AI Automation Tools

7 Best Relay.app Alternatives in 2026: From $9/mo to Free Forever

📅 November 2, 2026 ⏱️ 14 min read

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I burned a week of my life trying to run my whole outreach process inside
Relay.app. And honestly? It’s a slick tool. The human-in-the-loop approvals,
the AI steps baked right into the canvas, the Paths branching that doesn’t
make you build five separate flows — I get why teams at places like Cursor and
Ramp were using it.

Then I hit the wall. The free plan gives you 200 steps a month — I blew
through that in about ten days of light testing. The Professional plan is $19
a month billed annually (and $38 a month if you don’t want to commit for the
year), and even that caps you at 750 steps a month. For a tool whose whole
pitch is “automate everything,” 750 steps runs out fast when you actually
automate everything.

So I did what I always do: I went shopping. I price-checked the whole AI
automation category in November 2026 — the heavyweights, the open-source
rebels, the AI-agent newcomers, and the browser-scraping specialists — and
pulled together the 7 Relay.app alternatives I’d actually recommend. Prices
checked November 2, 2026.

TL;DR — The 7 best Relay.app alternatives in 2026

Cheapest paid plan: Make — $9/mo gets you 10,000 credits
and a real visual canvas.
Free forever (self-hosted): n8n or ActivePieces —
unlimited runs, zero dollars, your own server.
Easiest for beginners: Zapier — the biggest app catalog
on earth, but you pay for it at scale.
AI employees that do the work: Lindy — plain-language
agents that triage inboxes and take calls.
AI-first with LLMs bundled in: Gumloop — $37/mo flat,
premium models included, no API keys needed.
Browser automation + lead scraping: Bardeen — runs inside
Chrome, built for sales teams.
One to avoid: Pipedream — Workday bought it and the
Workflows product shuts down March 31, 2027. Don’t start there now.

How I picked these 7 (and why most “alternatives” lists are junk)

Most alternatives roundups are just the same ten tools shuffled. I used five
filters, and anything that didn’t clear all of them got cut:

It has to actually replace Relay.app — AI steps or AI
agents inside workflows, not just dumb “when X happens, do Y” triggers.
Pricing I can verify today. If I can’t find a 2026 price on
the official site or a recent review, it doesn’t make the list. No invented
numbers.
A real free tier or a cheap entry plan. Automation tools
die on sticker shock; the whole point of leaving Relay.app is usually the
meter running.
Alive and investing. This is why Pipedream got the boot
(more on that below) — I won’t send you to a platform with a sunset date.
Something genuinely different. Each pick has a real reason
to exist — a different pricing model, a different building style, a
different audience.

Quick comparison: Relay.app vs the 7 alternatives

Tool	Free plan	Cheapest paid	Why it wins
Relay.app	200 steps/mo	$19/mo (annual)	Human-in-the-loop approvals
n8n	Self-host: unlimited, free	€20/mo (~$23) annual	Per-execution pricing, code at any step
Make	1,000 credits/mo	$9/mo annual	Cheapest paid entry, great canvas
Zapier	100 tasks/mo	$19.99/mo annual	Largest app catalog, easiest start
Lindy	7-day trial only	$29.99/user/mo	AI employees, voice agents
Gumloop	5,000 credits/mo	$37/mo flat	Premium LLMs bundled, unlimited seats
Bardeen	100 credits/mo	$10/mo	Browser automation, sales scraping
ActivePieces	Self-host: free forever (MIT)	$20/mo ($16 annual)	1 credit = whole multi-step run

Prices checked November 2, 2026. n8n prices are in EUR — dollar figures are
approximate.

1. n8n — Best for builders who want power without per-step anxiety

If Relay.app’s step caps are what drove you here, n8n is the antidote. It
charges per execution — one workflow run, however many steps
it contains — instead of metering every single step. That one pricing decision
changes the whole economics of automation.

The Community Edition is free to self-host with unlimited executions and
workflows, which makes it the cheapest serious option on this list (your
server costs aside). The cloud plans start at €20/month billed annually (about
$23) for 2,500 executions, and the Pro tier is €50/month (about $56) for
10,000 executions. There’s no permanent free cloud plan — trials carry 1,000
executions — so casual users should look at Make or Gumloop instead.

What I actually like most isn’t the price, though. It’s that you can drop real
JavaScript or Python into any step. Relay.app keeps you in its no-code box;
n8n lets you break out of the box whenever the box isn’t enough. The
trade-off: the learning curve is steeper, and self-hosting means you’re on the
hook for updates and uptime.

Pick n8n if: you hit step limits everywhere and want to
self-host or pay per run. Skip it if: you want something your
non-technical VA can learn in an afternoon.

Try n8n free →

2. Make — Best cheapest paid plan ($9/mo for 10,000 credits)

Make is the value king of this list, and I say that having reviewed it in
depth (see our
Make.com review). The Core plan starts at $9 a month billed annually — $10.59 month-to-month
— and hands you 10,000 credits a month. Every paid tier (Core, Pro at $16,
Teams at $29) includes that same 10,000-credit bucket; you pay more for
execution priority, custom variables, and team features, not for more credits.

The free plan is genuinely usable at 1,000 credits a month with 2 active
scenarios. And the visual canvas is, in my opinion, the best in the business —
you can literally see data flowing between modules, which makes debugging a
failed scenario about ten times faster than in Zapier.

Where Make lags Relay.app: AI features feel bolted on rather than native.
Relay was built AI-first; Make added AI modules to a classic automation
engine. It works, but the vibe is different. Also note the terminology change:
Make renamed “operations” to “credits” in August 2025 at a 1:1 ratio, so older
tutorials saying “operations” mean the same thing.

Pick Make if: you want the cheapest real paid plan in
automation. Skip it if: AI agents (not just AI steps) are the
whole reason you’re automating.

Start with Make’s free plan →

3. Zapier — Best for beginners and the biggest app catalog

Nobody gets fired for picking Zapier, and there’s a reason it’s still the
default. The catalog is enormous — thousands of apps, and new ones land here
first. If some niche tool you use has exactly one integration, it’s probably
with Zapier. Setup is genuinely the fastest of any tool here: pick a trigger,
pick an action, done in five minutes.

The pricing is where it stings. Free gives you 100 tasks a month (and one task
= one successful action step — triggers, filters, and formatter steps are
free, which softens it slightly). Professional starts at $19.99 a month billed
annually ($29.99 month-to-month) for 750 tasks, and Team is $69 a month billed
annually for 2,000 tasks. At real volume, Zapier is the priciest tool on this
list by a mile.

One honest note: Zapier doesn’t run a public affiliate program for content
publishers (there’s a creator-only track on PartnerStack), so when I link to
it, that’s just me pointing at the tool — no commission either way. Which,
frankly, is how you know I actually mean the recommendation.

Pick Zapier if: you want the easiest first automation and the
widest integrations. Skip it if: you’re running thousands of
tasks a month — do the math first, because Make or n8n will be a fraction of
the cost.

Try Zapier free →

4. Lindy — Best AI employees (agents that work like staff)

Lindy is the furthest from “classic automation” on this list, and that’s the
point. Instead of building workflows, you describe an employee: “triage my
inbox, draft replies, and book meetings.” Lindy spins up an AI agent that does
it — including voice agents that can actually take phone calls. The
Slack-based setup and Computer Use feature on Pro (the agent drives a virtual
computer) make it feel closer to hiring than to configuring.

Pricing got reworked in early 2026: Plus is $29.99 per user per month (3,000
credits), Pro is $99.99 (15,000 credits), and Max is $199.99 (35,000 credits).
It’s month-to-month only — no annual discount — and there’s no permanent free
plan anymore, just a 7-day trial. Credits pool across your workspace, top-ups
are $10 per 1,000, and they never expire, which is a nice touch.

The honest caveat: you’re betting on the agent model, which is powerful but
less predictable than deterministic workflows. If you need “every invoice over
$500 goes to Dave,” use Make. If you need “deal with my inbox like a competent
assistant would,” Lindy is the pick.

Pick Lindy if: you want AI staff, not flowcharts.
Skip it if: you need a free tier or deterministic, auditable
step-by-step logic.

Try Lindy’s 7-day trial →

5. Gumloop — Best AI-first builder with LLMs included

Gumloop is what Relay.app would look like if it leaned even harder into AI.
The canvas is AI-native — you’re orchestrating agents and premium models, not
wiring trigger-action pairs — and the killer detail is that premium LLMs come
bundled in. No API keys, no separate OpenAI bill, no “bring
your own key” homework. For a lot of teams, that alone justifies the switch.

Pricing is refreshingly simple: free gives you 5,000 credits a month (one of
the most generous free tiers here), and Pro is a flat $37 a month with 20,000+
credits, unlimited seats, 5 concurrent runs, and 25 agent
interactions. Annual billing knocks 20% off. That unlimited-seats line matters
— most competitors charge per user, so Gumloop gets cheaper per head the
bigger your team is. (Ignore old reviews quoting $97/$244 Solo/Team plans —
those were retired.)

The trade-off versus Relay.app: the integration catalog is smaller, and it’s a
younger company, so if you need some obscure enterprise connector on day one,
verify it exists first.

Pick Gumloop if: you want AI automation without managing API
keys, with a team. Skip it if: you need maximum integrations
or a rock-bottom $10-ish entry price.

Try Gumloop free (5,000 credits/mo) →

6. Bardeen — Best for browser automation and sales prospecting

Bardeen plays a different sport than everyone else here: it lives inside your
Chrome browser. Instead of cloud workflows, you get automations that scrape
LinkedIn, enrich lead lists, and move data between tabs — the stuff sales and
recruiting teams actually do all day. Its scraper templates are genuinely
excellent, and the AI actions (summarize a page, extract structured data) slot
into browser playbooks naturally.

The pricing model is credit-based with a twist: every account gets 100 free
credits a month, always — even without paying. Basic is $10 a month (200
credits total), and Premium is $50 a month (1,100 credits) or $480 a year.
Burn rates are transparent: a scraper row or AI action costs 1 credit, an
enrichment row costs 3, and utilities are free. If your job is “get me 500
enriched leads a week,” you can price that to the dollar before signing up.

It’s not a Relay.app replacement for backend workflows, though. Bardeen
automates what happens in your browser; it won’t replace scheduled,
server-side pipelines. Think of it as the specialist to pair with a generalist
like Make.

Pick Bardeen if: your automation is browser work — scraping,
enrichment, LinkedIn prospecting. Skip it if: you need
cloud-scheduled backend workflows.

Get 100 free Bardeen credits/mo →

7. ActivePieces — Best open-source value on the cloud

ActivePieces is the only fully MIT-licensed option here — the Community
Edition is free to self-host forever, no strings, unlimited runs. But the
cloud pricing is where it quietly embarrasses the competition: 1 credit covers
an entire multi-step flow run, however many steps it has.
Compare that to per-step metering and you see why heavy workflows are
dramatically cheaper here.

Cloud plans: free gives you 1,000 credits a month for 1 user; Plus is $20 a
month ($16 advertised for annual billing) with 10,000 credits and up to 5
users, plus $0.007 per extra credit; Team is $200 a month with 50,000 credits
and 25 users. AI steps cost 2, 10, or 20 credits depending on the model — or
drop to 1 credit if you bring your own AI key on Plus and above. Pricing moved
from per-active-flow to credits during 2026, so ignore older reviews quoting
the old model.

The catch: the integration catalog is smaller than Make’s or Zapier’s, and the
community is younger. But for the price, it’s the best-kept secret in
automation right now.

Pick ActivePieces if: you want open-source freedom or the
cheapest per-run cloud pricing. Skip it if: you need a
massive integration catalog on day one.

Try ActivePieces free →

⚠️ Don’t start with Pipedream in 2026

Pipedream used to be the developer favorite for code-first automation —
JavaScript or Python at every step, 3,000+ apps. But Workday acquired
Pipedream (deal closed February 24, 2026), and the company confirmed that
Pipedream Workflows and String shut down on March 31, 2027.
New signups are already closed; existing workflows run until the shutdown
date. Starting a new build on a platform with a published sunset date is a
bad bet — pick n8n or ActivePieces for code-friendly automation instead.

So which Relay.app alternative should you actually pick?

Here’s how I’d decide, based on why you’re leaving Relay.app in the first
place:

“The step limits are killing me” →
n8n (per-execution pricing or free self-hosting) or
ActivePieces (one credit per whole run).
“I just want the cheapest real plan” →
Make at $9/mo for 10,000 credits. Nothing else is close.
“I want the easiest thing that works today” →
Zapier. Pay the premium for the catalog and the five-minute
setup.
“I want AI staff, not flowcharts” → Lindy.
Nothing else on this list does the AI-employee thing.
“I want AI automation without API-key plumbing” →
Gumloop. $37/mo flat, models bundled, unlimited seats.
“My automation lives in the browser” →
Bardeen. Scraping and enrichment is its home turf.
“I want open source and a tiny bill” →
ActivePieces self-hosted (free) or Plus at $20/mo.

My personal take? For most people reading this, the answer is
Make if you want cheap and visual, or n8n if
you’re technical and hate per-step metering. Those two cover 80% of the “I’m
leaving Relay.app” use cases I hear about.

FAQ

Is Relay.app still worth it in 2026?

Honestly, yes — for the right person. If human-in-the-loop approvals are your
core need and 750 steps a month covers your volume, the $19/mo annual
Professional plan is fair. The problem is only that the meter runs fast, and
the AI-credit figures on Relay’s own materials are confusing (different
sources quote different numbers — check the live pricing page before you
commit). If email automation is your main workflow, our
beehiiv vs Substack comparison
might save you money on that front too.

What’s the cheapest Relay.app alternative?

n8n and ActivePieces are free forever if you self-host. On
managed cloud plans, Make’s Core plan at $9/mo (billed
annually) is the cheapest paid tier on this list, with 10,000 credits
included.

Which alternative is easiest for non-technical users?

Zapier, and it’s not close. Five-minute setups, the biggest
app catalog, and the most tutorials on YouTube. You pay for that convenience
at scale, but getting started has zero friction.

Can I migrate my Relay.app workflows to another tool?

There’s no one-click importer anywhere on this list — you’ll rebuild workflows
by hand. The good news: the concepts (triggers, AI steps, approvals,
branching) map cleanly. Budget an afternoon for your five most important
workflows, and start with the one that touches money or customers.

Why isn’t Pipedream on the list?

Workday acquired Pipedream in February 2026 and the Workflows product shuts
down March 31, 2027, with new signups already closed. Recommending it now
would be doing you dirty — n8n and ActivePieces cover the code-friendly use
case.

The bottom line

Relay.app is a good tool with a metering problem: 200 steps on free, 750 on
Professional, and AI credits that nobody can quite pin down. Every alternative
above solves a different version of that problem — cheaper credits (Make),
per-run pricing (n8n, ActivePieces), bundled AI (Gumloop), actual AI employees
(Lindy), browser-native automation (Bardeen), or just the biggest catalog and
easiest start (Zapier).

Start free everywhere you can, run your real workflow — not a demo — for a
week, and watch the usage meter. The right tool is the one whose meter you
stop noticing. Prices checked November 2, 2026.