Zapier vs IFTTT: Pricing, Features & Automation - updated 2026

IFTTT and Zapier are two excellent automation tools that can help you connect apps without knowing a single line of code. Let us help you find out which is better for you in this Zapier vs IFTTT showdown.

If you have ever wanted to connect two or more apps without knowing a single line of code, no-code solutions like IFTTT and Zapier are just what you are looking for. Both are excellent services that can automate workflows in a flash and offer free plans. Deciding which of the two is better will be a tough question to answer in this Zapier vs IFTTT showdown.

Key Takeaways:

• Zapier and IFTTT are both very easy to use, although IFTTT is slightly better for people who need a little more guidance. Zapier has a slightly steeper learning curve.
• In general, individuals will be better off with IFTTT and businesses with Zapier, although this distinction is not set in stone. It also depends on what you are using them for.
• When it comes to pricing, IFTTT seems like the obvious choice because it is much cheaper, but Zapier has some important advantages up its sleeve that make the choice less clear-cut than it initially appears.

That is why we are making this article a little less involved than other comparisons: while it may make sense for an article like Dropbox vs Google Drive vs OneDrive to examine every detail, Zapier and IFTTT are much more complementary. For example, Zapier works better for businesses, while IFTTT is better suited to the home.

Of course, both are functional enough to use independently, but each has advantages in its respective areas. That said, let us wrap up the introduction and get started.

• **What is the main difference between IFTTT and Zapier?****
  **The biggest difference between these two apps is that Zapier can automate more business-oriented apps, with more actions available for each app, than IFTTT, making it better for office environments. However, IFTTT has more personal, home-focused apps, making it a better choice if you use more of those apps.
• **Is anything better than Zapier or IFTTT?****
  **In general, Zapier and IFTTT are among the best no-code tools, although Make is also quite good. Some project management tools, such as monday.com and Podio, also have some interesting automation capabilities.
• **Is Zapier free to use?****
  **Zapier has an excellent free plan that is enough to get you started, although it limits the number of actions you can perform each month and will not let you build multistep Zaps.
• **Can IFTTT be trusted?****
  **IFTTT is completely trustworthy, although some applets you set up may put your privacy at risk, especially when automating social media actions. You should therefore always be careful about what you automate and take a moment to assess whether it could put your data at risk.

Zapier vs IFTTT: The Basics

Zapier and IFTTT are both automation tools that require no coding, relying instead on a graphical interface. Until the first decade of this century, if you wanted two programs to work together — for example, to have a Slack message sent to you whenever a new file was uploaded to your Dropbox — you needed to write your own scripts or hope the app developers had done so.

However, with the rise of IFTTT, Zapier and other platforms like them (even some of the best project management tools, such as monday.com, Podio and Airtable, have some no-code capabilities), it is easier than ever to have two or more programs interact to perform basic tasks, simply by selecting a function from a drop-down menu.

Knowing how no-code programs work — including their limitations, at times — means you can get all the programs you might use at home or in the office to work together when needed, saving you time and possibly even money.

What Is IFTTT?

Of our two contenders, IFTTT is about a year older, having been founded in 2010 (Zapier started in 2011). It is a very powerful program that is easy to use and cheaper than Zapier, but it has slightly less functionality when it comes to business-focused apps. However, it beats Zapier by a mile when it comes to social media and smart home integrations.

What Is Zapier?

Zapier is the younger sibling of the two, but, oddly enough, the one with an office job. Zapier not only specializes in offering more apps to connect but also expands the options for each app. If you need complex automation for multiple apps with extensive feature sets (such as cloud storage and project management, for starters), Zapier is probably the better choice, regardless of price.

Available Automations

We will begin our straightforward comparison by looking at the number of automations available for both IFTTT and Zapier, called applets and Zaps, respectively. At first glance, you might think Zapier is the clear winner here, thanks to its enormous app library, but a second look makes it clear that size is not everything (when it comes to libraries, at any rate).

Zapier and IFTTT Integrations

At the time of writing, Zapier boasts integrations for around 3,000 apps, while IFTTT has a fifth of that at around 600. In addition, Zapier offers more options for each app, both for when an action is triggered and for what each action does. If you need to integrate many different apps that need to perform many different operations, Zapier may be your best choice.

Zapier’s list of available apps is truly enormous.

Zapier’s library is packed with business apps, from Google Workspace (read our Google Drive article for a full overview) to project management tools, backup services and much more. The sky is the limit, and you can do more with each and every app. Zapier has more conditions than IFTTT, so you can experiment until your Zap does exactly what you want.

However, that is not the whole story. IFTTT may have only a fraction of the app integrations Zapier offers, but it caters to a very different crowd. While Zapier is the buttoned-up sibling that lets you connect business-oriented programs, IFTTT is a little more laid-back and is where you go when you want to automate Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all the rest.

Some of these are ones even we have never heard of.

Besides social media, IFTTT does a better job than Zapier of connecting smart home devices and other IoT apps (read our article on the Internet of Things if you need more details on that), and at a better price. We will get to the dollars and cents a little further down.

Who Are Zapier and IFTTT For?

In short, IFTTT is a better choice for people who do not want to spend too much and have more IoT and smart home tools to automate, not to mention its wealth of social media integrations. Zapier, on the other hand, is generally better suited to business customers, thanks to its enormous library.

That said, both can venture into the other’s territory quite easily; it is more a matter of their primary focus. You can still use Zapier to connect your home security camera to your email, or use IFTTT to send a Slack message when a Trello task is moved.

Setting Up Workflows

That covers what they are; now let us move on to how to create applets in IFTTT and Zaps in Zapier. In both cases, it is quite easy. We have Zapier resources as well as tutorials on the site that will walk you through the basics, but ultimately, the only skill you need is the ability to follow instructions, along with knowing exactly what you want.

How to Zap That App

Whether you are creating an applet or a Zap, in both cases you choose an app and a trigger for it: for example, whenever a Trello card is moved into a specific column. When the trigger is “pulled,” an action is performed — in this case, let us say an email is sent to you through Gmail.

Setting up automation is admittedly very simple, as in both cases it is just a matter of clicking the right boxes in the right order. It should not take you more than a few minutes to set up basic tasks.

That said, IFTTT is definitely easier to use, or at least it caters more to people who are less familiar with the process. Although its interface may initially annoy you with its almost childlike blocks explaining a lot of irrelevant information, ultimately that just means there is less room for error.

There is no doubt about what you are selecting here.

The Trouble With Applets

However, what can be a little annoying about IFTTT is that you first need to choose an app for your trigger and set it up — only then can you choose the action you need to perform. There is a chance, albeit a very small one, that the action app cannot do what you need, in which case you have wasted a few minutes. It is not a disaster, but it can be frustrating.

This is where Zapier shines: you set up every Zap on a single screen, so you know in advance whether the app you need to perform an action is supported. On top of that, Zapier suggests prebuilt Zaps, saving you some work.

It is all happening right in front of you.

One downside of Zapier, however, is that you can never be sure whether a Zap will work, especially if it is not on the list of suggested workflows. You will therefore need to test and retest every Zap you create to make sure it works as you intended. IFTTT does not have this problem; it seems that its triggers and actions are all tested before being published.

Multistep Applets and Zaps

If you need more than one action to run after a trigger, both IFTTT and Zapier have you covered, as both can create Zaps and applets with multiple actions — but neither allows more than one trigger. In IFTTT, you simply add another action after setting up the first, while Zapier is a little better at setting up fallbacks and the like.

However, the need to test Zapier thoroughly is particularly important when it comes to more complex Zaps with multiple steps, although in general, if there are any problems with your automation, you can figure them out fairly quickly.

Pricing

The final criterion we will use to compare our two competitors is pricing, which seems straightforward at first: while both have excellent free plans that let you try them out, IFTTT offers just one paid plan, while Zapier offers four. Note that in both cases, automations with multiple actions are only allowed on paid plans.

Zapier Pricing Plans

Zapier limits both the number of Zaps you can have and the number of actions they can perform on its lower-tier plans. In the example we used earlier, where an email is sent when a Trello card is moved, that counts as one action. If you are on the Starter plan, you can do this 750 times per month.

However, if you add a second action to that Zap, such as creating an entry in Microsoft Excel as well as sending an email, you can only do so 375 times on the Starter plan. That said, you can increase your action allowance on each plan for a small fee; check Zapier’s pricing page for more details.

Still, this can be quite restrictive, so anyone considering purchasing Zapier may want to do the math and figure out exactly how often their Zaps will fire — or risk having to pause them because they have run out of actions.

IFTTT Pricing Plans

IFTTT’s pricing is much simpler than Zapier’s. There are no limits on actions, although the free plan restricts you to just three automations instead of five. The paid plan comes in only one version (there are separate plans for developers; see them here) and is comparatively cheap next to Zapier. It costs less than half as much as even the Starter plan.

However, expensive as Zapier is, we feel the higher cost may be justified. It offers five times as many apps, as well as more actions for each app. On top of that, Zapier offers more suggestions for automated workflows, making life a little easier. 

That said, if IFTTT has exactly the automations you need and you expect to trigger them a lot, it is a no-brainer: use IFTTT (we have a guide to automating backups with IFTTT).

Conclusion: IFTTT vs Zapier

As we said in the introduction, this comparison is not much of a contest. Although there is some overlap between Zapier and IFTTT, they seem to serve fairly different customer bases; it is up to you to decide which category you fall into.

People with more modest needs for automating their routine workflows, or those with lots of smart devices, will want to look at IFTTT first. Businesses that need to connect lots of apps will likely be best served by Zapier. In either case, you can try both for free, at no risk to you.

Which of the two do you prefer? Are there any criteria we overlooked in our comparison? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, thank you for reading.

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Transparency: This article may contain product/course information or affiliate links. Evaluation criteria & limitations of liability: review & disclosure policy. Author profile: Phạm Xuân Hiếu.

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