I Love Low-Code Tools

Business owners and corporate folks tend to underestimate the limitations of tools like Make and Zapier. This leads to inefficiencies and costly automations.

And no, I’m not talking about “AI automations”, just pure step functions.

A while back, I built an automation workflow using Python, Google Sheets/App Script, and AWS. To explore the boundaries of Zapier and Make, I converted my fully-code-based automation into these low-code platforms.

Zapier was a big letdown. It’s great for straightforward “when x happens, do y” workflows, but it struggles with custom integrations and complex logic loops or calculations.

Make proved to be more feasible, but it was extremely costly. While it’s better suited for data manipulation, seemingly basic calculations and variable construction transform into multi-step processes that drain account credits.

Ultimately, I found the perfect compromise. Make became my coordinator, extracting and parsing API data. I delegated the calculations to Google Sheets and App Script.

The true beauty of low-code tools lies in their visual nature, not in their ability to handle intricate logic. Don’t waste your credits by breaking up 5 lines of code into 10 steps in your automation. Outsource and orchestrate!

But curious how many people are on the full low-code/no-code train?