ALMOST

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.

Promptfree, for everyone, and the only version there is
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

$0

Workflow automation with hundreds of nodes, self-hosted or on their cloud.

n8n-io/n8nfree · open source

Windmill

$0

Runs 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

Interest · last 30 days

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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