Make is the cheapest serious automation tool on the market and the hardest to budget for, because it does not bill the way its competitors do. Zapier charges per task. Make charges per credit, and a single automation run can spend several. This guide explains what you will actually pay, with the prices verified on 2026-09-09.
What a credit is, and why it matters
A task in Zapier is one action. A credit in Make is consumed by each module that runs, every time a scenario fires.
So a scenario that watches a form, looks the person up in a CRM, branches on the result, updates a record and sends a notification is not one unit of billing. It is roughly five, every single time it runs. Build the same automation in both tools and Make's headline allowance is much bigger while the real ratio is far closer than the price comparison suggests.
The practical estimate before you commit: count the modules on the canvas, multiply by how often you expect the scenario to fire in a month. A five-module scenario triggered 200 times is about 1,000 credits — the entire free plan, from one automation.
The free plan, and what it is really for
1,000 credits a month, a maximum of 2 active scenarios, a 15-minute minimum interval, a 5-minute execution cap and 7 days of logs.
The interval is the part people miss. Nothing on the free plan runs in real time; it polls at best every quarter hour. For a nightly sync or a low-volume form handoff that is fine and it is genuinely free forever. For "text me the moment a lead comes in", it is the wrong tool at $0 — and that is usually the first automation a small business wants.
What the paid tiers change
Core, $12 a month ($10.20 on annual) is where Make becomes usable: unlimited active scenarios, 1-minute scheduling, API access, 30-day logs, and 10,000 credits at the entry level.
Pro, $21 a month ($17.85 annual) adds priority execution, custom variables, full-text log search and 250MB file handling.
Teams, $38 a month ($32.30 annual) adds team roles, template sharing and 60-day logs.
Enterprise is custom, and is the only place overage protection appears.
Two things to notice. First, the jump from free to Core is the only one that changes what you can build; everything above it buys tooling and headroom. Second, the credit allowance is a sliding scale on every paid tier — 10,000 is the entry point, and you pay more for more. The tier name sets the features; the credit count sets the bill.
If a scenario breaks quietly and you cannot find out why, that is the argument for Pro. Full-text log search is worth $9 the first time a silent failure costs you a day of leads.
When Zapier wins anyway
Zapier is more expensive and has a much thinner free plan — 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps only. It still wins in two cases.
The app you need is obscure. Zapier's connector library is bigger. In Make, a long-tail app means the HTTP module and reading someone's API docs, and if that sentence sounds unpleasant, the price difference is not the deciding factor.
Nobody on the team is technical. Make's canvas and data-mapping model is the real cost of the cheaper price. Zapier's linear builder is learnable in an afternoon; Make is not. Zapier vs Make sets out who should pick which.
When you need neither
The cheapest automation is the one already inside a tool you pay for. If the job is "tag a buyer and stop sending them the promotion", Systeme.io does that natively on a $17 plan you may already have, and there is no credit meter. Reach for a connector only when the two things genuinely live in different systems.
The short version
Budget by modules, not by automations: count the modules, multiply by expected runs. The free plan is real but polls every 15 minutes, so it cannot do anything urgent. $12 is the only upgrade that changes what you can build. Above that you are buying log search and team features, and the credit allowance — not the tier name — is what sets the invoice.
For where Make's free tier sits against every other one, see the Free Plan Index. For what to automate first, automate lead follow-up starts with the messages that earn their cost.