Zapier connects apps so that something happening in one sets off work in another, without anyone writing code. It was founded in 2012 by Wade Foster, Mike Knoop and Bryan Helmig, and it has been fully remote from the start, with more than 800 people across 40 countries.
It works with more than 9,000 apps. Over 3.4 million businesses use it, and they’ve built more than 25 million automated workflows, which Zapier calls Zaps.
How a Zap works
Every Zap starts with a trigger, like a new order, a form submission or a row added to a sheet, then runs one or more actions in other apps. Some triggers are instant, arriving the moment the app reports them. Others are checked on a cycle: every 15 minutes on the Free plan, every 2 on Professional, and every minute on Team and Enterprise.
Between the steps, Filters and Paths decide what happens next, and Formatter tidies data on the way through. Webhooks by Zapier connects to apps outside the directory, and Code by Zapier runs a short piece of JavaScript or Python when nothing else fits.
Tasks
Plans are measured in tasks. A task is a successful action, so a Zap with two actions that runs ten times uses 20. Triggers never count, and neither do failed steps or the logic steps in between.
When an action fails, paid plans can replay it automatically up to five times over several hours, and every run is kept in Zap history for checking later.
More than Zaps
Zapier has grown into a set of tools around the Zap. Tables stores data and Forms collects it, while Canvas maps out a process before anyone automates it.
AI runs through most of it. Zapier Agents arrived in January 2025, and Zapier MCP lets AI assistants use Zapier’s apps as tools. Copilot builds Zaps from a plain description. Zapier also says it doesn’t train AI on the data that runs through customers’ workflows, on any plan.
Plans and safeguards
The Free plan runs two-step Zaps, and Professional adds multi-step Zaps, webhooks and automatic replay. Team is built around shared workspaces, with Enterprise adding wider admin controls. A Zap can run to 100 steps.
Flood protection holds a sudden batch of 100 or more new items for review before anything runs, which stops a bulk import from setting off hundreds of emails by accident.
Zapier is audited annually for SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3. Data is stored on AWS in the US, under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and its UK extension, as Zapier’s data privacy page sets out.
Where Zapier fits
Linear, low-volume workflows are where Zapier fits best, and a small business has plenty of them. Form submissions can land in a sheet and the CRM, new customers can join the right mailing list, and an invoice paid in one tool can mark the deal won in another.
As a workflow grows branches and volume, the signs it’s outgrown low-code are worth knowing. For anything in between, the numbers usually decide it.