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Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Browse AI vs Zapier

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

Browse AI

3.9

From $19/mo

Best overall

Zapier

4.2

From From $19.99/mo

Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.

At a glance

Best value

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

Pick it if: Ecommerce, marketing and sales teams that need data from other websites without writing code.

Best overallEasiest to use

Pick it if: Anyone who's sick of copying data between apps and has never written a line of code.

Zapier scores highest overall, but Activepieces gives you more for your money. Which one is right comes down to what you value most.

Overview

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIZapier
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.Scrape data from websites and track changes, set up by pointing and clicking.When something happens in one app, Zapier does the next step in another. No code needed.
Pricing modelOpen sourceFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$20/mo flat$19/moFrom $19.99/mo
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes Yes Yes

Rating breakdown

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

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIZapier
Overall rating4.03.94.2Winner
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
4.5
5.0
FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together.
3.5
4.0
4.5
Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them.
4.0
4.0
4.0
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.5
3.5
3.0
Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over.
4.0
3.5
4.5

Feature comparison

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

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIZapier
Access & platform
Free plan Yes Yes Yes
Mobile app No––
Desktop app No– No
Browser extension No Yes Yes
API access Yes 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 Yes
Runs agents or automations Yes Yes Yes
Learns your brand or style No– No
Works in many languages Yes––
Capabilities score10/ 177/ 179/ 17

Pricing

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

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIZapier
Plans

Free

Free

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

Free

Free

Testing a robot or two.

Free

Free

Testing one or two simple automations.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

Personal

$19/mo billed yearly, or $48 monthly

One person monitoring a few sites.

ProfessionalOur pick

From $19.99/mo billed yearly, or $29.99/mo

One person running real automations for a business.

Team

$200/mo flat

A larger team that needs SSO and roles.

ProfessionalOur pick

$69/mo billed yearly, or $87 monthly

Teams scraping several sites regularly.

Team

From $69/mo billed yearly, or $103.50/mo

A team that shares Zaps and app connections.

Ultimate

Custom

Companies with heavy volume or strict security needs.

Premium

From $500/mo billed yearly

High-volume or protected sites.

Enterprise

Custom

Large companies with security and compliance needs.

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.Test on Free first to make sure your target sites work. Professional suits most business use because of the site and user limits; pay yearly if you are sure, as monthly costs much more.Start on Free to confirm your apps connect, then move to Professional on yearly billing. Buy the smallest task tier and let Zapier tell you when you are close to the limit, because it is easy to overestimate how many tasks you need.

Key features

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIZapier
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
  • Point-and-click robots
  • Monitoring and alerts
  • Pre-built robots
  • Send data anywhere
  • API
  • 8,000+ app connections
  • Copilot builder
  • Multi-step Zaps with paths
  • Tables, Interfaces and Chatbots
  • Agents
  • Zap history and replay

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIZapier
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
  • Very easy to set up without code
  • Scheduled monitoring with change alerts
  • Free plan to test on your own target sites
  • Connects to Sheets, Airtable and automation tools
  • Fastest to learn of any automation tool here
  • Connects to far more apps than anyone else
  • Copilot builds a working Zap from a plain-English description
  • Reliable, with clear run history when something fails
  • Tables, Interfaces and Chatbots cover simple internal tools
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
  • Robots can break when a site changes layout
  • Sites with bot protection may fail or use extra credits
  • Credits run down faster than expected on multi-page jobs
  • Some users report billing issues after cancelling
  • Per-task pricing gets expensive fast, and every step counts as a task
  • The free plan is too limited to run anything real
  • Zaps run in a straight line, so branching and loops are clumsier than in Make
  • Each extra product (Tables, Interfaces, Chatbots) has its own limits and costs

Who each one is for

AttributeActivepiecesBrowse AIZapier
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • Competitor price monitoring
  • Pulling listings into a spreadsheet
  • Alerts when a web page changes
  • Building lead lists from directories
  • Sending form submissions to spreadsheets
  • New lead alerts in Slack or email
  • Syncing contacts between tools
  • Connecting niche apps nobody else supports
You'll find it used by
  • Small teams
  • Ops teams
  • Developers
  • Agencies
  • Ecommerce teams
  • Marketers
  • Sales teams
  • Researchers
  • Recruiters
  • Marketers
  • Solo founders
  • Ops teams
  • Agencies

Questions people ask

Which is better, Activepieces, Browse AI or Zapier?

Zapier scores highest overall in our ratings (Activepieces 4.0/5, Browse AI 3.9/5 and Zapier 4.2/5). Activepieces is best for zapier-style automations on a budget and Giving AI assistants access to your apps. Browse AI is best for competitor price monitoring and pulling listings into a spreadsheet. Zapier is best for sending form submissions to spreadsheets and new lead alerts in Slack or email.

Which is cheaper, Activepieces, Browse AI or Zapier?

Activepieces: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo flat. Browse AI: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19/mo. Zapier: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $19.99/mo.

Which is easier to use, Activepieces, Browse AI or Zapier?

Zapier rates highest for ease of use in our scores. Anyone who's sick of copying data between apps and has never written a line of code.

How we compare

Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.

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