Bardeen vs Relay.app

Bardeen is an AI automation tool that runs inside a Chrome extension and targets go-to-market teams. Instead of connecting APIs on a server, it acts on the pages you have open: scraping lists from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, directories or any website, enriching leads, writing results to Google Sheets, Notion, HubSpot or Salesforce, and drafting personalized outreach with AI.

Automations are built as playbooks, either from a large template library or by describing the task in plain language and letting the AI agent assemble the steps. Scrapers can run on a single page, across paginated lists or in the background on a schedule. Pricing is credit-based: a small free allowance of credits for testing, then Basic and Premium plans that add monthly credits, and Enterprise with custom bulk credits and premium support. Bardeen repositioned toward GTM teams in recent years, and its paid tiers rose accordingly.

Bardeen suits SDRs, recruiters, founders and marketers who repeat the same research and copy-paste steps every day. It is not a backend integration platform: workflows depend on the browser and on page layouts, so scrapers can break when a site changes, and automating LinkedIn carries account and policy risk. For server-side workflows Zapier and Make are better; for list building with a contact database Apollo or Clay are stronger. Bardeen wins when the data lives on web pages you already browse.

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.