Services for Businesses
Workflow Automation
Automating routine tasks to save your team time, allowing them to focus on what really matters.Workflow Design
Optimizing processes for greater efficiency. We look for bottlenecks and create improvements.Data & Systems Integration
Securely, automatically and continuously moving data between databases or systems for seamless transitions and syncs.AI Tools for Teams
Integrating AI to enhance your team's capabilities and increase their capacity.Training Content for Teams
Educating your team to use their new systems effectively and intelligently.
Integrations for Product Teams
Seamlessly connect your app to popular automation platforms, boosting user retention while reducing churn.
We'll support this integration with clear tutorials that empower customers to solve problems on their own, freeing your team from routine support requests.
Xray Blog
Zapier and Make are two of the biggest names in workflow automation. If you're just getting started, or looking to expand your automation toolkit, you might not be sure which is the best choice.
Both providers can automate similar processes, but they take fundamentally different approaches. Based on years of experience in workflow design and automation, we've found that the question isn't really which one is "better" – it's which one fits your specific needs, technical comfort level, and budget.
In this comparison, we'll break down the key differences between Zapier and Make across several categories, including all of the AI features added recently.
By the end, you'll know exactly which platform makes sense for your situation – or whether you might want to use both, like we do at XRay.
Ease of use and learning curve
When comparing Zapier and Make, ease of use is one of the key aspects that distinguishes the two providers.
Zapier: Built for beginners
Zapier is very simple and beginner-friendly. You build automations called "Zaps" one step at a time in a linear setup, and everything is described in plain English. It's designed so that anyone can jump in and start automating without a technical background.
Key advantages:
• Clear, plain-English interface
• Helpful tooltips throughout
• Linear, step-by-step workflow builder
• Ideal for non-technical users in any industry or niche: marketing, HR, sales, etc.
Make: More powerful, steeper learning curve
Make isn't difficult per se, but it is considerably more technical than Zapier. The language and setup they use are often less clear, and there's definitely a steeper learning curve for non-technical users.
Trade-offs:
• Fewer tooltips and guidance
• More steps required for basic actions
• Requires more technical intuition, trial & error
• More advanced options once you know what you're doing
Real-world example: Setting up a Gemini AI prompt
To put these differences into a practical context, let’s look at an example automation.
Say you want to automate a prompt in Google's Gemini AI. Both platforms support this, but the setup feels quite different.
In Zapier, it's very straightforward.
The fields clearly describe everything you need – Model, System Instructions, Prompt and so on.
You just type or use dropdowns to enter data, and hit forward slash to bring up dynamic data from previous steps.
In Make, you need to create a new item under "messages" and choose your role as "user" – and none of this is explained.
It's not that hard to figure out, but it definitely requires more technical intuition.
Winner: Zapier for ease of use
For beginners, Zapier is the clear winner with a much faster learning curve.
This is a theme you'll see throughout this comparison: Make gives you more control, but at the cost of simplicity.
Pricing and value
When looking at base subscription tiers, it's clear that Make offers more affordable plans, but the devil is in the details.
Free tier comparison
Make's free tier:
• 1,000 credits per month
• 2 active scenarios
• Most core features available
Zapier's free tier:
• 100 tasks per month
• Only single-step automations (one trigger, one action)
• Essentially just a demo
Make wins handily on the free tier. Zapier's free plan isn't something you can rely on for company-wide automations.
Paid plan pricing
Make starts at $11 per month when paying monthly:
• Unlimited active scenarios
• 10,000 credits per month
• Additional credits available for extra cost
• Credits usually equal one automated action
Zapier starts at $30 per month for their Pro plan:
• Multi-step Zaps unlocked
• 750 tasks per month
• Access to premium apps
• Tasks equal one automated action
Zapier is about three times more expensive than Make when you're looking at base pricing, but there's a very important caveat to consider.
The hidden cost: How usage is measured
Both platforms limit and measure usage based on automated actions – "Tasks" in Zapier and "Credits" in Make. If you need more than what's included in your base subscription, you'll have to pay more.
The polling trigger problem
This is where Make's pricing can become more expensive than it initially appears.
One of the most common ways to start an automation (particularly for beginners) is to use a "polling trigger" – automations that check sources like Google Sheets, Notion databases, or Asana projects for new data at regular intervals.
Here's the critical difference:
• Zapier: When a polling trigger finds no new data, no tasks are used
• Make: A polling trigger uses a credit every time it checks, whether it finds data or not
This means if you have a few automations checking for updates every 5 minutes, you could burn through your Make credits surprisingly fast.
A single automation with a five-minute polling trigger will use about 8,000 credits a month just to check if it should run. Add in the actual runs, and you could consume your basic Make plan’s entire 10,000 credit allotment with just one automation.
Data transfer limits
Another hidden cost consideration:
• Make: Limits your transferred data to 5gb per 10,000 credits in your plan
• Zapier: No data limit whatsoever
If you're moving large files between apps, this is a huge deal. If your automations are processing videos or long audio recordings, Zapier could end up being cheaper than Make.
Winner: It depends on your workflow
Think of it like budget vs. premium airlines. The budget option looks cheaper upfront, but once you factor in all the fees, the total cost might end up similar – or even more expensive.
Make wins if you:
• Use instant triggers (like webhooks)
• Don't move large amounts of data
• Have a tight budget
Zapier wins if you:
• Rely heavily on polling triggers
• Process large files regularly
• Want predictable costs
Get help designing efficient automations
This kind of fine-tuned workflow design is something we specialize in at XRay.
If you need help making sure your automations are running as efficiently as possible, or if you want to eliminate boring, repetitive work at your company, give us a call.
We'll show you your options for flexible hourly support, or a long-term retainer for complete workflow transformation.
We've helped our clients reduce time spent on tedious tasks by over 90%, resulting in thousands of hours back for more important work.
Ready to build automations that actually work? Schedule a free consultation with our team.
App integrations
Both Zapier and Make support thousands of app integrations, but there are some important differences in breadth and depth.
Integration library size
Zapier Integrations:
• Over 8,800 apps available
• Likely supports any web app you want to automate
Make:
• Over 3,000 apps available
• Covers most major tools businesses use
• Lacks native support for more niche applications
Depth vs. breadth
The real difference isn't just the number of apps – it's how deeply each platform integrates with them.
Make typically offers more granular control within each app integration:
• More available actions
• More configuration options
• More advanced settings
• Greater flexibility to build exactly what you need
Zapier's integrations tend to be more streamlined:
• Most commonly used actions for each app
• Faster, easier setup
• Occasionally missing specific actions or configurations you might need
Winner: Depends on your priorities
For more casual users, Zapier's broader app library gives it the edge. But if you need deep, granular control over specific apps, Make might be the better choice.
Complex workflows and flow control
For simple, linear automations, both platforms work well. But when you start building more complex workflows with multiple paths and conditional logic, the differences become more apparent.
Building more complex workflows with Make
Many experienced automators prefer using Make when they're working on more complicated automations. The difference largely comes down to visual layout and deeper integrations.
Visual workflow design
Zapier is really designed with simple, linear flows in mind. Once you start adding some paths, it can be difficult to see and understand the whole workflow at a glance.
Make's advantages for complex workflows:
• More modular layout
• See several branching paths all at once
• Easy to move or copy steps while building
• Easier to understand workflow logic at a glance
Inline functions and transformations
Make includes easy inline functions that let you run useful formulas in any module. You can use them to:
• Reformat dates
• Run math calculations on the fly
• Transform text with drag-and-drop formulas
There’s no need for separate steps, keeping your automated scenarios clean and simple.
To run similar functions, Zapier requires separate formatter steps.
These don't count against your task limit, but they add more clutter to your workflow, and make the builder interface harder to navigate.
Winner: Make for advanced workflows
Zapier can definitely handle complex workflows with its features for branching paths, conditional logic, and filters. But most experienced builders find Make easier to work with for advanced automations.
Also, as noted earlier, Make's more extensive options for each app make it easier to build sophisticated logic. There are a lot of options for automated actions that you just won't find in Zapier.
AI features
AI has become a major part of workflow automation. Both apps have evolved significantly here in the last couple of years, with Zapier even rebranding themselves as an "AI orchestration platform".
Both Zapier and Make now offer:
• AI-assisted automation building
• Automated AI prompting
• Custom AI agent creation
Let’s take a closer look at the AI features available in both Zapier and Make.
AI copilots: Helpful but limited
Both providers have AI copilots to help build automations.
However, in our experience, neither are very good at creating complete, working automations with all the settings you ask for.
You're always going to have to fix mistakes and finish configuration on your own, which means you’ll still need to learn how to build automations yourself to use these platforms effectively.
Best uses for AI copilots:
• Quickly assembling a rough draft of a simple automation
• Explaining unfamiliar features
• Helping you figure out advanced settings
• General support and guidance
Automating AI prompts
Both platforms let you automate your prompts in popular AI tools like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google's Gemini.
The main difference:
• Make: More advanced settings for power users
• Zapier: Easier to set up
Both platforms also give you the option to automate your AI prompts using your own developer accounts, or to use their own internal tools.
Using external APIs
This approach requires you to:
• Set up an account with your AI platform's API
• Create an API key for the automation provider
• Get billed based on usage when prompts run
Built-in AI tools
If you want to keep your costs lower, both platforms offer built-in AI that doesn't require API setup: AI by Zapier, and Make AI Toolkit.
AI by Zapier:
• Free prompts with select models
• Easy to split AI outputs into separate variables
• Each prompt uses one task
Make AI Toolkit:
• No API charges
• Variable credit usage based on tokens consumed
• Longer or more advanced prompts may use multiple credits
• Harder to predict costs
The bottom line: Zapier is definitely the easiest way to automate AI prompts as a no-code builder, though Make will probably cost you less in most situations.
AI agents and Model Context Protocol
Using Zapier and Make, you can build customized AI agents that automatically perform actions in your other software.
Your AI agents can run any action that you can automate with the thousands of apps connected to Zapier or Make, such as:
• Drafting emails in Gmail
• Adding database items to Notion
• Finding data in Hubspot
• And much, much more
Both platforms recently added support for Model Context Protocol, letting you connect AI tools like Claude directly to your automation providers.
Zapier MCP: Simple but expensive
Setup:
• Create a new server with a few clicks
• Select the apps you want to access
• Ask Claude to do whatever you want in your software
Cost:
• Each call uses 2 tasks from your plan
• Can get expensive quickly
Make MCP: Complex but budget-friendly
Setup:
• Build individual scenarios for each action you want to automate
• Much longer setup time
• More technical configuration required
Cost:
• Credit usage based on prompt complexity
• Generally cheaper than Zapier, but cost varies
Winner: Zapier for simplicity, Make for budget
If you're looking to build an AI agent, Zapier wins on simplicity. Make will likely cost you less, but take more time to set up.
Final recommendations
Here's how to choose between Zapier and Make based on your specific situation.
Choose Zapier if you:
• Are new to automation and want the easiest learning curve
• Need the most accessible way to create simple, reliable workflows
• Want straightforward AI features without technical complexity
• Need to automate apps that might not be available in Make
• Use polling triggers heavily
• Process large files regularly
• Value predictable, transparent pricing
Choose Make if you:
• Are working with a tight budget
• Need to build complex workflows with multiple branching paths
• Want granular control over each automated action
• Use instant triggers instead of polling
• Have some technical comfort and are willing to experiment
• Don't move large amounts of data between apps
Try both
If you're just getting started with automation, we'd recommend trying both free tiers to get a feel for which approach resonates with you.
You can also explore our beginner’s guides to learn how to start automating your work with both providers.
Remember: You don't have to pick just one. Many teams use both tools for different types of automations. You can even have an automation in one provider trigger an automation in the other.
At XRay, many of our workflows involve passing data between both Zapier and Make.
Stop doing the boring parts of your job – let automation do it for you
Whether you choose Zapier, Make, or both, the goal is the same: radically transform your workflow so that nothing is fully manual. At XRay, we help businesses design and implement these transformations every day.
Ready to stop doing your job and start orchestrating it? Schedule a free consultation with our team to discuss how automation can transform your business.
Looking for short-term support or collaboration on your low-code project? With LowCodeEngineers, you can learn and build with vetted experts on a flexible hourly basis.
Learn more about LowCodeEngineersNot sure where to start?
Case Studies
Xray Blog
Zapier and Make are two of the biggest names in workflow automation. If you're just getting started, or looking to expand your automation toolkit, you might not be sure which is the best choice.
Both providers can automate similar processes, but they take fundamentally different approaches. Based on years of experience in workflow design and automation, we've found that the question isn't really which one is "better" – it's which one fits your specific needs, technical comfort level, and budget.
In this comparison, we'll break down the key differences between Zapier and Make across several categories, including all of the AI features added recently.
By the end, you'll know exactly which platform makes sense for your situation – or whether you might want to use both, like we do at XRay.
Ease of use and learning curve
When comparing Zapier and Make, ease of use is one of the key aspects that distinguishes the two providers.
Zapier: Built for beginners
Zapier is very simple and beginner-friendly. You build automations called "Zaps" one step at a time in a linear setup, and everything is described in plain English. It's designed so that anyone can jump in and start automating without a technical background.
Key advantages:
• Clear, plain-English interface
• Helpful tooltips throughout
• Linear, step-by-step workflow builder
• Ideal for non-technical users in any industry or niche: marketing, HR, sales, etc.
Make: More powerful, steeper learning curve
Make isn't difficult per se, but it is considerably more technical than Zapier. The language and setup they use are often less clear, and there's definitely a steeper learning curve for non-technical users.
Trade-offs:
• Fewer tooltips and guidance
• More steps required for basic actions
• Requires more technical intuition, trial & error
• More advanced options once you know what you're doing
Real-world example: Setting up a Gemini AI prompt
To put these differences into a practical context, let’s look at an example automation.
Say you want to automate a prompt in Google's Gemini AI. Both platforms support this, but the setup feels quite different.
In Zapier, it's very straightforward.
The fields clearly describe everything you need – Model, System Instructions, Prompt and so on.
You just type or use dropdowns to enter data, and hit forward slash to bring up dynamic data from previous steps.
In Make, you need to create a new item under "messages" and choose your role as "user" – and none of this is explained.
It's not that hard to figure out, but it definitely requires more technical intuition.
Winner: Zapier for ease of use
For beginners, Zapier is the clear winner with a much faster learning curve.
This is a theme you'll see throughout this comparison: Make gives you more control, but at the cost of simplicity.
Pricing and value
When looking at base subscription tiers, it's clear that Make offers more affordable plans, but the devil is in the details.
Free tier comparison
Make's free tier:
• 1,000 credits per month
• 2 active scenarios
• Most core features available
Zapier's free tier:
• 100 tasks per month
• Only single-step automations (one trigger, one action)
• Essentially just a demo
Make wins handily on the free tier. Zapier's free plan isn't something you can rely on for company-wide automations.
Paid plan pricing
Make starts at $11 per month when paying monthly:
• Unlimited active scenarios
• 10,000 credits per month
• Additional credits available for extra cost
• Credits usually equal one automated action
Zapier starts at $30 per month for their Pro plan:
• Multi-step Zaps unlocked
• 750 tasks per month
• Access to premium apps
• Tasks equal one automated action
Zapier is about three times more expensive than Make when you're looking at base pricing, but there's a very important caveat to consider.
The hidden cost: How usage is measured
Both platforms limit and measure usage based on automated actions – "Tasks" in Zapier and "Credits" in Make. If you need more than what's included in your base subscription, you'll have to pay more.
The polling trigger problem
This is where Make's pricing can become more expensive than it initially appears.
One of the most common ways to start an automation (particularly for beginners) is to use a "polling trigger" – automations that check sources like Google Sheets, Notion databases, or Asana projects for new data at regular intervals.
Here's the critical difference:
• Zapier: When a polling trigger finds no new data, no tasks are used
• Make: A polling trigger uses a credit every time it checks, whether it finds data or not
This means if you have a few automations checking for updates every 5 minutes, you could burn through your Make credits surprisingly fast.
A single automation with a five-minute polling trigger will use about 8,000 credits a month just to check if it should run. Add in the actual runs, and you could consume your basic Make plan’s entire 10,000 credit allotment with just one automation.
Data transfer limits
Another hidden cost consideration:
• Make: Limits your transferred data to 5gb per 10,000 credits in your plan
• Zapier: No data limit whatsoever
If you're moving large files between apps, this is a huge deal. If your automations are processing videos or long audio recordings, Zapier could end up being cheaper than Make.
Winner: It depends on your workflow
Think of it like budget vs. premium airlines. The budget option looks cheaper upfront, but once you factor in all the fees, the total cost might end up similar – or even more expensive.
Make wins if you:
• Use instant triggers (like webhooks)
• Don't move large amounts of data
• Have a tight budget
Zapier wins if you:
• Rely heavily on polling triggers
• Process large files regularly
• Want predictable costs
Get help designing efficient automations
This kind of fine-tuned workflow design is something we specialize in at XRay.
If you need help making sure your automations are running as efficiently as possible, or if you want to eliminate boring, repetitive work at your company, give us a call.
We'll show you your options for flexible hourly support, or a long-term retainer for complete workflow transformation.
We've helped our clients reduce time spent on tedious tasks by over 90%, resulting in thousands of hours back for more important work.
Ready to build automations that actually work? Schedule a free consultation with our team.
App integrations
Both Zapier and Make support thousands of app integrations, but there are some important differences in breadth and depth.
Integration library size
Zapier Integrations:
• Over 8,800 apps available
• Likely supports any web app you want to automate
Make:
• Over 3,000 apps available
• Covers most major tools businesses use
• Lacks native support for more niche applications
Depth vs. breadth
The real difference isn't just the number of apps – it's how deeply each platform integrates with them.
Make typically offers more granular control within each app integration:
• More available actions
• More configuration options
• More advanced settings
• Greater flexibility to build exactly what you need
Zapier's integrations tend to be more streamlined:
• Most commonly used actions for each app
• Faster, easier setup
• Occasionally missing specific actions or configurations you might need
Winner: Depends on your priorities
For more casual users, Zapier's broader app library gives it the edge. But if you need deep, granular control over specific apps, Make might be the better choice.
Complex workflows and flow control
For simple, linear automations, both platforms work well. But when you start building more complex workflows with multiple paths and conditional logic, the differences become more apparent.
Building more complex workflows with Make
Many experienced automators prefer using Make when they're working on more complicated automations. The difference largely comes down to visual layout and deeper integrations.
Visual workflow design
Zapier is really designed with simple, linear flows in mind. Once you start adding some paths, it can be difficult to see and understand the whole workflow at a glance.
Make's advantages for complex workflows:
• More modular layout
• See several branching paths all at once
• Easy to move or copy steps while building
• Easier to understand workflow logic at a glance
Inline functions and transformations
Make includes easy inline functions that let you run useful formulas in any module. You can use them to:
• Reformat dates
• Run math calculations on the fly
• Transform text with drag-and-drop formulas
There’s no need for separate steps, keeping your automated scenarios clean and simple.
To run similar functions, Zapier requires separate formatter steps.
These don't count against your task limit, but they add more clutter to your workflow, and make the builder interface harder to navigate.
Winner: Make for advanced workflows
Zapier can definitely handle complex workflows with its features for branching paths, conditional logic, and filters. But most experienced builders find Make easier to work with for advanced automations.
Also, as noted earlier, Make's more extensive options for each app make it easier to build sophisticated logic. There are a lot of options for automated actions that you just won't find in Zapier.
AI features
AI has become a major part of workflow automation. Both apps have evolved significantly here in the last couple of years, with Zapier even rebranding themselves as an "AI orchestration platform".
Both Zapier and Make now offer:
• AI-assisted automation building
• Automated AI prompting
• Custom AI agent creation
Let’s take a closer look at the AI features available in both Zapier and Make.
AI copilots: Helpful but limited
Both providers have AI copilots to help build automations.
However, in our experience, neither are very good at creating complete, working automations with all the settings you ask for.
You're always going to have to fix mistakes and finish configuration on your own, which means you’ll still need to learn how to build automations yourself to use these platforms effectively.
Best uses for AI copilots:
• Quickly assembling a rough draft of a simple automation
• Explaining unfamiliar features
• Helping you figure out advanced settings
• General support and guidance
Automating AI prompts
Both platforms let you automate your prompts in popular AI tools like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google's Gemini.
The main difference:
• Make: More advanced settings for power users
• Zapier: Easier to set up
Both platforms also give you the option to automate your AI prompts using your own developer accounts, or to use their own internal tools.
Using external APIs
This approach requires you to:
• Set up an account with your AI platform's API
• Create an API key for the automation provider
• Get billed based on usage when prompts run
Built-in AI tools
If you want to keep your costs lower, both platforms offer built-in AI that doesn't require API setup: AI by Zapier, and Make AI Toolkit.
AI by Zapier:
• Free prompts with select models
• Easy to split AI outputs into separate variables
• Each prompt uses one task
Make AI Toolkit:
• No API charges
• Variable credit usage based on tokens consumed
• Longer or more advanced prompts may use multiple credits
• Harder to predict costs
The bottom line: Zapier is definitely the easiest way to automate AI prompts as a no-code builder, though Make will probably cost you less in most situations.
AI agents and Model Context Protocol
Using Zapier and Make, you can build customized AI agents that automatically perform actions in your other software.
Your AI agents can run any action that you can automate with the thousands of apps connected to Zapier or Make, such as:
• Drafting emails in Gmail
• Adding database items to Notion
• Finding data in Hubspot
• And much, much more
Both platforms recently added support for Model Context Protocol, letting you connect AI tools like Claude directly to your automation providers.
Zapier MCP: Simple but expensive
Setup:
• Create a new server with a few clicks
• Select the apps you want to access
• Ask Claude to do whatever you want in your software
Cost:
• Each call uses 2 tasks from your plan
• Can get expensive quickly
Make MCP: Complex but budget-friendly
Setup:
• Build individual scenarios for each action you want to automate
• Much longer setup time
• More technical configuration required
Cost:
• Credit usage based on prompt complexity
• Generally cheaper than Zapier, but cost varies
Winner: Zapier for simplicity, Make for budget
If you're looking to build an AI agent, Zapier wins on simplicity. Make will likely cost you less, but take more time to set up.
Final recommendations
Here's how to choose between Zapier and Make based on your specific situation.
Choose Zapier if you:
• Are new to automation and want the easiest learning curve
• Need the most accessible way to create simple, reliable workflows
• Want straightforward AI features without technical complexity
• Need to automate apps that might not be available in Make
• Use polling triggers heavily
• Process large files regularly
• Value predictable, transparent pricing
Choose Make if you:
• Are working with a tight budget
• Need to build complex workflows with multiple branching paths
• Want granular control over each automated action
• Use instant triggers instead of polling
• Have some technical comfort and are willing to experiment
• Don't move large amounts of data between apps
Try both
If you're just getting started with automation, we'd recommend trying both free tiers to get a feel for which approach resonates with you.
You can also explore our beginner’s guides to learn how to start automating your work with both providers.
Remember: You don't have to pick just one. Many teams use both tools for different types of automations. You can even have an automation in one provider trigger an automation in the other.
At XRay, many of our workflows involve passing data between both Zapier and Make.
Stop doing the boring parts of your job – let automation do it for you
Whether you choose Zapier, Make, or both, the goal is the same: radically transform your workflow so that nothing is fully manual. At XRay, we help businesses design and implement these transformations every day.
Ready to stop doing your job and start orchestrating it? Schedule a free consultation with our team to discuss how automation can transform your business.
