Activepieces vs Microsoft Power Automate
Activepieces and Microsoft Power Automate are both workflow automation tools. Activepieces is aimed at small businesses and developers, while Microsoft Power Automate is aimed at small businesses and enterprise. Microsoft Power Automate costs less, from $15/mo versus $20/mo for Activepieces. Only Activepieces has a free plan.
Open-source business automation
Microsoft's workflow automation and RPA platform for Microsoft 365
| Pricing | Open source · $20 | Paid · $15 |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $15/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | — | 30 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Developers | Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web, windows, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2022 | US · 2016 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Activepieces if
Teams wanting open-source, predictable-cost automation.
- Open source with permissive license
- Affordable credit-based cloud plans
- Friendly for non-technical users
Look elsewhere if: Users needing niche integrations only Zapier has.
Choose Microsoft Power Automate if
Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 that need governed workflow automation and desktop RPA for legacy apps.
- Deep native integration with Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint and Dynamics
- Many Microsoft 365 licences already include standard connector flows
- Combines API automation and desktop RPA in one platform
Look elsewhere if: Small teams on mostly non-Microsoft SaaS apps who want quick, simple automations (Zapier, Make, n8n).
Activepieces vs Microsoft Power Automate pricing
Activepieces
- Community (self-hosted)$0Open-source core, self-host on your own servers
- Free$01,000 credits/mo, up to 5 users, unlimited flows
- Plus$20/mo10,000 credits/mo, up to 5 users; 2 months free yearly
- Team$200/mo50,000 credits/mo, 25 users, unlimited projects
- UltimateCustomYearly credit pool, unlimited users, dedicated workers
Microsoft Power Automate
- Premium$15/user/moBilled yearly; cloud flows, attended desktop RPA, process mining
- Process$150/bot/moBilled yearly; unattended desktop flows for one bot
- Hosted Process$215/bot/moBilled yearly; adds a Microsoft-hosted virtual machine
- Process Mining add-on$5,000/tenant/moBilled yearly; requires Premium, 100 GB data storage
Activepieces · Key features
- No-code flow builder with branching and loops
- AI steps and agents
- 280+ integrations (pieces)
- TypeScript SDK for custom pieces
- Self-hosting under MIT
- Embeddable white-label automation
Cons
- Smaller integration catalog than Zapier
- Younger ecosystem
- Some enterprise features paid
Microsoft Power Automate · Key features
- Cloud flows triggered by events, schedules or buttons across 1,000+ connectors
- Desktop flows that automate Windows apps and websites through RPA
- Attended bots on user PCs and unattended bots on VMs
- Copilot that drafts flows from a plain-language description
- Approvals built into Teams, Outlook and the mobile app
- Process and task mining to find bottlenecks before automating
Cons
- Licensing is confusing, with premium connectors and per-bot charges
- Designer is slower and less intuitive than Zapier or Make
- Error messages and debugging can be hard for non-developers
Activepieces vs Microsoft Power Automate: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Activepieces or Microsoft Power Automate?
Microsoft Power Automate starts at $15/mo and Activepieces at $20/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Activepieces and Microsoft Power Automate have a free plan?
Activepieces has a free plan. Microsoft Power Automate has no free plan, a 30-day free trial.