Zapier announced a significant pricing restructuring this week, replacing its 2-tier "Tasks" model with a 4-tier system that adds metered usage on the lower plans and removes some Premium app restrictions. The change affects an estimated 80% of paying Zapier customers, with most seeing modest increases and some Pro customers seeing decreases.
Here's what changed, what it means for SMBs currently on Zapier, and how it affects the Make.com vs Zapier comparison going forward.
What changed
The previous Zapier pricing had four tiers (Starter, Professional, Team, Company) with tasks as the primary metric. The new structure adds two changes:
1. Metered overages on the Starter plan. Previously, exceeding your task limit paused your Zaps. Now, you can keep running and pay $0.05 per additional task. This is good for occasional bursts but dangerous for runaway loops.
2. Premium apps now accessible on Starter. Webhooks, PayPal, Google Sheets advanced features, and other Premium connectors that previously required Pro are now available on Starter. The Pro plan still has unique features (Paths, Filter advanced, multi-step Zaps with branching).
3. Pricing changes per tier:
- Starter: $29.99/month → $24.99/month (small decrease, but with metered overages now)
- Professional: $73.50/month → $79/month (modest increase)
- Team: $103.50/month → $103.50/month (unchanged)
- Company: $599/month → $799/month (significant increase for enterprise)
Who wins and who loses
Winners: Solo users on Starter who run light occasional workflows. The Premium app access is genuinely useful, and the overage model gives flexibility for occasional spikes.
Modest losers: Mid-market customers on Team and Professional. Slight price increases without proportional feature improvements. Most will absorb it but it adds friction.
Big losers: Enterprise customers on Company plan. The 33% increase to $799/month positions Zapier closer to Workato territory without matching Workato's enterprise features.
What this means vs Make.com
The new Zapier pricing makes the Make.com vs Zapier comparison even more lopsided for cost-sensitive customers:
- Make.com Core: $10.59/month for 10,000 operations vs Zapier Starter: $24.99/month for 750 tasks. The 23x gap in volume-per-dollar widens.
- Make.com Pro: $18.82/month for 10,000+ ops with advanced features vs Zapier Professional: $79/month for 2,000 tasks. Make is roughly 4x cheaper at this tier.
- Make.com Teams: $34.12/month vs Zapier Team: $103.50/month. 3x difference.
Even accounting for Zapier's superior UX in some areas and broader app ecosystem in others, the cost gap is now hard to justify for budget-conscious SMBs.
Why Zapier is doing this
Three theories, in order of probability:
Margin pressure. Zapier's growth has slowed and they need to extract more revenue per customer. Adding overages on Starter and increasing enterprise pricing both target this.
Compete with Make on features, not price. The Premium apps unlock on Starter is a real concession — it acknowledges that Make.com's "everything included" model is winning the comparison conversation. They're matching feature access while preserving Pro-tier differentiation.
Position for AI agents. Their upcoming AI Agents feature (still in beta) will need a different pricing model. The new structure may be preparation for adding AI-specific tiers later.
Should you migrate from Zapier to Make.com?
If you're already on Zapier and your monthly bill is under $50: no rush. The cost difference doesn't justify migration effort for small workflows.
If your Zapier bill is $100-$500/month: probably yes. The annual savings ($800-$5,000) easily cover migration cost ($1,500-$4,500 typical). Payback in 3-6 months.
If your Zapier bill is $500+/month: almost certainly yes. The savings are substantial and Make.com's advanced features (branching, iterators, error handling) likely solve workflows that are awkward on Zapier.
We help SMBs migrate from Zapier to Make.com — see our Zapier migration service for typical timelines and pricing.
What Zapier should have done
An opinion to close: I think Zapier missed an opportunity by making this purely a pricing reshuffle. The platform is fundamentally limited compared to Make.com on advanced workflows (branching, loops, error handling) and limited compared to n8n on flexibility and self-hosting. A pricing change alone won't reverse customer churn to those competitors.
What would help: shipping advanced workflow features at the Professional tier (Paths is too limited compared to Make's routers), opening webhooks/HTTP module without artificial restrictions, and accepting that they're not going to win on price.