Make vs Zapier for Singapore SMEs (2026): honest comparison

The short answer

If one person on your team will spend an afternoon learning a visual builder, start with Make: its free tier (1,000 credits a month) can run a small firm's first real automations, and paid starts at US$9/month for 5,000 credits. If nobody will own the tool and you just want the obvious connections working today, start with Zapier: simpler to build in, with the biggest app catalogue in the category — but the free tier is tight (100 tasks a month, two-step workflows only) and paid starts at roughly double Make's entry price.

At a glance — prices and limits as of 11 Jul 2026

All prices are in USD, taken from each vendor's own pricing page on 11 July 2026. Terms change; check current pricing before you commit.

What you're actually buying

Both do the same job: when something happens in one app (a form submission, an email, an invoice), they push data into your other apps without anyone copying and pasting. The differences are in how you build and what a unit of work costs.

Pricing: the units differ, so do the maths on your own workflow

The headline numbers — 1,000 free credits on Make versus 100 free tasks on Zapier — look like a 10× gap. It isn't quite, because the platforms count differently.

Zapier counts a task only when an action succeeds; the trigger step is free. Make counts a credit for every module action — its pricing page's own example of a credit is "fetching Gmail account data" — so budget for scheduled mailbox checks consuming credits even when nothing new arrived. Watch your run log in week one to learn your real burn rate.

Worked example — our arithmetic, not a vendor quote. A three-step enquiry automation (watch a mailbox, add a spreadsheet row, send a notification) handling 100 enquiries a month:

• On Make: about 300 credits for the enquiries, plus scheduled checks — hourly checking adds roughly 720 runs a month. Total near 1,000: right at the free ceiling, so widen the interval or pay US$9/month.
• On Zapier: 2 tasks per enquiry — 200 tasks a month, double the free cap. And a three-step Zap isn't allowed on the free plan anyway, so this workflow starts at "from $19.99/month".

The general pattern: Make's free tier absorbs a small firm's first workflows; Zapier's free tier is a demo. Once you pay, Make's US$9 buys 5,000 credits, while Zapier's page doesn't state how many tasks the starting Professional price includes — run their pricing calculator on your own volume before budgeting. Footnote: extra Make credits bought on top expire (monthly on monthly billing, annually on annual), so don't stockpile.

Learning curve: canvas versus checklist

Zapier's builder is a vertical checklist: trigger at the top, actions below, one path. A first Zap can be live within the hour, and non-technical staff can maintain it. The Professional plan adds multi-step Zaps, webhooks and unlimited premium apps.

Make's builder is a canvas of connected bubbles — a "scenario". Routers and filters (included on the free plan) let one trigger branch into different paths, which earns its keep once your process has any if-this-then-that logic. The cost is a steeper first afternoon: you will stare at a router wondering why the filter passes nothing. If nobody on the team enjoys spreadsheet formulas, that afternoon may never end — pick Zapier.

App catalogue: Zapier's is bigger, and sometimes that decides it

Zapier's own app pages count 9,000+ apps; Make's pricing page says 3,000+. Mainstream tools — email, spreadsheets, the big CRMs and accounting suites — are on both. The gap shows with long-tail or regional SaaS. Search both directories for every app you actually use before choosing; a missing connector on Make is the most common reason a small team correctly picks Zapier, and we recommend Zapier in that case.

WhatsApp: read this before you promise anyone WhatsApp alerts

WhatsApp matters more in Singapore than in the markets these tools are built for, so be precise here.

• Make lists a verified WhatsApp Business Cloud integration on Meta's official API, with a watch-messages trigger and actions including "Send a Message" and "Send a Template Message". It can message customers — but only after you complete Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform setup (business verification, a registered sender number, approved templates). That setup is its own project.
• Zapier's built-in WhatsApp Notifications app is narrower than the name suggests: a premium app (paid plans only) with one "Send Message" action from seven fixed templates, and — quoting Zapier's help page — "messages can only be sent to yourself (the account holder)." Fine for pinging yourself about a new lead; not a customer channel.

Customer-facing WhatsApp on either platform typically runs through a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider's connector — a separate subscription. Read any vendor's "WhatsApp automation" claim with that in mind.

Singapore-specific notes

• Currency. Both bill in USD; the SGD amount on your statement will drift with your card's exchange rate and FX spread.
• GST. Neither pricing page mentions GST (checked 11 Jul 2026), so don't assume either way — check your first invoice, and if you're GST-registered, pass it to your accountant.
• Grants. We have not verified either platform against the PSG pre-approved solutions list. Search the GoBusiness portal before assuming any grant support applies.
• PDPA. An enquiry email is personal data. Routing it through Make or Zapier means an overseas-hosted third party processes your customers' data, and under the PDPA the responsibility stays with you. Map only the fields you need, and read each vendor's data-processing terms before connecting a mailbox.

Which one for which business

Pick Make if:

• someone on the team is comfortable with logic — filters, routers and field mapping reward whoever enjoys spreadsheet formulas;
• your volume will grow — US$9/month for 5,000 credits stretches much further than Zapier's entry pricing;
• your processes branch — one enquiry triggering different follow-ups by type is native territory for the canvas;
• customer-facing WhatsApp via Meta's official API is on your roadmap.

Pick Zapier if:

• nobody owns automation and the first workflow must be live within the hour;
• an app you depend on is in Zapier's 9,000+ catalogue but not Make's 3,000+ — check both directories first;
• several staff will build and share workflows — the Team plan (from US$69/month) covers 25 users;
• you would rather pay more per month than debug a canvas. A legitimate business decision.

You might need neither if…

• You have fewer than ~20 repetitive hand-offs a month. At that volume a checklist and 30 minutes of admin beat the setup and maintenance cost of any platform.
• Native integrations already cover you. Your form tool probably writes to Sheets; your accounting software has a bank feed; your booking tool sends calendar invites. Check the settings of tools you already pay for before renting glue between them.
• The process changes weekly. Automate stable processes; automating one you're still redesigning means rebuilding it every time.

Your first automation, step by step

Whichever platform you pick, build this one first: new enquiry email → logged in a sheet or CRM → someone gets pinged. You will feel it working every day.

1. Create the destination first. A spreadsheet with columns for date, name, email, message and status — or a pipeline stage in your CRM. Our enquiry-log template gives you the columns.
2. Add the trigger. Point the platform at your enquiries mailbox — a "watch emails" module on Make, a "new email matching search" trigger on Zapier — filtered to the enquiry address or a subject keyword. Send yourself a test enquiry so the builder has a sample to map from.
3. Map the fields crudely. Sender name to the name column, address to email, the whole body into message. Don't parse elegantly on day one; refine after a week of real data.
4. Add the logging action. "Add a row" or "create contact". Run a test and confirm the row actually appears.
5. Add the ping. For week one, a Telegram or Slack message to the owner is free on both platforms and takes minutes. A true WhatsApp ping is constrained (see above) — upgrade it later if it earns its keep.
6. Test with a real enquiry, then switch it on. Watch the run history for a week: you'll catch one mis-mapped field and learn your actual credit or task burn. Budget an afternoon for the whole build the first time.

FAQ

Is Make really ten times cheaper than Zapier? Not exactly — the units differ. Zapier doesn't count triggers or failed actions; Make counts every module action, including scheduled checks. The realistic gap at entry still clearly favours Make (free versus "from $19.99/month" for the same three-step workflow), but do the arithmetic on your own volume.

Can either platform send WhatsApp messages to my customers? Make lists an official WhatsApp Business Cloud integration that can, once you complete Meta's Business Platform setup. Zapier's built-in WhatsApp Notifications app cannot — its help page says messages go only to your own number. Customer messaging on either usually means a solution provider's connector at extra cost.

Are the prices in SGD, and is GST included? Neither. Both vendors quote USD, and neither pricing page mentions GST (checked 11 Jul 2026). Your SGD cost depends on your card's rate; check your first invoice for any GST line rather than assume.

If we pick wrong, how painful is switching? The thinking transfers; the workflows don't. Neither platform meaningfully exports to the other, so you rebuild. Keep a one-page list of what each automation does and which apps it touches — with that, rebuilding five workflows is an afternoon, not a crisis.

Next step

Open a free account — Make if someone will own it, Zapier if not — and build the enquiry logger above this week using the enquiry-log template. When it has run quietly for a fortnight, take the next workflow from our step-by-step playbooks — most services firms should automate invoice chasing second, because that one shows up in the bank account.