Make: pricing and who it's actually for
Make (formerly Integromat, now part of Celonis) is the visual automation platform that connects the rest of your stack: when a deal closes in the CRM, create the project, send the invoice, post to Slack — drawn as a flowchart instead of written as code. It's the tool we'd reach for to wire together the CRMs, newsletter platforms, and document tools we cover elsewhere on this site. This guide is based on verified vendor pricing and public documentation (July 2026) — we haven't yet run our hands-on scenario in it, and this page says so plainly until we have.
Good fit if: your team loses hours to copy-paste work between tools — CRM to invoicing, forms to spreadsheets, anything to Slack — and at least one person enjoys thinking in flowcharts. Skip it if: you want automation without ever seeing a logic branch; simpler template-first tools trade Make's power for less to learn.
What it costs
Make prices on credits, and the model is easier than it looks: one credit = one action by one module in a workflow. A five-step automation that runs 100 times a month costs about 500 credits. The Free plan is $0 forever: 1,000 credits/mo, up to 2 active scenarios, 15-minute minimum check interval. Core is $12/mo ($10.20 billed annually) per 10,000 credits and removes the real limits: unlimited active scenarios, 1-minute scheduling, and API/webhook access. Pro at $21/mo adds priority execution, custom variables, and log search; Teams at $38/mo adds multi-user roles and shared templates. Annual billing runs roughly 15% below these monthly rates. For most lean teams, Core at $12/mo is the honest entry point — and 10,000 credits goes further than teams expect. One reader perk worth knowing: signing up through our link currently gets you the Core plan free for 1 month (10,000 credits included) — a promo we've enabled on our affiliate account, disclosed as always.
What the credits model means in practice
Unlike per-seat tools, Make charges for work done, not people watching. Every module that fires in a scenario consumes one credit — so cost scales with how much automation actually runs. The budgeting rule of thumb from Make's own documentation: count the steps in your workflow, multiply by monthly runs. A lead-routing automation with 6 modules handling 300 leads/mo is 1,800 credits — comfortably inside Core's 10,000. This is the most honest part of Make's pricing: you can calculate your bill before you build anything, and the free plan lets you verify the math with real workflows first.
The free plan: real, with real limits
1,000 credits a month is enough to run one or two genuine automations — say, new CRM deals posting to Slack. The limits you'll actually hit are the other two: only 2 active scenarios (workflows) at once, and the 15-minute minimum interval between checks, which means near-real-time automations wait up to a quarter hour on Free. There's also a 5-minute cap per scenario run. Our researched read: the free plan is a proper evaluation environment, not a working tier for a business — but that's exactly what a free plan should be, and Make doesn't pretend otherwise.
The learning-curve trade-off
Make's visual builder — modules on a canvas, connected by lines, with routers and filters for branching logic — is more capable and more demanding than template-first competitors. Building 'when X happens, do Y' takes minutes; building 'when X happens, check Z, then do Y or W with transformed data' is where Make pulls ahead and where non-technical users stall. With 3,000+ app integrations the connector you need almost certainly exists; the question is whether someone on your team enjoys wiring it up. We'll put a number on that setup time when we run our hands-on scenario.
Where it fits in an agency stack
Make is the glue layer: it doesn't replace anything in our CRM picks or the rest of our stack guides — it connects them. The classic agency wins are client onboarding (deal won → folder structure + project + welcome email), reporting (form responses → spreadsheet → Slack digest), and invoice chasing (unpaid after 14 days → reminder). If your stack is three tools that don't talk to each other, this is the missing piece — and at $12/mo it's usually the cheapest line item in the stack.
GDPR & EU notes
This is Make's quiet advantage for European teams: hosting on AWS data centers in the EU (as well as North America) is available on every plan, including Free — not gated to enterprise tiers the way EU residency usually is. Since an automation platform necessarily processes the data flowing between your tools (contact records, deal values, invoice details), where that processing happens matters more here than for most software. Make being GDPR-compliant with EU processing available from $0 is the strongest data-residency posture in our dataset.
Pros
- Usage-based pricing you can calculate in advance — credits = workflow steps × monthly runs, no per-seat charges
- EU (AWS) hosting available on every plan including Free — rare, and it matters for a tool that processes data between your other tools
- 3,000+ app integrations — the connector you need almost certainly exists
- Free plan is a genuine evaluation environment: 1,000 credits/mo, no card, no expiry
Cons
- Visual builder rewards logical thinking — non-technical teams stall where template-first tools would coast
- Free plan's 2-scenario cap and 15-minute interval rule it out as a working tier for a real business
- Monthly billing runs ~15–18% above the advertised annual rates
- Credit anxiety is real for high-volume workflows — a busy 10-step automation can burn through Core's 10,000 credits
Frequently asked questions
Did you test Make hands-on?
Not yet. This guide is researched: we verified every price and plan limit directly against Make's own pricing page in July 2026 and reviewed their public documentation. When we run our hands-on scenario — building a real client-onboarding automation — we'll upgrade this page and say so. Our methodology page explains the difference.
How do Make credits actually work?
One credit = one action by one module in a workflow. Count your workflow's steps, multiply by how many times it runs per month — that's your credit usage. A 5-step automation running 100 times/mo uses ~500 credits. Core includes 10,000/mo for $12/mo ($10.20 billed annually).
Is Make's free plan enough to run a business on?
For evaluation, yes; for operations, rarely. You get 1,000 credits/mo, but only 2 active scenarios at once and a 15-minute minimum check interval, so automations aren't near-real-time. It's the right place to prove your workflow works before paying — not the tier to stay on.
Make vs Zapier — which should a small agency pick?
The honest researched answer: Zapier is easier to start, Make is cheaper to scale and more capable at complex branching logic. Make's $12/mo Core with 10,000 credits typically undercuts equivalent Zapier usage significantly, and EU hosting on all plans is a point Zapier can't match. If nobody on your team likes logic puzzles, Zapier's simplicity may be worth its premium. We haven't hands-on tested either yet.
What does Make cost for a typical small team?
Most lean teams land on Core: $12/mo per 10,000 credits ($10.20 billed annually). Pro at $21/mo adds priority execution and log search; Teams at $38/mo adds multi-user roles. Since pricing is usage-based rather than per-seat, adding colleagues costs nothing — only running more automation does.
Is Make GDPR-friendly for EU teams?
Yes — unusually so. EU (AWS) data-center hosting is available on every plan including Free, not just enterprise tiers. Because an automation platform processes the data moving between your other tools, EU processing from $0 is the strongest GDPR posture of any tool in our dataset.
Bottom line
Based on our research — not yet a hands-on trial, and we're saying so — Make is what we'd shortlist first for stack-gluing automation: pricing you can calculate before you commit, a free plan that's honestly labeled as an evaluation tier, and EU hosting on every plan, which no comparable tool offers at $0. The trade is the learning curve — the visual builder is powerful in proportion to your willingness to think in flowcharts. Start on Free, build your one most annoying copy-paste workflow, and let the credit math tell you if $12/mo Core earns its place.
Not sure this matches your situation? Take the 2-minute stack finder — it weighs team size, budget, and workflow.