the data flows and where the process might branch out.
Advanced routers and iterators
This is where Make leaves the competition far behind. With 'Routers' you effortlessly split an automation into multiple, parallel paths based on very specific conditions.
In addition, Make offers "Iterators" and "Aggregators. These allow you to split bundles of data (such as a complete order list with ten different products from your ecommerce store) into individual items, process them individually, and then merge them back together into one well-organized document or e-mail.
Extensive error handling
In the world of automations something always goes wrong; an API is temporarily unreachable or a form is missing a required field. Where a Zapier flow then often simply stops and displays an error message, Make allows you to build visual 'Error handlers'. You tell the system exactly what to do if a specific step fails. You can have the system ignore the task, follow an alternate route, or automatically retry the action after five minutes (a rollback).
In-depth data manipulation and features
Within Make's modules, you have access to a huge arsenal of advanced functions very similar to Excel formulas. Whether you need to perform complex mathematical calculations on prices, replace specific text strings (RegEx), or calculate dates and time zones dynamically based on user input; Make provides the technical depth to perform every imaginable operation right within your workflow.
Which automation tool is the best fit for your business?
The final choice depends entirely on your technical knowledge, your available budget and the complexity of the processes you want to streamline. To get you started, we have worked out the ideal scenarios's for both platforms.
When do you resolutely choose Zapier?
Choose Zapier if you are an entrepreneur, marketer or SME without a dedicated IT department. If your processes are relatively simple (A leads to B, and sometimes C) and you want to be able to quickly build and manage the automations yourself, this is your platform. Also, if you use very niche-specific, small or very new software tools, they are much more likely to be readily available in Zapier's vast library. You pay a premium price for the license, but you save huge amounts of time on the actual implementation and maintenance, because truly everyone on your team understands the interface within half an hour.
When do you confidently choose Make?
Choose Make if you want to set up complex, multiple data streams and you're not afraid of a slightly steeper learning curve. Are you an ecommerce party with complicated logistics processes, or an agency that has to filter and forward customer data through dozens of conditions? Then Make's visual overview is absolutely indispensable. As soon as an automation contains more than five steps and various 'if/then' scenarios's, Zapier becomes cluttered, whereas Make excels just then. Moreover, Make is the undisputed winner if you need to process huge volumes of data, because their pricing model is considerably more scalable and cost-effective in the long run.
Understand the hidden costs of automations
The biggest difference between the two platforms will be felt in the wallet. It is crucial to fully understand the pricing model before you hang your entire business operations on one tool.
Zapier charges per "Task. A task is counted only when an action has actually been successfully completed. This sounds fair, but with Zapier you pay relatively high per task. As soon as your company grows and you want to process thousands of leads per month automatically, the licensing costs at Zapier will quickly run into hundreds of euros per month. Make charges per Operation. Every step in your process, including simply checking for new data (a polling trigger), costs an operation. So you use up your credit at Make much faster, but because the packages are many times cheaper than the competition, you are almost always significantly cheaper on the bottom line at medium to high volume. To make this abstract difference immediately tangible, we have put the pricing models and usage side by side for you:
| Feature pricing model | Zapier | Make (formerly Integromat) |
| Basis of checkout | By 'Task | By 'Operation |
| What does Make cost? | Only successfully executed actions | Really every step (including checking for data) |
| Cost per unit | Relatively high | Very low |
| Financial impact when growing | Runs up quickly to hundreds of dollars | Remains extremely affordable, even with heavy usage |
| Most advantageous choice at | Low volumes and simple, linear flows | Medium to high volumes and complex processes |
Let our specialists build your automations
You now know exactly what the strengths and weaknesses of both Zapier and Make are. Still, coming up with a flawless, logical flow and secure processing of customer data is a skill in itself. After all, a small error in your settings can cause invoices not to be sent or accidentally overwrite crucial files. At Monkey Vision our technical specialists take this process completely out of your hands. We analyze your current software, advise independently whether Zapier or Make is the best choice for your specific situation and then build watertight automations that structurally save you lots of time and money. Shall we take a look together at which manual processes within your company we can fully automate today?
