IFTTT vs Zapier Comparison 2026
IFTTT connects one trigger to one action for consumer apps and devices, free for a handful of applets or $2.99 a month for more. Zapier connects far more business tools and lets one trigger fan out into several actions, free for 100 tasks a month and then $29.99 a month billed monthly, or $19.99 if paid yearly. The difference is depth: IFTTT stops at one step, and Zapier chains several while reaching deeper into the apps a creator's business actually runs on.
One trigger, one action, and it costs almost nothing
Wire the tools together without writing code
At a glance
- IFTTT starts cheaper, at $2.99.
- Both have a genuinely free tier.
Side by side
IFTTT | Zapier | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $2.99 | From $29.99 |
| Pricing model | Free plan, paid tiers | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Billing | Not stated | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes |
IFTTT
One trigger, one action, and it costs almost nothing
IFTTT connects one service's event to another service's action and stops there, which is either the limitation or the point. It reaches consumer things the business automation tools ignore, including smart home devices, phone settings and a long tail of small apps. For a creator it covers the small jobs: a new video posts itself somewhere, a saved item lands in a note, a schedule flips a light before a stream. The free plan allows a couple of applets and the paid tier costs less than a coffee a month.
Zapier
Wire the tools together without writing code
Zapier connects one app's event to another app's action, which is how most creator plumbing gets built: a new YouTube upload posts itself to Discord, a form submission opens a task, a purchase adds someone to a list. It matters most when the tools you already pay for do not talk to each other and the alternative is doing it by hand every week. Pricing counts tasks rather than seats, so cost follows how much actually runs.
Our note
Count the tasks a workflow will actually consume before picking a tier, because a busy trigger can burn a month's allowance in a week. Start on the free plan and let the first thing you hit tell you which limit matters.
Why people weigh these two
- Zapier instead of IFTTT
- Zapier wires the same tools together with far more services and multi-step flows, from $30 with a free tier.
- IFTTT instead of Zapier
- IFTTT covers one trigger and one action for almost nothing, from $3 with a free tier.
Which one should you pick
Pick IFTTT for a single, small connection, especially anything involving a phone or a smart device that Zapier does not really target. Pro is $2.99 a month, a fraction of Zapier's entry price, and the applet model takes a minute to set up because it deliberately does less.
Pick Zapier once a chore needs more than one step, or the free tier's 100 tasks a month stop covering the volume. Professional is $29.99 a month billed monthly, or $19.99 billed yearly, roughly ten times IFTTT's Pro price, and it buys multi-step workflows, tables and forms that IFTTT has no version of. Somebody automating a single reflex action is overpaying here; somebody chaining five apps together is not.
Common questions
- Which is cheaper?
- IFTTT, by a wide margin: Pro is $2.99 a month against Zapier Professional at $29.99 billed monthly, or $19.99 if paid yearly. IFTTT does less per applet, which is most of why it costs less.
- Can IFTTT chain more than one action to a trigger?
- No, an IFTTT applet is one trigger to one action, full stop. Zapier's workflows can fan a single trigger out to several actions in sequence, which is the main reason to pay its higher price.
- How does each one measure usage?
- Zapier counts tasks, one per action a workflow completes, with 100 free each month before paid tiers start. IFTTT does not meter by task. Its limits are structured around how many applets are active rather than how often they run.
- Does either include a way to store data, like a simple database?
- Zapier does: tables and forms are included even on the free plan, alongside the workflows. IFTTT has no equivalent. It is built purely to move an event from one service into an action on another.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.