How to Migrate Your Core Zapier Workflows to Make.com in 7 Steps (and Save Money Immediately)

For high-growth B2B companies, optimizing operational efficiency and reducing recurring costs is paramount. While Zapier has long been a staple for workflow automation, many organizations are discovering that Make.com offers a more powerful, visual, and cost-effective alternative, especially as their automation needs scale. Migrating your core workflows might seem daunting, but with a structured approach, you can transition smoothly, enhance your automation capabilities, and realize immediate savings. This guide provides a clear, step-by-step roadmap to effectively move your essential Zapier workflows to Make.com, ensuring continuity and unlocking new levels of operational excellence.

Step 1: Conduct a Comprehensive Workflow Audit in Zapier

Before initiating any migration, it’s crucial to understand the landscape of your existing automations. Begin by meticulously listing all your active Zapier workflows. For each Zap, document its purpose, the apps it connects, the trigger, the specific actions it performs, and any critical filters or conditional logic involved. Pay close attention to the data fields being passed between steps and the frequency of execution. This audit serves as your blueprint for rebuilding on Make.com, highlighting interdependencies and identifying workflows that might be redundant or could be consolidated. A thorough understanding at this stage will prevent oversights and ensure that all critical business processes are accounted for in the new environment.

Step 2: Understand Make.com’s Core Concepts and Interface

Make.com, while serving a similar purpose to Zapier, operates with a distinct architectural philosophy. Familiarize yourself with its core concepts: “scenarios” (equivalent to Zaps), “modules” (individual app actions), and the visual canvas for building workflows. Make.com emphasizes a more granular, highly configurable approach, allowing for complex branching logic, error handling, and data transformation directly within the scenario. Spend time exploring the interface, connecting your key applications, and perhaps rebuilding a simple, non-critical Zapier workflow as a test. Grasping these foundational differences will significantly accelerate your migration process and help you leverage Make.com’s full potential.

Step 3: Recreate Triggers and Initial Data Handling

The first step in any automation is the trigger. In Zapier, this is straightforward; in Make.com, you’ll select a “Webhook” for custom triggers or an app’s designated “Watch” module for events. For workflows initiated by new data or events in an application (e.g., new lead in CRM), find the corresponding “Watch” module in Make.com. For complex or custom triggers, Make.com’s Webhooks are incredibly powerful, allowing you to capture and parse any incoming data. Ensure that the initial data received by Make.com accurately reflects the data your Zapier workflow was designed to act upon. This might involve setting up test data in your source application to ensure the webhook or watch module correctly captures and displays the necessary fields for subsequent steps.

Step 4: Rebuild Core Logic and Action Steps

This is where the bulk of the migration effort lies. For each action step in your Zapier workflow, find the equivalent module in Make.com. For example, a “Create Record” action in Zapier might translate to a “Create a Record” or “Add a Row” module in Make.com. Carefully map the data fields from your trigger and previous steps to the inputs of each Make.com module. Make.com’s visual builder allows for intuitive drag-and-drop mapping and includes powerful tools for data transformation, aggregation, and filtering directly within the scenario. Pay close attention to conditional logic (filters, routers in Make.com) and ensure it precisely mirrors your Zapier setup to maintain business rule integrity. Break down complex Zapier paths into manageable Make.com scenarios or use Make.com’s router functionality for branching logic.

Step 5: Implement Error Handling and Notifications

A critical, often overlooked aspect of migration is robust error handling. Make.com offers superior error management capabilities compared to Zapier, allowing you to define explicit paths for handling failed operations. Configure error routes within your scenarios to catch potential issues, send notifications (e.g., via Slack or email) to your team, or even automatically retry failed steps. This proactive approach ensures that business-critical workflows continue to operate smoothly even when unforeseen issues arise, minimizing downtime and data loss. Developing a clear strategy for error handling not only fortifies your automations but also provides peace of mind, knowing that your systems are resilient.

Step 6: Rigorous Testing and Validation

Once your workflows are rebuilt in Make.com, thorough testing is non-negotiable. Begin with small, controlled test runs using real or representative data, ensuring that each step executes as expected and that data is transferred correctly between modules. Validate the output of each scenario against the expected outcome from your original Zapier workflow. This includes checking data integrity, conditional logic, and the final state of records in target applications. Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to ensure that the migrated workflows meet all business requirements and perform reliably. Only after comprehensive validation should you consider activating the new Make.com scenarios for live operations.

Step 7: Activate, Monitor, and Optimize

With successful testing complete, it’s time to activate your Make.com scenarios. It’s often beneficial to run both the Zapier and Make.com versions in parallel for a short period, if possible, allowing for a final cross-verification before fully decommissioning the Zapier workflows. Once live, continuously monitor your Make.com scenarios for performance, errors, and any unexpected behavior. Make.com’s detailed logs and execution history provide invaluable insights for troubleshooting and optimization. As you become more comfortable, look for opportunities to refine your scenarios, consolidate steps, and leverage Make.com’s advanced features to further enhance efficiency and unlock even greater cost savings and operational benefits.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Make.com Pricing Comparison: Your Ultimate Guide