Activepieces vs Zapier Agents
Activepieces and Zapier Agents side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Activepieces | Zapier Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Autonomous Agents | Business & Ops |
| Starting price | Free; paid plans from $20/mo (checked October 2026) | Free; paid plans from $33/mo (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Both list a free tier, so you can try each before paying.
Activepieces has the lower starting price ($20/mo against $33/mo for Zapier Agents). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
They sit in different categories (Autonomous Agents and Business & Ops), so they overlap only partly.
About each tool
Activepieces
Open-source workflow automation and AI agent platform, cloud or self-hosted. Free includes 1,000 credits; Plus is $20 a month (annual price not listed).
Who it is for
It suits individuals and teams who want to connect apps and build automations or AI agents, and who want the option to self-host. Its pricing page also lists an Embed plan for agencies and software companies that want a white-label flow builder inside their own product.
Strengths
- The pricing page says the Free plan needs no card and has no time limit, and that flows are unlimited on every plan; agents and chat, tables, MCPs and API and SDK are listed on all plans.
- The license page says the core is MIT-licensed, and the pricing page says every plan can run in the cloud or on-prem, with a free Community Edition for self-hosting.
- The pricing page says a run costs 1 credit regardless of step count; with your own AI provider keys (Plus and up), each AI step costs 1 credit and model costs go on your provider bill.
- The GitHub page says it has 200+ pieces (integrations), about 60% community-contributed, available as MCP servers for tools such as Claude Desktop, Cursor or Windsurf; any API can be reached through the HTTP piece or a webhook, per the pricing FAQ.
- The pricing FAQ says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, can be hosted in the EU cloud (Frankfurt), another region on request, or on your own servers, and that a DPA, penetration test summary and sub-processor list are available on request.
- The pricing page says you can cancel, change plans or add seats at any time; upgrades and added seats apply immediately and are prorated, and downgrades apply at the end of the billing period.
Limitations
- Free has 1,000 credits and up to 5 users, and runs wait for the next refresh once credits are used. Plus ($20) and Team ($200) keep running and charge $0.007 per extra credit; bring-your-own AI keys start at Plus.
- Enterprise features under the commercial license need an Activepieces license, even when self-hosted, per the license page.
- Vendor pages disagree: the pricing table shows the Free credit reset as daily while the plan card and FAQ say monthly, and an older vendor blog lists different plans (Plus $25, Business $150, 200 AI credits). The pricing page does not address refunds, and annual prices are not listed despite 'Save 2 months'.
Zapier Agents
No-code AI agents that work across 9,000+ apps in Zapier. Free plan of 400 activities a month; Pro is $400 a year (about $33 a month).
Who it is for
The vendor positions it for teams and businesses, with example uses in sales, marketing, support, IT, HR and engineering. Its guide says it is open to anyone at an organization, whatever their technical skill.
Strengths
- A free plan, described as forever, with 400 activities a month, live data sources, web browsing and the Chrome extension
- The pricing page and the Agents page cite 9,000+ apps, although the Agents page's meta description says 8,000+
- According to the vendor's guide, agents can start on demand, on a schedule, from a Zap or from another app, read live data sources such as Google Drive, Notion and Asana, search the web and call other agents
- Oversight features listed in the guide: an activity dashboard with a Needs action flag, version-controlled instructions, Viewer, Editor and Owner sharing levels, and AI Guardrails for personal data, toxic language, prompt injection and negative sentiment
- The help article says activities do not count toward Zapier task usage, and on paid plans testing an agent does not use activities
Limitations
- Free allows 400 activities a month and 10 per run, tests count toward the quota, and there is no agent sharing. Pro allows 1,500 a month and 40 per run
- An activity is any trigger use, knowledge-source answer, action, web browse or scrape, web search or Chrome-extension message, so a multi-step run uses several. The help article's four-step example counts as 4
- When the limit is reached, agents stop running but you can still chat. The help article describes no way to buy extra activities and the pricing page states no overage terms
- A Zapier blog post dated 6 October 2026 says Agents is becoming AI by Zapier, with agent costs moving to Tasks. A help article says no shutdown date is set for Agents, so billing for standalone Agents may change
- We found no SOC 2, GDPR or other compliance claim on the Agents pages
