Is Make (Integromat) a good Zapier alternative?

While Zapier has been around longer and integrates with more apps in total, Make is a fast-growing alternative that is gaining popularity.

If you've just started looking at using an automation tool in your business, or you're a Zapier user considering a switch to Make, let's outline the details you need to know.

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What is Make (Integromat)?

Make is a business automation tool. Describing itself as the "glue of the internet", it's a way of connecting different apps together so they can pass data between each other.

You pick a trigger for your automation. This is when something happens in the app you're connecting to. You then add one or more search, action or filter steps. These along with various built-in Make functions allow you to do stuff with the data you get from the trigger app and make stuff happen in other apps.

As a simple example, when you get a new order in Shopify, Make can create an invoice in Xero and then send a Gmail confirmation to the customer.

What are the benefits of using a tool like Make (Integromat)?

Using an automation platform like Make has three core benefits for your business:

• You'll save money. Make takes away the need for manual data entry and processing, so you can save on staffing costs.

• You'll work faster. Processing things like inquiries, customer support tickets and orders is done automatically and instantly with Make, meaning work gets completed more quickly and your customers are happier.

• Data entry will be accurate. For almost any business, making sure data is entered accurately between systems is a must. Make ensures this.

How much does Make (Integromat) cost compared to Zapier?

Make's pricing plans compare very favourably to Zapier's

Some observations:

• Male's free plan is very generous compared to Zapier's. The only real thing that is limited is the number of tasks you can use each month (1,000 compared to 100 for Zapier).

• Make doesn't limit which apps you can use or how many steps your scenarios can have meaning complex automations are possible even on lower plans.

• Make does meter it's data transfer (images and text) unlike Zapier, so it's something to consider if you're automations deal with files and images.

• Make offers support, but it's not 24/7 like Zapier and priority support is only offered for higher plans.

• Make plans work out much cheaper than Zapier on a per task basis. So if your processes have a lot of steps, Make will be the cheaper option.

What features does Make (Integromat) have that Zapier doesn't?

Make integrates with hundreds of apps, whereas Zapier integrates with over 2,000. That said, almost all 'major' apps are covered, and there are options too add apps that aren't.

Make's advantages over Zapier  include:

• Make has more diverse error handling than Zapier.

• Make give you the ability to re-arrange and copy steps in your automation.

• Make allows more granular scheduling of your automations

• Make makes it possible to find/retrieve multiple pieces of data from a source and iterate over them. This is only possible in Zapier with a workaround.

Is Make (Integromat) easier to use than Zapier?

One of the biggest differences between Zapier and Make is the visual editor. Make's automation building UI is drag-and-drop based - unlike Zapier - which some people find easier to use. You build your automation flows by adding, arranging and connecting various steps.

One great thing about this - unlike Zapier - is that you can re-arrange steps easily, build multi-path flows and even duplicate and copy extra steps - something that makes maintaining complex automations much easier.

Want to dig deeper? Then check out these tutorials.

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Looking for more alternatives? We've done a round up of the best, including n8n, an automation tool that's similar to Zapier and Make, but free to use.