The question every client asks us
“Why not just use Zapier?” It’s the most common question when we explain our approach.
Short answer: cost and flexibility. The long answer is this article.
Cost comparison at real scale
Let’s take a service business with these monthly needs:
- 50,000 automated operations/tasks
- 20 active workflows
- Complex conditional logic required
- Integration with custom APIs
Zapier
| Plan | Operations | Price/month |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | 750 | $29 |
| Professional | 2,000 | $73 |
| Team | 50,000 | $449 |
For our use case: $449/month or $5,388/year.
And that assumes you don’t need complex multi-step logic, you never exceed the limit, and you don’t need premium features.
Self-hosted automation platform
| Item | Monthly cost |
|---|---|
| VPS (4GB RAM, 2 vCPU) | €8–15 |
| Technical maintenance | Included in our service |
| Total | €8–15/month |
Difference: €420–440/month. Over €5,000 per year.
But cost isn’t everything
The cost argument is the easiest to explain, but there are equally important technical reasons:
Technical flexibility
Zapier is designed for non-technical users. That’s an advantage in many cases, but a limitation when you need:
- Complex logic: loops, recursion, sophisticated error handling
- Data processing: complex transformations, aggregations
- Custom integrations: if an app has no Zapier connector, you’re stuck
- Your own code: a self-hosted platform lets you run JavaScript or Python directly inside the workflow
Full data control
With Zapier, your data passes through their servers. With a self-hosted solution, data never leaves your infrastructure. For businesses handling sensitive data (health, legal, financial), this can be decisive for GDPR compliance.
No artificial limits
Zapier limits the number of workflows, steps per zap, execution frequency… A self-hosted platform has none of these constraints.
When does Zapier make sense?
Being honest: Zapier is still a valid tool for simple use cases.
It makes sense if:
- You only need very basic automations (2–3 steps)
- You have nobody technical to manage a server
- Your operation volume is low (<5,000/month)
- You’d rather pay more for simplicity of maintenance
Our recommendation
For growing businesses with more than 10,000 monthly operations or complex integration requirements, a self-hosted automation stack has a clear ROI from the first month.
The initial setup cost (our service) is recouped in 2–3 months of savings versus Zapier Pro or Team.
Want to see the numbers applied to your specific case? Book an audit and we’ll run the calculation together.