September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › GTM data and infrastructure › Automation & iPaaS › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Workflow automation and iPaaS for small business buyers

Asked as “workflow automation and integration platform”, and as “iPaaS”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 54 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
50%
Clear leader
50Make37Zapier06ClickUp07others

50% of first choices, clear leader.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Make50%8%65endorsed leader
02Zapier37%24%67endorsed leader
03ClickUp6%5%20accepted challenger
04n8n2%15%53accepted challenger
05Pabbly Connect2%0%13accepted challenger
06Workato2%60%20criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
08Boomi Enterprise Platform0%64%11criticized challenger
07Microsoft Power Automate0%21%34accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.
Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative70%
Key
01Make50%
02Zapier37%
03ClickUp6%
04n8n2%
05Pabbly Connect2%
06Workato2%
07Microsoft Power Automate0%
08Boomi Enterprise Platform0%

What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Mistral Small, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Workato
60%
12 of 20 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“Workato: It has sales-gated pricing, which can be in the low-thousands per month, making it unsuitable for small businesses.” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Zapier
24%
16 of 67 labels negative · 9 of 12 models
“While it has a free tier, its paid plans can be expensive for small businesses, especially when compared to alternatives like Make.com.” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Microsoft Power Automate
21%
7 of 34 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“but only if you're a Microsoft shop (outside that ecosystem, its non-Microsoft connectors weaken and licensing gets complicated)” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt
n8n
15%
8 of 53 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“n8n has hidden costs too (even though it's "free")... If you're fully non-technical, the "free" price is a trap.” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

20 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 236 links across 122 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Zapier9 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
vendor site · ONES.com7 answers · 17 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Guideflow7 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
vendor site · WorksBuddy4 answers · 7 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Atlassian4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
vendor site · YouTube3 answers · 8 citations · 1 model
vendor site · Activepieces3 answers · 3 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Albato3 answers · 3 citations · 2 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best workflow automation and integration platform”, “workflow automation and integration platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 days
Make make.com50%165135,00012,939,045439,03176
Zapier zapier.com37%222165,0002,1457,333,309$230120
ClickUp clickup.com6%159201,0001,733322,021$1,470120
n8n n8n.io2%127165,0002,786133,59942
Pabbly Connect pabbly.com2%71,300203,5881
Celigo celigo.com2%395,4001409,670$1,09743
Workato workato.com2%14914,80040538,042$20120
Microsoft parent site
Microsoft Power Automate 0%
0%1392,240,000403,136
Monday.com monday.com0%9874,0003,467691,961$164119
Airtable airtable.com0%94165,0002,461143,237118

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 0 of them are among the sites the models cited here. The first result for “best workflow automation and integration platform” is useparagon.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best workflow automation and integration platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which iPaaS would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top workflow automation and integration platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best workflow automation and integration platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a workflow automation and integration platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which workflow automation and integration platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Make, Zapier
One alternativePabbly Connect
ZapierChanged
Six alternativesAlbato, Boomi Enterprise Platform, Jitterbit Harmony, Prismatic, Tray.ai, Workato
Zapier
Three alternativesMake, Monday.com, n8n
Make, Zapier
Two alternativesPabbly Connect, Zoho Flow
no first choiceagainst: GHL, HubSpot Operations Hub, Make, Relay.app, Smartsheet, Zapier
GPT-5.4 miniZapier
Three alternativesMake, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n
Make, WorkatoChanged
Two alternativesBoomi Enterprise Platform, Microsoft Power Automate
against: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Zapier
Three alternativesMake, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n
against: Tray.ai, Workato
Zapier, n8nno first choiceagainst: IFTTT, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, Zapier, n8n
Gemini 3.5 FlashMake, Zapier
Three alternativesHubSpot Operations Hub, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n
MakeChanged
Three alternativesCeligo, Zapier, n8n
Make, Zapier
Three alternativesActivepieces, Zoho Flow, n8n
Make
Two alternativesPabbly Connect, n8n
against: Zapier
Make, Zapier
One alternativen8n
against: Boomi Enterprise Platform, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Workato
against: Boomi Enterprise Platform, Microsoft Power Automate, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Pipedream, Tray.ai, Workato, Zapier, n8n
Perplexity SonarZapier
Three alternativesHubSpot Operations Hub, Make, n8n
ZapierHeld
Three alternativesAPPSeCONNECT, Celigo, Make
Zapier
Seven alternativesAirtable, ClickUp, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, Monday.com, ONES.com, n8n
Make
Three alternativesClickUp, Zapier, n8n
no first choiceagainst: Boomi Enterprise Platform, Kissflow, Lindy, Microsoft Power Automate, SnapLogic, UiPath, Workato, n8n
Grok 4.20Make
Two alternativesZapier, n8n
MakeHeld
Two alternativesPabbly Connect, n8n
against: APPSeCONNECT, Integrately, Zapier
Make, Zapier
Three alternativesMicrosoft Power Automate, Pipedream, n8n
Make
Two alternativesPabbly Connect, n8n
against: Zapier
Make, Zapier
Three alternativesMicrosoft Power Automate, Workato, n8n
against: MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
against: Bardeen, Dell Boomi, Lindy, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Workato, Zapier, n8n
Mistral SmallMake
Four alternativesMicrosoft Power Automate, Pabbly Connect, Zapier, n8n
ZapierChanged
Three alternativesCeligo, Make, Rapidi
Make
Six alternativesClickUp, Microsoft Power Automate, Monday.com, Pabbly Connect, Zapier, n8n
ClickUp
Three alternativesMake, Zapier, n8n
Make, Zapier
Two alternativesClickUp, Monday.com
against: Air.ai, ClickUp, DoNotPay, Ecommerce Empire Builders, FBA Machine, Passive Scaling, Pipefy, Trello, Workato, n8n
DeepSeek V4 FlashMake
One alternativeZapier
against: n8n
MakeHeld
Three alternativesCeligo, Zapier, n8n
Make
Five alternativesAirtable, ClickUp, Monday.com, Zapier, n8n
against: IFTTT
Make
Three alternativesClickUp, Pabbly Connect, n8n
against: Zapier
Make
Two alternativesZapier, n8n
against: Boomi Enterprise Platform, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Tray.ai, Workato
against: Boomi Enterprise Platform, Celigo, IFTTT, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Workato, Zapier, n8n
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceZapierChangedZapier
Four alternativesClickUp, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n
ClickUp, Pabbly Connect, Zapierno first choiceagainst: Beam.ai, GetDynamiq, Workato, Zapier
Qwen 3.7 FlashMake
Three alternativesMicrosoft Power Automate, Zapier, n8n
Make, ZapierChanged
Four alternativesAlbato, Boomi Enterprise Platform, Celigo, Jitterbit Harmony
Make, Zapier
One alternativen8n
against: Microsoft Power Automate
ClickUp, Zapier
Two alternativesMake, n8n
no first choiceagainst: Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, UiPath
Kimi K2Make
Two alternativesZapier, n8n
MakeHeld
Two alternativesCeligo, Zapier
Make, Zapier
Three alternativesClickUp, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n
Make
Two alternativesActivepieces, n8n
against: IFTTT, Zapier
Make
One alternativen8n
against: Boomi Enterprise Platform, Tray.ai, Workato, Zapier
against: Microsoft Power Automate, Tray.ai, Workato, Zapier
GLM 4.7 FlashXZapier
Two alternativesMake, n8n
ZapierHeld
Two alternativesMake, iPaaS.com
no first choice
Seven alternativesAirtable, ClickUp, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, Monday.com, Zapier, n8n
Make
One alternativen8n
against: Zapier
Make
Three alternativesClickUp, Microsoft Power Automate, Zapier
against: Kissflow, Workato
against: Make, Pipedream, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, UiPath, Zapier
MiniMax M2.5Zapier
Three alternativesHubSpot Workflows, Make, Microsoft Power Automate
Celigo, ZapierChanged
Two alternativesMake, SyncApps
Zapier
Four alternativesClickUp, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, n8n
Make
Two alternativesMicrosoft Power Automate, n8n
no first choiceagainst: Activepieces, Boomi Enterprise Platform, Make, Microsoft Power Automate, MuleSoft Anypoint Platform, Pipedream, SnapLogic, Supermetrics, Zapier, n8n
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:21no05 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:57yes64 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 05:06yes922 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:31yes204 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:28yes010 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:58yes010 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-14 23:13yes017 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:40yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 03:06yes021 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:37yes0102 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:44yes041 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 02:33yes010 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:58yes137 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:22no04 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:27yes619 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:18yes205 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:05yes08 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:58yes06 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 03:29yes032 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:17yes01 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:13yes033 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:11yes029 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 01:52yes017 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:04yes013 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:42yes711 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:49yes36 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:04yes1019 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:30yes199 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:59yes09 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:34yes011 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 05:06yes024 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:54yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:15yes032 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:56yes031 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:38yes059 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 22:57yes010 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:06yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:23yes25 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 01:04yes920 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:36yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-14 23:56yes07 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:28yes04 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:05yes024 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:28yes01 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:33yes019 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:05yes030 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:10yes024 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:21no09 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:18no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 00:42no07 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 02:24yes924 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:37yes206 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:10yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:06yes09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 02:14yes019 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:49yes02 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 00:44yes047 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 02:14yes030 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:19yes052 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:59yes017 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 01:56yes1412 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 01:29yes46 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:57yes1622 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 22:51yes208 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 04:01yes012 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:58yes017 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 01:58yes036 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:49yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:40yes024 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:18yes081 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 05:03yes049 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:17yes022 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Boomi read as Boomi Enterprise Platform
Boomi (formerly Dell Boomi) read as Boomi Enterprise Platform
HubSpot read as HubSpot Operations Hub
Jitterbit read as Jitterbit Harmony
MuleSoft read as MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
MuleSoft (Anypoint Platform) read as MuleSoft Anypoint Platform
Unresolved, counted raw
Apideck
Beam.ai
Coherence
DBSync
GHL (GoHighLevel)
GetDynamiq
Munro Agency
Passive Scaling
Rapidi
Relay
SyncApps
Unified.to
iPaaS.com
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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