CLOUD BUSINESS APPS INTEGRATION
Zapier Alternatives
for Cloud Business Apps Integration
Dan Kenitz
25 June 2017
Zapier is one of the best ways to organize and coordinate all of the apps in your lives. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only way. There are plenty of Zapier alternatives out there that can do just as good a job of keeping your apps running together smoothly so that your life runs just as well. In this article, we’ll look at some of these alternatives and weigh their benefits as compared to Zapier’s.
Cloud Business Apps Integration Explained
But before we start, let’s define exactly what a Cloud Business Apps Integration system might be. In this list of Evernote alternatives, you’ll find a thorough explanation of cloud business task management that handles exactly these issues. These apps are meant to handle tasks that you would otherwise have to do yourself, taking advantage of the automation and accessibility of mobile applications to make your life a heck of a lot easier.
What is Zapier?
What is Zapier in this context? Zapier is a system for remotely coordinating your business and productivity apps to make your life just as easy. It’s a way of handling automatic triggers and systems so that things happen whether or not you’re there to experience them. We’re going to compare Zapier to similar systems to see which offer the most features and efficiency when making your life more automated—and less stressful.
Why do we chose Zapier "For Work" Plan for price comparison?
In this comparison, we’ll use the Zapier “For Work” plan for a couple of reasons. First, it gives us an ability to compare the Zapier functionality to other plans directly—comparing different plan types is disingenuous at best. Second, we’re talking about Cloud Business Apps management here, and that usually means you’ll be using these options for the purposes of making your business life more productive and easier to manage. The “For Work” plan fits exactly with those goals.

Make three-step “zaps” as opposed to the usual two
Receive priority customer support for issues and errors
Full access to some 750+ integrated apps you can automate
Zapier “For Work” Plan

Building and publishing your own applets for business
Working with hundreds of products, APIs, etc.
You can opt for free version if implementing for your personal use
IFTTT “Maker” Plan

2 Pro App connections, 3 Base App connections unless upgraded
Can handle up to 30,000 transactions per month
Forum, email, and live chat for customer support
Workato Professional

25 pipelines handled per month, which is a lot for the price
Up to 25,000 transactions handled for the business account
10 connected channels, and multiple accounts per channel
CloudPipes Business

Up to 15 connections on the Medium plan
Max of 15,000 contacts when using this plan
Real-time use and premium support is offered
Piesync Medium Plan

All features available through standard plan use
Allows adding on bots or interactions on a custom level
Priority customer support available on the “Standard” Plan
Standard Plan
Zapier Alternatives: Zapier vs other Cloud-based Business Apps Integration Solutions

Zapier vs IFTTT
A direct comparison between Zapier and IFTTT is more difficult than you might imagine. First of all, Zapier’s business plan and IFTTT’s plans available for business development are very different. There is a free version of the IFTTT plan, for example, and it’s difficult to gauge whether or not this is a direct comparison to the Zapier pricing tier or whether the paid version of IFTTT’s plan (“Partner,” 199/month) is a more direct comparison. Either flip of the coin is much less or much more than what Zapier charges, so proceed at your own risk.
What people love about IFTTT for development, however, is the functionality. It’s really there for true developers, of course, who want to utilize IFTTT for more advanced needs than the public side of their application. But put it all together and IFTTT does offer a highly customizable amount of functionality that compares well to just about any item on this list, including Zapier. All in all, it’s hard to argue against one of the most popular names in business automation, even if the exact plan is hard to pin down.

Zapier vs Workato
Workato is a very robust system for cloud-based business app integration, which is why the price is so high. It is by far the most expensive option on this list, and for a price like $499/month, it had better deliver the goods. Fortunately, it does deliver a lot. In addition to plenty of functionality and enough “bandwith”—to use the figurative sense of the word—to handle a load of demands, there’s plenty to like about what you can acquire for this amount of money.
However, for smaller businesses that need to use just limited amounts of cloud-based app integration…Workato’s price simply makes it come up short. There’s just not enough features in the world to justify that kind of price if you have simple needs with your cloud app integration. If you have more robust needs, then Workato will fit smoothly into your business and you shouldn’t have to think twice about that monthly bill—especially not with all of that customer service to help you out. All in all, most businesses will likely want to move on to the next option on the list.

Zapier vs Cloudpipes
The price and overall functionality of Cloudpipes makes it a good mid-tier option for this list, a sort of “standard” from which to compare the rest. Why is that? The price is moderate compared to Workato—just $99/month in comparison sounds relatively light—and it has enough features and functionality to justify using it for your cloud-based business app integration. But the key question with Cloudpipes isn’t how good it is for comparing against other items on this list: it’s about what this delivers itself.
And in that department, we can rate it as just fine. There’s nothing that really stands out here except for the fact that the sheer amount of numbers here help it rate highly against the more expensive options. For the money, you won’t receive any eye-popping features or configurations that you don’t see from the other offerings on this list, but you will receive plenty of volume and “bandwidth”—to use the figurative term once again—for the dollar. That makes Cloudpipes a sensible, moderate option worthy of your consideration as a Zapier alternative.

Zapier vs Piesync
Coming in at even less expensive than Cloudpipes—and coming closer to the original Zapier price—you see Piesync performing equally well. It has lots of features, of course, when it comes to the breadth offered. The question here is whether or not $59/month will give you all of the functionality you can handle when it comes to your business or if you’ll eventually have to spring for a more expensive option from this list that you could have simply used all along.
But Piesync has the features to function well as a good “beginner’s” option for those looking for Zapier alternatives. The price still isn’t as low as Zapier’s is, and certainly isn’t as low as the free IFTTT option, but it offers respite from the higher prices you’ll see on this list without sacrificing any of the real meat and potatoes of what makes a cloud-based business app integration option what it is. With that in mind, Piesync is definitely worthy of your consideration as an alternative to any other option on this list of offerings.

Zapier vs Flow XO
Rounding off our list is an intriguing option from Flow XO. Not only does the price compare directly with Zapier’s—they’re both at about $20 per month, depending on how much you use—but what we like here is the customization available to your business. Flow XO offers all of its extensive features in the basic business plan. It then offers additional functionality if you need to handle more interactions every month, for example. In other words, the more you use it, the more you’ll pay—but you don’t have to pay if your uses are limited for now.
That, in our mind, makes Flow XO one of the most appealing Zapier alternatives from a pricing standpoint. Since it’s the only offering on this list that offers pricing on functionality this way, and because that pricing is customizable depending on your usage, it’s a great option for growing businesses that are not yet sure about what they’ll need to purchase. Though the basic plan has very limited numbers to start with—just 5,000 interactions per month on the Standard Plan—you can ratchet up your subscription level as needed.
Summary
There is a wide range of alternatives on this list that make direct comparisons more difficult. But there’s no doubt that there are perfectly valid Zapier alternatives that might meet your budgetary or functionality requirements. Try to pick the one that fits best with your needs.
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