Over the past few years, automation has grown from a niche phenomenon to a common aspect of most businesses. And fair enough— after learning you can automate tedious processes with high quality tools, why would you go back to filling out spreadsheets or sending follow up emails by hand?
Using technology to automate processes is a great way for organizations to maximize efficiency by reducing the need for employees to engage in repetitive tasks, so they can focus on what matters most.
But finding the right automation platform for your business can be a challenging, somewhat overwhelming process. Zapier was one of the first integration platforms available, and is thus one of the best known, but as the demand for integration and automation has grown, so have the options.
There are loads of Zapier alternatives out there. In this article, we’ll go over 14 of the best, so you can decide which is the right fit for your business.
Zapier (rhymes with happier) is an integration platform that allows you to connect your favourite apps and websites without having to code.
By communicating with APIs to transfer data between apps seamlessly, Zapier can automate a huge number of business processes—from sending emails and filing data into a spreadsheet, to connecting with your CRM tools, and countless other typically mundane processes.
It does this by making connections called 'Zaps.' These are like a conveyor belt between two apps that automate any given process. And with more than 3,000 apps to integrate with, it’s likely that there’s a Zap for whatever process you’re looking to automate. (While the terms change, this process works similarly across most automation platforms.)
Zapier, like Kleenex branded tissues, has become synonymous with automation and integration. But it’s not the only player in the game anymore. If Zapier is too expensive, or doesn’t have the features you need, you’ve got other options.
🔑 Make Key Features:
With its support for both simple and complex automation flows, Make (formerly Integromat) is one of the most powerful Zapier alternatives.
It has many useful features, but the most distinctive are its visual editor, and the fusion of code elements like HTTP/SOAP and JSON, which grant tech-savvy users even greater automation capabilities.
Make offers a free plan for those who are starting out, so you can get used to the platform. It’s a great option if you're looking to dive a little deeper with your automation efforts, while remaining on a similar pricing plan to Zapier.
💸 Make Pricing
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🔑 Automate.io Key Features:
Serving more than 30,000 organizations worldwide, Automate.io is another major Zapier competitor. This modern integration platform as a service (iPaaS) allows you to program complex workflows spanning across multiple apps. Best of all, this feature is available for all plans, including the free version.
A huge benefit of using Automate.io is the sheer number of actions users can process. For example, at the price point of $49/month Zapier offers 2,000 tasks. At $39/month, Automate.io offers 10,000.
That's a serious upgrade— particularly if you plan to automate repetitive processes over the long term, such as integrations for email marketing or newsletters.
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🔑 Coupler.io Key Features:
Coupler.io is a basic data integration tool that automatically synchronizes data from dozens of services and platforms with Microsoft Excel, Google BigQuery or Google Sheets. It's a simple, easy to use, affordable automation solution if you're looking to automate processes that use those three data destinations (and who doesn't.)
You can use Coupler.io for workflow automation, data backup, scheduled data export, data transfer between platforms, reporting, and creating live dashboards. Because of the simple process and no-code setup, Coupler.io has become popular among product managers, marketers and other non-technical professionals.
💸 Coupler.io Pricing:
Coupler.io offers a limited free plan, mostly for those customers looking to try out the product with a handful of automations. The paid plans range from $24/month for Professional to 99$/month for business.
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🔑 Outfunnel Key Features:
Outfunnel is an integration platform tailored for marketers. It syncs sales and marketing data across all your tools, so you can set up automated campaigns and run them automatically based on data changes in your CRM of choice.
Compared to Zapier, the main benefit of Outfunnel is the ease of setup. It takes just one Outfunnel connection between your CRM and marketing automation tool to sync contacts and engagement—whereas it would take 3 or more Zaps with Zapier.
Plus, online web form → CRM integrations work easily for your entire website, whereas with Zapier you’d have to set up a new Zap for every landing page.
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🔑 IFTTT Key Features:
IFTTT (standing for “if this, then that”) is a user-friendly automation tool that connects apps using simple conditional statements. These workflows, which IFTTT calls “Applets”, range from running your smart home and social media applications, to setting up appointments automatically in Google Calendar.
With its bold UX design, intuitive interface, and easy to use platform, you can use IFTT for myriad automations. The pre-made applets make things particularly easy for non-techies. For more complex workflows, you may need to face the challenge of creating on your own.
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🔑 Workato Key Features:
Workato is an advanced Zapier alternative designed for enterprises and large corporations to run automation workflows (called 'Recipes') across multiple departments.
Trusted by renowned brands like Slack, Levi's, Zendesk, and Intuit, Workato is one of the biggest players in the automation field, and is a great option for those who can afford the hefty price tag.
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🔑 Microsoft Power Automate Key Features:
Formerly known as Microsoft Flow, Microsoft Power Automate is a great choice for any businesses that rely on Office 365, OneDrive, OneNote, Teams, or any other products and services provided by Microsoft.
Microsoft Power Automate (like Workato) has robotic process automation (RPA), a form of business process automation that relies on bots or AI workers to complete specific tasks.
This platform is particularly helpful for those who already use the Microsoft suite, as it communicates effectively with all your favorite Microsoft apps.
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🔑 Hubspot's Operations Hub Key Features:
HubSpot's Operations Hub (formerly PieSync) has one particular feature that sets it apart - the ability to sync data between two apps, in both directions. While Zapier pushes data from one app to another, Operations Hub allows you to transfer data from A to B, or B to A.
This 'conversational' bidirectional sync feature can help your team keep all of your data organized and up to date. Plus, Hubspot boasts an automatic data quality check feature, and connects seamlessly with other Hubspot Hubs.
While the functionality is stellar, Operations Hub has fewer integrations than Zapier. On top of that, their pricing structure, that scales with the number of contacts you make, can be confusing and costly.
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🔑 Tray.io Key Features:
Positioning itself as an all encompassing “integration and automation platform,” Tray.io caters to large companies looking to sync data between cloud based services. Tray.io uses a drag-and-drop interface to build workflow, and with a library of 600+ app connectors, it holds its own against Zapier’s many 'Zaps'.
All those features come with a serious price tag. It may be a viable alternative to the corporate sector, but not so much for small businesses.
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🔑 Zoho Flow Key Features:
Zoho Flow is particularly desirable for Zoho users. Zoho users will benefit from seamless integrations between any products that exist within the Zoho ecosystem. It doesn’t have as grand a scale as some of the other options on the list, but if you’re looking for an affordable, simple solution, it may be a great fit.
Zoho Flow offers a large number of apps, as well as dozens of pre-built workflows to help you get started. With a user-friendly editor, and an array of advanced features (like variables and webhooks), Zoho Flow is an excellent alternative to consider, especially for small businesses looking for an integrated suite of tools.
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🔑 N8n Key Features:
N8n is a true outlier in the workflow automation space. As an open-source tool, it allows you to self-host and create your own automations for free. By using their editor and list of available apps, you can make basic connections before venturing into adding JavaScript functions, conditional logic, or custom HTTP requests.
N8n caters to more tech savvy users, and lacks the customer support that many of the other alternatives offer. But, if you’re willing to learn and do the leg work yourself, N8n offers a large range of possibilities without costing a cent.
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🔑 Exalate Key Features:
Exalate is a highly flexible and secure synchronization platform that works a bit differently to other tools on this list—you download Exalate onto the tool you'd like to use, and give unique admin access to that tool.
This ensures that confidential data isn’t shared between platforms accidentally, and that every admin has complete autonomy over that specific integration. This makes it a helpful tool for businesses with several employees managing integration processes for the team.
Contrary to most other tools on this list, Exalate connects and syncs data to different platforms like Zendesk, Jira and Github (rather than web apps). Used by big names like Dell, Dropbox and HP, it’s a great option for those looking for advanced, secure integrations between tools rather than apps.
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🔑 Elastic.io Key Features:
Elastic.io is a Hybrid Integration Platform that can connect to almost any web service, as well as REST, SOAP, ODATA and other protocols. Notable features include multi-tenancy, white-labeling options, horizontal and vertical scalability, and low latency connections.
This iPaaS platform uses a visual editor to help you build integrations, and offers a handful of low-code tools for more complex integrations requiring data splitting or conditional logic.
You can probably tell, judging from the amount of tech speak in this paragraph, it’s a more technical and advanced option. You'd be right—it's definitely better suited for companies who are already comfortable in the field.
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🔑 Wyzebulb Key Features:
Described as a “friendly alternative to Zapier”, this tool helps businesses connect their marketing and sales apps in one place, collect lead data, and synchronize it between apps.
Wyzebulb doesn’t have the largest collection of apps to connect with, but it does work with some of the essentials, from cloud applications like Dropbox, to tools like Slack, MailChimp, Salesforce, and Gmail.
While Wyzebulb is a more minor competitor to Zapier, it still provides a decent offering to small businesses and teams looking to streamline their marketing and lead generation efforts.
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🔑 Integrately Key Features:
Integrately is a highly rated integration platform—coming in at #1 on G2’s list of Zapier alternatives. It functions in much the same way that Zapier does: just find the apps you are looking to connect, select or set up automation between the two, and then set it and forget it.
Their 1-click automation feature allows you to select between common apps (like Gmail and Facebook) and set up pre-made automation with—you guessed it—one click. Integrately is all about making automations fast, easy, and affordable.
While you may not be able to complete some of the super customized or advanced automations that others on this list can, hundreds of the most common and helpful automations are possible and easy to do. Plus, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper than a lot of the other more advanced Zapier alternatives.
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🔑 leadsbridge Key Features:
Unlike many of the other integration platforms on this list, leadsbridge is aimed specifically at marketers and advertisers. It offers highly specific integrations that promise to boost sales, help efficiency in lead generation, and set campaigns on autopilot.
Notably, leadsbridge is an official Facebook Partner, appearing as a third-party integrations provider in its Publishing Tools. Offering great price and value, and a less complex interface than Zapier, it's a good alternative for marketers.
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At the end of the day, you know what’s best for your business. Zapier may have been the first one out of the gates, but with the business growing every day, in 2022, your options for integration and automation solutions are anything but limited.
So whether you need a huge platform offering a large selection of apps and possibilities, or a hyper-specialized plan to integrate just a handful of apps, the right plan (for the right price) is out there.
Luckily, many of these options have free trials—so you can dive in and find the integration platform that’s best for you, your wallet, and your business.
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