Zapier alternatives for small business (2026)

The short answer

The best Zapier alternative depends on why you are leaving. If you want more control, look at Make or n8n. If you want an AI agent that lives in Slack, look at Lindy. If you want to describe what you need in plain English and have it built on your own desktop, look at Biilda. If Zapier is working, you do not need to switch.

Below are five options for small businesses, each with what it is for, how it charges, and who it fits. Biilda is one of the five, and we have tried to state its limits as plainly as the others. Facts about the other tools come from their own pricing and product pages, checked on 2026-10-05.

Five options at a glance

Make

What it is for: visual automation. You connect modules into scenarios on a canvas. Pricing model: credits, one per module action. When checked, Free was $0 a month with 1,000 credits, and Core, Pro and Teams started at $9, $16 and $29 a month, priced for 10k credits. Best for: people who like building and want cheap, high-volume app plumbing with fine control.

n8n

What it is for: workflow automation you can run in n8n Cloud or host yourself. Pricing model: per workflow execution. Cloud Starter was EUR 20 a month for 2.5K executions and Pro EUR 50 for 10K; the Community Edition is free to self-host. Best for: technical users, or teams that want to self-host and extend.

Lindy

What it is for: an AI teammate that works in Slack, iMessage, email and a browser. Pricing model: per user per month with credits. When checked, its Team plan was $29.99 with 3k credits, $99.99 with 15k, $199.99 with 35k. Best for: teams who want a hosted AI assistant in their chat tools.

Relevance AI

What it is for: building AI agents and multi-agent teams. Its pricing page lists unlimited agents and tools and 2,000+ integrations on its Enterprise plan. Pricing model: the page we could read showed custom Enterprise pricing. Check Relevance AI's pricing page for other plans. Best for: organizations ready to talk to sales and build larger agent setups.

Biilda

What it is for: a free desktop app for Windows and macOS. You describe what you want in chat, Biilda drafts a plan, and once you approve it builds AI employees, scheduled tasks and connectors. Pricing model: free to download; you buy USD credits (minimum $20, one credit equals one cent) and spend them as work happens. No subscription, and a spend cap you control. Best for: owners and solo operators who want to describe the work instead of building it. Trade-offs: scheduled tasks run while the app is open, so quitting it fully means nothing runs. It is not open source. The AI model is reached through Biilda's cloud, so text being processed is sent for that call, although your files, history and connector tokens stay on your computer. It is aimed at one person or a small team on one machine, and Gmail and Slack are the connectors we name on our site.

How to choose

• You want to draw and control every step: Make, or n8n if you are technical or want to self-host.
• You want a hosted AI teammate in Slack: Lindy.
• You want enterprise-scale agent building: talk to Relevance AI.
• You want to describe the work and pay by usage: Biilda.
• Your automations are simple hand-offs between many apps: Zapier may still be the right tool. It says its agents work across 9,000+ apps.

Zapier versus Biilda, in practice

A follow-up email. In Zapier you build the Zap. In Biilda an AI employee connected to Gmail drafts the follow-up, and you approve it before it sends.

A Monday report. In Biilda you say what you want and when. It creates a scheduled task that starts disabled until you turn it on.

Keeping costs in check. Zapier's plans come with a task allowance. Biilda has no plan: your balance is a hard limit, a monthly spend cap of $100 (by default, and yours to change) limits it further, and if you run low mid-task the task pauses and resumes after a top-up.

Pricing compared plainly

Zapier, when we checked: Free at 100 tasks a month, Professional from $19.99 a month billed annually for 750 tasks ($29.99 billed monthly), and Team from $69 a month billed annually for 2,000 tasks. Overage on its pay-per-task option is priced above the base rate, so read the pricing page if you expect to exceed your allowance.

Biilda: no plan. Credits you buy never expire, and unused credits from a purchase are refundable within 60 days. The cost depends on the work: everyday tasks cost very little and bigger jobs cost more.

What "local-first" changes

Biilda keeps your files, history and connector tokens on your computer. A cloud automation service runs your automations on its own servers. The practical differences are where your records and credentials are stored, and whether your automations run when your computer is off.

Using both

Nothing says you must replace Zapier. Keep the automations that work and add Biilda for the work that needs reading and writing. Biilda connects to Gmail and Slack, plus more connectors inside the app.

A ten-minute way to decide

Write down the three automations you most want. For each, note whether it is a clean hand-off between apps, or whether it needs reading, writing or judgment. Clean hand-offs fit Zapier, Make or n8n. Judgment-shaped jobs fit an AI agent product such as Lindy, Relevance AI or Biilda.

Then decide how you want to pay. Per-task or per-execution plans suit steady, high-volume automation. Per-seat plans suit teams. Usage-based credits with no plan suit irregular or early-stage use. Biilda is free to download, so trying one of your three jobs costs a few credits at most, and you will see the plan before anything is built.

Questions people ask before switching

Do I have to leave Zapier? No. The five tools above coexist. Many owners keep the Zaps that work and add something else for different jobs.

What about open source? Biilda is not open source. n8n's Community Edition is the self-hosted, free option in this list.

Is it really free? Biilda is free to download, but the AI work is paid with credits you buy, with a $20 minimum top-up. Make and Zapier have free plans with small allowances, and Lindy lists paid plans from $29.99 per user per month as of our check.