Independent · sourced · Updated June 2026
Best Workflow Automation (2026)
The cheapest workflow automation is Activepieces at $0/mo. 7 offer a free tier (Activepieces, IFTTT, Make). This page compares 9 options on entry price, free tier, HIPAA/SOC 2 and best-for — every figure linked to its source, updated June 2026.
9 options compared on price, free tier, compliance and fit — ranked cheapest-first. Every figure links to the vendor's own page and the date we captured it; quote-only tiers show “—”, never a guess.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest: Activepieces at $0/mo (Community (Self-hosted)).
- Typical paid price: from $2.99/mo, median $12/mo, up to $19.99/mo — across 4 with published pricing.
- Free tier: Activepieces, IFTTT, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n Cloud, Pipedream, Zapier.
- HIPAA-ready: Microsoft Power Automate, Pipedream, Tray.ai.
- Tracked: 9 vendors, data current through 2026-06-15.
Comparison
| # | Workflow Automation | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | SOC 2 | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Activepieces | $0/mo Community (Self-hosted) | Yes | — | Yes | Teams wanting a Zapier-like UX at lower cost with open-source fallback | activepieces.com |
| 2 | IFTTT | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | — | Consumers automating smart home devices and personal apps | ifttt.com |
| 3 | Make | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | Yes | Power users and developers who need complex multi-branch logic | make.com |
| 4 | Microsoft Power Automate | $0/mo Free Trial | No | Yes | — | Microsoft 365 / Dynamics 365 shops extending existing investments | microsoft.com |
| 5 | n8n Cloud | $0/mo Community (Self-hosted) | Yes | — | Yes | Developer and engineering teams wanting code-level control with visual builder | n8n.io |
| 6 | Pipedream | $0/mo Free | Yes | Yes | Yes | Developer teams needing HIPAA-compliant API automation | pipedream.com |
| 7 | Zapier | $0/mo Free | Yes | — | Yes | SMBs automating across SaaS tools without developers | zapier.com |
| 8 | Tray.ai | — | No | Yes | Yes | Enterprises requiring HIPAA-compliant integration and automation | quote-only |
| 9 | Workato | — | No | — | Yes | Mid-market and enterprise IT/ops teams automating across ERP and CRM | quote-only |
Prices are the lowest published self-serve monthly rate as captured on the linked source. Annual-billing and usage details are on each vendor's record in our open dataset.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest workflow automation?
Activepieces has the lowest published entry price at $0/mo (Community (Self-hosted)), as of 2026-06-15.
How much does workflow automation cost per month?
Across the 4 workflow automation with published paid pricing, the median starting price is $12/mo, ranging from $2.99/mo to $19.99/mo, as of 2026-06-15. 7 also offer a free tier. 2 are quote-only.
Which workflow automation have a free plan?
Activepieces, IFTTT, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n Cloud, Pipedream, Zapier offer a free tier.
Which workflow automation support HIPAA?
Microsoft Power Automate, Pipedream, Tray.ai state HIPAA support (a BAA). Always confirm current scope with the vendor.
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How we compiled this
Published self-serve USD pricing for workflow-automation platforms was collected from each vendor's official pricing page (or closest public source) on the accessedAt date and normalised to USD. Zapier and Make prices were sourced from their blog/pricing pages and corroborated by third-party aggregators; both vendors only show annual-billing rates publicly, so monthlyUsd records the annualised monthly figure and GetApp month-to-month rates appear in notes. n8n Cloud publishes pricing exclusively in EUR with no public USD equivalent; monthlyUsd is therefore null and EUR figures appear in notes. Pipedream was acquired by Workday in November 2025; their pricing page is fully JS-rendered and returns no readable content, so all plans carry null prices and the provenance explains the situation. Workato and Tray.ai are enterprise-only with no public self-serve pricing. IFTTT and Activepieces publish clear self-serve USD tiers. Microsoft Power Automate is per-user/per-bot billed annually. Quote-only/enterprise/contact-sales tiers carry monthlyUsd = null throughout. All telephony fields (minutesIncluded, callsIncluded, overagePerMin, overagePerCall) are null on every plan as this is a non-telephony vertical. HIPAA/BAA/bilingual fields are null unless the vendor explicitly states support. accessedAt = 2026-06-14 on every source.
Last verified 2026-06-15. We re-check published prices and compliance on a recurring cadence and update this page when they change.
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