The verdict in three sentences
For a 35-person business in London paying 500 GBP per month for 40 fragile Zapier workflows, the right 2026 answer is rarely "all Zapier" or "all custom": Make often costs 10 to 30% of Zapier's price at equal volume, and custom development (7,000 to 26,000 GBP on the market) is justified for the 5 to 10 critical flows touching invoicing, stock or customers. The hidden cost is not the subscription but silent failures and dependence on one employee who alone understands the workflows. A decision grid by volume and criticality lets you decide flow by flow.
What each option really costs
Zapier bills per task (each successful action), Make per operation (each module run, filters included), and custom code is paid as development, then hosting. At 50,000 actions per month, the gap becomes significant.
| Criterion (2026 order of magnitude) | Zapier | Make | Custom (code + server) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost for about 50,000 actions | 380-600 GBP | 50-150 GBP | 25-100 GBP hosting |
| Setup cost | Low, in-house | Low to medium, in-house or freelancer | 7,000-26,000 GBP (market estimate) |
| Cost per operation | 0.008-0.017 GBP | 0.001-0.003 GBP | Near zero beyond the server |
| Error handling and retries | Basic, email alert | Decent, error routes | Full, logs and retries |
| Complex logic (loops, calculations) | Limited | Good | Unlimited |
| Dependency | Vendor + employee who built the flows | Vendor + employee | Provider, documented and versioned code |
| Time to deliver | Hours | Hours to days | 4 to 10 weeks |
On Kolonell's side, a simple automation application falls within the 2,500,000-4,000,000 FCFA grid (3,810-6,100 EUR) and a medium application, with several integrations and a dashboard, within the 4,000,000-7,000,000 FCFA grid (6,100-10,670 EUR).
The flow-by-flow decision grid
The right method is to list the 40 workflows in a spreadsheet, then score each on two axes: monthly volume and criticality (what happens if the flow stops for three days without anyone noticing?).
| Monthly volume | Low criticality (notification, data copy) | High criticality (invoice, stock, customer order) |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1,000 actions | Zapier or Make, either works | Make with error routes and alerts |
| 1,000 to 10,000 actions | Make | Documented Make or light custom code |
| 10,000 to 100,000 actions | Make | Custom |
| Over 100,000 actions | Make or custom | Custom with monitoring |
| Sensitive personal data | Make hosted in the EU/UK | Custom hosted in the UK |
| Flow that changes every month | No-code | No-code until stable |
In most SMEs the outcome is close to 75% of flows on Make, 20% deleted as no longer useful, and 3 to 8 critical flows rewritten in code.
The risks people forget
The first risk is the single employee: the office manager who built the workflows in 2022 leaves, and nobody knows why a Google Sheets column feeds the invoicing software. The second is the silent failure: an API changes, the workflow stops, the alert lands in an unread inbox. The third is UK GDPR: many workflows push customer data through US servers without an up-to-date record of processing. A serious migration documents every flow, centralises alerts and updates that record.
Mini case study
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James, managing director of a 35-person business in London, pays 500 GBP per month for Zapier, i.e. 6,000 GBP per year, and his office manager spends about 2 hours per week fixing workflows, around 3,000 GBP per year of loaded time. Current total: 9,000 GBP per year. Chosen option: migrate 30 workflows to Make (125 GBP per month, 1,500 GBP per year, plus 3,500 GBP one-off rework), delete 6 useless ones, and rewrite the 4 invoicing and stock flows in custom code for 8,000 GBP, with 1,000 GBP per year for hosting and monitoring. Year one costs 14,000 GBP, then about 2,500 GBP per year, with repair time down to 20 minutes per week. The investment is recovered by the end of year two and the risk of invoicing failures disappears.
FAQ
Is Make really cheaper than Zapier?
At equal volume, Make often costs 10 to 30% of Zapier's price, as it bills operations at 0.001-0.003 GBP. The gap shrinks if Make scenarios are poorly designed and pile up unnecessary modules.
At what volume does custom code pay off?
Above 10,000 actions per month on a critical flow, or as soon as a failure costs more than 1,000 GBP. Below that, well-documented no-code remains the best cost and speed trade-off.
How long does migrating 40 workflows take?
Plan 3 to 6 weeks: one week of inventory, two to three weeks of migration and parallel testing, then a cutover week. Critical flows rewritten in code take 4 to 10 weeks.
Can we keep Zapier for some uses?
Yes, an entry plan at around 15-25 GBP per month is enough for a few integrations Make does not cover. What matters is a single list of flows and their owners.
Who maintains the custom flows?
The provider, through a maintenance contract. At Kolonell, maintenance is offered at 35,000, 75,000 or 120,000 FCFA per month (50, 110 or 180 EUR), with versioned, documented code handed over to the client.
Let's scope your project. Send us your workflow list and monthly volumes: we will classify each flow, price the migration and custom work, and propose a 3 to 10 week plan. 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.
