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Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Lindy 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

Lindy

3.8

From From $29.99/mo per active user

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.

Lindy

3.8
Easiest to use

Pick it if: Founders and small teams who want help with email, scheduling and customer replies without hiring someone.

Bardeen

3.3

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

Overview

AttributeActivepiecesLindyBardeen
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.An AI assistant that handles your email, meeting notes and follow-ups from Slack.Pulls leads off websites like LinkedIn into a spreadsheet or CRM, then enriches them.
Pricing modelOpen sourcePaidFreemium
Starting price$20/mo flatFrom $29.99/mo per active userFrom $10/mo
Free plan Yes No Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes No No

Rating breakdown

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

AttributeActivepiecesLindyBardeen
Overall rating4.0Winner3.83.3
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
4.5
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
3.5
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
3.5
3.0

Feature comparison

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

AttributeActivepiecesLindyBardeen
Access & platform
Free plan Yes No Yes
Mobile app No Yes 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 Yes No
Works in many languages Yes––
Capabilities score10/ 179/ 176/ 17

Pricing

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

AttributeActivepiecesLindyBardeen
Plans

Free

Free

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

Free trial

Free for 7 days

Seeing whether it suits how you work.

Free

Free

Trying a scrape or two.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

TeamOur pick

From $29.99/mo per active user

Founders and small teams with a recurring admin load.

Basic

From $10/mo

Occasional prospecting.

Team

$200/mo flat

A larger team that needs SSO and roles.

Enterprise

Custom

Companies with compliance requirements.

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.Use the seven-day trial on one recurring job, like meeting notes or inbox triage, and see how many credits it burns. Then pick the Team credit tier one step above what you used, since every active user is billed.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

AttributeActivepiecesLindyBardeen
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
  • Works where you are
  • Email handling
  • Meeting notes and follow-ups
  • Teachable skills
  • Computer use
  • Model choice per task
  • AI scraper
  • Contact enrichment
  • Lead scoring
  • Sheet and CRM export
  • Premium scrapers

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesLindyBardeen
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
  • Feels like delegating to a person, not building an automation
  • Strong at email, meeting notes and scheduling out of the box
  • Asks before doing anything risky
  • Teach it a task once and the whole team can reuse 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
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, and the trial is only seven days
  • Credits run out quickly on AI-heavy jobs
  • Billed per active user, so costs climb as the team adopts it
  • Browser-driven tasks can be slow and occasionally fail
  • Output quality depends on how well you set up each skill
  • 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

AttributeActivepiecesLindyBardeen
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • Sorting and drafting email
  • Meeting notes and follow-ups
  • Booking meetings
  • Recurring admin you can describe in a sentence
  • 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
  • Founders
  • Small teams
  • Sales teams
  • Executive assistants
  • 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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