Zapier Alternative: Elaichi vs Zapier

Elaichi is a Zapier alternative for teams whose automation runs beside AI clients. Once Claude and ChatGPT join the Zaps, three questions matter: who a step runs as, who approved it and who can see the result.

Picture an operations lead at a 200-person company who runs the business on Zaps. Then the company adds Claude and ChatGPT. That is the case where Elaichi is worth testing.

This post covers Zaps, Zapier Agents, Tables, Forms and Zapier MCP. For the AI-client side alone, read the Zapier MCP alternative comparison. For a second hosted gateway set against Zapier MCP, read this three-way MCP comparison. MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the standard way an AI assistant calls tools in other apps.

Is Elaichi a Zapier alternative for AI work?

Yes, for teams whose automation runs beside AI clients and needs per-person rules. Workflows, approvals, shared tables, dashboards, knowledge bases and the Elaichi Agent come with the Black plan. They sit on top of Elaichi's governed MCP endpoint. Zapier stays the broader automation catalog.

	Zapier	Elaichi
Workflows	Zaps: one trigger plus actions, with Paths, Delay and autoreplay; Free is two-step	Built as drafts, test-run, published as versions; 7 trigger types, up to 50 steps
AI agent	Zapier Agents (billed in activities), moving into AI by Zapier steps (billed in tasks)	The Elaichi Agent in the console and in Slack, included with Black
Tables and dashboards	Tables (500,000 records on Team) and Forms, formerly Interfaces	Collections up to 1,000,000 rows; dashboards over collections or live connector data
Governance per user and per role	Member, Admin, Owner (Super admin on Enterprise); app allow list and action restrictions on Enterprise	Restrictions on a role or one member, down to one tool; custom roles; SSO and SCIM
Audit	Account audit log on Team (6 months) and Enterprise (1 year); MCP History tab	one entry for each connected-tool call that reaches execution (a call refused earlier writes none), on every plan
Approvals	Human in the Loop step on paid plans; approval of Zap changes on Enterprise (beta)	Approve steps to named people or teams, in the console or Slack; only a person answers
Hosting	AWS US-East 1, multi-tenant; other regions only by agreement	EU, US or APAC, chosen at creation
App count	9,000+ apps	650+ connectors, plus your own remote MCP servers
Pricing	Task tiers per account; Team from $69 a month billed yearly, 2,000 tasks, 25 users	$24 per user per month in USD ($18 billed yearly), plus run time and storage past a free allowance

The Zapier column follows Zapier's own pricing page, its audit log article and its MCP security page, checked November 2026. Elaichi's prices are US-dollar list prices. /pricing/ shows the price for your country.

Everything in one place, with the AI you already use

Elaichi keeps connectors, workflows, collections, dashboards, knowledge bases and AI in one workspace. It all runs under one set of rules and one bill. The team brings its own AI. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client connects at https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp as its one address. Beside them sits the Elaichi Agent, in the app and in Slack.

Here is the chain for Emily Carter's support team:

• A workflow calls the Zendesk and Slack connectors. It writes each escalation as a row in a collection, which is a shared table.
• A dashboard reads that collection. It can also read live data through a read-only toolbox tool. A toolbox is a set of tools picked for one job.
• A knowledge base at Connect, then Knowledge, answers the team's questions. A document a workflow writes waits for a person to mark it reviewed.
• Any of those AIs builds, tests and reads all of it through the same operations.

The rules are the same wherever a call starts. A restriction is a rule that limits which connectors and tools a person may use. Every connected-tool call Elaichi runs passes one restriction check. The check runs for the member the call acts as. A restricted tool is left out of the tools Elaichi offers a client and cannot be called. Search still names it, flagged restricted, with no schema. The person can file an access request for an admin to decide. The same audit log records the call, and the same approvals gate the writes. One bill covers seats plus pooled usage.

The Agent runs on the organization's own AI provider keys, one key per provider. The Agent and workflow agent steps offer the same models. Zapier sells Agents as an add-on billed in activities, with Chatbots on separate plans. Zaps and Zapier MCP share the task pool (Zapier, pricing and Agents usage, checked November 2026).

How do Zaps and Elaichi workflows differ?

Zapier optimizes for reach and ease. Elaichi optimizes for whose access a run uses and who signs off on it.

Zapier describes a Zap as a trigger and one or more actions. Paths branch it. Delay holds it for up to 30 days. Human in the Loop pauses it for a reviewer. Autoreplay retries errored runs, and versions roll back. Tasks are Zapier's billing unit. Triggers, Filter, Paths, Delay, Tables and Forms steps use no tasks (Zapier, task usage and Paths, checked November 2026).

An Elaichi workflow lives at Automate, then Workflows. It is built as a draft and tried with a test run. Then it is published as a numbered version and turned on. An older version can be restored.

A workflow takes up to five triggers. The seven types are manual, cron, one scheduled time, webhook, Slack, a collection row change and another workflow's run. Cron is a repeating schedule. A webhook is a message an app sends to a web address when something happens. There is no trigger for an event inside a connected app. A new Salesforce deal reaches a workflow only through a webhook to the workflow's own address.

Real runs act as the owner, with the owner's connections and access. Restrictions on the owner apply while the run goes. Elaichi re-checks the owner about every minute. If they lose access, the run fails and the workflow pauses. A write whose outcome is uncertain is never retried. It ends as outcome_unknown, for a person to check.

Can your own AI write and test an Elaichi workflow before it goes live?

Yes. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client, or the Elaichi Agent, drafts the workflow and checks it. Then it test-runs the workflow on real data before a person publishes it. Every write is held back during the test, and the test costs no run time.

Over MCP, the client calls elaichi__automation__draft__create, then draft__validate, then dry_run against your real data. In the console, the same test is "Test run (changes nothing)" in the Run now dialog.

The test is honest about what it touches. Tools that only read run for real, as the person running the test. Tool calls that write are recorded as what would have been called, and never sent. The same goes for collection writes, state writes and knowledge writes. A notify step sends nothing.

A webhook trigger has its address while the workflow is still a draft. Deliveries to it are kept as samples, up to five for seven days. A test run can replay one as the trigger's payload. So Jake Morgan can let his AI build a Stripe-to-collection workflow. Then he replays a real Stripe event through it before it runs once.

Only then does a person publish it as a numbered version and turn it on. In the Elaichi Agent, validating and a test run need no approval. Publishing or turning on a workflow asks every time and can never be remembered. If version 4 misbehaves, Details, then Versions, then "Restore this version" puts version 3 back. Dashboards follow the same draft and publish pattern.

What replaces Zapier Agents and AI by Zapier?

The Elaichi Agent replaces both. It comes with the Black plan and works in the console and in Slack.

Zapier is migrating Agents from agents.zapier.com into AI by Zapier, a step inside the Zap editor. It has set no date to turn Agents off. Agents bill in activities. Agents Pro is $50 a month, or $33.33 billed yearly, for 1,500 activities. AI by Zapier bills in tasks instead and adds per-tool approvals. It pauses a run past 75 tasks by default (Zapier, migration guide and pricing, checked November 2026).

The Elaichi Agent opens from the Agent row at the top of the sidebar, for anyone who holds tool:execute. Before a write, it shows an approval card with "Deny", "Allow once" and, when the action can be remembered, "Always allow". The organization's automatic-writes setting is off by default. In Slack, people tag @Elaichi in a channel, a direct message or Slack's agent panel. They reach the same Agent.

The Agent also checks tool results for prompt injection, which is hidden instructions inside data. When that check stops a write, the audit log records it. One limit to plan around: Elaichi does not browse, search or fetch the web for a workflow or the Elaichi Agent. A run that needs a web page needs a connector or a webhook that brings the data in.

Tables and Forms vs collections and dashboards

Both products pair automation with a place to keep data. Zapier's Tables and Forms are free inside Zaps. Elaichi's collections and dashboards add per-person sharing and live connector data.

Zapier Tables holds 2,500 records on Free, 100,000 on Professional and 500,000 on Team. Zapier renamed Interfaces to Forms. Forms are free, with 10 to 150 pages by plan. Until December 1, 2026, each Tables or Forms call through Zapier MCP costs two tasks. After that date, Zapier says those calls are free (Zapier, Tables, Forms and Next Gen Zap billing, checked November 2026).

An Elaichi collection is a shared table, or up to 20 tables shared together, at Automate, then Collections. One collection holds up to 1,000,000 rows and 1 GB. It is shared at view, use or edit. Row history is off until someone turns it on. Then it keeps 1 to 365 days of versions, and any version can be restored.

A dashboard at Automate, then Dashboards reads a collection, workflow runs, or live data from a read-only toolbox tool. A collection widget is read for each viewer as that viewer. So two people can see different rows. A public link shares a captured copy, never live access. Links stay off until an admin turns them on. Each link expires after 90 days by default.

Governance per user and per role

Zapier governs at the account and the workspace. Elaichi governs at the role and the member, down to a single tool.

Zapier Team has three roles: Member, Admin and Owner. Enterprise adds Super admin. App access controls, action restrictions, SCIM, custom data retention and Workspaces sit on Enterprise. Enterprise accounts created on or after October 5, 2026 start with an empty allowed-apps list. Zapier says its MCP restrictions apply account-wide, not to MCP alone (Zapier, members, app access and MCP security, checked November 2026).

In Elaichi, restrictions decide which connectors and which individual tools a target may reach. Who they apply to is simple: restriction targets are role or user only; the organization default is the absence of a rule, which means allow everything. A rule aimed at a member can only narrow what their role allows, and never replaces or loosens a role rule. A role or restriction change takes effect within about two minutes. Removing a member is faster: removing or suspending a member revokes every live grant in the same transaction as the membership change.

SSO with SAML or OIDC, SCIM and group-to-role mapping come with Gold, so Black has them too. SSO is one company sign-in. SCIM adds and removes users from your identity provider.

Black adds spend controls. A workflow takes its own run-time limit. The usage budget sits in Settings, under Billing. A step that calls a payment tool must declare the amount, currency and payee. The person who started the run never counts as an approver.

Audit and approvals in Elaichi

Elaichi records each connected-tool call that reaches execution. A workflow asks a person before a risky step. Zapier keeps an admin-event audit log on Team and Enterprise, and MCP calls in a History tab.

Zapier's audit log records admin events, such as a member creating a Zap. On Team only the owner opens it, and it keeps 6 months. On Enterprise a super admin or owner opens it, and it keeps a year. Log streams to your own endpoint are Enterprise only (Zapier, audit log and pricing, checked November 2026).

Elaichi's audit log, the record of who did what, keeps one entry for each connected-tool call that reaches execution (a call refused earlier writes none). Over MCP, a call from an MCP client is recorded under the person who signed in, with surface mcp and the OAuth client named. Elaichi keeps 90 days of audit history. Beyond the in-app trail, export to your own Datadog comes with the Black plan. For key custody, customer-managed keys in AWS KMS come with the Black plan.

An approve step asks named people or teams. They answer on the Approvals page, in Slack or through an emailed console link. A Slack card has Approve and Reject buttons only when no destructive step waits behind it. Only a person can answer. No AI client, Agent or workflow approves its own work.

What does each one cost per seat and per task?

Zapier sells task tiers to an account. The Black plan sells seats, plus the minutes a workflow spends working. The two bills grow on different axes.

Zapier Professional starts at $19.99 a month billed yearly, or $29.99 monthly. That buys 750 tasks and one user. Team starts at $69 yearly or $103.50 monthly, for 2,000 tasks and 25 users. Past the limit, pay-per-task billing runs at a higher, unpublished rate, up to three times the plan's limit. Each successful Zapier MCP call uses two tasks (Zapier, pricing and pay-per-task, checked November 2026).

The Black plan lists at $24 per user per month in USD, or $18 billed yearly ($216 a year). Usage beyond 1,000 run minutes and 1 GB-month of storage costs extra. That allowance is pooled across the organization. Past it, a run minute is $0.02 and a GB-month is $5. Only working time counts, so waiting and test runs cost nothing. You pay per user, never for the AI apps working for them. Guests, Billing Admins and Auditors take no seat.

Every new workspace starts on a 14-day Black trial, no credit card to start. Buying Gold or Black during the trial keeps its remaining days rather than granting a fresh 14, so it is one continuous trial, and the seats are first charged when it ends. A workspace that buys nothing moves to the free Personal plan. Nothing is deleted. The trial is the Black plan itself, so every Black feature is on. That includes workflows, collections, dashboards, knowledge bases and the Elaichi Agent. It has one limit. The free monthly usage of 1,000 run minutes and 1 GB is a hard stop until you buy Black. /pricing/ shows the price for your own country and currency.

Where Zapier really wins

Zapier wins on reach, on app-event triggers and on a free start for one person. If those are what you need, stay on Zapier.

Zapier connects 9,000+ apps, the most of any automation tool by its own count. Its polling triggers start a Zap from an event inside an app, with no webhook to set up. Webhooks by Zapier connects any app with a web API, while an Elaichi workflow has no fetch step. A Free plan, a 14-day Professional trial and no-code setup let one person start alone (Zapier, pricing and apps, checked November 2026).

Zapier also has a template library, Chatbots, Canvas and an SDK. Enterprise adds log streams to Datadog or Splunk, and model choice through AWS Bedrock (Zapier, pricing and templates, checked November 2026). Elaichi does not match that breadth.

You do not need Elaichi when three things are true. One person automates their own accounts. Every app is already connected in Zapier. And nobody asks who may reach what. Elaichi's catalog also lists Zapier as a native MCP connector. So a team can keep Zapier and put its MCP server behind Elaichi's sign-in, access rules and audit log.

Switch to Elaichi if

Switch when the people running your AI clients outnumber the people building automations. Then rules per role and approvals per step matter more than app count.

• People on Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client need one address, https://api.elaichi.ai/mcp, with restrictions per role or per member down to one tool.
• A workflow must run with its owner's access and stop when that owner loses it.
• A write needs a named person to approve it in the console or Slack. An AI must never approve its own step.
• Finance wants a bill that tracks headcount and working minutes, not task counts.
• Your data store must sit in the EU or the US.

Start a 14-day free trial of Black with no card. It is the full Black plan, with every feature on, up to 1,000 run minutes and 1 GB until you buy. Or read what Black includes first. To build one, follow the workflows guide. Check your apps against the connector catalog. The wider category is in what an MCP control plane is.