{"slug": "zapier", "name": "Zapier", "category": "productivity", "category_name": "Productivity", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 6, "warners": 2, "score": 0.52, "rising": -0.65, "first": "2025-12-09", "latest": "2026-08-14", "why": "if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Zapier"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 784857538, "item_id": 49053596, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053596", "by": "zajasa", "date": "2026-07-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that", "excerpt": "hi folks. I build custom services and integrations for ccaas platforms. something that's always annoyed me: every workflow tool lets you export a workflow. cool, here's your JSON. now go rebuild the connections, the environment, the trigger, the data tables it works with, and whatever dashboard the customer wanted on top. by hand. every single time you install it somewhere new. In my integration work, I used to reach", "context": "", "use_case": "gluing two SaaS apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "QuickFlo \u2013 I got sick of exporting workflows and everything that came with them"}, {"id": 784855010, "item_id": 49053438, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053438", "by": "zajasa", "date": "2026-07-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that", "excerpt": "hi folks. I build custom services and integrations for ccaas platforms. something that's always annoyed me: every workflow tool lets you export a workflow. cool, here's your JSON. now go rebuild the connections, the environment, the trigger, the data tables it works with, and whatever dashboard the customer wanted on top. by hand. every single time you install it somewhere new. In my integration work, I used to reach", "context": "", "use_case": "gluing two SaaS apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "QuickFlo \u2013 I got sick of exporting workflows and everything that came with them"}, {"id": 739281392, "item_id": 46205087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205087", "by": "Nemi", "date": "2025-12-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Zapier, but it makes me question their product offering if they can get this so wrong.", "excerpt": "Slightly off topic, or at least tangential, Zapier has one of the most user-unfriendly interfaces I have seen in a while. When you log in, they have a left hand toolbar that runs down vertically, and it is icon only. I understand why they do this, being on the left hand side you don't want to take up much space. But unlike other user interfaces that employ this type of toolbar, you CAN'T see what each item is by expa", "context": "", "use_case": "automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Icons in Menus Everywhere \u2013 Send Help"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 788527024, "item_id": 49282939, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49282939", "by": "TeMPOraL", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the thing is trying very hard to not be Turing complete and there's basically no easy way to express any logic without shelling out to code", "excerpt": "The thing in TFA looks like it can draw trees. Can it do DAGs? Can it do directed graphs with loops? This is, to me, what sinks most of those services like Zapier and n8n in power-user market, and dooms them to become marketing platform for third-party integrations, concealed by some drag&drop complexity. Because the moment you want to do anything that isn't a direct ETL job with SaaS for databases, you discover the ", "context": "Power user", "use_case": "workflow automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ballet \u2013 Workflow automation that writes integrations against any API"}, {"id": 747467280, "item_id": 46716705, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46716705", "by": "maomaomiumiu", "date": "2026-01-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It required many zaps, came with a lot of limitations too.", "excerpt": "I used Zapier a lot, including for Stripe integrations (though I don\u2019t remember if it was for doing payments). It required many zaps, came with a lot of limitations too. In the end, I wrote a custom API, which saved a lot of money. I\u2019m also not sure it\u2019s easy to properly implement a Stripe connection (using the Stripe library) inside a custom code action in automation tools.", "context": "", "use_case": "Stripe integrations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Does \"Zapier for payment automation\" exist?"}]}], "who": [{"by": "HMETechnologies", "context": "hiring at a media company", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48059654", "date": "2026-05-08"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["gluing two saas apps", "rss to instapaper", "workflow automation", "building automations", "stripe integrations", "automation"], "compared": [{"slug": "n8n", "name": "n8n", "co": 7, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "openclaw", "name": "OpenClaw", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "claude", "name": "Claude", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "terraform", "name": "Terraform", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053437", "title": "QuickFlo \u2013 I got sick of exporting workflows and everything that came with them", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49299081", "title": "I turned my RSS feeds into an e-ink newspaper to stop reading on my phone", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49280184", "title": "Ballet \u2013 Workflow automation that writes integrations against any API", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47975571", "title": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2026)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46706001", "title": "Ask HN: Does \"Zapier for payment automation\" exist?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46196688", "title": "Icons in Menus Everywhere \u2013 Send Help", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"warn": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {"warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 788797058, "item_id": 49299816, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49299816", "by": "phelm", "date": "2026-08-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "ifttt or zappier can subscribe an rss feed to Instapaper", "excerpt": "I use Instapaper on my kobo for this, ifttt or zappier can subscribe an rss feed to Instapaper, also the browser extension is nice. See some article whilst I'm at work, click the browser extension, and when I'm on the train home Its there on my e-reader.", "context": "", "use_case": "RSS to Instapaper", "switched_from": "", "story": "I turned my RSS feeds into an e-ink newspaper to stop reading on my phone"}, {"id": 788527024, "item_id": 49282939, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49282939", "by": "TeMPOraL", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "warn", "quote": "the thing is trying very hard to not be Turing complete and there's basically no easy way to express any logic without shelling out to code", "excerpt": "The thing in TFA looks like it can draw trees. Can it do DAGs? Can it do directed graphs with loops? This is, to me, what sinks most of those services like Zapier and n8n in power-user market, and dooms them to become marketing platform for third-party integrations, concealed by some drag&drop complexity. Because the moment you want to do anything that isn't a direct ETL job with SaaS for databases, you discover the ", "context": "Power user", "use_case": "workflow automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ballet \u2013 Workflow automation that writes integrations against any API"}, {"id": 784857538, "item_id": 49053596, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053596", "by": "zajasa", "date": "2026-07-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that", "excerpt": "hi folks. I build custom services and integrations for ccaas platforms. something that's always annoyed me: every workflow tool lets you export a workflow. cool, here's your JSON. now go rebuild the connections, the environment, the trigger, the data tables it works with, and whatever dashboard the customer wanted on top. by hand. every single time you install it somewhere new. In my integration work, I used to reach", "context": "", "use_case": "gluing two SaaS apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "QuickFlo \u2013 I got sick of exporting workflows and everything that came with them"}, {"id": 784855010, "item_id": 49053438, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053438", "by": "zajasa", "date": "2026-07-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "if you just need two SaaS apps glued together, Zapier's still the right call for that", "excerpt": "hi folks. I build custom services and integrations for ccaas platforms. something that's always annoyed me: every workflow tool lets you export a workflow. cool, here's your JSON. now go rebuild the connections, the environment, the trigger, the data tables it works with, and whatever dashboard the customer wanted on top. by hand. every single time you install it somewhere new. In my integration work, I used to reach", "context": "", "use_case": "gluing two SaaS apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "QuickFlo \u2013 I got sick of exporting workflows and everything that came with them"}, {"id": 768954467, "item_id": 48059654, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48059654", "by": "HMETechnologies", "date": "2026-05-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Build automations (Make, Zapier, n8n)", "excerpt": "HME Technologies | AI Operations Lead | REMOTE | Full-Time | $40k-$75k base + Bonus HME Technologies (https://hmetech.com/) is a small, profitable media and affiliate marketing company. We build audiences, sell sponsorships, and run a growing portfolio of content properties across YouTube and emerging platforms. We're operator-run, AI-native, and looking for our first AI Operations Lead to work directly with the co-f", "context": "hiring at a media company", "use_case": "building automations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 747467280, "item_id": 46716705, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46716705", "by": "maomaomiumiu", "date": "2026-01-22", "stance": "warn", "quote": "It required many zaps, came with a lot of limitations too.", "excerpt": "I used Zapier a lot, including for Stripe integrations (though I don\u2019t remember if it was for doing payments). It required many zaps, came with a lot of limitations too. In the end, I wrote a custom API, which saved a lot of money. I\u2019m also not sure it\u2019s easy to properly implement a Stripe connection (using the Stripe library) inside a custom code action in automation tools.", "context": "", "use_case": "Stripe integrations", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Does \"Zapier for payment automation\" exist?"}, {"id": 739281392, "item_id": 46205087, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205087", "by": "Nemi", "date": "2025-12-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I love Zapier, but it makes me question their product offering if they can get this so wrong.", "excerpt": "Slightly off topic, or at least tangential, Zapier has one of the most user-unfriendly interfaces I have seen in a while. When you log in, they have a left hand toolbar that runs down vertically, and it is icon only. I understand why they do this, being on the left hand side you don't want to take up much space. But unlike other user interfaces that employ this type of toolbar, you CAN'T see what each item is by expa", "context": "", "use_case": "automation", "switched_from": "", "story": "Icons in Menus Everywhere \u2013 Send Help"}]}