Make
Make trades Zapier's linear steps for a visual canvas with routers, iterators and error routes — free for 1,000 operations a month, paid from $12/mo, and the best price per unit of work for complex branching.
Verified against: make.commake.com as of 2026-09-25
Quick verdict: Make is the answer once your automation outgrows single-trigger-single-action. It scores 4.0/5 with the class's best value score (5/5): Core at $12/mo for 10,000 credits, Pro at $21/mo and Teams at $38/mo, with annual billing saving 15% or more. The canvas is the real product — routers, iterators and visual error routes let you build parallel paths and retry logic that Zapier models awkwardly or not at all. What you trade is onboarding: credits are consumed by every module including triggers and filters, AI modules burn 2-50 credits a run, and data transfer caps at 5GB per 10k operations. Pick Make when workflow complexity and volume are both rising and someone on the team can own the learning curve; pick Zapier when nobody can. Prices re-checked 2026-09-25 against official pricing pages.
- Our rating: 4.0/5
- Strongest dimension: Functionality (5/5, verified against official sources)
- Weakest dimension: Collaboration (3/5, verified against official sources)
- Pricing: Free plan · $12/mo (Core, 10k credits)
- Verification: Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-09-25. Sources: make.com, make.com
Make pricing details
- Free plan available
- paid plans from $12/mo (Core, 10k credits)
- core $12/mo · Pro $21/mo · Teams $38/mo (at 10,000 credits/mo)
- annual billing saves 15% or more versus pay-monthly; credits scale from 10k to 8M+ per month
Credit-based: every module execution counts as one credit, including triggers, routers and filters. Free gives 1,000 credits/mo, 2 active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs. Core, Pro and Teams all start at 10,000 credits/mo and differ by feature: unlimited active scenarios and minute-level scheduling from Core, priority execution plus full-text log search from Pro, team roles and shared scenario templates from Teams. AI modules cost 2-50 credits each and the Make Code app bills 2 credits per second of execution. Data transfer caps are 512MB on Free and 5GB per 10k operations on paid tiers. Enterprise is custom.
In our index: Free plan (1,000 credits/mo); paid from $12/mo — Core at 10,000 credits
How Make scores across our 6 index dimensions
- Functionality: 5/5 (verified against official sources)
- Usability: 4/5 (verified against official sources)
- Stability: 4/5 (verified against official sources)
- Collaboration: 3/5 (verified against official sources)
- Localization: 3/5 (verified against official sources)
- Value: 5/5 (verified against official sources)
Score rationale: Research-only, vendor pages: branching, iterators and visual error routes exceed Zapier's linear model at roughly a tenth of the per-unit cost; ease docked for the steeper canvas learning curve.
What Make does well
- Best price per unit of work in the class: Core is $12/mo at 10,000 credits, roughly an order of magnitude cheaper than Zapier for equivalent volume.
- Visual canvas with routers, iterators, aggregators and visual error routes handles branching that Zapier's linear model cannot.
- Every module counts as one credit, and credits scale to 8M+/month, so high-volume pipelines stay on-platform.
- Make Code runs JavaScript or Python inside a scenario, and 350+ AI apps plus an MCP server are wired in.
Where Make falls short
- Steeper learning curve than Zapier — the canvas, operations accounting and error handling take real time to internalise.
- Free plan is tight: 1,000 credits/mo, 2 active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs.
- Credits are consumed by triggers, routers and filters too, and AI modules cost 2-50 credits each, so budgets need modelling before you commit.
How Make compares to other Workflow Automation tools
Our index tracks 5 Workflow Automation tools. Make sits at 4.0/5, with annual billing saves 15% or more versus pay-monthly; credits scale from 10k to 8m+ per month. Here are the 4 closest alternatives we hold pricing and scoring evidence for.
- Microsoft Power Automate — 4.3/5 · 30-day free trial · $15/user/mo (Premium, paid yearly)
Power Automate is the Microsoft 365-native automation layer: $15/user/mo for cloud and attended desktop flows, $150/bot/mo for unattended RPA, and per-user or per-bot licensing instead of usage metering. - Zapier — 4.2/5 · Free plan · $19.99/mo (Professional, annual)
Zapier connects 9,000+ apps with the shallowest learning curve in the class — free for 100 tasks a month, paid from $19.99/mo, and priced per completed task rather than per step or per seat. - n8n — 4.0/5 · Free plan · €20/mo (Starter, annual)
n8n is the only tool in the class you can self-host free with unlimited workflows, executions and users — and on cloud it bills per complete workflow execution, not per step, with JavaScript and Python anywhere in the flow. - Workato — 3.7/5 · Trial and developer sandbox (no free plan) · Quote-only (no published self-serve price)
Workato is the enterprise iPaaS of the class — 1,200+ connectors including SAP, Workday and ServiceNow, recipe lifecycle management and on-prem agents, sold entirely on a sales quote with no published price.
Frequently asked questions about Make
How much does Make cost?
Free plan available; paid plans from $12/mo (Core, 10k credits); core $12/mo · Pro $21/mo · Teams $38/mo (at 10,000 credits/mo); annual billing saves 15% or more versus pay-monthly; credits scale from 10k to 8M+ per month. Billing detail: Credit-based: every module execution counts as one credit, including triggers, routers and filters. Free gives 1,000 credits/mo, 2 active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs. Core, Pro and Teams all start at 10,000 credits/mo and differ by feature: unlimited active scenarios and minute-level scheduling from Core, priority execution plus full-text log search from Pro, team roles and shared scenario templates from Teams. AI modules cost 2-50 credits each and the Make Code app bills 2 credits per second of execution. Data transfer caps are 512MB on Free and 5GB per 10k operations on paid tiers. Enterprise is custom. Figures verified 2026-09-25.
Does Make have a free plan?
Yes. Make has a free tier; paid plans start at $12/mo (Core, 10k credits).
What is Make rated in our index?
Make sits at 4.0/5 in our index, strongest on functionality (5/5, verified against official sources) and weakest on collaboration (3/5, verified against official sources). Make is the answer once your automation outgrows single-trigger-single-action. It scores 4.0/5 with the class's best value score (5/5): Core at $12/mo for 10,000 credits, Pro at $21/mo and Teams at $38/mo, with annual billing saving 15% or more. The canvas is the real product — routers, iterators and visual error routes let you build parallel paths and retry logic that Zapier models awkwardly or not at all. What you trade is onboarding: credits are consumed by every module including triggers and filters, AI modules burn 2-50 credits a run, and data transfer caps at 5GB per 10k operations. Pick Make when workflow complexity and volume are both rising and someone on the team can own the learning curve; pick Zapier when nobody can. Prices re-checked 2026-09-25 against official pricing pages.
What are the drawbacks of Make?
Steeper learning curve than Zapier — the canvas, operations accounting and error handling take real time to internalise Free plan is tight: 1,000 credits/mo, 2 active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum interval between runs Credits are consumed by triggers, routers and filters too, and AI modules cost 2-50 credits each, so budgets need modelling before you commit.
What does Make do well?
Best price per unit of work in the class: Core is $12/mo at 10,000 credits, roughly an order of magnitude cheaper than Zapier for equivalent volume Visual canvas with routers, iterators, aggregators and visual error routes handles branching that Zapier's linear model cannot Every module counts as one credit, and credits scale to 8M+/month, so high-volume pipelines stay on-platform Make Code runs JavaScript or Python inside a scenario, and 350+ AI apps plus an MCP server are wired in.
How was Make verified?
Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-09-25. Sources: make.com, make.com.
What are the alternatives to Make?
We track Zapier, n8n, Microsoft Power Automate, Workato as the closest alternatives in our Workflow Automation index, and 4 head-to-head comparisons against Make are available.