Zapier
Ranked 2 of 7 workflow automation tools by recommenders
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.
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.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 47%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works well for simple tasks
“They work great for simple tasks, but as a developer, I hated having my logic trapped in a GUI”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: ETLR – An alternative to Zapier/Make/n8n for developers (YAML-based)” “if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that.”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “QuickFlo – I got sick of exporting workflows and everything that came with them” Reliable for routine automations
“That alone unlocks a ton of additional automations.”
Comment from 19 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Dock – Slack minus the bloat, tax, and 90-day memory loss” “reliable, but tedious for complex logic”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “PUNKU.AI Generative automation that outputs editable node graphs”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hard to express complex logic
“They work great for simple tasks, but as a developer, I hated having my logic trapped in a GUI”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: ETLR – An alternative to Zapier/Make/n8n for developers (YAML-based)” “they also hit a massive hard wall where you either need to do some really janky shit”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Software Development Is Software Developers” “trying very hard to not be Turing complete and there's basically no easy way to express any logic”
Comment from 13 Aug 2026 in “Ballet – Workflow automation that writes integrations against any API” - Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: Why are websites and apps still running legacy code?”
- Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “PUNKU.AI Generative automation that outputs editable node graphs”
Costly as workflows multiply
“the setup time doesn't make it worth the output once you're automating multiple workflows”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “I built a platform that automates AI Agent creation – using Job Description” “Zapier is cloud-only and expensive at scale”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Flowctl – Open-source self-service workflow automation platform” “I've replaced £500 Zapier subscription”
Comment from 15 Feb 2026 in “AI is going to kill app subscriptions” Slow to set up and maintain
“the setup time doesn't make it worth the output once you're automating multiple workflows”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “I built a platform that automates AI Agent creation – using Job Description” “n8n and zapier takes too much time to setup and maintain”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Automate your workflow in plain English” Messy, hard-to-maintain processes
“using zapier to glue a bunch of mostly poor fits and ending up with Frankenstein processes”
Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Why software stocks are getting pummelled” “Zapier is an unpenetrable mess, evidently targets marketers and other business users”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 in “Schedule Claude Code tasks on the web”
Other workflow automation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other workflow automation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | 46 | 27 | 63% | 11 | — | — |
| ZapierThis page | 15 | 17 | 47% | 6 | — | — |
| Node-RED | 13 | 3 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Sim | 7 | 1 | 88% | 1 | — | — |
| Graph Compose | 7 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 36 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“trying very hard to not be Turing complete and there's basically no easy way to express any logic”
“giving up 20 lines of simple Python for a 'can't get here from there' nightmare”
“if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that.”
“With the n8n's of the world they can get something done, limited by what they offer.”
“Their billing teams got aggressive”
“they weren't built for developers”
“Platforms like Zapier rely on management being intimidated by the trauma of developing UI software”
“they never really had full control of their workflows at all”
“yes, that's the key to Zapier, from my experience: usage in marketing and the "power user" base.”
“Zapier is an unpenetrable mess, evidently targets marketers and other business users”
“n8n and zapier takes too much time to setup and maintain”
“You can't do that with Zapier or N8N.”
“could be done with a pretty affordable SaaS product, Zapier”
“I've replaced £500 Zapier subscription”
“reactive backends similar to Firebase, Airtable and Zapier, which come so close to almost working for normal people”
“using zapier to glue a bunch of mostly poor fits and ending up with Frankenstein processes”
“came with a lot of limitations too”
“That alone unlocks a ton of additional automations.”
“One failure downstream and I got a confident company summary… about a Montana farm.”
“They work great for simple tasks, but as a developer, I hated having my logic trapped in a GUI”
“they also hit a massive hard wall where you either need to do some really janky shit”
“A workflow tool like n8n or Zapier is a "dumb pipe"”
“The only way to see what each one is is to click on it.”
“Zapier is cloud-only and expensive at scale”
“reliable, but tedious for complex logic”
“the setup time doesn't make it worth the output once you're automating multiple workflows”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.