All tools
Make
The automation platform I default to. Visual, reliable, and handles 90% of business workflows.
Free tier available. Core from $9/mo. Pro from $16/mo.
Best for
Operations teams, solo operators, and small businesses who need to connect tools and automate workflows without writing code.
Not for
Teams with strict data residency requirements (use n8n). Also not ideal for extremely high-volume real-time processing — it's built for business workflow automation, not data pipelines.
Strengths
Where it performs well.
- Visual builder is genuinely intuitive — non-technical team members can build and maintain scenarios
- Massive integration library — rarely need a custom connector
- Error handling and retry logic are built-in and work well
- Execution history makes debugging straightforward — see exactly where a run failed
- Pricing is per-operation which scales reasonably for most business use cases
Limitations
Where you should be careful.
- Complex branching logic gets visually messy — the canvas becomes spaghetti on large workflows
- Rate limiting on API calls can slow down high-throughput scenarios
- Some integrations are surface-level — basic CRUD but missing advanced features
- No native self-hosting — all data processed through Make's infrastructure
Verdict
Use
My default recommendation for business automation. It's not the most powerful option, but it has the best balance of capability, usability, and reliability. Most teams should start here and only move to n8n or custom code when they hit a specific wall.