Zapier
When this tool is the right answer
I’m a Zapier Certified Expert. That said, the right answer isn’t always Zapier — and the most useful thing I can do is tell you honestly when it is and when it isn’t.
- You need to integrate with a long-tail SaaS app — Zapier’s integration coverage is the widest in the category
- Simple, single-step automations where setup speed matters more than fine-grained control
- You already have a Zapier subscription and the existing team will be the ones maintaining the workflows
- Lead routing, simple CRM updates, notifications — the bread-and-butter SMB automation use cases
- High-volume scenarios — Zapier’s task-based pricing gets expensive fast at scale. Make is usually cheaper.
- Complex conditional logic — Zapier handles it, but the UI gets ugly fast. Make is more ergonomic for multi-branch flows.
- When the workflow is business-critical and needs real software — observability, error handling, retries, audit logs. Custom app.
Patterns I build with Zapier
Web form → CRM with deduplication and assignment rules → notification to the right team member. Standard inbound-leads pattern for real-estate brokerages and law firms.
Trigger event in one system (new closing, new tenant maintenance request, new bid invite) → Slack/email/SMS notification with context. Cheap and reliable for keeping humans in the loop.
Keep two specific systems in agreement on a single object type — tenant info from PM system to CRM, contact updates from email to Airtable. Zapier is genuinely the simplest tool for these.
Anything that touches an app Make doesn’t have a native integration for. Zapier’s 7000+ integration count is the actual differentiator here.