Which Automation Platform to Choose in 2024?
Unlock efficiency in your workflow with the right automation platform in 2024. Seamlessly connect software applications to streamline tasks like data consolidation, email marketing, and more. Explore the top 5 platforms in our article.
Being able to connect several software applications can significantly automate your workflow. If data is what you deal with on a regular basis, you might have quite a bunch of different steps to perform manually between different work streams: copy-pasting and consolidating data, managing websites, streaming file uploads, email marketing...
Rather than doing all that by yourself, you can opt for an automation platform to have these tasks “outsourced”. For example, you often have to send surveys to your clients via SurveyMonkey, and the CRM software you use in your company is Autopilot. With the help of an automation platform you can stitch these two platforms together so that every time you create a new contact in Autopilot, it’s immediately created in SurveyMonkey. Such an automation can save you hours of manual routine work letting you focus on the most important aspects of your work.
Another automation use case would be a possibility to sync new contacts with a CRM or a spreadsheet, share content across social media or notify your team about new leads.
In this article we will examine the following automation scenarios:
- Parsio + Google Sheets connection that helps to export into a spreadsheet every new lead from an email.
- Parsio + Google Drive connection that enables you to save automatically to cloud storage every new attachment you receive.
- A Parsio + Mailchimp/SurveyMonkey connection.
The Best Automation Platforms in 2024
We are going to explore the 5 popular automation platforms and find out their pros and cons in comparison to each other.
- Zapier – the most popular automation platform.
- Integrately – a clean UI and great livechat support.
- Make – affordable pricing plans and great user interface.
- KonnectzIT – a simple automation platform with affordable pricing plans.
- Pabbly Connect – a powerful platform with a lifetime deal option.
Zapier
US-based, Zapier is probably the most popular integration platform on the market today. Whether you’re a small business owner trying to automatically download your website leads to Google Sheets, or if you are a larger organization looking to push data to a CRM or project management software, Zapier is a great solution.
How does it work?
You choose the two apps you want to connect, the first one with a trigger and the second one with an action. In our example, we have chosen to integrate Parsio with Google Drive. We choose Parsio as the first app with a trigger event “Attachment Received”, and Google Drive as the second app with an action “Upload file”. Now every time a new attachment is received into our Parsio inbox, it will be automatically uploaded into the Google Drive folder that you define.
This is just an example of workflow to make you understand - you can actually pipeline as many apps as you want.
Usability
The Zapier dashboard is very intuitive and easy to use. You can create zaps, customize them, organize folders, search history and many more.
However, there is no error-handling functionality that allows you to choose how the integration will act in case of an error.
You can also use the Zapier platform to program custom integrations. However, this will require some coding expertise.
Pricing
With Zapier, you have a free plan of 100 tasks/month (which is not much compared to other automation platforms), and several billable plans that will meet all needs.
Number of applications supported
5000+
Customer support
Help center, Zapier experts, email, Zapier community, tutorials and articles.
Integration with Parsio
A built-in integration accessible from a tab under your Parsio or Zapier account.
Pros
- Support of 5000+ apps.
- Intuitive user-friendly dashboard.
- No coding knowledge needed.
- Offers many different automation scenarios.
Cons
- Billable plans are rather expensive.
- No 24/7 live customer support and no online support.
- You will have to use Zapier Platform to program custom API connections.
- Doesn’t have an error-handling functionality to choose how the integration will act in case of an error.
Integrately
Integrately is a mid-tier automation India-based tool with one-click integrations that resembles Zapier but is a lot cheaper and has a few unique advantages.
How does it work?
Once connected, you can easily search for apps you wish to pipeline.
In our example, we have chosen to integrate Parsio with Google Sheets. We just have to choose Parsio as the first app with a trigger “Document is parsed in Parsio”, and Google Sheets as a second app with an action “Create spreadsheet row in Google Sheets”. Now every time a new document will be parsed by Parsio, a row will be added to our Google Sheet.
Usability
The dashboard is clear and easy to use with some pre-built integrations. You can pipeline multiple apps at a time.
Unlike Zapier, Integrately has an error-handling functionality that allows you to choose how the integration will act in case of an error.
Another solution is to create your own automation using webhooks. This requires no coding knowledge.
Pricing
Integrately has a free plan of 1000 tasks/month (which is 800 tasks more than with Zapier) but during 14 days only. Its most expensive equals to 239$/month.
Number of apps supported
1000+
Customer support
Integrately has a really extensive customer support: you have access to a significant number of guidelines, articles and video tutorials, as well as email support and a live chat.
Integration with Parsio
You can connect Parsio with Integrately to create Multiple automation scenarios with Parsio directly from the Integrately dashboard
Pros
- Intuitive user-friendly dashboard.
- No coding knowledge required.
- 24/7 live customer support + online support
- Custom integrations are easier to program compared to Zapier.
- Has an error-handling functionality allowing you to choose how the integration will act in case of an error.
Cons
- 14-days trial period.
- A lot fewer apps are supported natively compared to Zapier.
- For the applications that don’t have a built-in integration, you will have to use webhooks which are slightly more difficult to be configured.
- Some apps do not have triggers, for example Gmail.
Make
Make is a no code/low-code workflow automation platform from the Czech Republic that allows you to create streamlines between apps.
How does it work?
After creating your account you can create scenarios (also called workflows) with a drag-and-drop builder.
We will use the same example with Make: say you would like a new row to be created in a Google Sheet every time a new document is parsed with the help of Parsio. After choosing the first app (Parsio in our example) with a trigger event, you select the second one with an action event (these terms are not used with Make though). You need to use your credits if you want to test a scenario.
Usability
The Make dashboard design is very functional and user-friendly that could be compared to Zapier in this respect.
Pricing
The free plan allows you to perform 1000 operations, however you need to respect a 15 minutes interval. There is also a custom plan without a definite price.
Number of apps supported
1000+
Customer support
Video tutorials, articles, customer support form submission on their website, Make Academy and Make community
Integration with Parsio
A native Parsio integration with Make is available.
Pros
- A wide choice of automation rules (extra commands you can assign to a scenario: actions, aggregators, iterators, searches, and triggers) compared to other platforms.
- 1000 operations available with the free plan.
- Very affordable price.
- Rather big number of apps supported natively compared to Integrately.
- Easier to program custom integrations if you have some coding knowledge.
- The dashboard is very functional and user-friendly, the creation of scenarios is intuitive and easy
Cons
- You have to respect a 15 min interval between two tasks, however webhooks and aren’t limited by a minimum interval.
- Scenario development may look more complicated since a wider range of automation rules is available.
- Some tutorials might be difficult to follow.
- If you want to create a custom integration, you might require some coding knowledge.
- Testing scenarios requires credits so you may quickly run out of them if you perform multiple tests.
KonnectzIT
KonnectzIT is an automation platform with a drag-and-drop visual builder that can help you automate your business processes by stitching several apps together.
How does it work?
After signing up you can start creating your streamlines called Konnectz.
Usability
The dashboard seems quite tricky when you use it for the first time. To create a new Konnectz, you first need to authorize the apps you need (which means adding them to your dashboard) before switching to the visual builder.
You’ll also have to get used to the drag-and-drop system and create arrows to pipeline your data. In our example we chose to connect Parsio with Google Sheets via a webhook.
Pricing
There is a free plan with 100 tasks/month, and the most expensive plan equals $40/month.
Number of apps supported
800+ apps
Customer support
A live chat
Integration with Parsio
A native Parsio <> KonnectzIT integration is available.
Pros
- Affordable price.
- The workflows builder is rather appealing visually compared to other platforms.
Cons
- The dashboard may seem unclear at the first sight and you must get used to the drag-and-drop system.
- KonnectzIT supports fewer apps in the authorized format (accessible without a webhook even among the most popular ones (e.g. no Google Drive, Gmail…).
- Generally supports less apps than other platforms.
Pabbly Connect
Pabbly Connect is an India-based automation platform founded in 2018. Apart from being an automation platform, it offers multiple business solutions for email marketing, subscription billing, email verification, and a form builder.
How does it work?
After signing up you get to a Dashboard where workflows are created.
Just like with all the other automation platforms, you choose the first app - the trigger one, and second one, the action one. For this example we’ve decided to choose Parsio as the first app with the trigger "Document parsed", and Mailchimp as the second app with the action "Add new member with Custom Fields".
Now every time a new document is parsed, a new lead will be created in our Mailchimp list which automates the workflow extensively.
Usability
The Pabbly Dashboard is pretty simple to use. You have an immediate access to all of your workflows, as well as to the history and the number of tasks consumed.
Pricing
With Pabbly you have 100 tasks/month, and the most expensive plan equals $59. They also often offer attractive promotional prices for a lifetime access.
Number of apps supported
1000+
Customer support
Email, automation tutorials
Integration with Parsio
A built-in integration is accessible to create automated workflows directly from the Parsio dashboard.
Pros
- Affordable pricing plans with lifetime option.
- Unlimited features even with the free plan.
- User-friendly interface.
- 24/7 live customer support and excellent video guides for every feature.
- Unlimited workflows, filters and operations.
Cons
- The platform is sometimes buggy.
- Sometimes it is difficult to navigate and track task history.
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