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Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Gumloop vs Bardeen

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

Best overall

Activepieces

4.0

From $20/mo flat

Gumloop

3.9

From From $37/mo

Bardeen

3.3

From From $10/mo

Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.

At a glance

Activepieces

4.0
Best overallBest value

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

Gumloop

3.9

Pick it if: Marketers, sales teams and researchers who want AI to do the repetitive reading, sorting and summarising.

Bardeen

3.3

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

Overview

AttributeActivepiecesGumloopBardeen
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.Build AI agents that research, scrape and enrich data across your work apps.Pulls leads off websites like LinkedIn into a spreadsheet or CRM, then enriches them.
Pricing modelOpen sourceFreemiumFreemium
Starting price$20/mo flatFrom $37/moFrom $10/mo
Free plan Yes No Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes Yes No

Rating breakdown

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

AttributeActivepiecesGumloopBardeen
Overall rating4.0Winner3.93.3
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
4.0
3.5
FeaturesHow much it can do, and how well the pieces fit together.
3.5
4.0
3.0
Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them.
4.0
4.0
3.5
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.5
3.5
3.5
Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over.
4.0
4.0
3.0

Feature comparison

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

AttributeActivepiecesGumloopBardeen
Access & platform
Free plan Yes No Yes
Mobile app No 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– Yes–
Makes images No– No
Makes video No No No
Writes code Yes Yes No
Runs agents or automations Yes Yes Yes
Learns your brand or style No Yes No
Works in many languages Yes––
Capabilities score10/ 1710/ 176/ 17

Pricing

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

AttributeActivepiecesGumloopBardeen
Plans

Free

Free

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

ProOur pick

From $37/mo

Anyone who wants AI doing the research and data work.

Free

Free

Trying a scrape or two.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

Enterprise

Custom

Companies that need security controls and a private cloud.

Basic

From $10/mo

Occasional prospecting.

Team

$200/mo flat

A larger team that needs SSO and roles.

PremiumOur pick

$50/mo, or $480/yr

A salesperson prospecting every week.

Ultimate

Custom

Companies with heavy volume or strict security needs.

Enterprise

Custom

Teams that want scrapers built and maintained for them.

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.Pro is the only option short of Enterprise, so use the 14-day trial to run one real job end to end and watch the credit meter. If it comes in under 20,000 credits a month, you are set.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.

Key features

AttributeActivepiecesGumloopBardeen
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
  • Agents from a description
  • Web scraping and browsing
  • 35+ AI models
  • Company Brain
  • Chrome extension
  • MCP and CLI
  • AI scraper
  • Contact enrichment
  • Lead scoring
  • Sheet and CRM export
  • Premium scrapers

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesGumloopBardeen
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
  • Builds a working agent from a plain-English description
  • Strong at scraping, research and enrichment jobs
  • Unlimited seats, so the whole team can use one plan
  • Choice of models and the option to bring your own keys
  • 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
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
  • No free plan, only a 14-day trial
  • The 8% orchestration fee sits on top of model costs
  • Costs more than Zapier or Make for simple non-AI automations
  • Fewer everyday app connections than the big automation tools
  • Pricing and plan structure have changed several times
  • 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

Who each one is for

AttributeActivepiecesGumloopBardeen
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • Website scraping and research
  • Lead enrichment and scoring
  • Summarising documents in bulk
  • Scheduled reports from your work apps
  • Scraping LinkedIn and directories
  • Getting prospect lists into a CRM
  • Finding emails and phone numbers
  • Scoring leads against your ideal customer
You'll find it used by
  • Small teams
  • Ops teams
  • Developers
  • Agencies
  • Marketers
  • Sales teams
  • Researchers
  • Ops teams
  • Sales teams
  • Recruiters
  • Founders
  • Agencies

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.

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