Make vs Zapier for UK beginners: free plans, prices in £ and $, and who each suits

The short version

Make and Zapier both connect the apps you already use so that routine jobs happen on their own: a form entry lands in a spreadsheet, an invoice triggers a thank-you email, a new lead pings your phone. They do the same kind of job, but they charge for it differently and they feel different to build with.

• Make is cheaper to start on paper and lets you build multi-step automations on its free plan, but it counts almost every step as usage, and it bills in dollars.
• Zapier costs more per unit of work, but triggers and its built-in tools don’t count towards usage, it advertises a bigger app list, and it can bill you in pounds.

Neither is “best” for everyone. The right choice depends on how many steps your automations have, how often they run, and which apps you need.

The free plans compared

Make Free gives you 1,000 credits a month, up to 2 active scenarios (Make’s word for an automation), and scenarios can run at most every 15 minutes. Routers and filters are included, so one trigger can branch into several paths. Make says most actions use 1 credit, and that a single run can use “anywhere from two credits to thousands” depending on how many steps it has (make.com/en/pricing).

Zapier Free gives you 100 tasks a month and unlimited Zaps (Zapier’s word for an automation), but only two-step Zaps: one trigger and one action. Zapier checks for new data every 15 minutes on Free. Filters, Paths, Formatter and webhooks need a paid plan. New accounts get a 14-day trial of the Professional plan with no card required (zapier.com/pricing).

The units are not the same, so don’t compare 1,000 against 100 directly. On Zapier, a task is a successful action step; triggers, polling and Zapier’s own tools such as Formatter, Filter, Paths and Delay don’t count. On Make, reading, searching, creating, updating and transforming data all use credits, although routers and error handlers are free.

As a rough illustration from those rules: a three-step automation (form trigger, add a spreadsheet row, send an email) that runs once would use about 3 Make credits, and about 2 Zapier tasks, because Zapier doesn’t charge for the trigger. It also couldn’t run on Zapier Free at all, because it has more than one action.

Paid plans: what the money buys

Make Core removes the 2-scenario limit, lets scenarios run as often as every minute, and raises the maximum run time and file size. Yearly billing saves about 25% but you pay for the year up front. Unused credits expire at the end of each term, and if you run out, scenarios pause until you add more (incoming webhooks queue up in the meantime).

Zapier Professional unlocks multi-step Zaps, premium apps, webhooks, Filters and Paths, and its built-in AI step. It checks for new data every 2 minutes. Zapier says annual billing is 33% off the monthly rate. If you go over your task allowance on a paid plan with pay-per-task switched on, Zapier keeps running and charges extra tasks at 1.25 times the base rate on annual plans, or 2.5 times on monthly plans, up to a ceiling of three times your allowance.

Task allowances on Zapier reset monthly even on an annual plan. On Make, Pro and Teams credits bought on a yearly plan last for the year; on Core and on monthly billing they expire monthly.

Currency and VAT for UK buyers

Zapier says customers can be billed in local currencies including GBP, converted from the US dollar price at the exchange rate when you pay, so a recurring charge can change a little from one bill to the next. Make shows dollar prices, so expect your bank to convert the charge.

Make’s help centre says only US customers pay sales tax and doesn’t say whether UK VAT is added; check your checkout total and invoice. If you’re VAT-registered and buy a service from a supplier outside the UK, GOV.UK guidance says the reverse charge usually applies: you account for the VAT on your own return and normally reclaim the same amount (GOV.UK). This is general information, not tax advice.

Who each is likely to suit

Based on how each company prices and describes its product:

• Make may suit you if you want multi-step automations without paying straight away, you’re comfortable thinking visually in flowcharts, you need several people in one account, or your automations run often enough that a low entry price matters.
• Zapier may suit you if you mainly need simple one-trigger, one-action automations, you want the widest choice of ready-made app connections, you’d rather be billed in pounds, or your automations are short and run less often, so Zapier’s free triggers and built-in tools offset its higher price per task.
• Either way, check your exact apps are supported and which features each app connection offers. A tool with 9,000 apps is no use if the one action you need isn’t there.

Both now sell AI features as well. Make includes its AI agents on every plan but charges credits based on the AI tokens used. Zapier sells Agents as a separate add-on with its own “activities” allowance (400 a month free). Budget for AI steps separately, because they are the hardest part of either bill to predict.

How to try both without spending anything

1. Write down one job you do by hand every week, step by step.
2. Build it on Make’s Free plan. Our first Make automation tutorial walks through a form-to-spreadsheet-plus-email example.
3. Build the same job on Zapier during its 14-day Professional trial, so you can use multi-step Zaps.
4. Run each a few times and look at the usage history: credits used per run on Make, tasks used per run on Zapier. Multiply by how often the job happens in a month.
5. Only then compare that monthly number with the paid plans above.

Make’s pricing, credits and VAT details are covered in more depth in our Make guide for UK beginners.

Sources

Zapier checked 24 October 2026; Make checked 22 October 2026. Prices change, so check before you buy.

• Zapier pricing (plans, task rules, currency, add-ons): zapier.com/pricing
• Make pricing (plans, credits FAQ, usage allowance): make.com/en/pricing
• Make Help Center, Credits: help.make.com/credits
• Make Help Center, Change payment details (sales tax note): help.make.com/change-payment-details
• GOV.UK, VAT on services from abroad: gov.uk/vat-on-services-from-abroad
• ECB euro reference rates (used for approximate pounds): ecb.europa.eu