Today, tools are available for anything you can imagine. At TPO Agency, we use a bunch of them: ClickUp, Notion, Slack, Airtable. You name it; we probably have used or still use it. Within our automation team, Make and Zapier are high on the list, as connecting tools - and making them stronger as a result - gives us absolute satisfaction. We use Make and Zapier to automate routine flows but also complex ones. However, depending on which flow you want to make more efficient, you have to make a choice. Make or Zapier? Lately, we have been focusing our research on this specific question. In this blog, we'll make a distinction between the two tools, applied to different contexts.

Linking tools to other tools 🤯

ClickUp

First, we looked at ClickUp, the tool we use every day to manage our projects and products. ClickUp offers built-in automations, which are very strong for flows inside ClickUp. However, we prefer Zapier and Make to connect with other tools. They both have excellent integrations with ClickUp, but if you have to choose, it mainly depends on what you want to do and how complex the flow is.

If you are building automations that use templates in ClickUp to create lists, folders, or spaces, then Zapier is the way to go. Currently, these templates cannot be used in Make, but we are sure they will be added in the future. Compared to Zapier, what Make does offer is a more extensive list of triggers and actions, which can be useful for more complex automations.

Both tools recently added the option to use custom fields in ClickUp. In our opinion, these are slightly more accessible in Make. But then again, who are we? So, in conclusion, they are both equally strong, and it mainly depends on what you want to do with them.

‍

Slack

As consultants, we often work at different locations: at the office, at our clients, or even remotely. This means we are usually in other places than our colleagues. We use Slack to stay in touch... And have a little bit of fun.

For example, we set up a bot that sends a message for a 15-minute coffee break every Tuesday at 10 am with the physically present colleagues. Here, we immediately discovered a difference between Zapier and Make. With both tools, you can send a message and change the bot's icon. But only with Zapier can you add an image, which can make a message more entertaining.

Make, on the other hand, offers more possible triggers and actions. If you use private channels, there are more interactions for adding bookmarks, for instance.

From this, we concluded that Make is stronger with more complex automations, just as the case is when connecting to ClickUp. But if you want to set up a bot, we choose Zapier every time.

‍

Notion

Throughout projects, the teams we support write a lot of documentation. Moreover, sometimes we need to provide internal documentation, for example, a welcome page for new employees. In any case, Notion is the tool for documenting anything you can think of.

However, it is a shame that there are few integration options with both Make and Zapier. Regardless, there are some super handy ones! Integrations with Notion are mainly focused on the database part. You create a connection with Zapier or Make from Notion, and you can fill in and adjust the entire database automatically.

So, if you want to set up an automation with Notion and you have to choose between Make or Zapier, then your choice will mainly depend on the tool on the other side.

‍

Airtable

Data is everything, and it has to be stored somewhere. Airtable offers a very nice solution, as it is a flexible database-driven tool. Like ClickUp, Airtable has built-in automations as well, and these are very powerful - as long as you stay within Airtable.

Zapier and Make are equally well integrated, so there are almost no differences. Still, do consider Airtable as a great integration that offers many opportunities. Linking a flexible database to an automation with various other tools offers endless possibilities.

Gmail

Of course, everyone sends a lot of emails every day. On any subject. At any time. To all kinds of people: customers, colleagues, friends,... So if we can automate mailing, we will. All sorts of automation tools we come across, whether built-in like ClickUp, or external like Zapier and Make, offer mail integrations. One important distinction is that with Zapier, we can add our mail signature.

Zapier or Make?

We can go on and on to compare different tool integrations, but it's time to take a look at Zapier and Make on their own.

User interface

First, you see a big visual difference when you look at both tools. With Zapier, you have a top-down approach where you must scroll up and down to go through your automation. With Make, it's more like a canvas where your different steps are next, above, or under each other. If you are creating an extensive automation, it can look like a spider's web.

‍

Data

Secondly, both tools can store small amounts of data, for example, to transfer between two different automations. Make, on the one hand, gives you different storage sizes depending on your plan. Zapier, on the other hand, has a storage rule where one storage value cannot be more than 25 kilobytes.

Error messages

Finally, in both tools, you can get error messages if an automation of yours stops because something went wrong. Make automatically sends you emails when errors occur. There's little choice there; however, with Zapier, you can choose it yourself. You need to create super simple automations with the 'Zapier Manager' as a trigger. Then, you can send the messages to Slack channels, for example, so you and your team see them immediately.

Conclusion

So if you ask us: Make or Zapier? The answer is…. BOTH. It is impossible to choose. They are just such excellent no-code automation builder tools that we use them both. For us, it does not revolve around the tool but around how we can create the best and most efficient automations.

Every flow or process is different, so with every new case, we sit together to get the best possible combination of tools. Even if it gets complex, it's possible to link Make to Zapier. We look forward to seeing what these two fantastic tools will offer in the future.

‍