Activepieces vs Zapier Pricing and Which Costs Less for a Small Team

The short answer: for the same multi step workflow, Activepieces costs far less than Zapier, because Activepieces bills one credit per complete run and Zapier bills one task for every successful action. A five step workflow run 2,000 times a month fits inside Activepieces Plus at $20. On Zapier it is about 10,000 tasks, which is several tiers above the entry price. If nobody on your team wants to build workflows at all, a ready-made agent on a flat plan costs $288 a year.

We read zapier.com/pricing and the Activepieces pricing page on October 30, 2026. Both products connect your apps and add AI steps. They look similar on a feature list and diverge sharply the moment a workflow has more than two steps.

Activepieces vs Zapier pricing side by side

Prices are the lowest tier shown. Zapier lets you pick a task tier, so what you actually pay depends on volume. Our Activepieces pricing page lists every plan and the AI step credit costs.

The counting rule is the whole comparison

Zapier states that each successful action in a Zap counts as a separate task. A workflow with a trigger and five actions uses five tasks every time it runs. Run it 2,000 times a month and you need about 10,000 tasks. Activepieces counts the run, not the steps, so the same 2,000 runs use 2,000 credits.

That is why a cheap-looking entry price misleads. The $19.99 on Zapier is the smallest task tier. A team that automates lead routing, invoice reminders and onboarding emails can pass it in a week, and the next tiers cost more each time. Activepieces Plus stays at $20 until you pass 10,000 runs.

AI steps change the math on the Activepieces side. They cost more than one credit, in the range of 2 to 20 credits depending on the step, so an agent that calls a model several times per run uses its allowance faster. We walk through that in the n8n alternatives comparison, which prices the same workflow across five tools.

What 2,000 runs of a five step workflow cost

We deliberately do not quote a Zapier dollar figure for the 10,000 task tier, because Zapier shows it only inside its interactive selector and it changes. Open the selector, choose 10K, and read the number before you decide.

Where Zapier is still the better buy

• Nobody technical on the team. Zapier is the easier product to build in and to get support for, with live chat on paid plans from the 2,000 task tier up.
• Obscure app connections. Zapier has the longer catalog. Check that your two or three critical apps exist on Activepieces before you commit.
• Short, two step automations. If every workflow is a trigger and one action, the counting difference disappears and Zapier's polish costs you little.
• Approvals and shared workspaces. Zapier's Team plan adds shared connections, folder permissions and approval requests.

Where Activepieces wins

• Long workflows. Ten step flows cost the same as two step ones.
• Predictable bills. Credits per run are easy to forecast from your trigger frequency. A workflow that fires every 15 minutes runs about 2,880 times a month.
• A technical owner. The person building should be comfortable reading a failed step and fixing a data mapping.

Data heavy teams also tend to want answers from their database, not only moved records. A tool that lets staff ask questions of a database in plain English removes a whole class of workflows you would otherwise build and pay runs for.

When neither is the right purchase

Both give you a builder, and the real cost is the hours someone spends designing, testing and repairing workflows. For common jobs a prebuilt agent skips the build. Our Workflow Runner handles repetitive operations steps across Slack, Notion and Zapier, the Inbox Triage agent sorts a shared inbox and drafts replies, and the Invoice Clerk handles invoice follow-up. The Starter plan is $49 a month or $288 a year, with no task counting at all.

If you are comparing more builders, the AI agent platforms page puts fourteen vendors on one price table.

Activepieces vs Zapier FAQ

Is Activepieces cheaper than Zapier?

For multi step workflows, yes. Activepieces Plus is $20 a month and counts a whole run as one credit, so a five step workflow run 2,000 times uses 2,000 of 10,000 credits. Zapier counts each successful action as a task, so the same workflow burns roughly five times as many tasks and lands on a higher tier.

How much does Zapier cost per month?

Zapier lists a Free plan with 100 tasks a month, Professional from $19.99 a month, and Team from $69 a month for up to 25 users. Yearly billing saves 33%. The price depends on the task tier you select, so the "from" figure is the lowest tier, not a typical bill.

Does Activepieces have a free plan?

Yes. Activepieces lists a Free plan at $0 with 1,000 credits, which suits testing a handful of low volume workflows. Plus at $20 a month raises that to 10,000 credits, and Team at $200 a month to 50,000.

Which is easier for a non-technical team?

Zapier, by a wide margin. It has the larger app catalog, the longer track record and live chat support on paid plans. Activepieces is friendlier on price but expects whoever builds to be comfortable debugging a failed step.