Zapier vs Make
These two are the same product category priced an order of magnitude apart. Zapier counts a task for each successful action step; Make counts a credit for "each module action in your scenario, like adding a Google Sheet row or fetching Gmail account data". Identical principle. What differs is how many units you get: 750 on Zapier's entry paid plan, 10,000 on Make's. This page prices one automation on both and is explicit that Make does not fix the model, it only lowers the number.
Pick Make if you want to stay in a visual no-code builder and the bill is the only problem: the free plan carries 1,000 credits against Zapier's 100 tasks, and Core is $9 a month for 10,000 credits against $19.99 for 750. Stay on Zapier if you depend on a connector Make has not built, or if your automations are short enough that 750 tasks was never the constraint. If the per-action model itself is what hurts, neither of these is the answer; that is the n8n comparison.
Side by side
Zapier vs Make at a glance
| Zapier | Make | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Each successful action step (task) | Each module action (credit) |
| Does length affect cost? | ✗ Yes, cost scales with steps | ✗ Yes, same principle |
| Free plan | 100 tasks/month | ✓ 1,000 credits/month |
| Cheapest paid plan | $19.99/mo annual, 750 tasks | ✓ $9/mo Core, 10,000 credits |
| 5 action steps × 150 runs/mo | ✗ 750 tasks: the whole entry plan | ✓ 750 credits: inside the free plan |
| Higher tiers buy… | ✓ More volume: 2,000 for $49, 100,000 for $489 | ✗ Features: Core, Pro and Teams all start at 10,000 credits |
| Team plan | From $69/mo annual at 2,000 tasks | Teams $29/mo |
| Annual discount | ✓ Billed yearly at 33% off the monthly rate | "Save 15% or more" |
| Not billed | ✓ Triggers, polling, built-in data tools, failed actions | Not published in the same detail |
| Overage terms | 2.5× base rate monthly, 1.25× annual, stops at 3× | Not published as a per-credit rate |
| Self-hosting | ✗ None | ✗ None |
| Best for | The widest connector catalogue | The same no-code experience at a tenth of the unit price |
Sources: Zapier pricing · Make pricing. Compiled August 2026.
Where Make wins
The same scenario lands in a free plan instead of a paid one
Five module actions run 150 times a month is 750 credits, and Make's free plan includes 1,000. The identical automation on Zapier is 750 tasks, which is the entire Professional 750 allowance at $19.99 a month billed annually. That is the whole headline: not a discount, a different order of magnitude in what an entry plan includes.
The first paid step is $9, not $19.99
Make Core is $9 a month for 10,000 credits. Zapier's first paid tier is $19.99 a month annually for 750 tasks, and 2,000 tasks costs $49. Comparing the cheapest paid plan on each side, you are paying roughly half the price for more than thirteen times the units. Annual billing on Make is advertised as saving 15 percent or more, against Zapier's 33 percent off the monthly rate.
Nothing to run, nothing to learn from scratch
Make is a hosted visual builder, so leaving Zapier for it costs no infrastructure and no new mental model. Compared with a self-hosted move, this is the migration with the smallest surface area, which matters when the people maintaining the automations are not engineers.
Where Zapier still wins
Connector coverage, again. Zapier's catalogue is the broadest in the category, and integration availability is the one thing a price comparison cannot substitute. Before switching, check every app in every scenario, not just the well-known ones; the long tail is where Zapier's lead lives.
Zapier is also unusually specific about what it does not charge for. Its documentation states that a task is counted only when Zapier successfully completes a unit of work, that failed actions are not counted, and that triggers, polling for new data and built-in data tools are excluded. Make does not publish an equivalent list of exclusions, so a scenario heavy on formatting and routing may consume more of the gap than the headline numbers suggest. And on volume, Zapier's ladder keeps climbing: Professional runs to 100,000 tasks for $489 a month annually, while all three published Make paid tiers start from the same 10,000 credits.
Migrating Zapier to Make
The path most teams take:
1. Inventory first. List every Zap with its trigger, its step count and its apps, then multiply steps by monthly runs. That number is your credit estimate, and it tells you whether the free 1,000 or the $9 Core plan is your landing spot.
2. Rebuild scenario by scenario. Plan on recreating each automation by hand and reconnecting each credential. Modules map conceptually to steps, so the logic transfers even though the configuration does not.
3. Run both for one cycle. Point the Make scenario at a test destination and reconcile a full month of output against the live Zap before cutting over. You pay both vendors during the overlap.
4. What does not move. Zap run history and task usage records stay on Zapier. Export anything you need for auditing before the account closes.
Common questions
FAQ: Zapier vs Make
Is Make cheaper than Zapier?
At the same volume, yes, by a wide margin, because the included allowances are not comparable. Make's free plan carries 1,000 credits a month and its cheapest paid plan, Core at $9 a month, includes 10,000 credits. Zapier's free plan carries 100 tasks and its cheapest paid plan, Professional at $19.99 a month billed annually, includes 750. A five-action-step automation run 150 times a month is 750 units either way: an entire Zapier Professional plan, or three quarters of Make's free allowance. What you do not get for the lower price is a different pricing model, since both products still charge per action.
How does Make count credits?
Per module action. Make's wording is that each module action in your scenario, like adding a Google Sheet row or fetching Gmail account data, counts as one credit. That is the same principle as a Zapier task, so a scenario with five actions consumes five credits every time it runs. The consequence is identical to Zapier's: making a scenario longer makes it more expensive, and the cost of a workflow scales with how many operations it performs rather than how often it does anything useful.
Which Make plan should I start on?
Start on the free plan and only move when you cross 1,000 credits a month, because the paid ladder is not a volume ladder. Core at $9, Pro at $16 and Teams at $29 all start from the same 10,000 credits a month, so the difference between them is features rather than headroom. Practically that means a small team pays $9 for a tenfold jump in allowance and then pays more only for capabilities it actually needs. Annual billing is advertised as saving 15 percent or more.