How the picker works
This is an AI tool finder for automation. When you press the button, your description and your choices go to Jev, a decision model from TypeSafe built for software rather than chat. Jev gets a one-line description of each of the 16 platforms, its published price, whether it can be self-hosted and the skill it expects. It answers one question: which of these fits this task best, given your budget, skill, hosting needs and volume?
It does not name a single winner. It returns a probability for every platform, and the page shows them as given:
- "x% fit" is the model's probability that this platform is the best fit. The 16 numbers add up to about 100%, so a split vote means more than one platform would do the job.
- Hard needs move platforms down, not out. If you tick self-hosting, choose a free budget or say you do not code, any platform that misses that need is tagged and listed below the ones that meet it. Nothing is hidden.
- Two extra checks say whether the task needs judgment on messy input, which suits an AI agent platform, and whether it is really a customer-facing chatbot.
Prices come from our pricing catalog, read from each vendor's public pricing page. The date under the results shows when they were last verified, and every card links to the vendor's own pricing page.
Zapier vs Make vs n8n vs AI agents: the kinds of platform
The 16 platforms fall into a few groups. Working out which group your task belongs to narrows the choice faster than comparing feature lists.
Trigger-and-action builders: Zapier, Make, Activepieces
You pick a trigger, such as a new Shopify order, and add the steps that follow. Zapier has the largest library of app integrations and is the easiest start for non-technical teams. Make lays the whole scenario out as a visual map with branching, loops and detailed data mapping; it is usually cheaper per action than Zapier and takes longer to learn. Activepieces is an open-source builder in the Zapier style that you can self-host for free or use in the cloud. Zapier and Activepieces both include AI steps inside a flow. This group is the right fit when the steps are the same every time and your apps are on the integration list.
Looking for a Zapier alternative? The usual shortlist is Make, for lower cost per action and more control, and Activepieces, for open source and self-hosting. Our list of Zapier alternatives that use AI covers the agent options too.
Developer and open-source tools: n8n, Pipedream, Dify
n8n is open-source workflow automation with code nodes and AI agent nodes; self-hosting is free, and n8n Cloud is the paid hosted version. Pipedream is code-first: you write steps in Node.js or Python, and it handles sign-in for thousands of APIs. Dify is an open-source platform for LLM apps such as chatbots, answers drawn from your documents and agent workflows, and runs self-hosted or in the cloud. Vellum, a developer platform for building, testing and deploying LLM workflows in production, belongs here too. These suit teams with someone technical who wants more control than a no-code builder gives and is happy to own more of the setup.
AI agent platforms: Lindy, Relevance AI, Gumloop, Gravity
These start from a goal rather than a fixed flow, and an AI model handles the parts that need reading and judgment. Lindy sets up AI assistants for email, meetings, scheduling and sales tasks when you describe them and connect your apps. Relevance AI builds teams of AI agents for sales and operations work, with more setup and an enterprise focus. Gumloop is a drag-and-drop builder for AI pipelines such as scraping, enrichment and content generation. Gravity, which makes this tool, runs a recurring task you describe in plain words with an agent that is already built, so there is no flow to build; it is in private alpha, by application. Stack AI, an enterprise no-code builder for agents over company data, and Taskade, a workspace with agents inside projects, docs and task lists, sit close to this group.
Chatbot builders: Voiceflow, Botpress
If the job is talking to customers on your website or in messaging apps, start with a chatbot builder. Voiceflow is for designing and running customer-facing chat and voice agents. Botpress runs chatbots across web and messaging channels and bills per message plus a plan. Bardeen is the odd one out in the list: a browser extension that automates web tasks and scraping from your own browser, useful when the work happens on websites rather than in connected apps.
So which AI tool should you use?
- The steps never change: a trigger-and-action builder.
- Someone has to read and decide, such as sorting emails or drafting replies: an AI agent platform.
- It talks to customers: a chatbot builder.
- You want it on your own server or need code: an open-source or developer tool.
How to compare pricing units
Plan prices are hard to compare because each platform counts something different. Before comparing prices, work out how many units your task uses in a month:
- Tasks (Zapier): one for each action step that runs, so a Zap with a trigger and three actions uses three tasks per run. Some AI steps use more.
- Credits (Make): one per module action, so the count grows with every module in the scenario. Make billed in operations before it moved to credits, so older guides still say operations.
- Executions (n8n): one per full workflow run, however many steps it has.
- Runs (Activepieces, Stack AI): Activepieces counts one credit per run, and Stack AI sets its plans in runs a month.
- Seats, messages and compute: Lindy charges per seat with credits per task, Botpress adds AI spend per message to a plan, and Pipedream counts credits per execution by compute time.
- Subscription (Gravity): a monthly plan with usage included, and you can buy more usage if you run out.
A worked example: a task with a trigger and four more steps that runs 500 times a month comes to about 2,000 Zapier tasks, about 2,500 Make credits if every step is a module, and 500 n8n executions. The AI agent bill estimator turns runs and steps into a monthly bill on several platforms, and the automation units converter translates one unit into the others. For the details, read Zapier pricing explained, n8n pricing explained and Zapier vs n8n.
When to self-host
Three platforms in the picker can run on your own server: n8n, Activepieces and Dify. Self-hosting is worth it when:
- your data has to stay on servers you control, because of a client contract or a regulator;
- you run enough volume that per-step or per-run pricing would add up;
- someone on the team can install updates, take backups and watch for outages.
The software is free, but the server, the upkeep and the security patches are yours. If nobody owns that work, a cloud plan is usually cheaper in practice. Read each project's licence as well, since terms for commercial use differ. Self-hosted vs managed AI agents goes through the trade-off in detail.
What the picker cannot see
It only knows your description, your choices, a one-line summary of each platform and the published prices. It cannot check whether a platform connects to a niche app you rely on, how your team works, or what discount a vendor might offer, and it does not know about platforms outside these 16. Treat the top three as a shortlist: open the pricing page on each card, check the app list, and run your task on a free plan or trial before you commit. If the vote is split, describe the task in more detail: name the apps, what starts it and roughly how often it runs.
Questions
Is the picker biased toward Gravity?
Gravity makes one of the platforms in this list, so it is a fair question. The ranking comes from the model's answer and the published prices; we do not adjust it. Gravity gets the same one-line description and price line as every other platform, and wherever it appears the page says it is in private alpha, by application. The one rule the page adds applies to every platform the same way: a platform that misses a hard need you set moves below the ones that meet it, with its percentage unchanged.
How current are the prices?
Prices come from our pricing catalog, read from each vendor's public pricing page, and the date under the results shows when they were last verified. The same catalog feeds our AI agent pricing index. Plans change often, so open the pricing page link on a card before you buy.
Should a beginner choose Zapier or Make?
Zapier is the easier start: each Zap is a trigger followed by a list of steps, and it has the largest library of app integrations. Make shows the whole scenario as a visual map with branching, loops and detailed data mapping; it takes longer to learn and is usually cheaper per action. If your task is a straight line of a few steps, start with Zapier. If it branches, loops over lists or moves a lot of data, try Make. Both have a free plan, so you can test the same task on each.
When is n8n the better choice?
When someone on your team is comfortable with a little code, when your workflows have many steps, or when you need to self-host. n8n bills per execution, one per full workflow run whatever the step count, so a long workflow costs the same as a short one. It has code nodes and AI agent nodes, self-hosting is free, and n8n Cloud is the paid hosted option. If nobody technical will look after it, a cloud plan on Zapier, Make or Activepieces is usually less work.
What if my top pick has no free plan?
Set your budget to Free only and run the picker again: any platform without a free plan is then tagged and moved below the ones that have one. Many paid platforms offer a trial instead, and the price line on each card says so where the vendor publishes one. If you can run a server, self-hosting n8n, Activepieces or Dify is another way to start without a subscription.
Do you store what I type?
Your description and choices are sent to the model to rank the platforms and are not saved by Gravity, unless you press Share it or ask us to set it up as an agent; a task shared that way stays private and is never published. We count how many times the tool runs each day, nothing more. Avoid pasting names, account numbers or other private details; the picker does not need them.