# Zapier

15 Hacker News commenters recommended Zapier and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Connects two or more SaaS apps without code, which people find reliable for routine automations and popular with marketers. Critics say complex logic is hard to build, and costs rise as workflows multiply.

## Why people recommend it

- Works well for simple tasks (2 comments): "They work great for simple tasks, but as a developer, I hated having my logic trapped in a GUI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46590227)) "if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053438))
- Reliable for routine automations (2 comments): "That alone unlocks a ton of additional automations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46679257)) "reliable, but tedious for complex logic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46045481))

## What people warn about

- Hard to express complex logic (5 comments): "They work great for simple tasks, but as a developer, I hated having my logic trapped in a GUI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46590227)) "they also hit a massive hard wall where you either need to do some really janky shit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46437396)) "trying very hard to not be Turing complete and there's basically no easy way to express any logic" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49282939))
- Costly as workflows multiply (3 comments): "the setup time doesn't make it worth the output once you're automating multiple workflows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45860650)) "Zapier is cloud-only and expensive at scale" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46121394)) "I've replaced £500 Zapier subscription" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47027587))
- Slow to set up and maintain (2 comments): "the setup time doesn't make it worth the output once you're automating multiple workflows" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45860650)) "n8n and zapier takes too much time to setup and maintain" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47528235))
- Messy, hard-to-maintain processes (2 comments): "using zapier to glue a bunch of mostly poor fits and ending up with Frankenstein processes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46863384)) "Zapier is an unpenetrable mess, evidently targets marketers and other business users" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47540752))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [n8n](https://hackerapproved.com/p/n8n.md): 46 recommend
- [Microsoft Power Automate](https://hackerapproved.com/p/power-automate.md): 6 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://zapier.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Zapier", https://hackerapproved.com/p/zapier/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).