Zapier vs IFTTT: cheap personal automation or real business workflows
IFTTT costs a few dollars a month, Zapier around twenty. They are not really competing for the same job. Here is which one your automation actually belongs on.
Verdict
IFTTT costs a few dollars a month and suits smart home and personal automation. Zapier costs roughly ten times more and is built for business workflows with multiple steps, filters, and business apps IFTTT does not carry.
At a glance
| Criterion | ZapierFor business workflows | IFTTTCheapest by far |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 100 tasks/mo, two-step limit | 2 applets |
| Entry paid price | $19.99/mo annual | About $3/mo |
| Top consumer tier | $69/mo Team | About $9 to $15/mo Pro+ |
| Multi-step workflows | Yes, from Professional | Limited, queries and filters on Pro+ |
| Conditional logic and paths | Yes | Very limited |
| Business app coverage | Thousands including CRMs and accounting | Around 900, consumer-weighted |
| Smart home and IoT | Thin | Its core strength |
| Error handling and retries | Built in with alerts | Minimal |
| Full review | Read the Zapier review | Coming soon |
What the winner gets right, and where it falls short
What works
- IFTTT is cheap enough that the subscription decision barely matters, at roughly three dollars a month
- Zapier handles branching, filtering, and multi-step logic that real business processes need
- IFTTT is the better tool for anything involving physical devices, where Zapier has almost no presence
What does not
- IFTTT free is capped at two applets, which is restrictive enough that the free tier is effectively a demo
- IFTTT published prices vary noticeably between sources, so confirm at checkout rather than trusting a comparison table
- Zapier is poor value if all you want is a handful of single-step connections between consumer apps
These are not really competitors#
It is worth saying plainly, because the price gap makes people think they are choosing between two versions of the same thing.
IFTTT came out of consumer automation: connect a smart bulb to a sunset, cross-post an Instagram photo to Twitter, log your steps to a spreadsheet. It is priced accordingly, it is pleasant to use, and it is very good at that job.
Zapier came out of business software integration. It handles workflows with conditions, multiple actions, error handling, and connections to the kind of tools a business runs on. It is priced accordingly too.
The question is not which is better. It is which category your automation falls into.
The price gap, in context#
About 7x
Price difference at the entry paid tier
Roughly $3 a month for IFTTT Pro against $19.99 for Zapier Professional billed annually.
| Zapier | IFTTT | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 100 tasks, two-step cap | 2 applets |
| Entry paid | $19.99/mo annual | About $2.99 to $3.49/mo |
| Top self-serve | $69/mo Team | About $8.99 to $14.99 Pro Plus |
We would normally give exact figures. In IFTTT's case, reputable sources genuinely disagree, partly because IFTTT has experimented with pay-what-you-want pricing on Pro. Take the ranges as ranges.
What the two-applet free limit really means#
Zapier's free plan is restrictive in a way you can work around: 100 tasks and a two-step cap, but unlimited Zaps. You can build a dozen simple connections and stay at zero.
IFTTT's free plan gives you two applets. Not two hundred runs, two automations, total. That is a demo, not a plan. Budget for Pro from the start if you are seriously considering IFTTT.
Where IFTTT is the right answer#
Anything with a physical device. Smart plugs, thermostats, lights, doorbells, wearables. Zapier barely operates here and IFTTT is built for it.
Simple social cross-posting. If you want a new blog post to auto-share to three networks, IFTTT does it for three dollars and Zapier does the same thing for twenty.
Personal, low-stakes shortcuts. Log something to a spreadsheet, save an email attachment to Drive, get a notification when a price changes. When failure costs nothing, you do not need Zapier's error handling.
Where you need Zapier#
Anything with an "if". Route new leads to a different owner depending on deal size. Skip the step when the field is empty. IFTTT's logic is thin even on Pro Plus, and this is where most business automation lives.
Business software. CRMs, accounting tools, invoicing, project management, help desks. IFTTT's directory of around 900 services is weighted heavily toward consumer apps.
Anything you would notice failing. Zapier tells you when a workflow errors and lets you replay it. If an automation touching customer data breaks silently, that is a real cost, and it is worth the price difference on its own.
Our call#
Choose IFTTT for smart home, personal shortcuts, and simple social posting. At around three dollars a month it does not need to justify itself.
Choose Zapier for anything that touches how your business actually runs. Start on the free plan, prove the workflow, then move to Professional when the two-step cap blocks you. Our Zapier pricing guide explains how to size the task tier before you commit.
Choose neither if you have high automation volume and a tight budget. Make and n8n sit between the two on price with far more capability than IFTTT, and we cover them in Zapier vs Make vs n8n.
Tool by tool
Zapier
For business workflowsBuilt for workflows that branch, filter, and touch business tools like CRMs and accounting software. The price reflects that, and so does the capability.
- Starting price
- Free, then $19.99/mo
- Best for
- Multi-step workflows across business software, with conditions and error handling
IFTTT
Cheapest by farGenuinely inexpensive and pleasant for consumer automation, especially anything involving connected devices. It was never designed for business process work and it shows.
- Starting price
- Free, Pro from about $3/mo
- Best for
- Smart home devices, social posting, and simple personal shortcuts
Frequently asked questions
- Is IFTTT cheaper than Zapier?
- Substantially. IFTTT Pro runs around three dollars a month against Zapier Professional at $19.99 billed annually. They are not doing the same job, though. IFTTT prices like a consumer app because it is one, and it lacks the multi-step logic and business integrations that Zapier charges for.
- Can IFTTT replace Zapier for a small business?
- Only for the simplest connections. If every automation you want is one trigger and one action between mainstream consumer apps, IFTTT will do it for a fraction of the price. The moment you need a condition, a second action, or a CRM connection, it will not.
- How many applets does IFTTT free include?
- Two. That is a hard cap, and it is the main reason the free tier works as a trial rather than a usable plan. Pro raises it to around twenty applets, and Pro Plus removes the cap.
- What does IFTTT Pro actually cost?
- Published figures disagree, which is unusual. Pro is reported between about $2.99 and $3.49 a month, and Pro Plus anywhere from roughly $8.99 to $14.99. IFTTT has also used pay-what-you-want pricing on Pro at times. Check the figure at checkout rather than trusting any table, including ours.
Written by
Tashawar Awais
Researcher and editor
Tashawar handles verification and editing. Every figure in a review is checked a second time before it goes out, and anything that cannot be traced to a vendor page or a documented source is either qualified or cut. Where pricing is genuinely unclear, as it is with Canva team plans or Close CRM tiers, the article says so and tells the reader to confirm directly instead of quoting a number with false confidence.
- Second check on every published figure
- Removes claims the sources do not support
- Flags pricing that changes without notice