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Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Make vs Nanonets

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

Best overall

Make

4.3

From From $9/mo

Nanonets

3.7

From $50 free credits

Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.

At a glance

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

Make4.3
Best overall

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

Pick it if: Finance and operations teams buried in invoices, receipts and forms that someone still types into the books by hand.

Overview

AttributeActivepiecesMakeNanonets
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.Draw automations as a flowchart, with branches and loops, for less than Zapier charges.Pulls data out of invoices, receipts and forms and sends it into your accounting system.
Pricing modelOpen sourceFreemiumPaid
Starting price$20/mo flatFrom $9/mo$50 free credits
Free plan Yes Yes No
Works with Claude Code Yes Yes Yes

Rating breakdown

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

AttributeActivepiecesMakeNanonets
Overall rating4.04.3Winner3.7
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
4.0
3.5
FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together.
3.5
4.5
4.5
Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them.
4.0
4.5
4.0
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.5
4.5
3.0
Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over.
4.0
4.0
3.5

Feature comparison

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

AttributeActivepiecesMakeNanonets
Access & platform
Free plan Yes Yes No
Mobile app No––
Desktop app No No–
Browser extension No 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–
AI abilities
Works with your files Yes Yes Yes
Understands images–– Yes
Makes images No No No
Makes video No No No
Writes code Yes No–
Runs agents or automations Yes Yes Yes
Learns your brand or style No No–
Works in many languages Yes Yes Yes
Capabilities score10/ 179/ 178/ 17

Pricing

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

AttributeActivepiecesMakeNanonets
Plans

Free

Free

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

Free

Free

Learning the canvas and running a couple of light scenarios.

StarterOur pick

$50 free credits, then pay as you go

Small teams testing it or running modest volumes.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

CoreOur pick

From $9/mo billed yearly

One person automating a small business.

Growth

Custom

Finance teams with steady monthly volume.

Team

$200/mo flat

A larger team that needs SSO and roles.

Pro

From $16/mo billed yearly

Anyone whose automations have become business-critical.

Enterprise

Custom

Large or regulated organisations.

Ultimate

Custom

Companies with heavy volume or strict security needs.

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.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.Start on Starter with the free credits and push a month's worth of your real invoices through it. Only talk to sales about Growth once you know your volume and which accounting system it has to feed.

Key features

AttributeActivepiecesMakeNanonets
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
  • Visual canvas
  • Routers, filters and iterators
  • Run history you can replay
  • AI Agents
  • Make Grid
  • HTTP and webhooks
  • AI data extraction
  • Workflow blocks
  • Human review
  • Many ways in
  • Accounting and ERP exports

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesMakeNanonets
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
  • 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
  • Reads messy scans and varied layouts without building templates
  • Covers the whole flow: capture, checks, approval and export
  • Free starting credits with no card
  • Wide range of accounting and ERP connections
  • Human review step keeps errors out of the books
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
  • 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
  • Usage pricing per block makes the monthly bill hard to predict
  • Some long-time users report accuracy dropping on new layouts and fiddly retraining
  • Processing speed can vary a lot between batches
  • Anything past the starter tier is a sales quote, and a few users report hard refund disputes

Who each one is for

AttributeActivepiecesMakeNanonets
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • Multi-step marketing workflows
  • Branching logic and filters
  • Processing batches of records
  • Automation on a budget
  • Accounts payable invoice capture
  • Receipts and expense documents
  • Bank statements and financial forms
  • Approval workflows with a human check
  • Getting PDF data into Xero, QuickBooks or NetSuite
You'll find it used by
  • Small teams
  • Ops teams
  • Developers
  • Agencies
  • Marketers
  • Ops teams
  • Agencies
  • Consultants
  • Accounts payable teams
  • Bookkeepers
  • Finance managers
  • Operations teams
  • Logistics companies

Questions people ask

Which is better, Activepieces, Make or Nanonets?

Make scores highest overall in our ratings (Activepieces 4.0/5, Make 4.3/5 and Nanonets 3.7/5). Activepieces is best for zapier-style automations on a budget and Giving AI assistants access to your apps. Make is best for multi-step marketing workflows and branching logic and filters. Nanonets is best for accounts payable invoice capture and receipts and expense documents.

Which is cheaper, Activepieces, Make or Nanonets?

Activepieces: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo flat. Make: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $9/mo. Nanonets: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $50 free credits.

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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