Make
A weekend of work, and real gaps remain.
Visual automation: scenarios wire services together with branching, loops and error handlers, billed by the number of operations rather than by the number of workflows.
Build me a small automation runner for the dozen integrations I actually use. STACK - Node with Fastify, SQLite via better-sqlite3, one worker - Workflows defined in YAML files, checked into a repository THE WORKFLOW FORMAT - A trigger — webhook, schedule or polling — then an ordered list of steps - Each step names a connector, an action and an input template referencing earlier outputs - Templates are a restricted expression language, not arbitrary code evaluation CONNECTORS - One file per service exporting typed actions; start with HTTP, SMTP, Slack, Stripe and Google Sheets - Every connector declares its rate limit, and the runner honours it globally, not per workflow RUNS, WHICH IS THE WHOLE DEBUGGING STORY - One row per run, one per step, storing input and output payloads with secrets redacted by key name - Retention of 30 days, then the payloads are dropped and the outcome kept - A run page showing each step's payload, which is how you find what broke FAILURE - Retry with exponential backoff up to a per-step maximum - A dead-letter list with a resume button that starts from the failed step, not the beginning - Idempotency key per run so a resumed run cannot double-charge anything SECRETS - From the environment or a file, never in the YAML; referenced by name Include a README on writing a connector, the redaction rules and the resume semantics.
What you lose
- Around two thousand maintained connectors, and the work of keeping them working
- A visual builder where branching, iteration and error handling are drawn rather than coded
- Execution history with the payload at every step, which is how these are debugged
- Managed retries, rate-limit handling and scheduling
- Somebody else noticing when an API changes shape
If you would rather not build
- Zapier — paid, more connectors, simpler model
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
n8n
$0Workflow automation with hundreds of nodes, self-hosted or on their cloud.
n8n-io/n8nfree · open source
Windmill
$0Runs scripts and flows as internal tools, with a UI builder on top.
windmill-labs/windmillfree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
50/100
Verdict kinda at 50: a runner with retries, a run log and resume-from-failure is a strong weekend and better to debug than most visual tools. The connectors are the trap — a dozen is fine, and every one after that is maintenance you have taken on forever.
History
tracked since 9 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.
Questions about Make
answered from the record above
Is Make free?
No — the plan we track is $10.59 a month. Core at about $10.59/month billed monthly for 10,000 operations; the price scales with operations, not with scenarios.
Can you replace Make by building your own?
ALMOST. A weekend of work, and real gaps remain. Replacement score 50 out of 100, build time a weekend. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does Make cost?
$10.59 a month on Core — $127.08 a year. Recorded 9 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing Make?
Around two thousand maintained connectors, and the work of keeping them working; A visual builder where branching, iteration and error handling are drawn rather than coded; Execution history with the payload at every step, which is how these are debugged; Managed retries, rate-limit handling and scheduling; Somebody else noticing when an API changes shape. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Make?
Yes: n8n, Windmill. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
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