Zapier Review

If you use a wide range of business and productivity apps, you need a way to connect them all. Zapier (which rhymes with happier) is an online tool that helps people create interlinked functions across these services. You can chain commands together with an "If X happens, do Y" structure, where X and Y can be practically any app. The real selling point of these automations (which Zapier calls Zaps) is that you can combine multiple actions and apps together in a single Zap. Zapier is an Editors' Choice winner alongside IFTTT; both are excellent options for business and productivity workflows.

Pricing and Plans

Zapier offers a free level of service, albeit with some limitations. With this account, you can perform up to 100 tasks per month, but you can only have five Zaps active at any given time. To clarify, a task is a completed action within a Zap. For the full breakdown of how tasks are counted, visit Zapier's dedicated support page. The free tier does not support Premium Apps or multistep Zaps and Zaps only run every 15 minutes. You also cannot use the Autoreplay or Paths features. Businesses may find Zapier's free account limited, but it's beefy enough to give consumers a taste of how it works. This free version includes a 14-day trial of premium features.

Premium Apps are nothing more than apps that Zapier has decided to keep behind its paywall. They include Amazon S3, Evernote Business, GoToWebinar, MySQL, PayPal, QuickBase, QuickBooks, Salesforce, SQL Server, Zendesk, and many others.

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Autoreplay is a failsafe measure that's triggered if a task is supposed to run, but doesn't. Failures happen from time to time for a variety of reasons, such as when a third-party API is temporarily unavailable. Autoreplay means Zapier automatically retries the task in case of this kind of failure. Interestingly, Zapier staggers each rerun of the Zap over a 10-hour period, increasing the time interval between each attempt. For free accounts, Zapier sends you an email notification when a Zap fails and you need to rerun it manually. Paths is a new feature that lets you define conditional logic between steps in a Zap. I discuss the specifics in more details later.

The Starter account, which costs $20 per month, includes Premium Apps, but not the Autoreplay or Paths features. You get 1,000 tasks per month and 20 Zaps, which run every 15 minutes, the same as with the free account. Professional accounts are $50 per month and include Premium Apps, Autoreplay Tasks, Paths, and support for 3,000 tasks per month across 50 Zaps. Zaps run every five minutes for this tier of service.

Zapier also offers a Professional Plus account, for $125 per month. Professional Plus includes everything in the Professional account, plus support for 10,000 tasks per month across 125 Zaps. Zaps still run every five minutes. The top-of-the-line account plan, Teams, allows 50,000 tasks to run per month across an unlimited number of Zaps. If you go over the tasks limit, Zapier charges you based on your usage. In addition to all the features of the Professional accounts, this plan lets you share Zaps and Connections across your team. You can also group all account charges into a single invoice. For comparison, IFTTT ($0.00 at Google Play) is free as of this writing.

Zapier vs. IFTTT

Zapier focuses mostly on business and productivity apps, though there is significant overlap between these two categories. On the productivity side, Zapier supports Asana (Visit Site at Asana) , Google Calendar, Evernote, Todoist, and so forth. More business-focused apps include GitHub, QuickBooks Online, Slack, Toggle, and Wrike. Zapier also includes some built-in functionality for translating text, executing code, filtering data, or even delaying actions.

IFTTT also supports all the common productivity apps, but has been gradually embracing the Internet of things (IoT) movement as an area of specialization. Smart light bulbs, appliances, and doorbells all fall under this umbrella. IFTTT also works with Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, and Siri, which Zapier does not.

Zapier supports multi-app Zaps, meaning you can create a chain of events across more than two services. For example, you can instruct Zapier to send a message to the team channel in Slack after someone completes a task in Asana, and then add the project name to a public Google Sheets spreadsheet of completed projects. With IFTTT, you can only create an automation between two services.

Another key differentiator is that IFTTT offers apps for both Android and iOS. Zapier does not offer mobile apps on any platform. So, if you intend to create and automate tasks from your phone, IFTTT is the best choice. That's not to say that Zapier does not offer some mobile functionality; you can use Zapier's built-in capabilities to send texts directly to your phone. I tested Zaps using my Google Pixel 3 running Android 9 and they worked as advertised.

Getting Started

To sign up for Zapier, all you need to do is provide an email address, name, and password. You can also just use an existing Google account. Zapier supports two-factor authentication too.

Zapier's web interface features a clean design with distinct layout elements and colorful icons for apps and services. The home screen breaks down into four sections: Dashboard, My Zaps, Task History, and My Apps. You can search for apps and pre-built Zaps in the Dashboard section. Zapier will then include a list of drop-down options to complete a When This happens…Then Do This! statement. You can enable a zap directly from this screen.

What Is Two-Factor Authentication?

The My Zaps section is where you can find all of the Zaps that you created, even if they are not active. I like that you can organize your Zaps into folders. The Task History tab shows a complete log of your Zap activity. The interface includes useful filters for sorting by name, status, and date. Clicking on an individual Zap instance brings you to a separate page with details on the input and output data. If you subscribe to a high-enough account tier, you can also enable the Autoreplay feature from this screen. The last section, My Apps, lets you view every account that you have authorized Zapier to access. Zapier makes it easy to test, disconnect, or reconnect each linked account. I appreciate that Zapier makes these options readily accessible.

Setting Up Your Zaps

Zapier has simplified the Zap editor since the last review update. The interface includes a new right-hand menu with an outline of your Zap, relevant guides, error reporting, task history, and organization options. You still configure the settings in the middle panel, but it's easier to visualize the process from start to finish than before. Zapier's interface is not quite as friendly as IFTTT's, but it is far more flexible. IFTTT has users click on If+ and That+ links in a header and then select from a variety of cards to build the task flow.

You can think about a Zap as consisting of two main elements: the trigger (When This Happens…) and the action (Then Do This). The first step, of course, is to choose a Trigger app and associated action. Let's say you want Zapier to send you the weather forecast every day via SMS. To start, you select the built-in Weather by Zapier service as the Trigger app and choose the trigger event, in this case, today's forecast. If you choose a Trigger app that requires a sign-in, you need to enter your credentials at this stage. You may also need to fill in additional information before moving on to the next step. For instance, with this weather forecast example, you enter latitude and longitude values as well as choose the units of measurement. Zapier even gives you the option to test this initial action before you move on.

The next step is to choose an Action app and a related action. Continuing with the weather example, you select SMS by Zapier and then Send SMS as the action event. Next, you provide sender and receiver details and specify the content of the actual message. The message can contain text and any fields that Zapier pulled from the trigger app (available via the Insert a Field button in the upper-right part of the text box). Options vary based on the Trigger app you chose. Options for the weather forecast include summary, humidity, wind speed and UV index.

That's just one example of a Zap. You can combine any number of services to work together in ways that benefit you. For example, you can link together Slack and Trello ($0.00 at Trello) to help communicate goals and assign tasks more efficiently. Maybe you want to share new time entries from Toggl to Asana. However simple or complex your needs, Zapier likely offers some combination of functions that can automate your workflow.

You can add as many steps to a Zap as you want by simply hitting the plus button below the last action you created. You can also create a name for your Zap and add a note so you don't forget what it does or how it works. This last part is useful for anyone who intends to share Zaps with other members of a team.

If you choose to add more advanced options to your Zap and you're not a technically adept person, then you might have to do some testing to confirm that the changes you make have the desired effect. For instance, try setting up a Zap in a way that you think will work. If it doesn't work as intended, try walking through everything from the beginning and changing one variable at a time.

One advanced feature that may take some time to understand is Zapier's new Paths tool, which allows you to define conditional logic between two steps. Think of it this way, if Step 1 occurs and it has X quality, then choose Path A. if Step 1 occurs and has Y quality, then choose Path B. In the context of our weather example, you could customize the SMS message Zapier sends you depending on whether the temperature is above or below freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit).

Here's how that works in practice. After setting up your Trigger app, hit the plus button, and choose Paths. Paths must be the last part of the Zap chain. Click the Edit button on Path A and name it something relevant, such as Above Freezing. Next, choose the Rules, or conditions, for the path to run. In our example, pick Temperature Min, (Number) Greater Than, and 32. You can add any additional AND or OR statements to the ruleset, but make sure they don't contradict each other. Before you move on, Zapier tests the conditions against a sample data set and tells you whether the path would have run.

If everything checks out, the next step is to choose an Action app and related action for this path, in the same way you did for the first example. So, for this weather Zap, you choose SMS by Zapier, Send SMS, and whatever recipient and sender options you want. You should change the message portion though to reflect the Path's purpose. For instance, you could write something as simple as "It is above freezing today. The low temperature is [Temperature Low]." For Path B, you would adjust settings accordingly for the conditions when the minimum temperature is below 32 degrees Fahrenheit and change the message too.

By default, Zapier generates two paths, but you can add up to one more. A third path could be used to handle a special case. For instance, you could set up another rule case for temperatures less than 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Just make sure to adjust Path B by adding OR statements that require a value greater than 0, but less than 32.

Other tools include Filter, which only allows a Zap to continue if a certain condition is met, and Delay, which lets you control when the Zap runs. The Filter tool lets you define absolute conditions for continuing a Zap, similar to how you did when you creating a Path's logic. The difference here is that there are no branching logic chains (a Zap must meet those conditions to continue) and that you can place a Filter anywhere in the Zap process. The Delay helper can be configured to make the Zap wait until a certain date and time to run or to delay it for a certain amount of time.

For ideas on Zaps to create, check out our collection of the best IFTTT applets for everyone from bloggers, photographers, shoppers, and more. Many of these same applets can be replicated on Zapier and expanded with additional steps. Take a look through the list to spark some ideas.

Zapier for Automation

Zapier is a wonderful tool for automating business and productivity tasks. It supports pretty much every app you might use and gives lots of helpful suggestions on how to combine services in useful ways. It also supports multistep chains, which its competitor IFTTT does not. On the other hand, the completely free IFTTT offers mobile applications and support for smart-home devices, both of which Zapier lacks. One is not necessarily better than the other and they support many of the same apps and services, so both Zapier and IFTTT are Editors' Choice winners.