The 3 workflow automation tools for your business

As business users we should always be on the lookout for tools that will help streamline our workflows.  Workflow automation can help eliminate repetitive tasks, enhance collaboration, and optimize processes. For non-technical business owners, it becomes especially important to find tools that not only work but also has a no-code interface to make it easier to use.

 After evaluating all the popular ones out there we have found 3 of the best that we believe can help your business.

The 3 best workflow automation solutions

• Zapier: Most integrations
• n8n: Best for self-hosting
• Make, Best all rounder

Criteria

Automation tools have become quite popular in recent years. The general trend has been to make them as user-friendly as possible, especially for individuals who may not have a technical background. Therefore, one of our primary criteria when evaluating these tools was their ease of use and accessibility. We sought out solutions that offered intuitive interfaces, robust functionality without the need for coding skills, and seamless integration into existing workflows. This approach ensures that even non-technical business owners can leverage the full potential of workflow automation to improve efficiency and productivity.

The next criterion had to be the price of the solution. There is no point in any of this if you are unable to afford the price of the tool you wish to use. For this, we analysed the solutions and their options and what they provide you to determine which one gives you more bang for your buck.

Another important criterion is the maturity and popularity of the solution. Although we are always looking for new players in the market, when recommending to clients, we always find it best to suggest older and more mature solutions. This is due to the comprehensive user evaluation they have undergone for bugs and vulnerabilities. They also have a much larger community support forum, which is invaluable when using a new tool. Community support can be especially important to get you up and running and is often more helpful than the support provided by the vendor.

The last criteria we will be looking at is the number of templates and integrations supported by the solution. This determines how quick it will be for a user to get up and running which means we could reach our return on investment much sooner.

How we choose our 3

There are many different workflow automation solutions available in the market today, each catering to different needs and preferences. Some of these solutions are specifically designed for enterprises, providing robust features and extensive support, while others are geared towards smaller businesses or individual users, often offering free or low-cost access to their services.

The three solutions we selected were based on our comprehensive testing and prior experience with various automation tools. We prioritized solutions that not only had free tiers or did not require contacting a sales team for access but also had excellent reviews and robust support systems. We considered the popularity of each solution and its ease of use, ensuring that they provided an intuitive user experience and reliable performance.

After thorough evaluation, the three tools we listed stood out as the best options, boasting the largest user bases and consistently positive feedback from users. They demonstrated exceptional performance in terms of functionality, ease of integration, and overall value, making them ideal choices for those seeking efficient and cost-effective workflow automation solutions.

Other services that we looked at that did not make our list are listed below and the reason we disqualified it.

Microsoft Power Automate

We found that this is mainly for large enterprises and works best with Microsoft apps. This made it less competitive than the others and we believe it’s too expensive for any business smaller than a large enterprise.

Workato

Like power automate this is mainly for larger enterprises

Activepieces

This shows promise as it is relatively new and offers a free community version for download and self-hosting. However, in terms of functionality, it was inferior to the three chosen solutions, and we believe it still requires time to mature. Nonetheless, we will certainly monitor its development, as the free version is likely to attract significant interest and users, potentially enabling rapid growth.

Zapier

Zapier was one of the earliest workflow automation tools that came into the market. As such it has an extensive library on integrations, a lot of template workflows and a large and supportive community.  It also has great documentation with lots of how-to and getting started articles

Ease of use:

• Has a great and easy to use drag and drop interface.
• Large prebuilt templates.
• Great documentation and explanations.
• Has official video tutorials.

Price:

• Very limited free plan.
• Professional starts at $29.99 per month.
• Team: $103 per month.
• Enterprise : Custom pricing.

Maturity and support

• Email support for Team and Professional users.
• Team and Enterprise also get Premium support.
• Has a community page where you can ask questions and get help from the community.
• Community is active and reply to questions.
• Lots of answered question in other forums (eg. Stackoverflow).

Templates and integration

• Connects with over 6,000 apps, including Google Sheets, Slack, Notion, and HubSpot.
• Extensive template library for quick implementation.
• Integration with AI-powered tools for enhanced automation capabilities.

Summary

As mentioned above Zapier has done a lot of work in building out integration with many popular products like Gmail, Slack, Notion, Google Drive, and HubSpot Square Space, Stripe and Trello.  Out of all the products listed it has by far the most. Additionally it has very good video lectures to help you get started. Pricing is a bit high compared to its competition however yearly plans could reduce the prices by 33%

n8n

N8n is almost a decade younger than Zapier, it was founded in 2019, and they had an interesting goal. To provide an excellent open-source workflow automation tool. N8n's open-source software lets users download and use its community edition  for free indefinitely. It is quite easy to deploy though it would require you to provide a server or computer for it to run on. A large and dedicated community has been built up around the solution with users creating and sharing their own integrations and templates.

There is also some good documentation that will help you get started with installation and usage.

Ease of use:

• It also has a great and easy to use drag and drop interface.
• Lots of working templates and pre-built community templates.
• Good documentation.
• Flexible data processing and its easy to create custom nodes.

Price

• Community addition is free (self-hosted).
• Starter plan : € 24 (hosted by n8n).
• Pro plan : € 60 (hosted by n8n).
• Enterprise : Custom pricing (self hosted or hosted by n8n).

Maturity and support

• Email support and SLA for Enterprise users.
• Excellent community page with great community support.
• Community is active and reply to questions.
• Lots of answered question in other forums (eg. Stackoverflow).
• Many tutorial videos on Youtube and other blogs .
• Has support API integrations and webhooks.

Templates and integration

• Many official templates as well as a lot more community made templates.
• Integrates with lots of systems especially with community built nodes.
• A very large amount of AI templates and integrations.

Summary

n8n offers businesses full control over their automation infrastructure and a free version. While it may lack the official support and integrations that Zapier has, its community provides strong support, specialized workflows, and user-built integrations. Its flexibility enables easy creation of custom integrations to different apps. n8n's pricing is based on complete workflows, often making it more affordable than competitors that charge per task. The system is robust, even in its community version, making it ideal for smaller businesses or limited budgets.

Make

Make is a great tool. It offers a visually intuitive interface that allows users to create advanced workflows with conditions and branching logic. Unlike Zapier, Make provides a more in-depth visualization of each automation step, making it easier to monitor and debug complex workflows. It is also relatively mature having started in 2016 this makes it a quite well established solution.

Ease of use:

• Drag-and-drop scenario builder.
• Has a good amount prebuilt templates.
• Good documentation and how-to guides.
• Easy and flexible scheduling for time-sensitive automations.
• Good official video tutorials

Price

• Free (limited ).
• Core: $10.
• Pro: $18.
• Teams: $34.
• Enterprise: custom.

Maturity and support

• Limited support for Free plan.
• Medium support for Core and Pro plants.
• Priority support for Teams and enterprise plan.
• Good blogs and how-to guides.
• A large and active community that are supportive.
• Has official video tutorials.

Templates and integration

• Large and diverse amount of templates.
• A large amount of app integrations.

Comparison

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right workflow automation tool depends on your business needs, budget, and technical expertise. Zapier is great for getting started quickly and has great support. Make or n8n offer deeper customization, with n8n being great for starting out cheaper with its free community edition and even at an enterprise level you still have the opportunity to self host.

The right automation tool depends on your business needs:

• Choose n8n if you need an open-source, self-hosted, and highly customizable solution.
• Choose Zapier if you want a simple, no-code platform with extensive integrations.
• Choose Make if you need a visual, flexible, and cost-effective alternative to Zapier.

Which automation tool are you planning to use in 2025? Let us know in the comments!