Zapier vs IFTTT

The short answer

These are priced two orders of magnitude apart, and that gap is not a discount, it is a difference in what they are for.

Choose IFTTT for a handful of personal automations that would be nice to have. Free gives 2 applets with unlimited runs, Pro is $2.99 per month or $35.88 per year, and Pro+ is $8.99 per month with unlimited applets. It connects more than 1,000 brands and services, including consumer apps and devices.

Choose Zapier when a business process depends on the automation working. Multi-step workflows, branching, error visibility and a very large app catalogue are what you are paying for, and the price reflects that.

Where Zapier wins

Zapier wins on doing real work. A business automation is rarely one trigger and one action: it filters, branches, formats data, and does several things in sequence. That is the normal shape in Zapier and the exception in IFTTT.

It wins on catalogue and depth of each connection. It is not only how many apps are supported but how much of each app is exposed, which is what decides whether the automation you want is actually possible rather than nearly possible.

And it wins on operational trust: visibility into what ran, what failed and why, so an automation your invoicing depends on is something you can inspect rather than something you hope about.

Where IFTTT wins

IFTTT wins on price, dramatically. Pro at $2.99 per month is less than a tenth of what business automation tools cost, and for someone who wants three small automations to exist, that is the correct amount to spend rather than a compromise.

It wins on consumer and device coverage. Connected home devices, consumer apps and personal services appear here in a way they do not in business-focused platforms, so an automation spanning your life and your work is possible.

And it wins on simplicity. One trigger, one action, understood in a minute, with a template library that usually already contains what you want. Nobody needs training to build an applet.

Verdict

Ask what breaks if the automation silently stops. If the answer is "an invoice never gets created" or "a lead never reaches the CRM", you need Zapier, and the cost is insurance rather than convenience.

If the answer is "I would have to do a small thing manually", IFTTT is the right tool and Zapier is overspending. Two applets free, or unlimited for $8.99 per month on Pro+, covers a lot of small annoyances.

The trap in the middle is starting an important process on the cheap tool because it worked in a test. Automation quietly becomes load-bearing, and the moment a business depends on it, error handling stops being a luxury. See Zapier vs Make if you have already decided you need the serious tier.