Zapier alternatives for UK small businesses

The main Zapier alternatives at a glance

Prices and limits checked on each provider’s own pricing page on 20 October 2026. They change often, so check before you buy.

When to stay on Zapier

Switching takes time, so it is worth being sure you need to. Zapier is a sensible choice when:

• Your workflows are short. Zapier doesn’t charge for triggers or for its built-in tools such as Filter, Formatter, Paths and Delay. A trigger plus one or two actions uses only one or two tasks a run.
• You rely on an app the others don’t connect to. Zapier lists more than 9,000 apps. Check that every app you use has a connector on the tool you are thinking of moving to.
• Your team maintains the workflows themselves. Zapier is usually the easiest of these tools for non-technical staff to pick up.
• US hosting is acceptable. Zapier says it hosts data, including personal data, on AWS servers in the United States and doesn’t offer EU-only storage. It is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, and offers a Data Processing Addendum.

If those all apply and the bill is fine, you may not need an alternative at all.

Make

Make, formerly Integromat, is the closest like-for-like Zapier alternative. You build each workflow, called a scenario, on a visual map, which many people find easier to follow once a process has branches.

• How it charges: credits. Each module action uses credits, including reading data from an app or webhook, searching, and transforming data with Make’s built-in tools. Most actions use 1 credit. Routers and error handlers use none. Some AI features use more.
• Free plan: 1,000 credits a month, with a 15-minute minimum interval between runs.
• Paid plans: on 20 October 2026, with the slider at 10,000 credits a month, Make’s pricing page showed Core at $12 a month billed annually or $16 billed monthly, and Pro at $21 a month billed annually or $28 billed monthly. Prices were shown in US dollars.
• When credits run out: scenarios stop until you add credits or upgrade. Unused credits expire at the end of the term.
• Data location: you choose a US or EU data centre when you create an organisation. You can’t change it later, so choose EU at the start if that matters to you.

Make vs Zapier: Make’s entry price is lower than Zapier’s, but Make counts steps that Zapier gives away, such as the trigger and data formatting. Count the steps in your busiest workflows on both before you decide. Our Make vs n8n worked example shows how the counting works in practice.

n8n (cloud or self-hosted)

n8n charges per execution: one full run of a workflow, however many steps it has. That makes it the one to look at when workflows are long or run often.

• n8n Cloud: Starter is €20 a month billed annually for 2,500 executions. Pro is €50 a month billed annually for 10,000 executions. n8n says annual billing saves 17%. A free trial is available with no card needed.
• Data location: n8n says data on its hosted plans is stored in the EU, on servers in Frankfurt, Germany.
• Self-hosted Community edition: free. Data stays wherever you run it, which can be a UK data centre. n8n’s licence FAQ says you can use it to run your own business as long as only you or people in your organisation create or edit the workflows.
• The catch: self-hosting needs someone technical to set up, update, back up and monitor the server. n8n’s own docs list installation and maintenance as your responsibility.

If you need data to stay in the UK, self-hosted n8n is one way to do it. See our n8n review for more detail.

Microsoft Power Automate

Power Automate is Microsoft’s automation tool, and many UK businesses already have some access to it through Microsoft 365.

• Included with Microsoft 365: Microsoft’s licensing FAQ lists the Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium plans among the Office 365 licences that include Power Automate. They cover automated, scheduled and button cloud flows using standard connectors, with a limit of 6,000 actions a day.
• Premium: £11.50 per user a month, paid yearly, excluding VAT, on Microsoft’s UK pricing page. It adds premium and custom connectors and raises the daily limit to 40,000 actions. A 30-day free trial is available.
• Process: £115.30 per bot a month, paid yearly, excluding VAT. This licenses a flow or a machine rather than a person, for busy business processes or unattended desktop automation.
• How usage is counted: every trigger and action counts towards a daily action limit, including failed ones, and actions inside loops count once per pass. Going over usually slows flows down rather than adding a charge.
• Data location: flows run in the region of your Power Platform environment, and the United Kingdom is one of the regions. For newer environments Microsoft may ask you to pick a wider area instead. Its “Europe and United Kingdom” option keeps data in the EU, EFTA or the UK, and Microsoft chooses the data centre unless you buy Advanced Data Residency for all your Microsoft 365 seats.

Power Automate is strongest when your workflows mostly involve Microsoft apps. If they depend on non-Microsoft apps, check whether those connectors are standard or premium before you assume it is covered by your Microsoft 365 plan.

Activepieces

Activepieces is an open-source automation tool. Its core is MIT licensed, so you can self-host it, and it also offers a cloud service.

• How it charges: credits. Activepieces says a run is one credit however many steps it has, while AI steps cost more (2, 10 or 20 credits depending on the model).
• Plans: Free with 1,000 credits a month and up to 5 users. Plus at $20 a month for 10,000 credits, then $0.007 per extra credit. Team at $200 a month for 50,000 credits and 25 users.
• Data location: its cloud runs in Frankfurt by default, with other regions on request. Self-hosted, it runs wherever you choose.

It is a younger product, and fewer agencies in our directory mention it than the tools above, so ask how long any agency you hire has worked with it.

Worked example: a five-step workflow run 400 times a month

Take a workflow with one trigger and four actions, such as a new website enquiry that is added to your CRM, logged in a spreadsheet, emailed to the team and acknowledged to the customer. It runs 400 times a month. This counts units only, using each provider’s published rules, and assumes no AI steps:

• Zapier: 4 tasks a run (the trigger is free), about 1,600 tasks. That needs Professional at 2,000 tasks, listed at $49 a month billed annually or $73.50 billed monthly. The Free plan only allows two-step Zaps.
• Make: about 5 credits a run (the trigger reads data, so it counts), about 2,000 credits. That is more than the Free plan, so Core at $12 a month billed annually or $16 billed monthly.
• n8n Cloud: 400 executions, inside Starter’s 2,500 at €20 a month billed annually. Self-hosted, there is no licence fee but you pay for the server.
• Power Automate: 5 actions a run, about 2,000 actions a month. That is well inside the daily limit, so if every connector is standard it is covered by an eligible Microsoft 365 plan. Premium connectors would need Premium at £11.50 per user a month.
• Activepieces: 400 credits, inside the Free plan’s 1,000 a month.

Real workflows vary. Filters and formatting steps are free on Zapier but use credits on Make, and loops multiply tasks, credits and actions. Ask for an estimate for your workflows on each tool before you commit.

Prices in pounds and VAT

• Exchange rates: Zapier sets prices in US dollars and can bill in pounds, converted at the exchange rate when you pay, so the amount can change from one invoice to the next. Make and Activepieces showed prices in US dollars when we checked, and n8n in euros. Power Automate was the only one with UK list prices in pounds.
• VAT: Microsoft’s UK prices are shown excluding VAT. For suppliers outside the UK, HMRC’s guidance on VAT on services from abroad explains the reverse charge, and notes that some types of service have different rules. Ask your accountant how it applies to your subscriptions.
• Annual or monthly: all of these offer a discount for paying yearly. That locks you in for a year, so try the tool on a monthly plan or trial first.

UK GDPR and where your data goes

Whichever tool you pick, it will handle your customers’ details, so it is a data processor under UK GDPR.

Before you move, ask for:

• A signed Data Processing Agreement with the platform.
• The transfer mechanism for any data leaving the UK. The ICO explains the rules in its international transfers guidance.
• A list of the apps each workflow touches and where they host data. The automation tool is only one part of the picture.

Our UK GDPR checklist for AI and automation covers the rest.

How to move away from Zapier

Workflows don’t copy from one tool to another. Each one has to be rebuilt, reconnected and tested. A steady approach:

1. List every Zap. Note the trigger, each step, the apps it connects and who relies on it.
2. Record your usage now. Zapier keeps Zap history for between 29 and 69 days, depending on the date, so write down how often each Zap runs before you cancel.
3. Check every app has a connector on the new tool, or can be reached by webhook or API.
4. Rebuild one workflow first. Start with something useful but low risk, and run it alongside the Zap for a week.
5. Switch off the old Zap only when the new one has run cleanly, so customers don’t get two emails.
6. Move the rest in batches, busiest first if cost is the reason you are moving.
7. Keep accounts in your business’s name, not your agency’s, and update your privacy records with the new supplier.

If you also use built-in automations in other apps, check their limits too. Our guide to Airtable’s automation runs limit is a common example of when a business outgrows them.

When to hire an agency

Plenty of owners move a handful of simple Zaps themselves. An agency earns its fee when workflows are long, touch customer data, or need self-hosted n8n that someone has to keep updated and backed up.

• What UK agencies publish: single workflow automation builds start from £99 to £5,000 (29 agencies, median £1,500), from prices on agencies’ own websites.
• Agencies by tool: n8n agencies (55), Make agencies (30), Zapier agencies (50) and Power Platform specialists (20). Counts are agencies whose own websites mention each tool.
• All workflow specialists: browse workflow automation agencies or the full UK directory.

Before you hire anyone, read how to choose an AI automation agency and check what AI automation costs in the UK. For a deeper look at the three best-known tools, see n8n vs Make vs Zapier.

Not sure which tool fits? Tell us what you want to automate and we will suggest agencies with the right experience, for free.