Zapier vs Microsoft Power Automate
Zapier or Microsoft Power Automate? Here is how they compare on price, free plan, platforms and the jobs each does best, from each vendor's own pages.
| Compared on | Visit | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | No-code tool that connects web apps and runs automated, AI-assisted workflows | Microsoft tool for cloud workflows, desktop RPA and process mining |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Cheapest paid plan | $19.99/mo billed annually (Professional)Zapier pricing | $15/user/mo billed annually (Power Automate Premium)Microsoft Power Automate pricing |
| What it covers | For 750 tasks/month; price rises with the task tier. | Paid yearly; includes cloud flows, attended desktop flows and process/task mining (50 MB). |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of the Professional plan for new accounts, no credit card required | 30-day free trial covering UI-based cloud flows and standard connectors |
| Platforms | Web | Web, Windows |
| Integrations (vendor's figure) | 9,000+ apps | 1,400+ connectors |
| Open source | No | No |
| Made by | Zapier, Inc. | Microsoft Corporation |
Choose Zapier if…
- You want a free plan: Microsoft Power Automate does not have one.
- The job is sending new web-form leads into a CRM and a Slack channel.
- The job is copying email attachments to cloud storage automatically.
Choose Microsoft Power Automate if…
- You want a desktop app (Windows).
- The job is routing approval requests and documents in SharePoint and Teams.
- The job is copying data from invoices or legacy desktop apps into Excel or an ERP system.
Still weighing it up?
If neither is quite right, Zapier and Microsoft Power Automate are also compared with their other rivals: Zapier vs Make, Zapier vs n8n and Make vs n8n.
To see them doing real work, read Save Zoom Cloud Recordings to Google Drive Automatically and Make a Microsoft Forms Quiz That Grades Itself.
What Zapier does
- Zaps: trigger-and-action workflows across 9,000+ apps
- Multi-step Zaps, webhooks and AI fields on paid plans
- Tables for data storage and Forms for custom forms
- Zapier MCP and SDK for connecting AI tools and code
- Agents and Chatbots sold as add-ons
- Admin controls such as SCIM provisioning and AI guardrails on Enterprise
Watch out for
- Free plan allows only two-step Zaps and 100 tasks a month
- Every Zap step, AI step, code run and connector call draws from one shared monthly task allowance
- Multi-step Zaps, premium apps and webhooks require a paid plan
What Microsoft Power Automate does
- Cloud flows connecting apps and services, with 1,400+ connectors
- Desktop flows (RPA) for Windows apps, attended or unattended
- Hosted RPA on Microsoft-managed virtual machines
- Process and task mining to find bottlenecks
- Copilot for creating and editing flows in natural language
- Automation inside Microsoft 365 apps such as Teams, Excel and SharePoint
Watch out for
- The free trial covers only UI-based cloud flows and standard connectors
- Unattended desktop automation needs the per-bot Process or Hosted Process plan
- Power Automate for desktop runs only on Windows (not on ARM processors); Windows Home editions cannot trigger desktop flows from the cloud
Questions
Is Zapier or Microsoft Power Automate cheaper?
They price different things, so neither is simply cheaper. Zapier's entry price, $19.99/mo billed annually (Professional), is for the whole plan; Microsoft Power Automate's, $15/user/mo billed annually (Power Automate Premium), is per user or seat. Price the number of people, channels or contacts you have on each.
Do Zapier and Microsoft Power Automate have free plans?
Zapier does; Microsoft Power Automate does not, though it offers a 30-day free trial covering UI-based cloud flows and standard connectors.