Skip to content

Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Bardeen vs Make

Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.

Activepieces

4.0

From $20/mo flat

Bardeen

3.3

From From $10/mo

Best overall

Make

4.3

From From $9/mo

Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.

At a glance

Activepieces

4.0

Pick it if: Small teams who like how Zapier works but want to own their automations or avoid per-task pricing.

Bardeen

3.3

Pick it if: Salespeople, recruiters and founders who spend hours copying contact details out of websites.

Make

4.3
Best overall

Pick it if: Marketers and operators who've outgrown simple automations and want to see what their workflows are doing.

Overview

AttributeActivepiecesBardeenMake
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.Pulls leads off websites like LinkedIn into a spreadsheet or CRM, then enriches them.Draw automations as a flowchart, with branches and loops, for less than Zapier charges.
Pricing modelOpen sourceFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$20/mo flatFrom $10/moFrom $9/mo
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes No Yes

Rating breakdown

Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.

AttributeActivepiecesBardeenMake
Overall rating4.03.34.3Winner
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
3.5
4.0
FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together.
3.5
3.0
4.5
Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them.
4.0
3.5
4.5
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.5
3.5
4.5
Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over.
4.0
3.0
4.0

Feature comparison

A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.

AttributeActivepiecesBardeenMake
Access & platform
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Mobile app No No–
Desktop app No No No
Browser extension No Yes Yes
API access Yes– Yes
Teams & business
Team workspace Yes Yes Yes
Enterprise plan or SSO Yes Yes Yes
Connects to other apps Yes Yes Yes
Open source or self-hosted Yes No No
AI abilities
Works with your files Yes– Yes
Understands images–––
Makes images No No No
Makes video No No No
Writes code Yes No No
Runs agents or automations Yes Yes Yes
Learns your brand or style No No No
Works in many languages Yes– Yes
Capabilities score10/ 176/ 179/ 17

Pricing

Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.

AttributeActivepiecesBardeenMake
Plans

Free

Free

Small teams getting started, or anyone who will self-host.

Free

Free

Trying a scrape or two.

Free

Free

Learning the canvas and running a couple of light scenarios.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

Basic

From $10/mo

Occasional prospecting.

CoreOur pick

From $9/mo billed yearly

One person automating a small business.

Team

$200/mo flat

A larger team that needs SSO and roles.

PremiumOur pick

$50/mo, or $480/yr

A salesperson prospecting every week.

Pro

From $16/mo billed yearly

Anyone whose automations have become business-critical.

Ultimate

Custom

Companies with heavy volume or strict security needs.

Enterprise

Custom

Teams that want scrapers built and maintained for them.

Teams

From $29/mo billed yearly

A team sharing scenarios and connections.

Enterprise

Custom

Companies that need SSO, audit logs and an uptime guarantee.

Which plan to pickThe Free plan is unusually generous, so start there. Move to Plus when you want monthly credits instead of a daily cap and the option to use your own AI keys. Self-host only if someone on the team is happy running a server.Start free to confirm it can read the sites you care about. If prospecting is a weekly job, Premium is the sensible tier; the Basic plan runs out of credits quickly once you add enrichment.Core is enough for most small businesses, and 10,000 credits goes a long way when routers and error handlers are free. Move to Pro if a failed run costs you money and you want priority execution and better logs.

Key features

AttributeActivepiecesBardeenMake
Standout features
  • Zapier-style builder
  • Flat per-run pricing
  • Self-host or cloud
  • MCP for AI assistants
  • Agents and Tables
  • Bring your own AI keys
  • AI scraper
  • Contact enrichment
  • Lead scoring
  • Sheet and CRM export
  • Premium scrapers
  • Visual canvas
  • Routers, filters and iterators
  • Run history you can replay
  • AI Agents
  • Make Grid
  • HTTP and webhooks

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesBardeenMake
Pros
  • Easiest open-source automation tool to learn
  • Flat pricing, with one credit per run however long the flow
  • Generous free plan and free self-hosting
  • MCP makes every connected app available to Claude
  • Open source, so you can inspect or extend it
  • Gets data off web pages that no official integration can reach
  • Scrape, enrich and score in one place
  • No code or CSS selectors needed
  • A free tier that lets you test it properly
  • Much cheaper per step than Zapier
  • Branching, loops and filters are built in, not bolted on
  • Run history shows exactly what happened at every step
  • Routers and error handlers do not use credits
  • Generous free plan for learning
Cons
  • Far fewer apps than Zapier, and some pieces are thin
  • Smaller community and fewer templates than n8n
  • No canvas, so complex branching is harder to follow
  • AI steps cost extra credits on top of the run
  • Runs in your browser, so you are usually tied to your desk while it works
  • Scrapers break when websites change their layout
  • Credits are tight and expire at the end of each period
  • It has dropped most of its general automation features
  • Scraping LinkedIn at volume can get your account restricted
  • Steeper learning curve than Zapier, especially around data mapping
  • Credit usage is hard to predict until you have run a scenario for a while
  • Fewer apps than Zapier, and some apps have thin coverage
  • Pricing page is hard to read, and the headline prices assume yearly billing

Who each one is for

AttributeActivepiecesBardeenMake
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • Scraping LinkedIn and directories
  • Getting prospect lists into a CRM
  • Finding emails and phone numbers
  • Scoring leads against your ideal customer
  • Multi-step marketing workflows
  • Branching logic and filters
  • Processing batches of records
  • Automation on a budget
You'll find it used by
  • Small teams
  • Ops teams
  • Developers
  • Agencies
  • Sales teams
  • Recruiters
  • Founders
  • Agencies
  • Marketers
  • Ops teams
  • Agencies
  • Consultants

How we compare

Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability. The "Visit" buttons may use affiliate links, which never affect a score.

Swap in another tool

More automation & workflows tools from the library.