Zapier's Integration Lead Over Make

Zapier’s integration lead is less about having a bigger app directory, and more about owning the default place where long tail automation gets built. Starting in 2011 let Zapier recruit partners, train users on the trigger and action workflow, and turn every new app into more landing pages, more search traffic, and more partner demand. That flywheel gave Zapier broader coverage than Make, which launched in 2016 and stayed more focused on depth per app than total app count.

• The practical advantage of more integrations is coverage. A small SaaS company can connect to Zapier once and immediately tell customers it works with thousands of other tools, instead of building dozens of one off integrations itself. That makes Zapier the easiest answer for edge cases and smaller workflows that no product team will prioritize natively.
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• Zapier compounded that lead with distribution. Its programmatic SEO model created pages for app pairs at massive scale, which drove millions of monthly visits and pushed customers to ask software vendors for a Zapier integration. More integrations created more pages, more pages created more traffic, and more traffic attracted more partners.
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• Make took a different path. It offered a more visual builder, lower pricing, and more endpoints inside each app, but still had fewer total integrations, around 1,600 versus Zapier’s 5,000 plus in the 2023 comparison. That makes Make stronger for power users building deeper flows, while Zapier stays stronger as the broadest compatibility layer.
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The next phase is a split market. Zapier is positioned to keep winning the long tail, where breadth matters most, while more software companies build their top 10 or 15 integrations in house for a cleaner user experience. That makes Zapier’s app count a durable defense, but also pushes it to feel more native inside the products that depend on it.