Zapier Shifts to Native Actions
Zapier: The $7B Netflix of Productivity
Zapier is moving up the stack from routing work between apps to owning more of the work itself. At first, Zapier mostly passed data from one SaaS tool to another. Native actions changed that. Instead of telling a user to buy a separate formatter, form builder, database, or chatbot tool, Zapier can now let them do those jobs inside Zapier, which keeps more workflow setup, execution, and product discovery on its own rails.
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The practical reason is workflow visibility. As the system that sits between thousands of apps, Zapier sees the repetitive low complexity jobs users keep inserting into automations, like parsing text, delaying steps, filtering records, collecting data with forms, or storing values in tables. Those are easier to standardize and ship as built in tools than many app specific integrations.
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This also changes the partner relationship. SaaS companies join Zapier for distribution and long tail connectivity, but they give up data on how customers use integrations and risk being flattened into interchangeable endpoints. Former partners and ecosystem operators describe the same tension, Zapier helps apps connect broadly, then learns enough about common jobs to absorb simpler functionality itself.
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The competitive pattern looks less like pure iPaaS and more like a bundle. Zapier now combines external app actions with native products like Forms, Tables, Canvas, Chatbots, and built in logic tools. That makes Zapier closer to an operating layer for lightweight business software, where a user can collect data, store it, transform it, and trigger follow up without leaving the product.
The next step is native actions becoming agent actions. Zapier is already turning its action layer into a universal interface for AI, and that pushes the company further from simple middleware toward a system that can both understand a workflow request and execute more of the underlying work itself. That is where more of the margin and user lock in will sit.