Zapier vs. Tray: Which is finest? [2026]

It is easy to let edge circumstances affect your decision-making—considering you want probably the most technical instrument for the few instances your builders will wish to code their approach out of a tricky downside.

And with enterprise software program, it is tempting to imagine it’s a must to select between energy and ease of use. However that is not at all times true. The most effective automation platforms ship each, scaling to satisfy complicated enterprise wants whereas remaining intuitive sufficient for anybody to start out constructing instantly.

You can use both Zapier or Tray for enterprise automation, however whereas Tray is constructed for technical groups, Zapier lets anybody in your group create the automation and AI options they want.

That is the gist, however let’s look somewhat extra at how Zapier and Tray evaluate within the ways in which matter most for enterprise groups.

Desk of contents:

Zapier vs. Tray at a look

Each Zapier and Tray allow you to construct highly effective, complicated automations and AI brokers. The principle distinction is that Zapier is an accessible, no-code platform designed to empower everybody in your group, whereas Tray affords a extra developer-centric automation method.

This is a fast abstract, however hold studying for a deeper comparability.

Tray is just for technical customers; Zapier quickens adoption by empowering everybody

Tray is geared towards technical customers in giant organizations. Whereas builders may really feel at residence, Tray requires navigating complicated choices—together with booleans, question strings, batch sizes, and dependencies—that make it inaccessible to non-technical groups.

Including this stage of complexity could be price it in some circumstances. For instance, Tray helps multi-level nested loops and affords numerous choices for passing information between workflows. You may accomplish one thing related with Sub-Zaps, Looping by Zapier, and Storage by Zapier, however for particularly technical enterprise use circumstances, Tray affords higher precision for builders.

However simply because Tray can deal with complicated edge circumstances does not imply it is your best option on your whole group. By selecting a developer-only automation instrument, you confine all of the vitality, enthusiasm, and concepts round automation and AI to a small set of technical tinkerers in your IT division. Backlogs are an inevitable end result as different departments come to depend on your builders to create and regulate workflows.

Zapier is totally different. Non-technical groups can simply create and handle their very own workflows, making a bottom-up method to automation and AI that accelerates adoption. For instance, your advertising and marketing workforce can use Zapier Copilot to create automations through the use of pure language to explain what they need, like “Convert kind sign-ups into personalised electronic mail sequences.”

After asking a number of inquiries to make clear the integrations and processes wanted, Copilot designs a workflow and suggests subsequent steps.

With Zapier opening the door to automation self-service throughout your group, IT groups can concentrate on the 20% of requests that require {custom} improvement as a substitute of fielding primary assist requests.

Zapier is quicker and simpler to deploy

Zapier Copilot is commonly the quickest approach for non-technical customers to get outcomes, however the remainder of Zapier’s product stack is designed for pace, too.

Take Zapier’s Typeform to Google Sheets template, for instance. Simply join the apps, verify the shape you wish to use, and Zapier robotically pulls your most up-to-date Typeform submissions to streamline the remainder of the setup course of.

As soon as you’ve got created a Google Sheet with acceptable column headings, simply map your Typeform responses to the suitable column in Google Sheets.

And naturally, if you wish to create any variations on this template, you may simply ask Zapier Copilot to create one for you. This ease of use on Zapier extends to even probably the most complicated automations you may construct.

Tray has an equal Add Typeform survey responses to Google Sheets template, however it’s not practically as simple. You should create a Typeform survey and Google Sheet that exactly map to the hardcoded values in Tray’s static template. (For instance, your Typeform survey should particularly embrace the query “What {industry} does your group belong to?“).

As soon as you’ve got used Tray’s static template to confirm that each one your connections, authentications, and triggers work correctly, you should regulate your challenge configuration to “dynamic workflow,” delete all of the content material in your Google Sheet, and submit new questions and responses by way of Typeform.

Tray affords a complete of 250 automation templates, however most are at the least as complicated to implement because the Typeform instance—they usually’re nearly fully geared toward builders designing technical workflows.

A few of Tray’s latest options, like its Agent Builder, are extra geared towards fast deployment. You may launch comparatively rapidly utilizing Tray’s prebuilt brokers and no-code constructing instruments. However it nonetheless requires navigating way more configuration choices than Zapier earlier than publishing, which limits it to builders and extends deployment timelines.

Zapier supplies a complete AI orchestration platform

Zapier began as an automation instrument, however it now affords a much wider suite of capabilities together with:

• Brokers to create your individual AI assistants

• Chatbots for constructing chatbots to embed in your web site

• Tables for storing and managing structured information

• Interfaces for constructing shareable kinds, apps, and portals

• Canvas for visually mapping your corporation processes

Combining these options into holistic workflows is what makes Zapier so highly effective. For instance, Zapier’s Worker Onboarding Template strings collectively Interfaces, Tables, Chatbots, and Zaps to create a holistic onboarding course of. All of this occurs inside Zapier somewhat than requiring exterior instruments.

Even higher, you should utilize Zapier Copilot to create {custom} multi-product workflows that robotically entry any Zapier merchandise you want. Within the instance under—a buyer survey kind that shops responses and sends electronic mail notifications—Copilot recognized that three instruments had been wanted:

• Interfaces to create a customer-facing kind

• Desk to retailer and set up responses

• Zaps and Electronic mail by Zapier to ship outbound electronic mail notifications

Copilot then created a Canvas to orchestrate actions between the totally different merchandise.

With Tray, this course of is way much less built-in. Since Tray would not provide built-in kinds or spreadsheets, you’d need to design a handbook automation connecting a number of third-party companies to gather and retailer your information, then use Tray’s Ship Electronic mail connector to ship a notification.

Whereas Tray does provide enterprise-ready workflows, brokers, and vector tables for AI-native information storage, it is lacking most of the options that make Zapier such a versatile, holistic resolution.

Zapier connects with 20x extra apps than Tray

With over 8,000 integrations, Zapier affords vastly extra pre-built integrations than Tray, which means you are more likely to discover a prepared connector and pre-built workflow for any SaaS instrument you employ. For enterprises that depend on area of interest apps or frequently regulate their tech stacks, this can be a large benefit. With Zapier, it is simply as straightforward to attach industry-specific apps like Wealthbox, a CRM for monetary advisors, as it’s to combine enterprise-standard software program like Salesforce and NetSuite.

Tray affords a a lot smaller collection of round 400 connectors, with a concentrate on enterprise instruments like Wolfram Alpha, SAP, Salesforce, and Qualtrics. Whereas you should utilize Tray’s CDK (Connector Growth Package) to combine with different apps, it is a technical course of requiring JavaScript and TypeScript data.

When APIs change, Zapier robotically maintains the connector so your automations hold working. Tray would not provide automated updates. Whereas it does launch new connector variations when APIs change, Tray depends on customers to manually replace their very own connectors, check them to verify nothing breaks, and roll again to earlier variations if wanted. This provides way more complexity than Zapier’s hands-off method.

Zapier is way less expensive

Tray is a premium, custom-quoted enterprise resolution with pricing beginning at $2,500 per 30 days. A 14-day free trial is accessible upon request, however you should undergo a gross sales engagement course of to get correct pricing primarily based in your utilization and the options you want. Implementation consists of heavy buyer assist, together with resolution architects, to place Tray’s complicated options in place.

Zapier affords that very same enterprise contact—together with technical account managers and {custom} pricing—however solely when you want it. As you get began, you may experiment with Zapier for $19.99/month, and enterprises can allow a workforce of as much as 25 customers to run a pilot beginning at simply $69/month. For organizations scaling up their automation efforts, this makes it way more cost-effective (and sooner) to get began and faster to get to ROI.

This implies a number of enterprise departments can show worth rapidly with Zapier. Relatively than a top-down, IT-led challenge, Zapier affords a lower-risk, distributed method to automation adoption. And since you do not want devoted builders for Zapier, the general price (together with licensing and labor) undercuts Tray by a large margin.

Tray vs. Zapier: Which is finest for your corporation?

Whereas Tray might be the best match for complicated edge circumstances, most organizations will see sooner adoption and higher ROI with Zapier’s bottom-up method to automation, permitting every division to unravel their very own challenges whereas letting the IT workforce keep governance.

Select Zapier if:

• You wish to empower everybody at your organization to create their very own AI and automation options

• You want instant entry to 1000’s of pre-built app connections with out IT bottlenecks

• You are in search of an all-in-one platform with information storage, kind constructing, chatbot constructing, and AI brokers

• You need AI help to speed up workflow creation

Select Tray if:

• Your automation technique is developer-led with centralized IT management

• You require extremely technical workflows with exact information dealing with capabilities

• You’ve gotten the event assets to create and keep {custom} integrations

• You are comfy with longer deployment timelines for extra complicated options

Create a Zapier account to create your individual workflows now, or join with our workforce to see how Zapier can match into your automation technique.

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