Zapier alternatives

What are the best Zapier alternatives?

The best Zapier alternatives are Maito, Make, n8n, Lindy, and Gumloop. Make and n8n are the closest to Zapier: you still build each step. Maito is the pick when you'd rather describe the job in Slack and have an AI employee do it with your tools.

Choose Maito if your Zaps keep growing branches for judgment calls, like deciding which refunds need a note or which leads are worth a call, and you want one flat price for the whole company. Choose Zapier if you move the same data between the same apps thousands of times a month and want the biggest app catalog there is. A fixed sync like that is cheaper and more predictable in a workflow builder.

Why do teams look for a Zapier alternative?

Teams look for a Zapier alternative when the task bill climbs with every new step, when a seat limit keeps a Zap in one person's account, or when the workflow needs judgment that no filter or path can express.

As of October 2026, Zapier Pro starts at $19.99 a month on annual billing ($29.99 monthly) for 750 tasks and one seat. Team starts at $69 a month on annual billing for 2,000 tasks and 25 seats. Every successful action step counts as a task. Past the limit, Zaps pause, or with pay-per-task turned on they keep running at 1.25 to 2.5 times the base task rate.

Zapier Agents run on a second meter: 400 activities a month on the free plan and 1,500 on Pro, with activities counted apart from tasks. Calling Zapier from an AI client through Zapier MCP uses two tasks per call.

Public reviews are rough. As of October 2026, Zapier rates 1.3 on Trustpilot from 324 reviews. The most common complaints are refunds refused on annual plans, renewals people didn't expect, slow support, and tasks running out faster than planned.

The quieter reason is maintenance. Someone has to own each Zap, notice when a step fails, and rebuild it when a form or a field changes. Teams with dozens of Zaps often have one person who knows how they all fit together.

Sources: Zapier pricing, Zapier pricing, Zapier MCP, Zapier on Trustpilot

What does Zapier do well?

Zapier is strongest at reliable, high-volume automation between a huge number of apps, with an easy builder, built-in steps that don't count as tasks, and audited security.

Zapier connects to more than 9,000 apps. Triggers, polling, and built-in tools such as Formatter, Paths, Filter, Delay, and Tables don't use tasks, so a well-built Zap stays cheap.

The Team plan adds shared connections and folders, SAML SSO, and an audit log. Zapier is SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 certified, audited every year.

If the job is "when a form comes in, add a row and send a message," Zapier does it well and you'll rarely think about it again.

Sources: Zapier pricing, Zapier Agents, Zapier pricing, Zapier security and compliance

How do the Zapier alternatives compare at a glance?

Maito is the Zapier alternative where nobody draws the workflow: you describe the job, the AI employee does it with your connected tools, and recurring jobs run on their own as Loops.

Sources: Maito: what it does, pricing. Make: pricing, security. n8n: product, pricing, security. Lindy: pricing, routines, security. Gumloop: product, pricing.

Is Maito a good Zapier alternative?

Yes. Maito is a good Zapier alternative for teams whose automations need judgment: you ask an AI employee in Slack or by email, it works across your connected tools, and a job you want every week becomes a Loop, at $149 per workspace with unlimited people.

There's no canvas. Ask for the job in plain words, and Maito reads the records, decides what matters, takes the actions, and reports back in the thread. When you want it again next week, say so and it saves a Loop that runs on a schedule, from a webhook, or whenever someone asks.

A process you want done the same way every time becomes a skill: plain written instructions anyone can improve, instead of a chain of steps one person understands. Credentials sit in an encrypted Vault, and every action lands in a log you can filter and export.

Illustrative conversation, not a recorded product test.

#finance

Priya 9:12 AM

@Maito every Monday at 8, go through last week's Stripe refunds over $200. For each one, find the HubSpot deal and the support conversation and write down why it was refunded. Flag any refund with no reason anywhere.

Maito APP 9:14 AM

Saved as a Loop: Mondays at 8:00 AM, reporting in this thread. I ran it on last week already. 11 refunds over $200, $6,480 in total. Nine have a clear reason in the support conversation. Two have none: Norvik ($1,200) and Tamsin Labs ($340), both refunded by Joel with no note in HubSpot or support.

J

Joel 9:20 AM

Norvik was charged twice, Tamsin asked to downgrade. Can you put that on the deals?

Maito APP 9:21 AM

Both notes are on the HubSpot deals now. From next week I'll count a deal note as the reason.

Example complete

As a Zap, that job means a schedule, a Stripe search, a loop over refunds, two lookups, a branch for missing reasons, and a formatter, plus someone to fix it when a field moves. Here it's one message and a reply. See more jobs like it in the workflow catalog and the operations use case.

Best for: teams that want recurring business work done, not built, and want everyone in the company to ask without a seat. Falls short of Zapier: no free plan, no SOC 2 report, no visual builder, and every run uses AI model time, so a plain high-volume data sync costs less in Zapier.

Sources: Maito FAQ, Maito skills

Is Make a good Zapier alternative?

Make is a good Zapier alternative for people who like building automations visually and want close control over branching, loops, and error handling.

In Zapier vs Make, the real difference is the meter and the canvas. Zapier charges a task for each successful action and keeps the builder simple; Make charges credits per module and shows the whole scenario on one screen.

Make lays a scenario out on a canvas, module by module. Most actions cost one credit, while routers and error handlers such as Rollback, Break, and Resume cost nothing. The free plan includes 1,000 credits a month, and paid plans are priced by the monthly credit volume you choose.

Make reports SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 audits and an ISO 27001 certified security program.

Best for: operations people who enjoy designing the workflow and want to see every branch. Falls short of Zapier: a steeper learning curve for people who only want a two-step automation.

Sources: Make pricing, Make security

Is n8n a good Zapier alternative?

n8n is a good Zapier alternative for technical teams that want to host automations on their own servers, write code inside a workflow, and pay per run instead of per step.

n8n counts one execution for a whole workflow run, however many steps it has. Cloud plans start at $20 a month on annual billing, or $24 monthly, for 2,500 executions, with unlimited users and workflows. Without a license key, the self-hosted Community edition is free.

It has 500+ native integrations, an HTTP node for any API, AI agent steps with human approval, and an MCP server so AI clients can call your workflows.

The trade is your time. n8n's own docs mark self-hosting as needing technical expertise and maintenance as your responsibility.

Best for: engineering-led teams with someone who'll own the server. Falls short of Zapier: fewer ready-made integrations and much more to learn for non-technical teammates.

Sources: n8n pricing, n8n hosting, n8n, Choose how to use n8n

Is Lindy a good Zapier alternative?

Lindy is a good Zapier alternative when the automations you want are mostly about one person's email, calendar, and meetings, and you'd rather describe them than build them.

Lindy works in Slack, email, and iMessage. Its routines can fire on a timer, on new mail or Slack messages, on calendar events, or when a meeting ends.

As of October 2026, Lindy Team starts at $29.99 per active user a month with 3,000 credits, and extra credits cost $10 per 1,000. Signing up brings $50 of credits to use within a week. Lindy is SOC 2 Type II certified.

Best for: small teams where each person wants an assistant for their own inbox. Falls short of Zapier: the bill grows with every person, and it isn't built for bulk data moves between apps.

Sources: Lindy routines, Lindy pricing, Lindy security

Is Gumloop a good Zapier alternative?

Gumloop is a good Zapier alternative for companies that want teams across the business to build their own AI agents, with IT controlling which apps and models each team can use.

You describe the work in plain language and Gumloop builds an agent that connects to your apps, runs on triggers, and produces documents or dashboards. It offers SSO, audit logging, usage monitoring, and VPC deployments, plus an MCP server for AI clients.

As of October 2026, Gumloop Pro starts at $37 a month with 20,000 credits and unlimited seats, with a 14-day trial.

Best for: larger companies that want many teams building agents under central control. Falls short of Zapier: a much smaller integration list, and each team still designs and maintains its own agents.

Sources: Gumloop, Gumloop pricing

What do the Zapier alternatives cost, and what makes the bill grow?

As of October 2026, the entry prices run from free (Make, self-hosted n8n) to $149 per workspace (Maito). What matters more is the meter: steps, runs, people, or AI usage.

Prices are annual billing where a plan offers both. Maito includes $20 a month in credits for coding sandboxes and web search, and the AI provider you connect bills its own usage. A one-time $2,999 setup turns your recurring work into skills and Loops for you.

Sources: Zapier pricing, n8n pricing, Lindy pricing, Gumloop pricing, Maito pricing

How can you test the Zapier alternatives on one job?

Take your most annoying Zap, the one with the most branches or the most breakages, and give the same job to two products from the list. Good work is the right output on a real week of data, plus a clear note about anything it couldn't decide.

Write down the job in two sentences first. If you can't explain it without steps and field names, a workflow builder is probably the right home. If the two sentences come easily and the Zap still needs ten steps, try describing it to an AI employee instead.

Then change one thing, like a new column in the CRM, and see which product needs fixing.

So should you choose Maito or Zapier?

Choose Maito if your recurring work needs reading, judging, and following up, and you want anyone in the company to start it from Slack or email. Choose Zapier if you need fixed, high-volume syncs across thousands of apps, a free plan, or a SOC 2 report.

Plenty of teams keep a few plain Zaps for syncs and hand the messy jobs to Maito. The Zap can even start the work by posting to a Loop's webhook.

Zapier alternatives: frequently asked questions

Is there a free version of Zapier?

Yes. As of October 2026, Zapier's Free plan includes 100 tasks a month and 400 agent activities for one user. Paid plans start with Pro at $19.99 a month on annual billing.

Is there a free Zapier alternative?

Yes. Make has a free plan with 1,000 credits a month, and n8n's Community edition is free to self-host on a server you run. A new Lindy account starts with $50 of credits that last a week. Maito has no free plan.

Is Zapier a good product?

Yes, for simple, high-volume automations across a huge app catalog, with SOC 2 Type II behind it. Billing is the weak spot: as of October 2026, Zapier rates 1.3 on Trustpilot from 324 reviews, mostly over refunds, renewals, and support.

What are the top 5 automation tools?

For building workflows step by step: Zapier, Make, and n8n. For AI agents that do the work from a description: Gumloop for teams that build their own agents, and Maito for one AI employee the whole company asks in Slack or by email.

Can an AI agent replace Zapier?

For jobs that need judgment, yes: an AI employee like Maito reads the records, decides, and acts without a fixed path. For identical high-volume syncs, a workflow builder stays cheaper and more predictable, because every AI run uses model time.

Which Zapier alternatives have a SOC 2 report?

As of October 2026: Make with SOC 2 Type II, Lindy with SOC 2 Type II, and n8n with a SOC 2 report for enterprise customers. Maito doesn't have a SOC 2 report; it keeps credentials in an encrypted Vault and logs every action.

Sources: Zapier pricing, Make pricing, n8n hosting, Lindy pricing, Maito pricing, Zapier security and compliance, Zapier on Trustpilot, Zapier, Make, n8n, Gumloop, Maito, Maito FAQ, Make security, Lindy security, n8n security