Looking for Best Zapier Alternatives to Automate Your Work? Then this article is for you. Automation is not simply for businesses; even we can use automation in our own lives to make us more productive. We all get the same restricted number of hours in a day, yet others seem to achieve much more than others. Apart from other things, automation plays a large part in creating this achievement gap. Smart work is all regarding eliminating repetitive tasks and focusing on those that deserve our attention. Some tools aid us in automating our lives, and Zapier is 1 of the best among them. But no tool is excellent for all, as every one of us has different requirements and agenda.
Moreover, Zapier’s pricing is not affordable for everybody. So, if you’ve been looking for automation tools other than Zapier that are free or deliver other features, we are here for you. Here are the 5 best Zapier alternatives to use in 2021.
Best Zapier Alternatives That You Can Use in 2021
IFTTT
The First on our list of Best Zapier Alternatives is IFTTT. IFTTT is usually known as a consumer-facing product for automation, but what if I tell you that the organization offers a separate platform for businesses too? Well, with its business platform, you can attach more than 600 applications and in the same user-friendly manner as you get on the consumer app. And the excellent part about IFTTT is that, unlike Zapier, it’s not just limited to web apps. Instead, IFTTT lets you integrate mobile apps too, which makes it even more capable. As smartphones have become a primary communication device for most consumers, this feature is a welcome addition.
IFTTT has its set of APIs called Connect, allowing businesses to integrate any service, an app, an email service, or a website with an embeddable connection. Nonetheless, it has special services for fintech organizations looking to automate their work. Some famous services on IFTTT are Facebook, Amazon Alexa, Gmail, Twitter, Dropbox, Fitbit, and more. Not to state, you can integrate various apps and services in one workflow, which is called applet on IFTTT. I love the IFTTT applets for Wear OS as they make me automate things on my smartwatch. In terms of subscription, it just has a yearly plan, and it costs $199, which effectively comes down to around $16 per month. I would tell that IFTTT is pretty affordable compared to Zapier, and you can use it for basic automation in a comfortable manner.
Microsoft Flow
If you’re looking for something strictly for personal use, check out this offering from Microsoft. The app is extremely well designed. It is best if you’re just getting started, as it has a big assortment of templates with pre-created flows you can use to automate your tasks. It is especially helpful if you already use various Microsoft services such as Office 365, OneDrive, and OneNote, as with a single authentication, you can connect all your apps. In other apps, you’ll have to permit all the apps you add one by one, which might be a little time consuming at first. However, this further brings us to one of the drawbacks of this app; you can only login into the application using your Microsoft account; there’s no other way. However, this drawback is nullified when seeing its feature set.
Apart from Microsoft apps, it further supports more than a hundred other applications. It might be less if you examine other apps on this listing, but it is plenty from an individual user’s perspective. You can create many step automation defining the exact commands which you want. Also, it has an application for Android and iOS platforms, which are similar to the functionality of its web app. I consider it simpler to create and manage your flows on the website as you get more screen real-estate to work with.
Moreover, did I tell you that it’s free? It is the only automation app you’ll find in the market which is free without any restriction. If you’re looking to play the automation game, do give this one a chance.
Apiant
You’ll notice a trend with all these automation services because they focus mainly on the business side of things. I only wanted to get that out of the way, as while visiting these services, 1 might be overwhelmed with their business-first approach. Apiant supports over 15000 different applications and which might be overwhelming for some users. However, do not worry; you can start with your small-scale automation and then take it from there.
You’ll find that all your apps have Apian integration. You can build triggers and actions. It goes without telling that there can be many triggers and actions in the same sequence. 1 unique feature of Apiant is that you can order custom services for yourself based on your requirement. This particularly makes sense if you own a business that uses a diverse set of tools than those already supported by the platform.
You can use it for personal usage, but it is great for business owners as it is a little bit hard to get around and has a tiny bit of a learning curve associated with it. Also, it has no free account usage. Nonetheless, you can use it for a trial period.
Zoho Flow
Zoho Flow is a Zapier alternative that looks promising and brings many advanced features in a user-friendly interface. Like Tray.io, Zoho Flow lets you integrate your apps and create workflow scenarios on a visual editor. You can make a flowchart of actions, edit them seamlessly using conditional triggers, and set the workflow in motion with just a few clicks. You can get emails, file reports from 1 service to another in just a matter of seconds. The excellent part about Zoho Flow is that it lets you create logic elements to define a variable if you want to go deep into the webhook integration. If you’re an advanced consumer, you can get the most out of Zoho Flow.
And for freshmen, there is nothing to worry about. Zoho Flow offers a tremendous range of pre-built workflows which you can get started in no time. Simply choose the template and authorize the integration. That’s it. Proceeding to web apps support, it has integration with almost all the famous services out there, including Google Calendar, Gmail, Slack, Trello, Asana, and more. And if you use Zoho’s individual CRM and QuickBooks, then the automation would also be easier and deeply integrated. Lastly, Zoho Flow is a user-friendly automation tool, and you can give it a try. More so, when it takes almost one-sixth of what Zappier offers.
Integromat
This is the service that gets closest to Zapier in terms of UI and usability. The animations are fluid, and everything is straightforward to locate and use. I’ve found it to be more reliable than Zapier, especially when it gets too complex tasks in terms of functionality. In fact, in my brief time of using Integromat, I can confidently state that it is much easier to set up complex tasks using this than any other services list. The excellent part about using Integromat is that it gives you a full visual profile of the tasks you have created. Every node on the task is designed by a circle that is connected to others using dotted lines. It looks as if you’ve created a mind map. This gives you a smart overview of what automated tasks you are running.
You can create numerous scenarios, and any scenario at a given time can have n numbers of steps or operations. It is a true multi-step automation tool. Such as, I created a task in which whenever an article is posted on LinksCatalog.net, it will retrieve it using the RSS feed and email it to me. This was simple 2-step automation. Let us take it up a notch & create a complex schedule.
I have added a router that lets me assign different outcomes for the same trigger. I’ve defined the router to send any iOS article to Evernote and Android article to Google Drive. See how easily I created a way to automate things. Now I possess everything I need right in my three favorite places. This is an example; the possibilities are endless. You’ve to give it a try to fully understand its use cases.
My main disagreement with Integromat and every other automation tool, for that matter, is their pricing policy. Most of them follow subscription based pricing with multiple tiers. You’ll have to check each one out by visiting their websites. One great thing about Integromat is that it has a free user account option that supplies you limited access to their service to check it out before buying.
Get More Done by Automating Your Work By These Zapier Alternatives
Automation is a significant tool that we can use to get more things done in a limited amount of time. Performing repetitive tasks not only kills our time but further makes our work boring. We should use automation wherever possible to prevent ourselves from falling into the traps of doing repetitive tasks. Remember being busy & being productive are two quite different things altogether. Well, the aforementioned Zapier alternatives should surely make things more productive for you. Every tool we have stated in our article has a free trial of some sort, so try them out and choose which one is the best for you. Please allow us to know in the comment down below which one you liked and why.
