Business automation in the UK costs anything from nothing to a sizeable agency project, and where you land depends far more on the route than on the job. If your existing software already does it, the cost is a setting you switch on. If you build it yourself, Power Automate comes with most Microsoft 365 business plans at no extra cost for standard connections, and the premium version is £11.50 per user per month, paid yearly; Zapier and Make both have free tiers, with paid plans from roughly $9 to $20 a month. A freelancer will typically charge around £500 a day. An agency running an enterprise robotic process automation project prices by quote, and Microsoft's own robot licence is £115.30 per robot per month, paid yearly, on top. The cost that catches people out is running it afterwards: licences, and the person who fixes it when a supplier changes their export.
So the honest answer starts with a question back: does it need building at all?
Does it need building at all?
Before pricing anything, check what you already pay for. Xero, QuickBooks Online and Sage Accounting all send overdue invoice reminders on their own once you switch them on. Salon and clinic booking systems send appointment reminders. Outlook can schedule emails and sort them by rule. If one of those covers the job, the cost of automating it is ten minutes and nothing else.
That isn't a sales line, it's genuinely the cheapest automation going, and a fair number of "we need an automation" conversations end there. The overdue invoice reminders guide is a good example of where the built-in version is enough and where it runs out. And if you're not sure what's worth automating in the first place, what a small business can automate has a four-question test for picking the first job.
What are the ways to pay for automation?
There are six shapes, and they cost very different amounts, both on day one and every month after.
| Route | Upfront | Ongoing | Who maintains it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch on a built-in feature | Nothing | Nothing beyond the software you already pay for | The software vendor |
| Build it yourself in Power Automate | Your time | Nothing extra on Microsoft 365 business plans for standard connections; £11.50 per user per month (paid yearly) for Premium | You |
| Build it yourself in Zapier or Make | Your time | Free tiers for light use; Zapier Pro from $19.99 a month billed yearly, Make Core from $9 a month | You |
| Freelancer on a day rate | Days worked × day rate (around £500 a day) | Day rate whenever it needs fixing | Whoever you can get hold of |
| Agency or enterprise RPA project | Quoted per project, usually after a paid scoping phase | Robot licences, support contract | The agency or an internal team |
| Fixed-price build (what I do) | £295 check, then from £950 per automation | £95 a month upkeep, optional | Me, if you take upkeep; otherwise you |
The rest of this post goes through each one, including the bits that don't make the headline price.
What does it cost to do it yourself?
The tools are cheap. The time isn't, and the learning curve is real, but for a straightforward job it's very doable.
Power Automate. If your business is on Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard or Premium, you already have Power Automate. Those plans let you build flows that run on a schedule, on a trigger or at the press of a button, using standard connections like Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams. What they don't include is premium connections (SQL Server and Dynamics 365 are on that list), custom connections, the on-premises gateway, or desktop automation that clicks through old software for you. For those, Microsoft's UK price for Power Automate Premium is £11.50 per user per month, paid yearly. The Power Automate licensing post goes through what's in and out in more detail.
Zapier. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and two-step automations only, which is fine for trying it out. The Professional plan starts at $19.99 a month billed yearly ($29.99 billed monthly) for 750 tasks, and the price climbs with the number of tasks. Zapier prices in US dollars; you pay in your local currency at the exchange rate on the day.
Make. The free plan gives you 1,000 credits a month and two active scenarios. The Core plan is listed at $9 a month for 10,000 credits, with Pro and Teams above it, and again the price rises as you use more.
The thing to watch with Zapier and Make is that the bill scales with volume. An automation that runs once a day costs almost nothing; one that fires on every incoming email can tip you into a higher tier without you noticing. Power Automate, Zapier or Make compares the three properly.
The hidden cost of doing it yourself is the same in all three: your time, and the fact that the only person who understands the automation is whoever built it. That's fine while they're around.
What does a freelancer cost?
Freelancers and contractors who build automations in the UK mostly charge by the day. ITJobsWatch, which tracks UK contract job adverts, has had the median day rate for contracts mentioning Power Automate at around £490 to £500 for the past couple of years, with most adverts falling somewhere between about £300 and £600 a day. Zapier and Make specialists are harder to pin to a published figure, so I won't make one up, but they work on the same day-rate model.
So the arithmetic is days × rate. A simple automation that takes two or three days lands somewhere around £1,000 to £1,500. The risk is in the estimate rather than the rate: if two days becomes five because one of the systems doesn't export what everyone assumed it did, the bill goes up with it. Ask for a fixed price or a capped estimate before anything starts.
Then there's the bit after. When the automation breaks in six months, you're back on the day rate, assuming the same person is available. A good freelancer will leave notes. Not every one does.
What does an agency or RPA project cost?
At the other end are agencies doing robotic process automation, usually called RPA: software robots that click through screens the way a person would. UiPath is the best-known name. UiPath has a free Community edition and a Basic plan starting at $25 a month, but its business plans are priced through their sales team, so there's no public number to quote for the version a company would actually run. Microsoft's own unattended robot licence, Power Automate Process, is £115.30 per bot per month, paid yearly, which gives you a feel for the licence side.
Agency projects are scoped and quoted individually, often with a paid discovery phase first, and they tend to be weeks or months of work rather than days. That's appropriate when you're automating hundreds of transactions a day across old systems with no other way in. For a small business wanting a morning summary email or a quote chaser, it's a sledgehammer, and you'll be paying for the robot licences every month whether it's busy or not.
What do fixed-price automations cost?
For completeness, here's how mine work. It starts with a £295 automation check: a 90-minute call, then a written list of up to three automations worth building, each with a fixed price. The fee is credited in full against a build. One automation is from £950 fixed, covering one or two sources and one output, such as a daily summary email. Upkeep is optional at £95 a month per automation, with no lock-in. If your software already does the job, the check says so. More detail is on the automation page.
What running costs do people forget?
The build is a one-off. These aren't.
Licences. If an automation needs a premium connection in Power Automate, every user who runs that flow needs a Premium licence. A Zapier or Make plan that suits you today can move up a tier as your volume grows. Neither of those is expensive on its own, but they're easy to miss when you're comparing quotes.
Supplier changes. This is the big one. Your booking system changes the columns in its export. Your accounts package renames a field. Someone changes their email password and the connection drops. An automation is only as stable as the systems at each end, and those systems change on their own schedule, not yours. Somebody has to notice it's stopped, work out why, and fix it. If that's a member of staff, it's their time. If it's a freelancer, it's a day rate. Either way it's a cost, and it's the one that doesn't appear on any quote.
The person who knows how it works. Automations built by one enthusiastic person tend to leave with that person. If nobody else knows what the flow does or where it lives, the first breakage after they've gone is a small archaeology project. Ask for it to be written down, whoever builds it.
Someone checking it still runs. An automation that fails silently is worse than no automation, because everyone stops checking by hand. A simple failure alert, an email when a flow doesn't run, costs nothing to set up and saves the awkward discovery three weeks later that nobody's been chased.
How do you keep the cost down?
Start with what you already pay for, and switch on the built-in features first. Pick one job, not a programme. Choose a job where a mistake is visible and harmless, so you can trust it quickly. Run it alongside the manual way for a week or two before switching the manual check off. And agree up front who fixes it when it breaks, because that's the cost that actually decides whether automation was cheap.
Common questions
How much does Power Automate cost in the UK?
Power Automate is included in Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard and Premium for flows using standard connections such as Outlook, Excel, SharePoint and Teams, so many small businesses pay nothing extra. Premium connections, custom connections and desktop automation need Power Automate Premium, which is £11.50 per user per month, paid yearly. Unattended robots use the Process licence at £115.30 per bot per month.
How much does an automation consultant cost in the UK?
Day rates for UK contracts mentioning Power Automate have had a median of around £490 to £500 on ITJobsWatch, with most between roughly £300 and £600. A simple automation might take two or three days. Fixed-price options exist too; mine start from £950 per automation after a £295 check that's credited against the build.
Is Zapier or Power Automate cheaper?
If you already have Microsoft 365 and your automation only uses standard connections, Power Automate costs nothing extra, which is hard to beat. Zapier has a free plan with 100 tasks a month, and paid plans start at $19.99 a month billed yearly, rising with volume. Zapier tends to suit businesses that live in Google Workspace or lots of non-Microsoft apps.
What are the ongoing costs of business automation?
Licences, if the automation needs premium connections or a higher plan as volume grows, and maintenance when a system at either end changes. The maintenance is the one people forget: an export format changes, a password expires, and somebody has to fix it. Budget for that time, or pay for upkeep.
Is it worth paying someone to automate a process?
It's worth it when the job is frequent, the built-in features don't cover it, and nobody in-house has the time to build and look after it. A ten-minute daily job is around forty hours a year, so even a modest build can pay back within the first year. If your software already does the job, don't pay anyone; just switch it on.
Do I need RPA for a small business?
Rarely. RPA, where software robots click through screens like a person, is built for high volumes across older systems with no other way in. Small business jobs such as summary emails, invoice chasing and quote follow-ups can usually be done more cheaply by connecting directly to the systems you already use.