Short answer: the main Zapier alternatives for AI automation are Make (a visual builder at a lower entry price), n8n (for technical teams, and you can host it yourself), Activepieces (open source with a flat monthly price), Gumloop (chat-driven AI agents for business teams), Microsoft Copilot Studio (for Microsoft 365 companies) and AgentNava (describe a whole job and an agent runs it, priced per turn). Stay on Zapier if you need its catalog of more than 9,000 apps. We make AgentNava, so weigh our view accordingly; every price below links to the vendor's own page, checked on October 5, 2026.
The six alternatives at a glance
| Alternative | Better than Zapier when | How it charges | Lowest paid plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make | You want to see the whole flow as a diagram, and pay less to start. | Credits: most actions use 1 | $12 a month billed yearly ($16 monthly), 10,000 credits. Free plan: 1,000 credits |
| n8n | You have engineers, long workflows, or a need to run it on your own servers. | Executions: one full run, whatever its length | $20 a month billed yearly ($24 monthly), 2,500 executions. Free if self-hosted |
| Activepieces | You want open source and a flat price for a small team. | Credits: a run is 1 credit; AI steps cost 2, 10 or 20 | $20 a month flat, 10,000 credits, up to 5 users. Free plan: 1,000 credits |
| Gumloop | Your team wants AI agents it talks to in chat, using company tools and data. | Credits at $0.005, covering model and tool costs, plus an 8% fee | From $37 a month, 20,000 credits. 14-day trial |
| Microsoft Copilot Studio | Your company runs on Microsoft 365 and the agents serve employees there. | Copilot Credits, for example 5 per agent action | $0.01 a credit pay as you go, or $200 a month (billed yearly) for 25,000 |
| AgentNava | The job needs judgment, and you would rather describe it in a paragraph than map every step. | Per turn: one message or run, with everything the agent does inside it | No plan to buy: $0.01 a turn on Standard, $0.05 on Premium. First $5 free |
For comparison, Zapier charges per task, where each successful action is one task, and its Professional plan is $19.99 a month billed yearly ($29.99 monthly) for 750 tasks. Its free plan includes 100 tasks a month.
Make
A visual builder: you drag app modules onto a canvas and connect them into a scenario. Most actions use one credit, and its lowest paid plan costs less than Zapier’s. Maia by Make builds automations and agents from a conversation, on every plan including Free, and Make AI Agents is in beta. Make runs only in its own cloud.
n8n
Workflow automation with AI agent steps, aimed at technical teams. It charges per execution, a full run of a workflow, so a twenty-step workflow costs the same as a two-step one. You can run the free Community Edition on your own servers. n8n Assistant, in preview, builds and edits workflows from a chat, and n8n’s own docs ask you to review what it builds before using it in production.
Activepieces
Open-source automation with flows, AI agents and tables. A run is one credit however many steps it has, and AI steps cost more by model class. The Plus plan is a flat $20 a month for up to five people. You can run it on your own servers, and Chat to automation builds a flow from a description, on the free plan too.
Gumloop
A platform for AI agents that work with your company’s tools and data, driven from chat. You give an agent a task, and it can write its own instructions and skills. You pay for model and tool usage in credits, plus an 8% orchestration fee. Its older workflow builder is now marked Legacy.
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Microsoft’s builder for agents that work in Microsoft 365 and on outside channels. You can build with natural language or a graphical designer, and you pay in Copilot Credits, either as you go or in monthly packs. It is the natural choice when your data and people already live in Microsoft 365.
AgentNava
You describe a whole job in plain English, such as following up on overdue invoices or researching new sales leads. The agent works out the steps, runs on a schedule or when asked, and asks a person before sensitive steps when its instructions say so. You can start from one of 46 ready-made agents and read their workflows before you hire them. You pay per turn from prepaid credit, and your first $5 is free.
Honest limits: AgentNava is young, connects to about 130 apps against Zapier’s 9,000, and does not run inside Slack yet. Self-hosting is not self-serve: on-premises deployment is arranged with enterprise customers.
When to stay on Zapier
- You need a connector for an uncommon app.
- Your automations are fixed sequences that must run the same way every time.
- You want a built-in approval step: Zapier’s Human in the Loop pauses a Zap for review on paid plans.
- You need its security paperwork today: SOC 2 Type II and single sign-on on higher plans.
Many teams keep Zapier for the fixed plumbing and add an agent for the steps that need judgment.
Two names to cross off older lists
- Relay.app shut down in September 2026, and its site says all accounts and workflows were deleted (relay.app).
- Pipedream Workflows shut down on March 31, 2027, and take no new sign-ups. Pipedream now sells a developer API instead (Pipedream docs).
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest alternative to Zapier?
To start, the free plans of Make (1,000 credits a month) and Activepieces (1,000 credits), or n8n hosted on your own server. Among paid plans, Make’s lowest is $12 a month billed yearly. Over time it depends on your workflows: per-step pricing favours short ones, per-run pricing favours long ones.
Is there an open-source alternative to Zapier?
Yes. n8n and Activepieces both have community editions you can run on your own servers.
Which Zapier alternative is best for AI agents?
It depends on the job. For agents your team talks to in chat, Gumloop. For Microsoft 365 companies, Copilot Studio. For a job you can describe in a paragraph that should run every day by itself, AgentNava. For AI steps inside fixed workflows, Make, n8n or Activepieces.
Can I move my Zaps to another tool automatically?
We did not find a one-click import from Zapier on these vendors’ pricing pages. Plan to rebuild each workflow, starting with the one that costs you the most tasks.
Is Pipedream still a good Zapier alternative?
Not for new workflows. Pipedream Workflows takes no new sign-ups and shuts down on March 31, 2027.