I’ve built automations with IFTTT, Zapier, and Lindy, and here’s the truth. Lindy gives me way more power with way less effort.
→ IFTTT is too basic.
→ Zapier is flexible but gets expensive fast.
↳ Lindy? It handles complex workflows, understands plain English, and doesn’t break when things get messy.
In this comparison of IFTTT vs. Zapier vs. Lindy, I’ll break down what each tool does best and why Lindy is the best automation tool in 2025.
IFTTT vs. Zapier vs. Lindy: An Overview
1. IFTTT – Best for Personal and Smart Home Automation
What Does It Do?
IFTTT automates basic tasks between apps and smart devices. You can create simple rules, like turning off lights at bedtime or saving social media posts to cloud storage automatically.
Who Is It For?
IFTTT is for non-technical users looking to automate day-to-day routines and smart home devices. If you want your lights to turn on when you get home or save tweets to Google Sheets, this is built for you.
I use it to automatically mute my phone during meetings, and it's helped me streamline a bunch of low-effort routines with minimal setup.
What I love the most about IFTTT is simplicity. You don’t need to understand conditions, paths, or variables; just pick a trigger and an outcome. Its integrations with over 700+ services, including Google Assistant, Alexa, Dropbox, and Facebook, make it ideal for combining your digital life and real-world devices.
It is perfect in smart home setups, where you can turn on lights, adjust thermostats, or automate routines based on time, location, or voice commands.
You can also use it to sync activities across social platforms, such as posting Instagram images to Twitter or saving starred emails to Google Sheets.
However, it’s not built for workflows beyond one trigger and one action. So if you need conditional branches, error handling, or more than one step, IFTTT will feel limiting.
Despite that, the ease of setup, especially on mobile, and the large catalog of public Applets make it useful for beginners or casual users looking to automate basic tasks with zero learning curve.
Pros
- Extremely easy to use with a clean interface
- Supports smart devices and web apps alike
- Offers a wide variety of community-shared applets
Cons
- Can’t build complex, multistep workflows
- Limited support on the free plan
- Occasional delays in applet execution
Pricing
- Free: 5 applets
- Pro: $2.49/month – Unlimited applets, faster execution
- Pro+: $5.99/month – Filters, multiple accounts, more services
- Developer: $8.49/month – API access, developer tools
Overall, IFTTT is a great entry point into automation. It’s simple, reliable, and surprisingly useful for light personal and home tasks.
On a side note, you might like to check out these IFTTT alternatives.
2. Zapier – Best for Business and Marketing Automation
What Does It Do?
Zapier connects your business apps to automate multistep workflows like lead syncing, email alerts, CRM updates, and form submissions. This helps you eliminate repetitive tasks without needing to write code.
Who Is It For?
Zapier is best for professionals and small teams looking to save time by automating repetitive tasks across their SaaS stack.
I use it regularly to push Typeform leads into HubSpot and send automated welcome emails without touching a line of code. It’s especially great if you live inside marketing tools or CRMs.
Zapier helps you move fast without needing to understand automation logic. You pick a trigger, define one or more actions, and your workflow is live in minutes. It’s the ideal tool for automating business tasks like updating CRMs, posting to Slack, or syncing rows between Airtable and Sheets.
The platform supports multistep Zaps, conditional logic (via Paths), delays, formatters, and even webhooks. This gives you flexibility to build fairly sophisticated workflows.
And recently, Zapier added AI workflow building, allowing you to describe your desired automation and let the system generate a draft Zap for you.
Zapier also includes “Transfer” and “Tables” tools for syncing historic data and managing lightweight internal databases.
However, the lack of a true visual editor can make Zaps harder to manage at scale. And pricing increases quickly if your team runs many tasks.
Still, Zapier’s ease of use, massive app library, and strong uptime make it a favorite for non-technical teams looking to automate daily tasks fast.
Pros
- Broadest app ecosystem (6,000+ tools)
- Easy for non-technical users to get started
- Filters, formatters, delays, and scheduling built in
- AI builder helps you create Zaps faster
Cons
- Gets expensive quickly at higher task volumes
- No visual builder; hard to manage large Zaps
- Can be difficult to debug when workflows get big
Pricing
- Free: 100 tasks/month, 2-step Zaps
- Starter: $19.99/month – 750 tasks
- Professional: $49/month – 2,000 tasks
- Team/Company: $69–$99/month and up
Basically, Zapier is ideal for professionals who want to connect business tools with ease, automate reliably, and scale without writing code.
3. Lindy – Overall Best for AI-Powered Workflow Automation
What Does It Do?
Lindy uses AI agents to automate entire workflows like joining meetings, writing summaries, sending follow-ups, updating CRMs, and triggering next steps. So your team can focus on higher-value work.
Who Is It For?
Lindy is for business teams and operators who want more than task-based automation. Whether you're in sales, support, HR, or operations, Lindies can take over entire processes like follow-ups, CRM updates, and meeting recaps.
We built Lindy for users like us. People tired of stringing together app actions with brittle logic.
Lindy offers all the flexibility of modern automation tools, with the intelligence of AI built in. Using our natural language interface, you can describe what you want your Lindy to do. And it will handle the logic.
No flowcharts. No Zap building. Just outcomes.
What sets Lindy apart is how much you can delegate. We've created Lindies that join Zoom calls, record and summarize discussions, send action items in Slack, and update HubSpot automatically, without any human intervention.
You can also set up custom outreach sequences that adjust based on prospect engagement or update your team in real-time through Slackbots.
By partnering with Apify and Pipedream, Lindy integrates with over 6,000 apps and web scrapers.
This allows Lindies to operate in any workflow stack, from CRMs to databases. And the credit-based system lets you scale affordably, automating up to 5,000 tasks for a lower per-task cost than most legacy platforms.
On top of that, we provide enterprise-grade security and compliance. SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance make Lindy a reliable option for healthcare, financial, and other automations that transfer sensitive client or patient data.
Lindy gives you not just automations but hands-off execution. Your agents aren’t just reactive, they’re proactive, intelligent, and fully capable of taking on repeatable processes end-to-end.
Pros
- Build autonomous AI agents with no code
- Works across sales, support, HR, and operations
- Easy-to-use interface + natural language builder
- Excellent free plan with 400 monthly tasks
- Scales affordably for business use
Cons
- API integrations are required for some tools (less native support)
- Power users may hit limits on the free tier
- Some advanced templates are still being refined
Pricing
- Free: 400 tasks/month
- Pro: $50/month – 5,000 tasks/month
- Custom: For teams with larger usage needs
Lindy is the best choice if you want AI agents that think, act, and save your team hours every week, not just trigger app actions.
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IFTTT vs. Zapier vs. Lindy: Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Here’s a quick look at how their features stack up against each other:
Which One Offers the Best Value? IFTTT, Zapier Or Lindy?
Lindy offers the best value for money, especially if you want powerful automation without the limits of task-based pricing. Its free plan includes 400 AI-powered tasks, far more advanced than IFTTT's basic applets or Zapier’s simple 2-step Zaps.
And at $50/month for 5,000 tasks, Lindy delivers enterprise-grade functionality with custom agents, multi-step automation, and contextual decision-making for less than what Zapier charges for basic workflows.
With AI features built in and no-code setup, it’s built to save time and cost across the board.
How to Choose the Right Automation Tool?
Now that you know how IFTTT, Zapier, and Lindy work, here’s how to decide which one fits your needs:
Choose IFTTT if:
- You want simple personal automations. IFTTT is great for daily tasks like setting reminders, syncing calendars, or automating posts across social media.
- You only need basic app connections. It works well if you mostly use apps like Gmail, Instagram, Dropbox, or weather alerts. Just use one of their ready-made Applets. No setup headaches.
- You automate smart home devices. IFTTT supports a wide range of smart gadgets like lights, thermostats, and plugs from brands like Nest and Philips Hue. You can connect devices across brands without worrying about compatibility.
Choose Zapier if:
- You use a lot of business tools. Zapier connects with over 7,000 apps like Google Sheets, Salesforce, Slack, and more. It’s perfect if your team uses multiple tools.
- You need advanced automation. Zapier handles complex workflows with features like multi-step Zaps, conditional logic, and bulk data transfers. You can sync data, update CRMs, or send alerts, all automatically.
- You want fast, no-code setup. Zapier’s drag-and-drop interface and prebuilt templates make it easy to launch workflows quickly, even if you’re not technical.
Choose Lindy if:
- You want AI-powered automations. Lindy uses LLMs like ChatGPT-4 or Gemini Flash 2.0 to handle tasks like drafting emails, answering customer questions, or summarizing meetings.
- You need one platform for everything. Lindy manages tasks across support, sales, and HR in one place. It’s built for scale, from a few hundred to 30,000+ automations per month.
- You need strong data security. Lindy is HIPAA-compliant and uses AES-256 encryption to protect sensitive data like patient info or internal communications. It's built for teams that need serious security.
Why Lindy Wins
Most tools just move data. Lindy runs your workflows from start to finish.
While other platforms automate tasks, Lindy acts like a teammate. It handles meetings, sends follow-ups, updates CRMs, and more. You get more done without writing code.
- Always-on support: Lindy works 24/7, even when you’re offline. It helps your leads and customers across time zones without missing a beat.
- Massive integration power: With Pipedream and Apify partnerships, Lindy connects with 6,500+ apps and scrapers. It also plugs directly into tools like Gmail, Slack, and Google Drive.
- Built for global teams: Lindy understands 30+ languages and can communicate with clients or leads anywhere in the world.
- Better value, built-in scale: Automate 400 tasks for free. Scale up to 5,000 tasks/month with the Pro plan. More flexibility and lower cost than Zapier, Make, or IFTTT.
Don’t just automate. Accelerate.
Try Lindy for free and experience a better way to work.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the main differences between IFTTT and Zapier?
IFTTT is built for simple personal automations with one trigger and one action, making it ideal for casual users and smart home setups. In contrast, Zapier is better suited for business users who need multistep workflows, conditional logic, and integrations with thousands of business apps.
- How do the pricing plans compare for extensive automation needs?
IFTTT is cheaper, but limited in power. Zapier charges $89/month for 5,000 tasks. Lindy offers 5,000 intelligent, AI-powered automations at $50/month, with flexible credit-based scaling. For bulk workflows with real impact, Lindy gives you more power per dollar than either Zapier or IFTTT.
- Which platform provides the most user-friendly experience for beginners?
IFTTT is the easiest to use for personal routines. Zapier offers more features with a simple interface, but advanced setups require learning. Lindy uses natural language to create AI agents, which takes a moment to get used to. But once you do, it’s far more powerful and scalable.
- Can I use Lindy with tools that aren’t natively integrated?
Yes. Lindy supports over 3,000 apps via API and connects to 6,500+ platforms through Pipedream and Apify. Even if your tool isn’t listed, you can automate it using API calls, webhooks, or scrapers — Lindy handles it behind the scenes.
- Is Lindy secure enough for sensitive workflows like HR or healthcare?
Absolutely. Lindy is HIPAA-compliant and uses AES-256 encryption for all data. Whether you're handling internal HR records or customer data, Lindy is built with enterprise-grade security, making it suitable for compliance-heavy industries like healthcare and finance.
- What happens if I go over my free or Pro plan on Lindy?
If you exceed your monthly task limit, you can purchase additional credits. For example, $10 adds 1,000 more credits. Each task uses 1–2 credits depending on workflow complexity. This keeps pricing predictable and scalable based on real usage.
- What if I don’t know how to build workflows on any of these platforms?
IFTTT is perfect for beginners with its plug-and-play Applets. Zapier offers templates, but complex setups can get technical. Lindy simplifies this by letting you describe what you want in plain English. Plus, Lindy Academy provides step-by-step guides to walk you through setup and strategy.
- How do I decide between these tools if I run both personal and business workflows?
Use IFTTT for home routines like smart devices or social sync. Zapier works well for basic business automation. But if you want to automate across departments like sales, HR, and ops with AI handling the logic, Lindy gives you one powerful platform to do it all.
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