A Zapier alternative whose workflows are real backends.

Air Pipe runs the work you would put in Zapier — schedules, webhooks, multi-step flows — and what you ship at the end is a real service: your own database, your own auth, an OpenAPI document and a trace for every request. Billed per request, not per task.

Workflows that are real backends

Cron schedules, webhooks and branching flows are the same declarative config as your HTTP endpoints — with your database behind them, auth in front, and durable state between runs. You get the automation and the service, not one bolted onto the other.

• Cron schedules, retries with backoff, branching and durable state
• Your own Postgres / MySQL / Mongo, not only SaaS connectors
• Config you own and can review in a pull request

Observable by default

Every endpoint ships OpenTelemetry traces, Prometheus metrics and OpenAPI docs automatically. You can see exactly what ran and why — instead of debugging a run history in a dashboard.

Priced per request, not per task

Zapier bills per action, so a three-step Zap costs about two tasks every run. Air Pipe charges one request unit for the whole request — a trigger plus up to 1000ms of execution — however many steps run inside.

• Zapier Professional: $19.99/mo billed yearly for 750 tasks — roughly 375 runs
• Air Pipe Starter: $19/mo for 5,000 requests — about 13× the runs at the same price
• Free tiers: Zapier gives 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only. Air Pipe gives 3,000 full requests, no step limit

You don't have to write the config

Describe the automation in plain English and Air Pipe generates the config, then you deploy it. The same is true of the marketplace: fork a pack, set two variables, run it. What you end up with is still a readable file you can diff and review — the difference from a canvas is that a non-engineer can produce it and an engineer can still audit it.

Your data, your infrastructure

Run on our managed cloud or self-host the single binary anywhere. Your data stays on your infrastructure — a different trust model from a fully hosted SaaS.

Realtime your app's users connect to

The same backend also serves realtime — WebSocket and MQTT pub/sub with presence, history-rewind and retained messages — that your website's users subscribe to directly. A SaaS-automation tool moves data between apps on triggers and schedules; it doesn't give your product a realtime channel layer. In Air Pipe it's the same config that serves your endpoints, and your pipeline runs on every message.

• WebSocket channels and a real MQTT broker in the same config
• Presence, history-rewind, retained — your logic runs on each message
• End-users connect with their own token, or fully open — no org key in the browser

When Zapier is the better answer

If your automation is mostly gluing SaaS products together — a form to a spreadsheet to a chat message — Zapier's connector library is thousands deep and we don't claim parity on it. Air Pipe is the better fit when the automation has quietly become part of your product: a real endpoint, on your own database, that you can trace, review and put behind auth.