In this guide
TL;DR: Zapier bills by task: every successful action counts, and triggers don’t. If your Zaps run many steps, tools that bill differently can cost less. n8n bills per workflow run, however many steps it has, and you can self-host it for free. Activepieces has a 1,000-credit free plan and a $20 flat Plus plan. Make bills in credits, mostly one per action, with 1,000 free a month. Pabbly Connect, Power Automate and IFTTT fit narrower needs.
Disclosure: The Make link on this page is an affiliate link: we may earn a commission if you sign up through it, at no extra cost to you. It doesn’t change our picks or their order. We have no affiliate relationship with the other tools listed. See our affiliate disclosure. This is a sourced comparison from each vendor’s pricing page, checked October 18, 2026. We haven’t tested these tools for this guide.
First: is Zapier actually too expensive for you?
Zapier’s pricing page says “each successful action in a Zap counts as a separate task,” and “Zapier never charges you a task to check for new data.” Triggers don’t count. The Free plan includes 100 tasks a month with two-step Zaps and 15-minute polling. Professional starts from $19.99 a month, with multi-step Zaps, premium apps and webhooks, and Team starts from $69 a month. The exact price depends on your task tier and billing period. Zapier says yearly billing saves 33%.
Zapier also says “AI steps, code, and SDK now all follow the same task-based pricing model,” so AI steps in Zaps now use tasks too. Zapier Agents are priced separately in “activities”: 400 a month free, 1,500 on Agents Pro at $33.33 a month billed annually.
If you run a few short Zaps, the Free or lowest Professional tier may be the cheapest option you have. The alternatives below pay off when your workflows have many steps or run often.
| Feature | What you pay for | Free plan | Entry paid price | Self-host |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Tasks (each successful action) | 100 tasks/mo, two-step Zaps | From $19.99/mo (Professional) | No |
| Make | Credits (most actions = 1) | 1,000 credits/mo | From $12/mo billed annually (Core, 10,000 credits) | No |
| n8n | Workflow executions | Community Edition (self-hosted) | €20/mo billed yearly (Starter, 2.5K executions) | Yes |
| Activepieces | Credits | 1,000 credits/mo | $20/mo flat (Plus, 10,000 credits) | Yes |
| Pabbly Connect | Tasks | Free signup (limits not listed) | Shown in local currency | No |
| Power Automate | Per user | Free trial | $15/user/mo, paid yearly (Premium) | No |
| IFTTT | Applets | 2 Applets | $2.99/mo billed yearly (Pro) | No |
The 6 alternatives
n8n: pay per run, or self-host
n8n prices Cloud plans by “monthly workflow executions, regardless of complexity,” so a 20-step workflow run counts once. Starter is €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions; Pro is €50 for 10,000. All plans include unlimited users, workflows and every integration, and Cloud data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany. The Community Edition is free to self-host from GitHub, but then you run the server, backups and security updates yourself.
Best for: long workflows and AI agents, and teams comfortable with a more technical tool.
Activepieces: free credits and a flat Plus plan
Activepieces’ Free plan includes 1,000 credits a month, unlimited flows and up to 5 users. Plus is $20 a month flat with 10,000 credits, then pay-as-you-go. On Free, Activepieces says runs past your quota wait until credits refresh. AI steps cost more: 2 credits on a fast model, 10 on a smart one and 20 on a frontier model. It’s open source and can run in the cloud or on your own servers.
Best for: small teams that want a free, open-source option with a simple upgrade path.
Make: visual scenarios, billed in credits
Since August 27, 2025, Make bills in credits. Make says “most actions consume 1 credit,” while some AI features may use more, and router and error-handler modules don’t count. The Free plan includes 1,000 credits a month. Unused credits expire at the end of the term. If you run out, scenarios stop until credits are added; incoming webhooks queue up to your plan’s limit. Make’s Core plan starts from $12 a month billed annually, at 10,000 credits a month (make.com/pricing). Try Make (free plan available) (affiliate link)
Best for: visual builders who want branching logic without code.
Pabbly Connect: tasks only when data goes to an app
Pabbly says a task counts when a step sends data to an external app. Its Standard plan includes 10,000 tasks a month, and Pabbly also sells a one-time-payment lifetime plan. Pabbly showed its prices to us in local currency, so check the price for your country on its site.
Best for: budget-focused teams with simple, high-volume workflows.
Power Automate: if you already live in Microsoft 365
Power Automate Premium is $15 per user per month, paid yearly, covering cloud flows and attended desktop flows. It’s priced per user, not per task, which suits Microsoft-centric teams.
Best for: teams already on Microsoft 365 and Dataverse.
IFTTT: simple personal and smart-home automations
IFTTT’s free plan includes 2 Applets with unlimited runs. Pro is $2.99 a month billed yearly ($35.88) for 20 Applets with multi-action Applets, and Pro+ is $8.99 a month billed yearly for unlimited Applets.
Best for: one-step automations and devices, not business workflows.
How to choose
- Count steps per workflow run. Many steps favour per-run billing (n8n).
- Count runs per month. High volume with simple steps favours generous task or credit plans (Activepieces, Pabbly).
- Check AI steps. Every tool here charges AI steps differently; read the vendor’s rate before you migrate.
- Decide who maintains it. Self-hosting is free in licence terms but costs time.
Migration: what doesn’t carry over
We didn’t find a direct Zap import on these vendors’ pricing pages, so plan to rebuild each workflow, reconnect every app account and re-test before you switch Zapier off. Start with your highest-volume Zap, where the savings are largest.
When to stay on Zapier
Stay if you rely on its 9,000+ app integrations, your workflows are short, or your team already knows it. Zapier doesn’t charge for triggers or polling, which keeps simple Zaps cheap.
FAQ
What’s the cheapest Zapier alternative? For zero licence cost, self-hosted n8n Community Edition or Activepieces. For hosted plans, Activepieces Free (1,000 credits) and Make Free (1,000 credits) cost nothing to start.
Does Zapier charge for triggers? No. Only successful actions count as tasks.
Is there a free plan that allows multi-step workflows? Zapier’s Free plan is two-step only. Activepieces Free includes unlimited flows; check each vendor for step limits.
Can I self-host a Zapier alternative? Yes: n8n Community Edition and Activepieces.
Sources & method
Sources
- Zapier pricing
- n8n pricing
- Activepieces pricing
- Make pricing
- Pabbly Connect
- Power Automate pricing
- IFTTT plans
- Make Help Center: Introducing credits
Method. Last checked October 18, 2026. We read each vendor’s public pricing page and compared billing units, free plans and entry prices. We haven’t tested these tools for this guide. Prices exclude tax and change with usage. Header image: Zapier wordmark from Zapier’s press page, which provides official logos for press. Affiliate links: Make only (marked). How we work.
