Microsoft Power Automate vs Zapier

Microsoft Power Automate

Approval processes can be created, managed and shared, templates for common scenarios exist, and the product interoperates with Excel, OneDrive and Teams. But the captured pages stop at that level: I found no public information on a visual designer's conditions and parallel paths, forms with validation, deadlines, substitutes, or how a new version treats process instances already running.

Zapier

The visual editor with paths, filters, looping and scheduling, plus Forms with conditional logic, covers branching automation well, and a documented REST API even builds workflows step by step up to a 25-step ceiling. We found no public information on approval steps assigned to roles, substitutes, deadlines or escalation chains, and nothing on keeping a running process on its original version while a business owner changes the definition — that is the part I need before letting a process owner near a live workflow.

Microsoft Power Automate

The catalogue is real — more than 1,400 certified connectors with Dynamics 365, SAP and Salesforce named, an SAP procurement template, and custom connectors for any cloud application — and the on-premise story is the one I want: one installed gateway serves Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate and Azure Logic Apps, with credentials encrypted in the cloud and decrypted only on the gateway machine, reaching local data sources without moving the data. What the pages count rather than document is the layer I buy by: per-connector triggers and actions, a generic HTTP or webhook step, an API to start or query workflows, a DATEV connector, and who maintains each connector.

Zapier

The webhook step, "Connect to any API without writing code", and a REST API for creating fully configured workflows give me the generic escape hatch, and custom integrations can be built in code on the CLI with full HTTP control including middleware. What holds it down: we found no public information on connectors to ERP or accounting systems common in DACH such as SAP or DATEV, on an on-premise agent that reaches internal databases and file shares without a hole in the firewall, or on SOAP and database steps, and connector maintenance ownership is not shown either way.

Microsoft Power Automate

Unattended execution exists and is priced — the Process licence covers a bot for unbeaufsichtigte Desktopflows oder Cloudflows usable by unlimited users — so runs do happen with nobody at the desk. On what happens when a step fails at 3 a.m. I found no public information in the captured pages: nothing on retries, error paths, failure alerts, searchable execution history, rate limits or a status page.

Zapier

Automatic retries on throttling, auth-refresh and retry on 401 responses, an execution history with per-request logs filterable by timeframe and user, email alerts on failure, and task limits per plan put solid operational basics on the page. We found no public information on replaying a failed run from the failing step — the documented behaviour is that the workflow pauses until manually re-enabled — nor on queueing and concurrency controls, a public status page or an uptime commitment.

Microsoft Power Automate

Managed environments are offered for mehr Sichtbarkeit und Kontrolle, flows can be shared with employees and groups as owners, the gateway standard mode gives per-data-source access control for multiple users, and purchases are gated by Global Administrator or Billing Administrator roles in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. What a works council and an auditor need is not on these pages: I found no public information on SSO, an audit trail of changes and approvals, publishing between separate environments, or retention and redaction of payload data in the execution log.

Zapier

SAML-based SSO with SCIM provisioning, shared team folders with admin and collaborator roles, granular per-member permissions across 66,000+ triggers and actions, an admin view of every run with its owner, and shorter execution-data retention on Company and Enterprise are all evidenced. We found no public information on separate development, test and production environments with a publishing approval, external secret stores or published certifications; the SDK permission rules are explicitly guardrails on one's own credentials rather than an organisation-wide policy, which matters to a works council.

Microsoft Power Automate

The vendor's own FAQ answers the on-premises question with Nein, Power Automate ist ein Clouddienst — the engine runs in Microsoft's cloud, and the on-premise option is a data gateway for connecting to local services, not hosting the engine locally. I found no public information on exporting workflow definitions in a documented format, an API to read definitions and execution history, or a self-hosted edition; the privacy statement says data may be stored in the user's region, the United States or other jurisdictions.

Zapier

Zap workflows, Zap history and account data can be exported, integration code can live in the team's source control repository with conversion between the UI and CLI in both directions, and the terms allow export before deletion when switching providers. The engine itself is documented as operated from a cloud service located in the United States, and we found no public information on an EU region or a self-hosted edition, so the workflows run where the vendor runs them.

Microsoft Power Automate

The legal notice names Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond as provider under § 5 DDG and states that Microsoft Deutschland GmbH is not the provider, while the privacy statement separately names Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited as a privacy contact — the captured pages give different signals on the entity an EU customer actually deals with. Execution and log storage are not pinned down either: personal data may be stored in Ihrer Region, in den Vereinigten Staaten und in jeder anderen Rechtsordnung, the statement allows customer data to train Microsoft's AI models, and I found no public information on a subprocessor list or where workflow payloads and AI steps are processed.

Zapier

A privacy policy and a data processing addendum exist, the GDPR roles are stated with the customer as data exporter and Zapier as data importer, and a DORA addendum is offered for EU financial entities — but the contracting entity is Zapier, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and the service is documented as operated from a cloud located in the United States. We found no public information on EU execution, an EU contracting entity or a published subprocessor list covering the processing chain; the third parties named on the privacy page are advertising and analytics providers.

Microsoft Power Automate

Two tiers are public with unit, period and VAT treatment: 13,00 € Benutzer/Monat, jährliche Abrechnung for Premium and 130,00 € Bot/Monat for Process with unlimited users per bot, both Preise zzgl. MwSt., plus a 30-day trial including premium features. Computability ends at the allowance — the number of flows hängt von der Art der Lizenz ab — and I found no public information on overage pricing, what counts as one execution, or separate add-on and premium-connector costs.

Zapier

The billing unit is unusually well defined: triggers, polling checks and a whole list of utility steps are documented as not counting as tasks, one MCP tool call uses two tasks, and tasks are shared across the account — a buyer can tell what a run will cost in units. What holds it back: Professional is quoted "Starting from $19.99 /month" and Team "Starting from $69 /month" without the per-tier task allowances, the pay-per-task overage is described only as a higher per-task rate than base subscription tasks without a per-unit price, Enterprise is "Contact for pricing", and taxes are the customer's responsibility on top.