Make is the cheaper entry point on the published prices: $9 a month for 10,000 credits billed yearly ($10.59 billed monthly), against Zapier’s $19.99 ($29.99 monthly) for its smallest paid tier. But the two meter usage differently, so the price at a given volume depends on how many steps your automations have. Make counts one credit per module action; Zapier counts a task for every step in a Zap. Free on both: 1,000 credits a month on Make, 100 tasks on Zapier.
What each plan costs at the entry tier
| Attribute | Make (10,000 credits) | Zapier (smallest paid task tier) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, up to 1,000 credits, 15-minute minimum interval | $0, 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only |
| Cheapest paid, billed yearly | Core $9 a month | Professional from $19.99 a month |
| Cheapest paid, billed monthly | Core $10.59 | Professional from $29.99 |
| Next tier up, yearly / monthly | Pro $16 / $18.82 | Team from $69 / $103.50 |
| Multi-step automations | Its page lists no plan restriction | From Professional |
Both prices rise as you choose a bigger allowance: Make has a credit slider up to 8M+, Zapier a task slider. The Make figures are at the 10,000-credit position and Zapier’s are “starting from” prices, so the tables do not line up at the same volume, and we do not publish a cost at 50,000 or 100,000 because neither page gives one without the slider. Check the slider for your own volume.
How usage is counted
Make’s page says each module action, such as adding a Google Sheets row, counts as one credit, and its Code app costs 2 credits per second. Zapier’s page says every step in a Zap and every external connector call uses tasks, with rates that vary by AI model, code runtime and connector type, all drawing from one shared pool. A five-step automation run 1,000 times is roughly 5,000 to 6,000 units on either meter, our arithmetic and not a vendor figure, so at long chains the two can cost more alike than the entry prices suggest. n8n counts a whole run once: see the n8n review.
Pick by what you need
- Pick Make if cost per step at small volume matters and you are happy with a visual canvas: unlimited active scenarios start at Core, per its page.
- Pick Zapier if you want a plan with team features (25 users, shared Zaps, SAML SSO on Team) and its task-pool model across Zaps, AI steps and code.
- Pick neither if you run long chains at high volume: compare cost per run on n8n, or look at AI-agent tools such as Lindy.
What this page cannot tell you
Reliability, ease of use and app-library depth are not on a pricing page, and we have not assessed them. Make lists “3000+ apps” on its Free plan, and Zapier names “9,000+ apps” for its SDK; the two figures count different things, so we do not rank them. Earlier versions of this page said Zapier had 7,000+ apps and Make about 1,500; we could not source either and removed them. Full plan detail: Make review and Zapier review.
Method
Researched from Make’s and Zapier’s pricing pages, read 29 Sep 2026 in a browser with the monthly and yearly toggles both set. USD as displayed. Nothing here comes from using either product.