Activepieces vs Relay.app

Activepieces is an open-source automation platform, with its community edition released under the MIT license, that positions itself as a friendlier and more predictable alternative to Zapier and Make. Built by a Y Combinator-backed startup, it lets operations, marketing and product teams connect apps and automate repetitive work through a visual flow builder, while developers extend it with TypeScript 'pieces' that become reusable integrations.

Flows support branches, loops, code steps, approval steps that wait for a human, and AI steps that call language models or run agents. The catalog covers 280+ pieces, and those pieces are also exposed as MCP tools so AI agents can act on connected apps. You can self-host the community edition for free with Docker, use credit-based cloud plans that range from a free tier to Plus and Team, or license an embed edition that puts white-labeled automation inside your own SaaS product.

Activepieces fits startups and mid-size teams that want automation with predictable costs, and SaaS companies that want an embeddable integration layer. Its catalog is far smaller than Zapier's thousands of apps, so niche integrations may need a custom piece or an HTTP step. n8n offers more raw power and a larger self-hosted community but a steeper learning curve and a fair-code license; Make is inexpensive in the cloud but proprietary; Zapier remains the easiest choice when breadth of integrations is the only priority.

Relay.app was a workflow automation tool built around a simple observation: many real business processes cannot be fully automated because a person needs to approve, review or add information at some point. Relay let teams build automations that connected apps like Zapier or Make, but with first-class human-in-the-loop steps that paused a workflow, assigned a task to a teammate and continued once it was done. The service shut down in September 2026, and its Free, Professional and Team plans are no longer offered.

Workflows were built in a clean visual editor with triggers and actions across popular tools such as Gmail, Slack, Google Sheets, Notion, Airtable, HubSpot, Salesforce, Asana and calendar apps. Human steps included approvals, manual data entry, review of AI output and assignments with due dates and reminders. AI steps, powered by leading language models, could summarize meeting notes, extract structured data from emails or documents, categorize requests and draft replies, without users managing their own API keys. Templates covered common processes such as client onboarding, content approval and meeting follow-ups.

Relay.app appealed to small and mid-sized teams in operations, marketing, sales and agencies that wanted automation with oversight and an approachable interface. Former users now need a replacement: Zapier has by far the largest app catalog, Make is cheaper and more flexible for complex branching at volume, and n8n can be self-hosted for technical teams who want full control.