Make vs Zapier
Side-by-side total cost of ownership: subscription fees, labor, hidden costs, and AI alternatives.
Published pricing
The subscription is only part of the cost.
| Make | Zapier | |
|---|---|---|
| Published rate | $9/seat/mo | $20/seat/mo |
| Team size modeled | 5 | 5 |
| Annual subscription | $540/yr | $1,199/yr |
What the invoice doesn't show
Make
Make charges per 'operation,' not per workflow run. A 5-step automation processing 1,000 records uses 5,000 operations. The free tier is 1,000 operations/month — a single mid-complexity automation can exhaust it in minutes. Teams quickly need Core ($9/mo, 10K ops) or Pro ($16/mo, 40K ops).
Free and Core plans limit scenario execution to 15-minute minimum intervals. Real-time automation for time-sensitive workflows (order processing, support triggers, inventory alerts) requires the Pro plan. The jump from $0 to real-time execution costs $16/month regardless of actual usage.
Make's per-operation model means complex, multi-branch automations with routers, iterators, and error handlers consume significantly more operations than expected. Teams building enterprise-grade workflows regularly run over their budgets and face overages at $0.001 per extra operation.
Collaboration requires upgrading to the Teams plan ($29/mo). Core and Pro plans support only 1 active user per account. A 3-person operations team is forced to Teams pricing — paying $29/mo for collaboration features that competitors include in every tier.
Zapier
Every successful action counts as a task. A multi-step Zap with 5 action steps burns 5 tasks per trigger. At the Pro plan's 750 tasks/month, that's only 150 workflow runs for a 5-step Zap. Costs multiply nonlinearly as automations grow.
One client saw their bill jump from £400 to £1,200 in a single month due to overages. When you exceed your task limit, Zapier bills every extra task at 1.25x the per-task rate. A successful marketing campaign can blow up your budget overnight.
Building and testing workflows burns through your task allocation. One client consumed nearly 500 tasks in a single afternoon of testing — two-thirds of a Pro plan's monthly allocation gone before a single production workflow ran.
Companies paying $50,000+/month to Zapier is documented. The Team plan at $69/mo only includes 2,000 tasks. Plans scale up to $5,999/month for 2M tasks. Zapier has evolved from the 'budget option' to 'almost the enterprise option' in perceived cost.
What teams are switching to
Replacing Make
n8n
Free (self-hosted), Cloud from $24/mo
Open-source workflow automation with no operation limits. Self-hosted on your own server for near-zero marginal cost; n8n Cloud starts at $24/month. 400+ integrations, visual builder, AI Agent nodes, and no per-operation charges regardless of workflow complexity.
Zapier
Free (100 tasks/mo), Professional $29.99/mo (2,000 tasks)
7,000+ app integrations vs Make's 1,800+, with task-based pricing that is easier to predict for simple workflows. AI Zap builder creates automations from plain-language descriptions. Better suited for non-technical users who don't need advanced data transformation.
Activepieces
Free (1K runs/mo), Business $99/mo unlimited
Open-source, MIT-licensed alternative with drag-and-drop workflow builder and no operation counting. Cloud plan is free for up to 1,000 runs/month. Growing integration library — best for teams that want Make's visual power without per-step billing.
Replacing Zapier
Make (formerly Integromat)
Free (1K ops/mo), Core from $9/mo (10K ops)
10,000 operations for $9/mo vs Zapier's 750 tasks for $19.99/mo — roughly 13x more actions per dollar. Native OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini modules. Unused operations roll over since 2026.
n8n (open source)
Free (self-hosted), Cloud from $20/mo (2.5K executions)
Free and unlimited when self-hosted. Execution-based billing — one workflow run counts as one execution regardless of steps, not per-task. Built-in AI agent capabilities for autonomous workflows.
Activepieces
Free (1K tasks/mo), Plus $25/mo (unlimited tasks)
Unlimited tasks at $25/mo vs Zapier's 750 tasks at $19.99/mo. Open-source, self-hostable. AI-first with built-in agents and 400+ MCP servers.
StackCut doesn't sell or recommend any of these tools. We show them for context. The decision is yours.
Total Cost of Ownership
Subscription fees plus labor and error costs, modeled at $50/hr loaded rate (BLS ECEC).
| Cost Component | Make | Zapier |
|---|---|---|
| Annual subscription | $540 | $1,199 |
| Labor cost | $7,200 | $7,200 |
| Error & rework cost | $2,400 | $2,400 |
| Total Cost of Ownership | $10,140/yr | $10,799/yr |
| Est. AI alternative | $2,188/yr | $2,188/yr |
Labor rate based on BLS ECEC June 2025 ($45.65/hr private industry total compensation, rounded to $50). Team sizes differ because each vendor targets different market segments. Your actual numbers depend on team size, role mix, and usage. Run it with your own data.
Which one fits your team?
Both Make and Zapiercost more than their published pricing suggests. The right choice depends on your team size and how you weigh each tool's trade-offs.
Make starts at $9/seat/mo , but watch for Make charges per 'operation,' not per workflow run. A 5-step automation processing 1,000 records uses 5,000 operations. The free tier is 1,000 operations/month — a single mid-complexity automation can exhaust it in minutes. Teams quickly need Core ($9/mo, 10K ops) or Pro ($16/mo, 40K ops).
Zapier starts at $20/seat/mo , but watch for Every successful action counts as a task. A multi-step Zap with 5 action steps burns 5 tasks per trigger. At the Pro plan's 750 tasks/month, that's only 150 workflow runs for a 5-step Zap. Costs multiply nonlinearly as automations grow.
An AI-native alternative may replace the workflow at a fraction of the TCO.
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