The best Zapier alternatives, compared honestly
Zapier has the widest connector catalogue in the category, and that catalogue is what the money buys. The meter is what people leave over. Zapier counts every successful action step, so the bill tracks how many steps your automations have, not how many automations you run: an automation with five action steps fired 150 times a month is 750 tasks, which is the entire entry Professional plan. n8n counts the same 150 runs as 150 executions. This page prices that one identical scenario across seven tools using each vendor's own published rates, and shows the arithmetic so you can check it.
The best Zapier alternative depends on which part of the meter hurts:
- Your automations have many steps → n8n: one execution per workflow run whatever the step count, €20 a month for 2,500 executions.
- You want the same no-code experience, cheaper → Make: still per action, but the free plan carries 1,000 credits and Core is $9 for 10,000.
- You want a licence you can actually audit → Node-RED: Apache-2.0, no meter of any kind, you run it.
- Your workflows are code, not clicks → Trigger.dev: Apache-2.0, billed per invocation plus compute seconds.
Narrower cases are in the table below: Windmill bills workers rather than steps, Pipedream bills 30-second compute blocks, and Activepieces is the MIT-licensed no-code builder if that is the constraint.
Why teams look elsewhere
What pushes teams off Zapier
Zapier did not get worse. The connector library is still the widest anywhere and the task definition is more generous than most people assume. What changes is the reader: once your automations stop being Zaps with two action steps, a per-step meter starts charging you for building things properly.
The meter counts steps, not automations
Zapier's unit is the successful action step. Five action steps run 150 times is 750 tasks, which is the whole Professional 750 allowance at $19.99 a month billed annually. One automation, one plan. Add a sixth action step and you are 900 tasks into a 750-task plan.
What it honestly does not charge for
Zapier's own wording: a task is counted "whenever Zapier successfully completes a unit of work for you. Failed actions are not counted." Triggers, polling for new data and built-in data tools are free too. Filters and formatters cost nothing, so the meter is fair; it is just tied to the wrong dimension.
Small teams pay the highest unit rate
Professional 750 at $19.99 a month annually is $239.88 a year for 9,000 tasks, or 2.67 cents per task. The 100,000-task tier at $489 a month works out at 0.49 cents per task. The entry tier costs about 5.5 times more per task than the top published one.
Overage runs at a multiple
Going past the limit is billed at 2.5 times the base rate on monthly plans and 1.25 times on annual plans, and "usage stops once it reaches 3× your task subscription, until the next cycle". A busy month therefore has two failure modes: a larger bill, or automations that quietly stop.
Collaboration is a separate ladder
Team, the plan with shared workspaces, starts at $69 a month for 2,000 tasks against $49 for the same 2,000 tasks on Professional. At 100,000 tasks the gap is $599 against $489. The volume is identical; the premium is for working together on it.
Four meters, one job
The category cannot be price-compared at a glance because nobody counts the same thing. Zapier counts action steps, n8n counts whole executions, Make counts module actions, Pipedream counts 30 seconds of compute at 256MB and Trigger.dev counts invocations plus compute seconds. The only fair test is one scenario, priced four ways.
The shortlist
7 Zapier alternatives worth evaluating
The category splits three ways: hosted no-code builders that bill per action, hosted platforms that bill for time or runs, and software you host yourself where the only bill is infrastructure. Zapier sits in the first group, so the first question is whether you want to stay in it. This ranking optimises for a team leaving because multi-step workflows have made the step meter expensive. Every pick lists one genuine strength and one real weakness.
n8n's documented unit is the run, not the step: "An execution is a single run of your entire workflow. It doesn't matter how many steps are in the workflow or how much data it processes, it's still a single execution." Annual pricing is €20 a month for 2,500 executions on Starter, €50 for 10,000 on Pro and €667 for 40,000 on Business. Weakness: n8n is not open source, whatever the "open" language around it suggests. It ships under the Sustainable Use License v1.0, which permits use "only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use", allows redistribution only free of charge and non-commercially, and puts every file with .ee. in its name behind a separate Enterprise licence. Concurrency is also capped by plan: 5 on Starter, 20 on Pro, 200+ on Enterprise.
The closest thing to a drop-in for someone who wants a visual builder and does not want to run a server. Make bills the same way in principle, "Each module action in your scenario, like adding a Google Sheet row or fetching Gmail account data, counts as one credit", but at a very different scale: the free plan carries 1,000 credits and Core is $9 a month. Weakness: it does not fix the model, it just prices it lower, so a workflow that doubles in length still doubles in cost. Note also that Core at $9, Pro at $16 and Teams at $29 all start from the same 10,000 credits, so the paid ladder sells features rather than volume.
The pick when you want a Zapier-shaped visual builder that you own outright. The repository ships under the MIT Expat licence, and self-hosting removes the meter entirely. Weakness: read the carve-out before you plan around it. The licence file excludes "All content that resides under the 'packages/ee/' and 'packages/server/api/src/app/ee' directory" from the MIT grant, which is a smaller exception than n8n's licence but the same pattern. Cloud pricing was not verified for this comparison, so treat the self-hosted path as the one this page can vouch for.
Windmill takes the meter off runs entirely and puts it on capacity: it bills workers, with "Unlimited executions" stated on both commercial levels. Enterprise starts at $120 a month plus $50 per worker per month (each worker capped at 2 GB of memory), with seats at $20 for developers and $10 for operators. Self-hosting the free version gets you "All open source features". Weakness: capacity planning replaces cost planning, so you now have to reason about how many workers your load needs, and the enterprise feature set sits behind a commercial licence.
The most boring option on this list and the only one with no commercial relationship attached. Apache-2.0, no plans, no credits, no executions counted, and still actively maintained (latest push 1 August 2026, around 23,500 GitHub stars). Weakness: it is event-driven low-code from the IoT world rather than a SaaS product, so there is no vendor, no support contract and no connector marketplace with a thousand pre-built apps. Everything Zapier gives you for free, including hosting and uptime, becomes yours to provide.
Pipedream ignores step count and bills time: "one credit per 30 seconds of compute time at 256MB", so a workflow finishing in 35 seconds costs 2 credits and one finishing in 4 seconds costs 1. Triggers from standard registry components are free. For a long automation of quick API calls that is structurally the cheapest way to be billed. Weakness: cost becomes a function of latency, so one slow third-party API inflates the bill for reasons you do not control. Its plan prices could not be verified from the source page for this comparison, so none are quoted here.
Genuinely Apache-2.0: "Trigger.dev is open source using the Apache 2.0 license". Billing is transparent and granular, $0.000025 per invocation ($0.25 per 10,000 runs) plus compute from $0.0000169 per second on Micro up to $0.00068 on Large 2x, with plans at $0 Free, $10 Hobby and $50 Pro. Weakness: this is not a Zapier replacement for most Zapier users. Tasks are written in TypeScript, so it is a background-jobs framework for engineers rather than something an operations team can maintain in a browser.
One structural note on the ranking: n8n is first because it fixes the meter, not because it is the most permissively licensed. If a licence audit is what you are doing rather than a pricing exercise, the order flips and Node-RED and Trigger.dev (both Apache-2.0) go to the top.
Show the arithmetic
One automation, priced by eight different meters
The scenario: one automation with five action steps, triggered 150 times a month. Nothing exotic, roughly a form submission that writes to a CRM, a sheet, a Slack channel and an email tool. Every figure below is that scenario multiplied by a rate the vendor publishes itself.
Zapier: $19.99 a month, and the plan is full. 5 action steps × 150 runs = 750 tasks, which is exactly the Professional 750 allowance at $19.99 a month billed annually ($29.99 monthly). Annualised that is $239.88 for 9,000 tasks, or 2.67 cents a task. A second automation of the same shape needs the next tier.
n8n: 150 executions, 6% of the entry plan. Step count is irrelevant to the meter, so the same automation is 150 executions against the 2,500 included in Starter at €20 a month. You would need to run this automation about 16 times more often before the entry plan filled up.
Make: $0. 5 module actions × 150 runs = 750 credits, inside the 1,000 credits on the free plan. The catch arrives later: the same meter means 5,000 runs a month is 25,000 credits, above the 10,000 included on every published Make tier.
Activepieces and Node-RED, self-hosted: $0 in licence fees. Neither counts steps or runs when you host it. The bill is a server and the hours you spend on it.
Windmill: $0 self-hosted, or capacity pricing. Executions are unlimited on the commercial tiers, so 150 or 150,000 runs cost the same; what you buy is $120 a month plus $50 per worker.
Pipedream: 150 credits, if each run finishes inside 30 seconds. At one credit per 30 seconds of compute at 256MB, a run with five action steps of quick API calls is one credit; a run that takes 35 seconds is two. The step count never enters the calculation.
Trigger.dev: about 8 cents of metered usage. 150 invocations × $0.000025 = $0.0038. If each run takes 30 seconds on Micro compute, 4,500 seconds × $0.0000169 = $0.076. Total metered cost $0.08, before whichever plan you sit on ($0 Free, $10 Hobby, $50 Pro).
Side by side
Zapier alternatives compared
Prices as of August 2026, from each vendor's own pricing page. The column that decides most of these migrations is the second one: what the meter actually counts. The fourth column is the same five-action-step, 150-run scenario priced from those rates. Zapier's own row is the baseline.
| Tool | What the meter counts | Entry paid price | 5 action steps × 150 runs/mo | Licence: OSI approved? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zapier | Each successful action step | $19.99/mo annual, 750 tasks | 750 tasks: the whole plan | ✗ proprietary SaaS | Short Zaps, the widest connector catalogue |
| n8n | One whole workflow run | €20/mo annual, 2,500 executions | 150 executions: 6% of Starter | ✗ Sustainable Use License, self-host allowed | Long, multi-step workflows |
| Make | Each module action (1 credit) | $9/mo (Core), 10,000 credits | 750 credits: inside the free 1,000 | ✗ proprietary SaaS | No-code teams that want the same shape, cheaper |
| Activepieces | Nothing, when self-hosted | No cloud price verified here | $0 licence, your server | ✓ MIT, except the ee/ directories |
An MIT no-code builder you own |
| Windmill | Workers, not steps or runs | $120/mo + $50/worker | $0 self-hosted, unlimited executions | ✓ open source features free, enterprise needs a commercial licence | High volume where step count is irrelevant |
| Node-RED | Nothing, there is no meter | None, no vendor plan | $0 licence, your server | ✓ Apache-2.0 | Event-driven flows with no vendor at all |
| Pipedream | Compute time: 30 s = 1 credit | Not verified for this table | 150 credits if runs stay under 30 s | ✗ hosted platform | Many steps, short runtimes |
| Trigger.dev | Invocations + compute seconds | $10/mo (Hobby), $0 Free | ≈$0.08 metered at 30 s per run | ✓ Apache-2.0 | TypeScript background jobs, not no-code |
Numbers that don't fit in cells: Zapier Free is 100 tasks a month, Professional runs 750 tasks at $19.99 to 100,000 at $489 (annual), Team the same volumes at $69 to $599; overage is 2.5× the base rate monthly, 1.25× annually, stopping at 3× the subscription. n8n concurrency is 5 on Starter, 20 on Pro, 200+ on Enterprise. Make's Core, Pro and Teams plans all include 10,000 credits and differ by features. Windmill seats are $20 per developer and $10 per operator. Trigger.dev compute runs $0.0000169 per second on Micro to $0.00068 on Large 2x. Pricing changes often; check each vendor for current terms. Compiled August 2026.
Official pages: Zapier · n8n · Make · Activepieces licence · Windmill · Node-RED · Pipedream · Trigger.dev
A fair call
When Zapier is still the right choice
Migrating automations is not an export and an import. Every scenario is rebuilt by hand, every credential is reconnected, and the connectors you relied on may not exist on the other side. Assume a full cycle of running both systems in parallel, and assume the parallel period costs double. For plenty of teams that bill never pays back.
Zapier is still right if…
- Your automations are short. This is the case where a step meter is the cheap meter: 150 runs of a Zap with two action steps is 300 tasks, comfortably inside the $19.99 tier, while n8n's Starter costs €20 whether you use 150 executions or 2,500.
- The connector you need only exists on Zapier. The catalogue is the product, and no arithmetic on this page beats an integration that the alternative does not have.
- Nobody on the team wants to own a server. Node-RED, Activepieces and Windmill are free of licence fees and not free of work.
- You value the parts the meter excludes: triggers, polling, built-in data tools and failed actions all cost nothing, so filters, formatters and retries never inflate the bill.
- You can commit annually. The 33 percent annual discount is real, and it also drops overage from 2.5× the base rate to 1.25×.
Look elsewhere if…
- Your workflows regularly run past four or five steps: n8n charges the same for a five-action-step and a 50-action-step workflow.
- You are paying for a whole plan to run one automation: Make covers the same scenario inside its free 1,000 credits.
- You need the software under an OSI-approved licence: Node-RED and Trigger.dev are Apache-2.0, Activepieces is MIT outside its
ee/directories. - Volume, not step count, is your growth curve: Windmill sells capacity and states unlimited executions.
- Your runs are fast but long-stepped: Pipedream bills 30-second blocks of compute, so step count never appears on the invoice.
Common questions
Common questions about Zapier alternatives
What is the best Zapier alternative in 2026?
For teams whose automations have more than two or three action steps, n8n. It bills one execution per workflow run no matter how many steps that workflow contains, so the reference scenario on this page, a five-action-step automation run 150 times a month, is 150 executions out of the 2,500 included in the EUR 20 Starter plan rather than 750 tasks out of 750. If you want a no-code builder that works the way Zapier does, Make is the closer match and its free plan includes 1,000 credits. If the licence matters more than the meter, Node-RED is plain Apache-2.0 and has no meter at all. n8n is worth naming carefully: it is fair-code under the Sustainable Use License, not open source.
Why do teams leave Zapier?
Because the meter counts steps rather than automations, so the bill grows with how carefully you build. Zapier counts a task every time it successfully completes a unit of work, which means a five-action-step automation run 150 times a month consumes 750 tasks, exactly the whole Professional 750 allowance at $19.99 a month billed annually. The same 150 runs cost 150 executions on n8n. Nothing about that is hidden, and Zapier is explicit that triggers, polling and built-in data tools are free, but it does mean the pricing model stops matching the way people actually build once workflows get long.
How much does Zapier cost in 2026?
Free is $0 for 100 tasks a month. Professional starts at 750 tasks for $19.99 a month billed annually, or $29.99 billed monthly; 2,000 tasks is $49.00 annually and 100,000 tasks is $489.00 annually. Team, which adds shared workspaces, starts at 2,000 tasks for $69.00 a month annually and runs to $599.00 at 100,000 tasks. Annual subscriptions are billed yearly at 33 percent off the monthly rate. Going over the limit is billed at 2.5 times the base task rate on monthly plans and 1.25 times on annual plans, and usage stops once it reaches 3 times your task subscription until the next cycle.
Is n8n open source?
No. n8n ships under the Sustainable Use License v1.0, which the project describes as fair-code rather than open source. The licence lets you use or modify the software only for your own internal business purposes or for non-commercial or personal use, and it permits redistribution only free of charge and non-commercially. Files with .ee. in the name require a separate Enterprise licence. In practice that is generous for the common case of a company self-hosting n8n to run its own automations, and it is not an OSI-approved open source licence. If that distinction matters to you, Node-RED and Trigger.dev are Apache-2.0 and Activepieces is MIT outside its ee directories.
What counts as a task in Zapier?
Zapier's own definition is that a task is counted whenever Zapier successfully completes a unit of work for you, and that failed actions are not counted. Triggers, polling for new data and Zapier built-in data tools do not count either. So a Zap with one trigger and five action steps bills five tasks per successful run, filters and formatting steps are free, and a run that errors halfway through bills only the steps that succeeded. This is a fairer meter than it is usually given credit for. The problem is not what it counts, it is that the count scales with the number of steps in your automation.
Which Zapier alternative is cheapest for a five-action-step automation run 150 times a month?
Make, at zero, because 5 module actions times 150 runs is 750 credits and the free Make plan includes 1,000 credits a month. The same scenario on Zapier is 750 tasks, which is the entire Professional 750 allowance at $19.99 a month billed annually. On n8n it is 150 executions, 6 percent of the 2,500 included in the EUR 20 Starter plan. On Node-RED, Activepieces or Windmill self-hosted it is zero in licence fees and whatever your server costs. On Trigger.dev at 30 seconds per run it is about 8 cents of metered usage, 150 invocations at $0.000025 plus 4,500 compute seconds at $0.0000169, before any plan fee.