The verdict in three sentences
A 25-employee SME, in Toulouse or Singapore, paying EUR 700 per month for 30 fragile Zapier scenarios has three options: stay on Zapier, migrate to Make for EUR 100 to 300 per month, or move to custom code for EUR 12,000 to 25,000 excl. VAT (about SGD 17,000 to 35,000) then EUR 150 per month. On a EUR 14,000 budget, custom code reaches break-even around 20 months once the time lost fixing scenarios is counted, and brings error monitoring that no-code tools handle poorly. The right answer is often mixed: custom code for the 5 to 8 critical flows, Make for the rest, delivered in 6 weeks.
Zapier, Make and custom code: the 2026 comparison
| Criterion | Zapier (Team plan) | Make (Pro or Teams plan) | Custom code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost for 30 scenarios | EUR 600 to 800 | EUR 100 to 300 | EUR 150 excl. VAT maintenance and hosting |
| Upfront cost | Almost none | EUR 2,000 to 5,000 migration | EUR 12,000 to 25,000 excl. VAT |
| Billing | Per task, explodes with volume | Per operation, cheaper | Fixed, independent of volume |
| Error handling | Basic email alerts | Configurable error routes | Automatic retries, log, targeted alerts |
| Complex logic (loops, conditions) | Limited and task-hungry | Good | Unlimited |
| Lock-in | Strong, scenarios not exportable | Strong | Code delivered, owned by the client |
| Implementation time | Immediate | 2 to 3 weeks | 6 weeks |
The high Zapier bill almost always comes from task volume: a scenario that processes each line of an order consumes one task per line. Make bills differently and often cuts the bill by 3 for the same work.
Why scenarios break and what an outage costs
An SME's 30 scenarios pile up over three or four years, built by several people. They break for recurring reasons: a renamed field in the CRM, an expired access token, an API changing version, a malformed file. The problem is not the failure itself but discovering it a week later, when a customer has not received an invoice.
| Incident type | Observed frequency | Average cost per incident | With custom monitoring |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expired token or dropped connection | 2 per month | 1 h of diagnosis | Immediate alert, guided reconnection |
| Field renamed in a tool | 1 per month | 2 h plus data to catch up | Schema validation, blocked before error |
| Duplicates created | 1 per month | 1.5 h of cleanup | Idempotency check |
| Scenario silently stopped | 1 per quarter | 4 h and customer impact | Daily health check |
| Task limit reached | 1 per quarter | All flows stopped | Not applicable |
| Estimated monthly cost | EUR 300 of internal time | Under EUR 50 |
2026 estimate based on a loaded hourly cost of EUR 50 for an administrative or sales employee.
Mini case study
Julien, managing director of a 25-employee industrial maintenance SME in Toulouse, uses Zapier to connect his CRM, invoicing, field service tool and Google Sheets. He pays EUR 700 per month and loses about 6 hours a month on repairs.
- Current cost: EUR 700 + EUR 300 of lost time = EUR 1,000 per month.
- Custom option: EUR 14,000 excl. VAT of development for the 8 critical flows, plus EUR 150 per month, and Make at EUR 100 per month for the 22 simple scenarios, i.e. EUR 250 per month, plus under EUR 50 of outages: EUR 300 per month in total.
- Monthly saving: EUR 1,000 - EUR 300 = EUR 700.
- Break-even: EUR 14,000 / EUR 700, i.e. 20 months.
A full migration to Make, at EUR 4,000, would have paid back in 8 months but left critical flows exposed to outages. Julien chose the mixed approach because invoicing and technician scheduling cannot stop.
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FAQ
Should we drop no-code entirely?
No. Make remains very effective for simple, low-volume, non-critical flows. Custom code is justified for the 20 to 30% of flows that carry revenue or customer data.
What about our dependency on the vendor?
The code is delivered to your repository, documented, with a test environment. Another developer can take it over. That is a weaker dependency than a Zapier scenario that cannot be exported.
Does AI change the maths?
It adds useful steps, such as reading a customer email to create a service request. In Zapier each AI call consumes tasks, whereas with custom code the cost is just the API, often EUR 10 to 40 per month for an SME.
How long does the migration disrupt operations?
No disruption: each flow is rebuilt, tested in parallel, then switched over one by one. The 6 weeks include 1 week of parallel running.
Can we keep Zapier during the transition?
Yes, it is even recommended. The subscription drops to the lower tier as soon as the first heavy flows are switched, which often saves EUR 300 from the second month.
Let's scope your project. Send us the list of your Zapier or Make scenarios and your monthly bill, and we will price a mixed migration between EUR 12,000 and 25,000 excl. VAT delivered in 6 weeks. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
