If your business already runs on Microsoft 365 and the information you care about sits in Outlook, SharePoint, Excel and Teams, use Power Automate, because it comes with your Microsoft 365 business plan for those connections and you're very likely paying for it already. If you don't use Microsoft 365 and your day runs across lots of small web apps (a form tool, a CRM, Slack, Google Sheets, an email marketing tool), Zapier is the quickest to get going and connects to almost everything. If you need automations that branch, loop and make decisions on a tight budget, Make gives you the most for the money. All three are good. Each one wins somewhere, and the right answer depends far more on what you already use than on which tool is "best".
For the record, I mostly build in Power Automate, because a lot of the businesses I work with are on Microsoft 365 and it's sitting there in their subscription. That's a reason to use it, not a reason to pretend the other two are worse. They're not. They're built for slightly different businesses.
What does each tool actually do?
All three do the same basic job. Something happens (an email arrives, a form is submitted, it's 7am on a weekday) and the tool runs a series of steps in response. Power Automate calls them flows, Zapier calls them Zaps, Make calls them scenarios. Where they differ is who they were built for.
Power Automate is Microsoft's. It's built into Microsoft 365 and talks to Outlook, SharePoint, Excel, Teams, OneDrive and Forms without any extra setup, because it's signed in as you already. It also has a desktop side, which can click through old Windows software that has no other way in.
Zapier is the one built for small teams living in web apps. Its strength is breadth and ease: thousands of apps and a very gentle way of building.
Make (it used to be called Integromat) is the visual one. You build on a canvas, drawing the steps out like a flowchart, and it handles branching, loops and data reshaping more comfortably than Zapier does. It's priced more cheaply per step, which matters once your automations get busy.
How much does each one cost?
They charge in very different ways, and that's most of the difference for a small business.
Power Automate is licensed per person, not per step. If you're on Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard or Business Premium, you can already build and run flows that use the standard connections, which includes Outlook, SharePoint, Excel Online, Teams and a good list of third-party apps. You don't pay per run; there's a daily allowance of 6,000 actions per person on a Microsoft 365 licence, far more than a typical small business flow uses. Once you need a premium connector, the paid licence is Power Automate Premium at £11.50 per user per month, paid yearly, excluding VAT. There's also the Power Automate Process licence at £115.30 a month, paid yearly, which licenses one automation on its own so the whole team can use it without each person needing Premium. The Power Automate and Microsoft 365 guide goes through exactly what's included and what isn't.
Zapier charges per task, and its prices are in US dollars. A task is one action step that completes successfully, so a Zap that looks up a customer and then sends an email uses two tasks every time it runs. Triggers and Zapier's own built-in tools (like Formatter and Paths) don't count. The free plan gives you 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only. The Professional plan starts at $19.99 a month paid yearly ($29.99 paid monthly) for 750 tasks, and the Team plan starts at $69 a month paid yearly for 2,000 tasks.
Make charges per credit, also in US dollars. Each module action in a scenario is one credit, so it's the same idea as Zapier's tasks but cheaper per step. The free plan gives you up to 1,000 credits a month, two active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum gap between runs. The Core plan starts at $9 a month paid yearly for 10,000 credits, with Pro at $16 and Teams at $29 on the same basis, and a bit more if you pay monthly. Routers (the bit that splits a scenario into branches) don't use credits, which helps if you build a lot of decisions in.
The practical upshot: Zapier and Make get more expensive the busier your automations are, and Power Automate gets more expensive the more people need premium features. A flow that sends 20 reminder emails every working day uses at least 20 tasks a day in Zapier, so about 440 a month, which fits the entry Professional tier, just. In Power Automate on Microsoft 365, if it only touches Outlook and Excel, it costs nothing extra at all.
Do they connect to Xero, QuickBooks and Sage?
Zapier has integrations for Xero, QuickBooks Online and Sage Accounting. The Xero one is comprehensive, with triggers like "new sales invoice" and "overdue sales invoice" and actions like creating invoices and contacts. QuickBooks Online is a premium app on Zapier, so you need a paid plan to use it.
Make has verified apps for Xero, QuickBooks and Sage Business Cloud Accounting, all maintained by Make itself. (Both tools' Sage apps are for Sage's cloud accounting product; Sage 50 and Sage 200 are a different conversation.)
Power Automate is the weak one here, and it's worth being straight about it. There's no Microsoft-built connector for Xero, QuickBooks Online or Sage. For Xero there are third-party connectors in preview (one from Magnetism, which needs its own licence from them, and an independent one), and both are premium, so you'd need Power Automate Premium as well. For QuickBooks Online and Sage Accounting there's no connector in the list at all. You can reach all three through their APIs with the HTTP action, but that's premium too, and a more technical build.
Worth saying, though: Xero, QuickBooks and Sage all send overdue invoice reminders on their own. If chasing invoices is the job, switch the built-in reminders on first and keep your money. The invoice reminders guide covers when that's enough and when it isn't.
How do the three compare side by side?
Here's the comparison that tends to matter for a small business. Prices are entry-level paid tiers and will move as you scale.
| Power Automate | Zapier | Make | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Already in Microsoft 365? | Yes, for standard connections (Business Basic, Standard, Premium) | No | No |
| How it charges | Per person (or per automation with Process), daily action allowance | Per task (each action step) | Per credit (each module action) |
| Entry paid price | £11.50 per user per month for Premium, paid yearly | From $19.99 a month paid yearly for 750 tasks | From $9 a month paid yearly for 10,000 credits |
| Free option | Standard connectors with Microsoft 365, or the free licence for work accounts | 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps | Up to 1,000 credits a month, two active scenarios |
| Outlook, SharePoint, Excel, Teams | Excellent, and included | Good | Good |
| Xero | Third-party preview connectors only, premium | Yes | Yes, maintained by Make |
| QuickBooks Online | No connector (HTTP action, premium) | Yes, premium app | Yes, maintained by Make |
| Sage Accounting | No connector (HTTP action, premium) | Yes | Yes, maintained by Make |
| Branching and loops | Good | Basic to good (Paths) | Best of the three |
| Old desktop software | Yes, with Power Automate for desktop | No | No |
| Easiest to start | If you know Microsoft 365 | Yes | Steeper, more visual |
So which should you use?
You're on Microsoft 365 and your data lives in Outlook, SharePoint, Excel and Teams: use Power Automate. You already have it. It's signed in as your staff and the connections that matter most are included. A daily summary, a reminder, a "this file arrived, tell someone": that sort of job is where it's at its best. The daily business summary email walks through what one looks like.
You don't use Microsoft 365 and you run on lots of small web apps: use Zapier. It's the quickest from zero to working, it almost certainly connects to everything you use, and if you're a team of three on Google Workspace with a CRM and a form tool, it fits you better than anything from Microsoft.
You need complicated logic on a budget: use Make. If your automation has to branch five ways, loop through every line of an order, reshape data on the way through, and run thousands of times a month, Make is the one to look at. Expect to spend a bit longer learning it, because the canvas is powerful but less hand-holdy.
And there's an obvious mixed case. A Microsoft 365 business whose main pain is Xero automation might be better off with Zapier or Make for that one job, because the accounting connectors are simply better there, while keeping Power Automate for everything inside Microsoft 365. Using two tools is fine.
What else should you think about before choosing?
Who's going to look after it. If someone in the office is comfortable in Excel and Microsoft 365, Power Automate will feel familiar. If someone already lives in web apps, Zapier will. Pick the one your team can open and read.
Where the data should stay. Power Automate runs inside your Microsoft tenant, under your existing Microsoft 365 setup. Zapier and Make are separate services that you connect your apps to. Some businesses (and some clients' contracts) care which.
How it'll grow. Twenty busy automations means doing the maths on tasks and credits; three more people building premium flows means doing the maths on Premium licences. The automation cost guide has the wider picture.
Whether you need it at all. Accounting packages send reminders, booking systems send confirmations, Outlook has rules. The cheapest automation is a setting someone never switched on. What a small business can automate is a decent place to start if you're not sure which job to tackle first.
If you'd like someone to pick the right tool and build the first one with you, that's what my small business automation service does: a £295 check that ends with a written list of up to three automations worth building, each with a fixed price, then builds from £950 on whichever tool fits. Anyway, whichever you choose, start with one boring job and see it working before adding the next.
Common questions
Is Power Automate better than Zapier?
Neither is better across the board. Power Automate is the better choice for businesses on Microsoft 365, because it's included for standard connections and works naturally with Outlook, SharePoint, Excel and Teams. Zapier is better for businesses that run on lots of web apps outside Microsoft 365, and it has stronger accounting connectors for Xero, QuickBooks and Sage.
Is Make cheaper than Zapier?
Usually, yes, per step. Make's Core plan starts at $9 a month paid yearly for 10,000 credits, while Zapier's Professional plan starts at $19.99 a month paid yearly for 750 tasks. Both roughly mean one action step, so busy automations cost noticeably less on Make.
Is Power Automate free with Microsoft 365?
For standard connections, yes. Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium all include Power Automate for flows using connectors like Outlook, SharePoint, Excel Online and Teams. Premium connectors, the HTTP action and running desktop automations from the cloud need Power Automate Premium, which is £11.50 per user per month paid yearly.
Can Power Automate connect to Xero?
Only through third-party connectors, which are in preview and premium, so you'd need Power Automate Premium and, for the Magnetism connector, a separate licence from Magnetism. There's no Microsoft-built Xero connector. Zapier and Make both have mature Xero integrations, so for heavy Xero automation they're often the better fit.
What is the best Zapier alternative for a small business?
Make, if you want more power for less money and don't mind a steeper start. Power Automate, if you're already on Microsoft 365 and so probably already paying for it. Both cover most of what a small business uses Zapier for.
Can I use more than one automation tool?
Yes. A common pattern is Power Automate for everything inside Microsoft 365 and Zapier or Make for the accounting system or one specific web app. Just keep a simple list of which automation lives where, so nobody has to guess when one stops.