Zapier vs Integromat

Zapier and Integromat are two popular workflow automation platforms.

What do they do?

They let you move data between applications and automate parts of your business that would usually be done by hand.

Zapier & Integromat are usually just different routes to the same goal.

What is Integromat?

Integromat is a free tool to connect apps and automate workflows using a beautiful, no-code visual builder. 

It enables you to connect to any API and create complex integrations using built-in apps and tools, no coding needed. 

You will have the freedom to automate any online task, in just a few clicks.

Who should use it?

It is best suited for entrepreneurs, small-mid size companies, and enterprises as well as system administrators, IT engineers, geeks, and common users.

Integromat Pricing 

Integromat pricing starts at $9.00 per feature, per month, alternatively, there is a free version in the form of a free trial. 

What is Zapier?

Founded in 2011, Zapier helps more than four million customers grow their businesses with the power of automation. 

The company connects over 1,500 apps to help people increase productivity at work, saving customers up to 20 hours per week. 

By helping to discover and weave together web applications that enhance productivity and success, Zapier is changing the way people work. 

Who should use it?

It is best suited to Small & Medium Businesses, Marketers, Salespeople, Designers and Developers.

Zapier Pricing 

Zapier pricing starts at $25.00 per feature, per month but here is a free version via a free trial.

Head to head 

There are numerous features on both of these platforms so let’s look at the most important differences. Then you can see which ones you care about most.

Process historical data

When creating a workflow in Integromat, you have the option to process data that happened from a specific date, which isn’t possible in Zapier.  

Built-in Apps

Zapier has a suite of built-in apps that help to create workflows.

Some are simple like “Email by Zapier”, which simply sends an email. 

Others like “Lead Score by Zapier” are great because they find information about a person based on their email address.

“Formatter by Zapier” has smaller “mini-apps” that add functionality.

Most of Zapier’s tools are replicated in Integromat, but in different ways, for example, if you want to replace a word in a text it’s part of Formatter in Zapier whereas in Integromat it’s carried out with an inline function.

Overall, however, there are many more tools built into Integromat such as:

• Iterating over tabular data
• Creating multiple paths for the workflow to go down (whereas Zapier has only a very limited version of this)
• Repeating steps within automation
• Deciding what to do if an error is found
• Making custom API calls to your apps

If you’re not a techie, you may have not understood everything there; that’s Integromat for you. There is a lot of power there, but you need programming experience to understand how to use it.

Through the use of functions, modules and tools, Integromat is superior in the number of possibilities, but the problem is that they are much more difficult to use.

Usability

As we have said above, Integromat is more powerful, but the downside is that almost everything is more complicated.

Creating a workflow in Zapier is quite straightforward because they have made the effort to make it easy.

The setup is similar in Integromat in the sense that you map info from the trigger through to the action, but even in this basic process, there are some differences. For example, in Zapier you can search through the data you want to add.

If there are innumerable data points, this is extremely valuable. 

You can’t do this in Integromat so you might be scrolling through things for a long time looking for the data you want.

It’s easier to lose work in Integromat on a regular basis because of accidentally clicking off a pop-up instead of clicking “OK” in the corner. It throws out everything that has been entered into the box. This is a basic user interface problem, but it wastes so much time.

Testing and history

When building a workflow in Zapier and need to test each step, you must do it individually, which is quite frustrating.

In Integromat, you can run the workflow and watch it happen in real-time, which is much better when testing.

By far the main way to test and debug Zapier zaps is through “Task History”.

Why? Because this is where you see all the data that has been moving through workflows.  

Zapier has a great ability here.

You can search through any of the data in your workflows for up to 3 months. So if you know some automation went wrong with a specific contact then you can search for their email address and Zapier will show you every workflow that has processed that person, thereby allowing you to get in and find out what the problem is.

This is extremely useful but not possible with Integromat.

Conclusion: which one?

You can do a lot more stuff in Integromat, however, it’s much more difficult to use.

For those new to automation, Integromat is very difficult, you need a little more experience to implement it. For some parts, you need a basic understanding of programming but it is the most powerful and what it can do for you is incredible.

Zapier has many more integrations, so it’s much more likely you’ll find your favorite apps.

But you’re best off knowing both of them 

If you’re just starting out, Zapier is a better choice because it’s easier to understand. That being said, always choose the one that is easiest and most comfortable for you.