Best Zapier Alternatives

What are the best Zapier alternatives?

In this post, I'll compare alternatives to Zapier that help you integrate apps and automate workflows.

You'll quickly see that most Zapier alternatives are actually courting different markets. For example, IFTT is more casual and consumer-focused, whereas Workato is more oriented for businesses like Zapier.

The Rise of SAAS

We're living in an era where it's easy to find yourself subscribed to 10-100 different software-as-a-service (SAAS) products. There are even a few nifty tools to manage all of your subscriptions, like CardLife and TrueBill.

Zapier allows different apps to talk to one another through their restful API. For example, you could automatically push transaction data from your ecommerce website into Quickbooks. Or you could integrate Salesforce and Mailchimp. The use-cases are truly endless.

But Zapier is not the only game in town. There are a number of Zapier alternatives that you should consider if you're looking to integrate apps or automate workflows.

Workato

Merits

• Automate tasks across 120+ apps.
• Recipe library. Over 100,000 different integrations built by the Workato community to-date.
• Time machine. Automatically sync data across apps from the past. Deploy long-running tasks that wait for a task in the future.
• Robust conditional logic. Multiple conditional branches of execution, each with multiple steps that run across different apps.
• Simple error handling. Error detection, with the option to replay trigger events in your tasks if syncing fails.

Demerits

• Workato is pricey. The cheapest tier is $99/month. This is a drop in the bucket for a mid-sized business, but for a freelancer it might be prohibitively expensive.
• They're less well established than Zapier or IFTTT. I don't mind being an early adopter, but if it's import to you that you use a product with the most market share, then Workato is probably not for you.

Verdict

I've used Workato for small business and it has a number of advantages.

The customer service is excellent. They'll hack together an integration for you if you're in a pinch and contact Workato support.

Workato's time machine feature also gives it an edge over Zapier. Zapier does not let you retroactively import or sync data between apps.

IFTTT

IFTTT aka If-This-Then-That is really a different product than Zapier or Workato. IFTTT is more casual and consumer-facing.

IFTTT vs Zapier

• Zapier is more flexible and customizeable, but it's harder to master. IFTTT is focused on 1-2 step recipes and user-friendliness.
• Zapier is a cloud application only accessible via the browser, but IFTTT offers both desktop and mobile apps in addition to a web app.
• Zapier integrates with 500+ apps. IFTTT has 271 integrations.
• Zapier has cornered the market in terms of professional use by integrating with apps like Google Analytics. IFTTT is more casual. With IFTTT, you can control your lights with Hue or open your garage door with Garageio.
• Zapier has a limited free version, with $20/month and $125/month premium tiers. IFTTT is 100% free.
• Zapier's strong suit is its multi-step zap feature, which lets you attach a chain of actions to a single trigger. IFTTT may not allow for this level of complexity, but it has streamlined the single-trigger-single-action approach.

In almost the complete opposite of Zapier’s fancy and potentially confusing multi-steps, IFTTT (on the surface) can even cut out the set trigger altogether and directly give you the ability to run a desired action through “DO” recipes.

Verdict

The emphasis at IFTT is on ease of use and lifestyle integrations, e.g., smart home, exercise, productivity, and shopping. For example, you can create an IFTTT that will log your gym activity using your phone's GPS into Google Sheets.

Zapier and Workato by contrast are fundamentally business tools. Here's a highly detailed comparison of IFTTT verses Zapier.

Bip.io

Bip is an open source app built on node.js with a community of github contributors.

Merits

• Integrates with 66+ apps
• Free version available

OneSAAS

OneSAAS is like Zapier, helping you integrate your apps, but with a focus on business apps. They're particularly oriented to online retail, web developers, B2B sales and event organizers. For example, OneSAAS integrates with these ecommerce solutions:

• BigCommerce
• Shopify
• Magento
• Woocommerce
• Volusion
• OpenCart
• epages
• 1&1
• EBay
• Eventbrite
• Ivvy Events
• Spark Pay
• Neto
• eCorner

In addition, OneSaaS connects with a number of shipping fulfillment and inventory management apps. I'm talking about services like Shipwire and ShippingEasy.

OneSaaS has three pricing tiers $29/month, $49/month and $99/month. However, the lowest tier is fairly restrictive, permitting you to use 1 accounting app, 2 ecommerce or billing & invoicing apps, and 1 fulfillment app.

Verdict

There are situations where OneSAAS might be preferred over Zapier or Workato for businesses. For example, OneSAAS might integrate with an inventory management product that other services don't connect. Otherwise, I'd stick with services that support more apps and have a larger user base.