Skip to content

Side-by-side comparison · Automation & Workflows

Activepieces vs Nanonets 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

Nanonets

3.7

From $50 free credits

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

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

AttributeActivepiecesNanonetsZapier
In one lineA Zapier-style automation builder that's open source and charges per run, not per step.Pulls data out of invoices, receipts and forms and sends it into your accounting system.When something happens in one app, Zapier does the next step in another. No code needed.
Pricing modelOpen sourcePaidFreemium
Starting price$20/mo flat$50 free creditsFrom $19.99/mo
Free plan Yes No Yes
Works with Claude Code Yes Yes Yes

Rating breakdown

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

AttributeActivepiecesNanonetsZapier
Overall rating4.03.74.2Winner
Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
4.0
3.5
5.0
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
4.0
4.0
Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan.
4.5
3.0
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.

AttributeActivepiecesNanonetsZapier
Access & platform
Free plan Yes No Yes
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– Yes
Runs agents or automations Yes Yes Yes
Learns your brand or style No– No
Works in many languages Yes Yes–
Capabilities score10/ 178/ 179/ 17

Pricing

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

AttributeActivepiecesNanonetsZapier
Plans

Free

Free

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

StarterOur pick

$50 free credits, then pay as you go

Small teams testing it or running modest volumes.

Free

Free

Testing one or two simple automations.

PlusOur pick

$20/mo flat

A small business running automations every day.

Growth

Custom

Finance teams with steady monthly volume.

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.

Enterprise

Custom

Large or regulated organisations.

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.

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.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.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

AttributeActivepiecesNanonetsZapier
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 data extraction
  • Workflow blocks
  • Human review
  • Many ways in
  • Accounting and ERP exports
  • 8,000+ app connections
  • Copilot builder
  • Multi-step Zaps with paths
  • Tables, Interfaces and Chatbots
  • Agents
  • Zap history and replay

Pros and cons

AttributeActivepiecesNanonetsZapier
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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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

AttributeActivepiecesNanonetsZapier
Best for
  • Zapier-style automations on a budget
  • Giving AI assistants access to your apps
  • Long multi-step workflows
  • Self-hosted automation for teams
  • 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
  • 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
  • Accounts payable teams
  • Bookkeepers
  • Finance managers
  • Operations teams
  • Logistics companies
  • Marketers
  • Solo founders
  • Ops teams
  • Agencies

Questions people ask

Which is better, Activepieces, Nanonets or Zapier?

Zapier scores highest overall in our ratings (Activepieces 4.0/5, Nanonets 3.7/5 and Zapier 4.2/5). Activepieces is best for zapier-style automations on a budget and Giving AI assistants access to your apps. Nanonets is best for accounts payable invoice capture and receipts and expense documents. Zapier is best for sending form submissions to spreadsheets and new lead alerts in Slack or email.

Which is cheaper, Activepieces, Nanonets or Zapier?

Activepieces: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo flat. Nanonets: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $50 free credits. Zapier: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at From $19.99/mo.

Which is easier to use, Activepieces, Nanonets 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.

Swap in another tool

More tools from Automation & Workflows in the library.