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Migrating From Zapier to Make: Complete Checklist (2026)

A step-by-step Zapier-to-Make migration playbook: audit your Zaps, convert tasks to credits, rebuild Paths as Routers, run in parallel, and cut over safely.

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Short answer: there is no import button. As of August 2026, no tool automatically converts Zaps into Make scenarios — a migration means rebuilding each workflow by hand. The good news: for a typical small business with 10–20 Zaps, that’s a weekend of work, published migration case studies consistently find 20–30% of Zaps are dead weight you can simply delete, and the payoff is usually a 3–5x lower monthly bill (we ran that math in Make vs Zapier). This checklist walks the migration in five phases so nothing breaks silently.

Before you start: confirm the move is worth it

Migrate when your Zapier bill has crossed roughly $50/month, your workflows need branching or loops that fight Zapier’s Paths, or you’re simply tired of task-counting anxiety (the pattern we documented in Why Zapier Gets Expensive). Don’t migrate to save $10/month, and don’t migrate to Make if your real problem is wanting unlimited executions or self-hosting — that’s n8n’s territory.

Also check the two blockers up front:

1. App coverage. List every app your Zaps touch and check Make’s ~3,000+ app library. A handful of long-tail apps exist only on Zapier. Make’s HTTP module + webhooks can bridge gaps, but only if someone can read API docs.
2. Compliance. Like Zapier, Make does not offer a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement as of August 2026. If PHI flows through your automations, neither tool is appropriate — see our HIPAA automation guide.

Phase 1: Audit and prune (1–2 hours)

Build a simple spreadsheet from your Zapier dashboard with one row per Zap:

Sort by task usage, descending. Two findings are near-universal in published migration case studies: a big chunk of Zaps (often 20–30%) are dormant or redundant — retire them now — and the top 3–5 Zaps drive most of the bill. Those migrate first, because they fund the project.

Phase 2: Size your Make plan (30 minutes)

Zapier tasks and Make credits are different units, and getting this wrong is the most common migration surprise:

• Zapier bills only action steps that move data; triggers, Filters, Paths, and Formatter are free.
• Make bills every module run — including triggers, filters, and iterators. Only branches that actually execute consume credits.

Practical conversion: take each Zap’s monthly runs and multiply by its total step count (not just billable actions), then add 20–30% margin. A workload of 3,000 Zapier tasks commonly lands at 5,000–8,000 Make credits. For most small businesses that still fits comfortably in Make’s Core plan — roughly $9–11/month (annual) for 10,000 credits as of August 2026 — versus $49+ on Zapier for equivalent volume. One scheduling note: Core polls as fast as every 1 minute; if a workflow needs faster reaction, build it webhook-triggered (instant) rather than polling.

Full plan details are in our Make review.

Phase 3: Rebuild, highest-volume first (the weekend)

Work down your spreadsheet. Per workflow:

1. Recreate connections first. Re-authenticating every app is the tedious hidden cost of any migration. Do them in a batch so scenario-building flows.
2. Rebuild the logic. Zapier concepts map to Make like so:

3. Test with real payloads. The same app can surface fields differently on each platform — never assume a field mapping carried over. Run the scenario manually with production-shaped data and inspect the data bundles module by module (Make’s per-run inspection is excellent for exactly this).
4. Add error handling. You’re rebuilding anyway — attach an error handler route with a Slack/email alert to your critical scenarios. This is a genuine upgrade over most Zapier setups.

Phase 4: Run in parallel (3–7 days)

Don’t hard-cut. Leave the Zapier Zap on, activate the Make scenario, and either split traffic or let both run against the same events (dedupe on the destination side if double-writes matter — e.g., temporarily filter one path to a test record set for CRM writes).

Compare outputs daily. Watch specifically for edge cases: empty fields, special characters, timezone shifts, and volume spikes. When a scenario has run clean for several days at real volume, turn the Zapier Zap off — but don’t delete it. Keep deactivated Zaps for ~30 days as rebuild reference.

Phase 5: Cut over and cancel

• Downgrade Zapier only after every migrated workflow has survived a full business cycle (including whatever monthly billing/reporting runs you have).
• If a stubborn Zap depends on a Zapier-only app, it’s fine to keep Zapier’s free plan (100 tasks, two-step) or a minimal tier for just that Zap. A hybrid stack that saves 80% of the bill beats a purist migration that breaks something.
• Set a calendar reminder to check your Make credit usage after the first full month. If you’re consistently buying extra-credit packs (which carry a ~25% markup), move up a tier.

When we don’t recommend migrating to Make

• Your Zapier bill is under ~$30/month. The weekend of rebuild time is worth more than the savings.
• No one will learn the canvas. Make demands a mental-model shift. If the team won’t invest a few hours, the migration will stall half-finished — the worst possible state, with automations split across two tools.
• Your volume is huge and workflows are long. Per-module billing scales poorly for 20-step high-frequency flows. Compare n8n, which bills per execution regardless of steps — or self-host it for unlimited runs.
• You’re deep in Zapier Tables/Interfaces/Agents. Those platform pieces have no Make equivalent; migrating the automation layer while your data layer stays in Zapier saves little.

FAQ

Can I export my Zaps and import them into Make? No. As of August 2026 there’s no automated converter between the platforms. Every workflow is a manual rebuild — which is also your chance to prune dead Zaps and add proper error handling.

How long does a Zapier-to-Make migration take? Published guides and case studies put a typical small-business migration (10–20 active Zaps) at a few days to two weeks of part-time work, including the parallel-run window. Agencies with 100+ Zaps should budget several weeks.

Will my costs really drop? Usually, and often 3–5x at typical volumes — but convert honestly: Make charges credits for triggers, filters, and iterators that Zapier gives away free, so your credit count will exceed your task count. The savings come from Make’s dramatically lower price per unit.

What breaks most often in migration? Field mappings and branching logic. Apps expose data differently across platforms, and Zapier Paths don’t translate mechanically to Make Routers. Both are caught by testing with real payloads before cutover.

Should I migrate to Make or n8n? Make if you want managed hosting, a visual canvas, and the lowest entry price. n8n if you have technical staff and want per-execution billing or self-hosted unlimited runs. Our Zapier alternatives roundup compares the full field.

Bottom line

A Zapier-to-Make migration is unglamorous but mechanical: audit, prune, rebuild by volume, run in parallel, cut over. Do the top three Zaps first — they carry most of the bill, and rebuilding them free on Make’s plan tells you within a week whether the rest is worth it. Start with Make’s free plan — 1,000 credits is enough to prove out your two busiest workflows before you spend anything.

Migration patterns verified against 2026 guides and case studies as of August 2026, including Makeitfuture’s migration guide and Automation Atlas’s platform-migration overview. Pricing changes often — confirm on the official pages.