Google Apps Script vs Zapier vs Make: which should run your automation?

"Should we use Zapier or write a script?" is one of the first questions teams ask when they start automating. The honest answer is that it depends less on the tool and more on where your data lives, how complicated the rules are and who will look after it afterwards.

Here's how the three options compare in practice.

Google Apps Script

Apps Script is JavaScript that runs on Google's servers with direct access to Sheets, Gmail, Drive, Calendar, Docs and Forms. It's included with every Google account, so if your work already lives in Google Workspace there's nothing extra to license.

Where it fits: teams whose data is already in Google Sheets; reminders, reports and emails driven by sheet data; custom menus, sidebars and small web apps on top of a spreadsheet; anything with real business rules (conditions, lookups, calculations).

Limits to know: Google publishes quotas for Apps Script. Each execution can run for up to 6 minutes. Time-driven triggers get 90 minutes of total runtime per day on a personal Google account and 6 hours on Google Workspace. Scripts can email up to 100 recipients a day on a personal account and 1,500 on Workspace, and make 20,000 external URL fetch calls a day (100,000 on Workspace). Well-written scripts rarely hit these, but a script that processes rows one at a time will.

Ownership: the code lives in your Google account. That's a strength (no third-party platform) and a responsibility: someone needs to understand it, so it should be documented and ideally kept in version control.

Zapier

Zapier connects thousands of SaaS apps with trigger-and-action "Zaps": when a form is submitted, create a CRM contact and post a message to Slack.

Where it fits: connecting tools that already have Zapier integrations, with simple linear flows, set up by non-developers.

Limits to know: pricing is based on how many tasks your Zaps run, so costs grow with volume. Branching logic, loops over lists and careful error handling are possible but get awkward as flows grow.

Ownership: flows live in your Zapier account. They're easy to change, but also easy for a dozen undocumented Zaps to pile up across different people's logins.

Make

Make (formerly Integromat) is a visual automation builder, similar in purpose to Zapier but better suited to multi-step scenarios with branches, iterators and data transformation.

Where it fits: more complex flows between SaaS tools where you want a visual map of every step, without writing code.

Limits to know: usage-based pricing, like Zapier. Very large scenarios become hard to follow, and debugging data-shape problems can take time.

Ownership: scenarios live in your Make account.

Side by side

Item	Apps Script	Zapier	Make
Best for	Data and rules inside Google Workspace	Simple links between SaaS apps	Multi-step flows between SaaS apps
Running cost	Included with Google accounts	Grows with task volume	Grows with operation volume
Complex rules	Strong (it's code)	Limited	Good
Who can change it	A developer	Anyone on the team	A confident non-developer
Where it lives	Your Google account	Your Zapier account	Your Make account

How to choose

• Your data lives in Google Sheets and the rules are specific to your business: start with Apps Script.
• You need two SaaS tools to talk and the flow is "when X, do Y": Zapier is quickest to set up.
• The flow has branches and transformations across several tools: Make usually handles it more cleanly than Zapier.
• Many users, customer-facing access or rules that change often: you may have outgrown all three and need a small application with a database.

It's also common, and perfectly sensible, to mix them: Apps Script for the logic around your spreadsheet, and one or two Zaps for tools that don't have a usable API.

Whatever you choose

A few rules apply to every option. Log what each automation did, so you can answer "did that email go out?". Alert a named person when something fails instead of failing silently. Keep settings such as recipients, rates and templates somewhere your team can edit without touching the automation. And write down what exists, because the automation nobody remembers building is the one that breaks at the worst time.

If you're not sure which fits your process, describe what you're doing by hand today and we'll recommend the simplest option, including when that isn't us.