The best Make alternatives in 2026

Why Look for a Make Alternative in 2026?

Make (the tool formerly called Integromat) is one of the most capable visual automation builders you can buy. Its scenario canvas, routers, filters and error handlers let you build branching workflows that would take a lot more effort in simpler tools. So why do people go looking for something else?

In our experience it usually comes down to one of four things:

• The bill grows with every step. Make charges in credits, and a normal (non-AI) module uses one credit each time it runs. A ten-module scenario that runs 1,000 times uses roughly 10,000 credits. Long workflows get expensive fast.
• AI steps are harder to predict. Since Make moved from "operations" to "credits" in August 2025, Make's own AI tools (AI Agents and the AI Toolkit on Make's AI provider, AI Web Search, the Content Extractor) charge credits by tokens, file size, pages or run time instead of a flat one credit. That's fair, but it makes forecasting harder.
• List prices are higher than many older reviews show. Make's pricing page today lists Core at $12/month billed annually ($16 monthly) for 10,000 credits. You'll still see $9 quoted in older articles and even in one of Make's own help center examples. Budget from the live page.
• No self-hosting. Make is cloud only (hosted on AWS in the EU or North America). Enterprise adds an on-prem agent to reach local systems, but the platform itself doesn't run on your servers. Teams with strict data rules often need something they can host.

None of that makes Make a bad tool. For many teams it's still the best value visual builder. But if one of those points hurts, there are good alternatives, and they bill in very different ways. That billing difference is the most important thing to understand before you switch, so this guide spends real time on it.

We checked every price, plan name and limit below on each vendor's own site in October 2026.

How Make Bills Today (Your Baseline)

Before comparing, it helps to know exactly what you're paying for on Make.

Make plans

Make's paid plans start at 10,000 credits a month, and a slider raises the credit amount (and the price). At the 10,000-credit level:

The plans differ in limits more than in core features:

• Free: 2 active scenarios, a 15-minute minimum interval between scheduled runs, 5-minute maximum run time, 7-day log retention.
• Paid plans: unlimited active scenarios, 1-minute minimum interval, 40-minute maximum run time.
• Pro and up: custom variables and full-text log search.
• Teams and up: teams and team roles.
• Enterprise only: SSO, audit logs, custom roles, enterprise apps, the on-prem agent and overage protection.
• Users: unlimited on every plan.

How credits work

• A normal module uses 1 credit per operation, whatever the size of the data.
• Some modules use a fixed amount above 1.
• Make's built-in AI tools charge by tokens, file size, pages or run time.
• If you bring your own AI key (allowed on all paid plans since November 2025), you pay credits per operation in Make and pay the AI provider for tokens separately.
• Extra credits cost 25% more than plan credits and come in blocks of 1,000.
• Core is capped at 300,000 credits a month. Pro goes up to 8 million.
• On annual billing, Core credits still arrive monthly, while Pro and Teams get a 12-month credit pool.

Make lists 3,500+ standard apps, plus a Make MCP server, Make AI Agents and Maia, a chat assistant that builds scenarios (in public beta since early 2026).

Bottom line: Make is cheap per unit at the low end ($12 for 10,000 credits on annual billing is hard to beat), but because every module counts, the bill grows with the length of your workflows, not just how often they run.

The Same Workflow, Priced Seven Ways

Units differ so much between these tools that headline prices are misleading. Here's one realistic example.

The workflow: a new form submission triggers a scenario that (1) looks up the contact in your CRM, (2) creates or updates the contact, (3) posts a message in Slack and (4) adds a row to a spreadsheet. That's 1 trigger plus 4 actions, 5 steps in total. It runs 2,000 times a month. No extra conditions, filters or AI steps.

We assume each step succeeds and that every module or step counts at its standard rate. Real usage can differ (failed steps, retries, filters, polling), so treat this as a sizing exercise, not a quote.

What this shows:

• Make is competitive for short workflows at this volume, but it uses its whole Core allowance. Add one more module, or a bit more traffic, and you're buying extra credits at a 25% premium or moving up the slider.
• n8n and Activepieces don't care how long the workflow is. Make it a 15-step workflow and their bill stays the same, while Make's triples.
• Zapier is the expensive one per unit. Its entry Professional tier includes 750 tasks, so this workflow needs a much higher tier.
• IFTTT technically allows multi-action Applets on Pro, but it lacks the CRM lookup logic and data handling this workflow needs. We wouldn't run business processes like this on it.

The Alternatives in Detail

1) n8n: Best overall Make alternative for technical teams

What it is: a workflow automation platform with a visual node editor, code steps, and a free self-hosted edition.

Why it's a good Make alternative: n8n is the closest to Make's flexibility, and its billing model fixes Make's biggest pain. One execution is one full run of a workflow, "regardless of how many steps or how much data." Long workflows cost the same as short ones.

Pricing (USD):

• Every plan includes unlimited users, unlimited workflows and every integration.
• Cloud Starter has a 5-minute maximum run time; Pro has 40 minutes.
• Business adds SSO/LDAP, Git version control and queue mode.
• There's a Start-up Plan at 50% off Business for companies under 20 employees.
• The free Community Edition can be self-hosted.

License note: n8n uses its own Sustainable Use License. You can use it for your own internal business purposes or for personal and non-commercial use, but it is not an OSI-approved open-source license, and other uses (like offering it to customers as a service) need a commercial agreement.

AI: AI Agent node, MCP Server Trigger and MCP Client, human approval for tool calls, hosted chat and evaluations.

Watch out for:

• Cloud Starter's 2,500 executions and 5 concurrent runs are tight for busy workflows.
• The jump from Pro ($50) to Business ($800, self-hosted only) is steep.
• Self-hosting means you own updates, backups and uptime.

Who should switch from Make to n8n: teams with someone comfortable writing a bit of JavaScript or Python, teams whose Make scenarios have many modules, and anyone who needs to keep data on their own servers.

2) Zapier: Best for non-technical teams and app coverage

What it is: the best-known automation platform, with the largest app library (9,000+ apps).

Why it's a good Make alternative: Zapier is easier to learn than Make, connects to more apps, and bundles Tables, Forms, Agents, Chatbots, MCP and a Copilot that helps build Zaps.

Pricing:

• Higher task tiers go up to 2 million tasks a month on both Professional and Team.
• The task allowance resets monthly, even on annual plans.
• Free is limited to two-step Zaps with 15-minute polling and no premium apps, Filters, Paths or Formatter.
• Professional adds multi-step Zaps, premium apps, webhooks and 2-minute polling. Team and Enterprise get 1-minute polling; Team adds shared Zaps and connections and SAML SSO.
• Professional has a 14-day trial.

How tasks work: a task is each successful action step. Triggers, polling and built-in tools (Formatter, Paths, Filter, Delay, Looping and others) don't use tasks, and failed steps don't count. That's friendlier than Make for logic-heavy workflows. But AI by Zapier, Code by Zapier and the SDK now use tasks too: AI steps are priced by model tier, and each Zapier MCP tool call costs 2 tasks. Over the limit, pay-per-task costs 1.25x the base rate on annual plans and 2.5x on monthly plans.

AI: Zapier Agents is a separate product billed in "activities," not tasks, with a free tier of 400 activities a month.

Watch out for:

• Per unit, Zapier costs far more than Make: $19.99 buys 750 tasks, versus 10,000 credits for $12 on Make.
• No self-hosting.

Who should switch from Make to Zapier: teams where the people building automations aren't technical, or who need an app Make doesn't support, and who value speed of setup over cost per step.

3) Activepieces: Best open-source option with flat pricing

What it is: an automation platform with an MIT-licensed core that you can self-host or use in the cloud.

Why it's a good Make alternative: one credit per run, however many steps, and flat plan prices. It's also genuinely open source (MIT) for the core, which n8n is not.

Pricing:

• Overage on Plus and Team: $0.007 per credit. Free waits for credits to refresh. (Activepieces' Free plan card says 1,000 credits a month, but its comparison table and FAQ both say the credits reset daily, so check before you rely on it.)
• Unlimited flows on all plans; cloud or on-prem on all plans.
• Team adds SSO and unlimited projects. Ultimate adds SCIM, custom roles, audit logs and Git sync.
• An Embed plan (a white-label builder inside your own product) starts at $36,000 a year.

How credits work: 1 credit per run. AI steps cost 2 (fast model), 10 (smart) or 20 (frontier) credits, and agent actions cost 1 credit each. With your own AI keys (Plus and up), each AI step costs 1 credit.

Integrations: 760+ "pieces."

AI: AI Agents, Chat, Tables, an MCP server, and "Build it with AI," where you describe a step and it's written for you.

Watch out for:

• Fewer integrations than Make (760+ versus 3,500+). Check your critical apps first.
• SSO needs the $200 Team plan.

Who should switch from Make to Activepieces: teams that want to self-host under a permissive license, or want a predictable flat monthly bill for multi-step workflows.

4) Pabbly Connect: Best for tight budgets and lifetime deals

What it is: a budget-friendly cloud automation tool with 2,000+ apps.

Why it's a good Make alternative: only action steps use tasks. Triggers, polling checks and internal tools (filter, router, formatters, iterator, delay, schedule, email parser and similar) are free. And there's an unlimited-task plan.

Pricing (USD per month):

• One-time lifetime plans: Standard $349 (3,000 tasks/month), Ultimate $799 (10,000) and Ultimate Plus $1,298 (20,000).
• Premium apps and path routers are included on every plan.
• Free is limited to 2-step workflows.
• Team members, Human in Loop, the AI Assistant, MCP Servers, custom variables, the JavaScript/Python module and auto re-execution are only on the Unlimited plan.
• 30-day money-back guarantee.

Watch out for:

• Many advanced features (code, team members, AI, MCP) need the Unlimited plan.
• Pabbly doesn't publish its polling interval.
• No self-hosting.

Who should switch from Make to Pabbly Connect: small businesses and solo operators running many simple, high-volume workflows who want a fixed or one-time cost.

5) Integrately: Best for ready-made one-click automations

What it is: a cloud automation tool built around prebuilt templates, with 1,500+ apps and "20 Million+ ready automations."

Why it's a good Make alternative: if you find Make's canvas intimidating, Integrately lets you pick a ready-made automation and switch it on.

Pricing (taxes extra):

• Starter includes 3 premium apps; Professional and up include unlimited premium apps.
• 14-day free trial.

How tasks work: every successful action, condition or branch, Modify Data step and search is a task. Triggers and failed actions are free. If you run out, records queue and can be resumed later.

Watch out for:

• Conditions and searches use tasks, so logic-heavy workflows cost more than they look.
• Single user below Growth.
• No AI agent product (ChatGPT is available as an integration).
• Fastest interval is 2 minutes, versus 1 minute on Make's paid plans.

Who should switch from Make to Integrately: beginners and small teams who mostly need common app-to-app automations and want them working in minutes.

6) IFTTT: Best for personal and smart-home automation

What it is: a simple "if this, then that" service connecting over 1,000 brands and services, many of them consumer and smart-home devices.

Pricing:

• Free Applets are one trigger and one action, with unlimited runs.
• Pro adds multi-action Applets, webhooks and faster speeds.
• Pro+ adds queries and filter code, multiple accounts per service and IFTTT AI services.
• 7-day free trial on Pro and Pro+.

Watch out for: IFTTT is not a real Make replacement for business workflows. Logic is limited (filter code only on Pro+), Applet counts are capped, and there's no self-hosting or agent builder.

Who should switch from Make to IFTTT: individuals who used Make for a few personal automations and want something cheaper and simpler.

Migrating Off Make: What to Plan For

None of these tools import Make scenarios directly that we could confirm, so plan on rebuilding. A few tips:

• Inventory first. List every active scenario, its trigger, the apps it touches, and roughly how many credits it uses a month. Credit use tells you which scenarios matter most.
• Map units before you commit. Use the method from the cost example above: count steps per run and runs per month, then apply the new tool's unit (task, execution, run).
• Check every app. Make's 3,500+ apps is more than every alternative here except Zapier. For gaps, check whether the new tool has a generic HTTP or webhook step.
• Rebuild routers and error handlers deliberately. Every tool here handles branching and errors in its own way, so don't assume a Make router or error handler behaves the same after the move. Test failure cases, not just the happy path.
• Run both in parallel. Keep the Make scenario on for a week while the new one runs in a test mode, then compare outputs before switching off.
• Mind your billing cycle. On annual Pro and Teams plans, Make gives a 12-month credit pool, so time the switch to your renewal date.

Which Make Alternative Should You Choose?

• You have long workflows and a technical builder: n8n. Per-execution billing makes long workflows cheap, and you can self-host.
• You want open source under a permissive license: Activepieces (MIT core).
• Your builders aren't technical and you need every app: Zapier, if the budget allows.
• You want the lowest fixed cost for lots of simple workflows: Pabbly Connect, especially the Unlimited plan or a lifetime deal.
• You want templates and minimal setup: Integrately.
• You only automate personal apps and devices: IFTTT.
• Your workflows are short and you like the canvas: honestly, stay on Make. At 10,000 credits for $12/month (annual), it's still one of the cheapest options for short workflows.

Conclusion

Make remains a strong visual automation tool, and for short workflows it's hard to beat on price. The case for switching is strongest when your scenarios have many modules (n8n or Activepieces bill per run, not per step), when you need to self-host (n8n or Activepieces), or when the people building automations need something simpler (Zapier or Integrately).

Before you move, price your real workflows in each tool's unit. The headline price only matters once you know how many credits, tasks or executions you'll actually use.