Automation and integrations decision
IFTTT
A small, personal automation runner (webhooks, polling, HTTP/email/Docs actions, optional LLM) is realistic to build and maintain by a capable developer; reproducing IFTTT’s large catalog of integrations, mobile apps, and production scale is not practical for a solo builder.
Visit website↗$2.99/mo
$36/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$50one-off30 h to build
$20/mo6 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 9 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All IFTTT alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Run a trigger (webhook or polling), optionally query/transform data (small processor/LLM call), and execute one or more actions (HTTP requests, email, Google Docs append).
What it still won’t have
- Catalog of 1,000+ pre-built service integrations
- Mobile apps and polished multi-platform UX
- Scale and reliability of a large production platform (25M users)
- Pro+ developer platform features and prioritized support
- Built-in rate limits and optimized polling infrastructure
What remains hard
- Integration maintenance
Work smarter with 1,000+ services
- Infrastructure at scale
Expose and expand the reach of your API to an ecosystem of 25M users, thousands of developers, and over 1,000 services.
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 9 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal self-hosted automation runner in Node.js (Express) + Postgres + a single-worker process. Implement: (1) a webhook endpoint to receive trigger payloads and persist events; (2) a scheduled polling worker supporting configurable intervals and polling sources; (3) a mapping layer that substitutes trigger ingredients into action templates; (4) action executors for HTTP POST, SMTP email, and Google Docs append (use Google APIs); (5) an optional LLM transformation step (call OpenAI-compatible API) selectable per Applet. Out of scope: building mobile apps, a marketplace of prebuilt connectors, multi-tenant billing, and a GUI beyond a minimal web form. Include input validation, retries/backoff for failed actions, logging, and unit/integration tests for triggers, mapping, and action execution.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- Hard moats found in the evidence-3
- Evidence score60
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productIFTTT - Automate business & home
- official pricingPlans & Pricing - IFTTT
- official docsEmail AI meeting summaries from new Google Docs notes
- open sourcen8n-io/n8n
- open sourceactivepieces/activepieces
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
