For most freelancers, Make is the better choice — it costs 3–10x less at typical freelancer volumes ($9/month vs $20+/month) and handles multi-step workflows in a single scenario. Choose Zapier only if you need a specific app Make doesn’t support.
You set up three Zapier automations last quarter — client onboarding, invoicing, and lead capture. They work fine. Then you notice the bill: $20/month for 750 tasks. Make handles the same three automations for $9/month with 10,000 operations. That’s $130+ back in your pocket every year.
But switching tools when everything already works feels like fixing what isn’t broken. So the real question for make vs zapier freelancers isn’t which is cheaper — it’s whether the savings justify the migration time.
The Real Cost at Freelancer Volumes
Every make vs zapier pricing comparison you’ve read models enterprise volumes — 500+ operations per day, teams of 20, SSO requirements. That’s not you.
Most freelancers run 50–200 operations per day across 3–5 automations. At that scale, here’s what you’re actually paying:
Make Pro: $9/month for 10,000 operations. A freelancer running 150 ops/day uses about 4,500/month. Covered with room to spare.
Zapier Starter: $19.99/month for 750 tasks. At 150 tasks/day, you blow through that in 5 days. You need the $49/month Professional plan — or you’re constantly watching your usage bar.
Now, the nuance everyone argues about: Make counts triggers as operations. Zapier doesn’t. This matters if you’re polling for data every 5 minutes across 20 enterprise integrations. It doesn’t matter if your automations fire on webhooks — a form submission, a payment notification, a project status change. Each webhook trigger costs one operation. At freelancer volumes, the trigger tax is noise.
The annual math: Make saves you $120–480/year depending on which Zapier tier you’d need. That’s a year of your domain renewal or a month of your project management tool.
Cheaper is nice. But cheaper doesn’t matter if it can’t handle your actual workflows.
3 Freelancer Workflows on Both Platforms
Workflow 1 — Client Onboarding
Form submission → CRM entry → welcome email → project folder creation. On Zapier: 4 tasks (one per step), clean linear setup, done in 20 minutes. On Make: 1 scenario with 4 modules, visual builder shows the full flow, done in 30 minutes. Make wins on cost — one scenario burns fewer operations than four separate Zapier tasks. Zapier wins on setup speed. If your onboarding process is already dialed in, either tool automates it cleanly.
Workflow 2 — Invoice on Milestone
Project status change in ClickUp or Asana → generate invoice in Stripe or FreshBooks → send to client. Straight trigger-to-action? Both handle it fine. Add a condition — different invoice templates for retainer vs project clients, or skipping invoicing for certain project types — and Make handles it in one scenario where Zapier needs Paths or multiple Zaps.
Workflow 3 — Lead Capture to Pipeline
Website form → qualify based on budget field → add to CRM with tag → notify you on Slack. Simple version: equal on both platforms. Add a branch — budget over $5K gets a different email sequence than under $5K — and Make’s visual builder handles it in one scenario where Zapier starts getting clunky.
The pattern: for straight-line automations, both work equally well. The moment you add a condition or branch, Make’s visual builder handles it more naturally and more cheaply.
Make handles your workflows and costs less. But do you even need to pay? Both platforms have free tiers — and the difference between them matters more than you’d expect.
Can You Run a Freelance Business on the Free Plan?
Make’s free plan: 1,000 operations/month, 2 active scenarios. If your automations run 30 ops/day, you’ll hit the cap by day 33 — so one light automation works, but not three.
Zapier’s free plan: 100 tasks/month, 5 single-step Zaps only. Single-step means no multi-step workflows. A hundred tasks is roughly 3 per day. That’s not a working make.com freelancer workflow setup. It’s a trial.
Honest verdict: neither free plan runs a freelance business. But Make’s free tier is a real testing ground — build your workflows, validate they work, then upgrade when you need volume. Zapier’s free tier is too limited to evaluate properly because you can’t test multi-step flows at all.
The real comparison starts at the first paid tier. And at $9/month vs $19.99/month, you need a reason to pick the more expensive option.
The Decision Framework: Which One Fits Your Freelance Business
Choose Zapier if: your automations are simple 2–3 step linear flows (trigger → action → done), you need a specific app that Make doesn’t support (check Make’s app directory first — the gap is smaller than the 9,000 vs 3,000 numbers suggest for freelancer tools), or your time is worth more than the $10–40/month savings and you want the fastest possible setup.
Choose Make if: any of your automations need conditions, branches, or multiple paths. If you run more than 3 automations. If you want to spend $9/month instead of $20–50/month. If you like seeing your entire workflow visually before it runs.
The app library reality check: freelancers use maybe 8–10 apps — Google Workspace, Slack, Stripe, a CRM, a project tool, a form builder, an email platform. Both Make and Zapier support all of them. The 9,000 vs 3,000 integration gap matters if you need obscure enterprise connectors. It doesn’t matter for the best automation platform for freelancers running standard tools.
The learning curve: Zapier’s linear builder is simpler for your first automation — 15–20 minutes to a working Zap. Make’s visual builder takes longer initially — 30–45 minutes — but pays off the moment you build anything with branching logic. A weekend is enough to get comfortable with either tool.
One question left: which one actually deserves your money?
The Bottom Line
Those three automations you’re running on Zapier for $20/month? Make handles them for $9. The workflows are equally reliable. The savings are real.
For most freelancers, Make is the better choice. It costs less, handles complexity better, and the free plan actually lets you test real workflows before you pay. Choose Zapier only if it supports a specific app you need that Make doesn’t — and check first, because the overlap on freelancer tools is near-total.
The practical move: sign up for Make’s free plan, rebuild your most-used Zapier automation as a test, and see if it works for your setup. If it does, you just found $200+ per year.
That’s one fewer subscription eating into your margins.