Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Short-term (< 3 months)
When I started working with a B2B startup on what seemed like a simple website project, I had no idea I'd end up rebuilding their entire automation infrastructure three times. What began as a straightforward site revamp quickly revealed a deeper problem: their client operations were scattered across HubSpot and Slack, creating unnecessary friction in their workflow.
Every time they closed a deal, someone had to manually create a Slack group for the project. Small task? Maybe. But multiply that by dozens of deals per month, and you've got hours of repetitive work that could be automated. That's when I discovered the world of automation platforms - starting with something called an "Integromat scenario."
But here's what no tutorial tells you: choosing the wrong automation platform isn't just about wasted setup time. It's about watching your client's productivity gains disappear when the system breaks down, again and again. Through my journey across Make.com (formerly Integromat), N8N, and finally Zapier, I learned that the "best" automation tool isn't the one with the most features - it's the one your team can actually use.
In this playbook, you'll discover:
What Integromat scenarios actually are and why they evolved into Make
My real-world testing of all three major automation platforms for the same use case
Why the cheapest option nearly destroyed my client relationship
The decision framework I now use to choose automation tools for any business
When team autonomy matters more than advanced features
Platform Evolution
What most business owners need to know about automation tools
The business automation space loves to sell you on features. Every platform promises to be the "most powerful," "most intuitive," or "most affordable" solution for connecting your apps and automating workflows.
Here's what the industry typically tells you about automation platforms:
Start with the cheapest option - platforms like Make.com offer lower pricing, so why pay more?
Power users need advanced platforms - tools like N8N give you unlimited customization if you have technical skills
Popular equals better - Zapier dominates the market, so it must be the best choice
Focus on feature lists - compare integrations, triggers, and actions to make your decision
Set it and forget it - once your automation works, you won't need to touch it again
This conventional wisdom exists because most content about automation tools is written by people who've never actually implemented them in real business environments. They're comparing features on paper, not dealing with the reality of team adoption, error handling, and long-term maintenance.
What they miss is the human factor. The most sophisticated automation in the world is worthless if your team can't troubleshoot it when something goes wrong. And trust me, something always goes wrong.
An "Integromat scenario" was the original term for what we now call a "Make scenario" - essentially a visual workflow that connects different apps to automate business processes. But understanding the tool is just the beginning. The real challenge is building automations that your business can actually live with long-term.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The project started simple enough: revamp a B2B startup's website. But as I dove deeper into their operations, I discovered they were drowning in manual tasks. Every time they closed a deal in HubSpot, someone had to manually create a Slack group for the project team. It sounds trivial, but with dozens of deals per month, this "small" task was eating up hours of productivity.
My client asked if I could automate this process. "Sure," I said, thinking it would be a quick add-on to the website project. Little did I know I was about to embark on a journey through three different automation platforms that would teach me everything about what actually matters in business automation.
This was a fast-growing B2B startup where agility mattered more than perfection. They needed solutions that could scale with their team, not break every time they hit a growth spurt. The automation had to be simple enough that their non-technical team members could understand and modify it when needed.
But here's where I made my first mistake: I chose the automation platform based on price rather than fit. Make.com (formerly Integromat) had the most attractive pricing structure, and their "scenarios" - visual workflows that connect different apps - seemed powerful enough for what we needed.
The setup went smoothly. Creating an Integromat scenario was actually quite intuitive. When a deal marked as "closed-won" in HubSpot, it would automatically create a Slack channel with the deal name, invite the relevant team members, and even post an initial message with project details. It worked beautifully in testing.
Then reality hit. The first time Make.com encountered an error - maybe HubSpot was temporarily down, or someone had a typo in an email address - the entire workflow stopped. Not just that specific task, but the whole automation. Deals were closing, but no Slack channels were being created. The client didn't realize this for three days, and suddenly they had a backlog of manual setup work.
That's when I learned my first lesson: error handling isn't a feature comparison checkbox. It's the difference between automation that enhances your business and automation that breaks it.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
After the Make.com experience, I knew I needed a more robust solution. That's when I discovered N8N, an open-source automation platform that promised ultimate flexibility and reliability. If Make.com was too simple, N8N would give us the power to handle any scenario.
Setting up N8N required more technical knowledge, but the control was incredible. I could build complex conditional logic, implement proper error handling, and customize every aspect of the workflow. For the same HubSpot-to-Slack automation, I created multiple fallback paths, retry mechanisms, and detailed logging.
The automation worked flawlessly for months. But then came the maintenance requests. "Can we add the deal value to the Slack message?" "What if we want to invite different people based on deal size?" "Can we integrate with our new project management tool?"
Every small change required my intervention. The interface, while powerful, wasn't intuitive for non-developers. I became the bottleneck in their automation workflow. The client was paying for my time every time they wanted to tweak something that should have been simple.
That's when I realized the fundamental flaw in my approach: I was optimizing for technical capability instead of team autonomy. The best automation platform isn't the one that can do everything - it's the one your team can manage themselves.
For the final migration, I chose Zapier. Yes, it was more expensive. Yes, it had fewer "advanced" features than N8N. But it had something the others lacked: user-friendly interfaces that my client's team could actually navigate.
Setting up the Zapier automation was straightforward, but the real test came with the first modification request. Instead of calling me, the client's operations manager opened Zapier, found the relevant "Zap," and made the change herself. She could see each step of the workflow, understand the logic, and modify it without technical expertise.
This wasn't just about the specific HubSpot-Slack integration anymore. It was about building a sustainable automation infrastructure that could grow and adapt with the business. The extra cost of Zapier was quickly offset by the reduced maintenance overhead and increased team autonomy.
My framework for choosing automation platforms now focuses on three key factors: reliability under stress, team usability, and total cost of ownership (including maintenance time). The "best" platform depends entirely on your team's technical capacity and business priorities.
Error Handling
Make.com stopped everything when one step failed. N8N required complex setup for proper error handling. Zapier handled errors gracefully with clear notifications.
Team Autonomy
N8N required developer intervention for every change. Zapier's interface allowed non-technical team members to modify workflows independently.
Total Cost
Make.com was cheapest upfront but cost more in downtime. N8N was free but expensive in maintenance time. Zapier's higher price was offset by reduced support needs.
Migration Lessons
Each platform migration taught me that feature lists don't predict real-world performance. User adoption and error recovery matter more than advanced capabilities.
The results were dramatic, but not in the way I expected. The final Zapier implementation wasn't technically superior to the N8N version - in fact, it had fewer features and less customization. But the business impact was significantly better.
Within the first month, my client's team made seven modifications to the automation workflow without calling me once. They added new integrations, modified message templates, and adjusted trigger conditions. This level of independence was impossible with the previous platforms.
The reliability difference was equally striking. Over six months, the Zapier automation had zero failures that required manual intervention. When errors did occur - usually due to temporary API issues - the system handled them gracefully with automatic retries and clear notifications to the team.
But the most unexpected result was how this automation success influenced the client's broader operations. Seeing how easily they could modify workflows, they started automating other processes: invoice generation, customer onboarding, and project status updates. What started as a single HubSpot-Slack integration became the foundation for their entire operational efficiency strategy.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
This experience taught me that choosing automation platforms is fundamentally about understanding constraints - both technical and human. Here are the key lessons that now guide every automation project I take on:
Team capability trumps platform capability - The most powerful platform is useless if your team can't operate it independently
Error handling is make-or-break - How a platform handles failures matters more than how many integrations it offers
Price comparisons miss the hidden costs - Factor in setup time, maintenance overhead, and team training when calculating true cost
Start with the team, not the tool - Assess your team's technical comfort level before evaluating platform features
Migration is expensive - Choose carefully the first time, because switching platforms later is painful and time-consuming
Simplicity scales better than complexity - Simple automations that work consistently beat sophisticated ones that break regularly
User adoption predicts success - If your team doesn't use the automation tools, your automation strategy will fail
The Integromat scenario concept was brilliant - visual workflows that connect apps through conditional logic. But execution matters more than concept, and execution depends heavily on choosing the right platform for your specific constraints.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups implementing automation:
Start with customer success workflows (trial-to-paid, onboarding sequences)
Prioritize CRM integrations for lead scoring and nurturing
Choose platforms your support team can modify without developer help
For your Ecommerce store
For ecommerce stores implementing automation:
Focus on order fulfillment and customer communication workflows
Integrate inventory management with marketing platforms
Ensure your team can adjust seasonal campaign automations quickly