The Zapier Alternative: Marketing Work, Run For You
Zapier connects apps with trigger and action rules that your team builds and maintains. AI for Marketing is not an automation platform; it is a managed marketing service. For moving data between apps, Zapier is usually the better tool and you should keep it. AfM makes sense when the automations exist to support marketing work (content, outreach, follow-up, reporting) that still is not getting done.
Most tools are fine. The question is who does the work.
You pay for Zapier, but the work it was bought for keeps slipping because nobody has time to plan, produce, check and report on it.
Zapier is set up, used and owned by someone on your team. AfM often works inside a client's existing tools.
Runs the marketing work as one managed service. Jakub reviews it, you approve it before anything goes out, and a weekly report shows what changed.
Results from past engagements
What the work has produced before.
None of these came from replacing Zapier. Each is one client's result with its dates and qualifiers. The first three are work Jakub delivered as a consultant, all or mostly before AI for Marketing Ltd was incorporated in August 2025. Your results depend on your market, budget and starting point.
Anonymised global technology platform: $270 to $8.86 over about 11 months (Q4 2024 to Q3 2025), after moving from LinkedIn only to Meta and LinkedIn
ToastPal, over 12 months (October 2023 to October 2024)
Mumshandmade, week 12, platform-reported, during a four-month engagement (September 2024 to January 2025)
Allegiance Industries, automated lead prospecting built in 2026
Side-by-side comparison
Zapier vs AI for Marketing
These are different things. Zapier is software your team operates; AfM is a managed service that does the work. The rows below are the criteria that usually decide it, including where Zapier is the stronger choice.
Replacement matrix
What stays, what changes, and what AfM takes on
This is not a rip-and-replace playbook. For each part of the work we say whether Zapier should keep doing it, and where AfM would take the work on as part of the managed service. You make the call.
App connections
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on app connections.
Remains useful
A very large library of ready-made app connectors
Where Zapier falls short
Zapier does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
Not a connector library. We connect only what the marketing work needs
Non-marketing automations
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on non-marketing automations.
Remains useful
Well suited to operations, finance and admin workflows
Where Zapier falls short
Zapier does this well. What it cannot supply is someone to decide, check and report on the work.
What AfM does
Out of scope. Keep these on Zapier
Judgement calls
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on judgement calls.
Remains useful
Follows the rules you set; AI steps can be added, but someone designs and checks them. Worth keeping where this part already works and someone owns it.
Where Zapier falls short
Zapier can support this, but results depend on someone configuring, monitoring and maintaining it.
What AfM does
Jakub decides what the work should be; AI helps produce it; you approve it
Content and outreach
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on content and outreach.
Remains useful
Can pass data to an AI step; the output still needs checking and publishing. Worth keeping where this part already works and someone owns it.
Where Zapier falls short
Zapier can support this, but results depend on someone configuring, monitoring and maintaining it.
What AfM does
Content, outreach and follow-up written, reviewed and sent with your approval
When something breaks
What changes
Who plans, produces, checks and reports on when something breaks.
Remains useful
Error alerts and replays; your team investigates and fixes. Worth keeping where this part already works and someone owns it.
Where Zapier falls short
Zapier can support this, but results depend on someone configuring, monitoring and maintaining it.
What AfM does
For the marketing work we run, we monitor it and fix it as part of the service
Detailed breakdown
Where each one is stronger
Different jobs, not rivals
Zapier is plumbing: when something happens in one app, do something in another. It is excellent at that, and many businesses should keep it for exactly that. AfM does not sell plumbing. We run marketing work: deciding what to say and to whom, producing it, getting it approved, sending it and reporting what it did. The honest comparison is between building and maintaining your own marketing automations and having the marketing work done.
Pricing: when task volume is the real issue
Zapier prices largely by task volume, and its plans change often, so check Zapier's own pricing page for current figures. If your bill is high because of marketing automations that you built to make up for missing time (copying leads between tools, triggering AI drafts, chasing follow-ups), that is a sign the work itself may be better handed over. If it is high because of operations workflows, AfM is not the answer; review the Zaps or compare other automation platforms.
Judgement: rules versus decisions
A Zap does what its rules say, which is exactly what you want for reliable data movement. Marketing work needs decisions: whether a lead is worth contacting, what the follow-up should say, whether a campaign should change. In the managed service, the AI operating system keeps your context and helps produce the work, and Jakub makes and reviews those calls. You approve anything that goes out.
Maintenance: who fixes it when it breaks
When a Zap fails, someone on your team investigates and fixes it. For the marketing work AfM runs, monitoring and fixing is part of the service. We do not claim that anything fixes itself; we check it, and we tell you when something went wrong and what we did about it.
A dated example of the underlying work
In 2026 Jakub built an automated lead prospecting system for Allegiance Industries that joined Google Sheets, Make.com, Relevance AI, Apollo and Zoho CRM. The client estimates it saves them $9,000 to $10,000 a year. That was a system build for one client; today AfM offers this kind of work as part of the managed service rather than as a separate build.
Honest assessment
Should you stop paying for Zapier?
Often the honest answer is no: keep Zapier and have the work in it done. These are the signs either way.
The work is the bottleneck, not the tool.
- You built Zaps to make up for marketing work nobody has time to do, and the work still is not getting done
- Your marketing automations break quietly and nobody notices for weeks
- You want follow-up, content and outreach that need judgement, not only data moved between apps
- You want one person accountable for the marketing results and a weekly report on what changed
It works, and someone owns it.
- Your Zaps connect operations, finance, HR or admin tools. Keep them on Zapier; that is not our work
- Someone on your team builds and maintains the automations well and enjoys it
- Your needs are simple trigger and action chains that do not involve marketing decisions
Who does what
What AfM manages, what Jakub reviews, what you approve
You buy managed work and measurable improvement, not software. You never have to log in to our system or run it.
The marketing work your automations were meant to support: lead follow-up, outreach, content, campaigns and reporting. Zaps outside marketing stay yours and stay on Zapier.
Jakub reviews every piece of work before you see it: the plan, the copy, the campaign settings and the numbers in the report. The system keeps your context and helps produce the work; the judgement and the priorities are his.
Nothing goes out without your approval. You approve the first fixes, every campaign, email and page before it goes live, and any change to the tools you pay for.
Nothing for the free breakdown. If you go ahead, we ask on the call for access to the marketing tools the agreed work touches, plus read-only analytics. We only need to see your Zapier account if a marketing Zap is part of the work.
A starting point recorded when we begin (for example response time to new leads, qualified leads and cost per lead, whichever apply), then a weekly report showing what we shipped and how those numbers moved.
If you go ahead
How it starts
Free written breakdown
It starts from your website and everything publicly visible, plus any numbers you choose to share. No logins needed. It shows what we found, where it came from, what would still need private access to confirm, and the first thing we would fix, including whether Zapier is worth keeping.
A short call, if you want one
A free 15-minute call to agree what AfM would manage. One monthly fee for the managed service; we confirm the number on a call once we have seen what needs doing. You sign one proposal before we start; after that it rolls monthly, with no lock-in, and you can cancel any time.
Access, only once you decide to go ahead
Nothing for the free breakdown. If you go ahead, we ask on the call for access to the marketing tools the agreed work touches, plus read-only analytics. We only need to see your Zapier account if a marketing Zap is part of the work. We change nothing until you approve the first fix.
First fixes, reviewed and approved
Jakub reviews each piece of work before it reaches you, and you approve it before it goes live. First fixes go live within days of payment and access, once you approve them.
Decide what happens to Zapier
Zapier stays, is downgraded or is cancelled only when you decide, and only once the work it was meant to support is running without it. Keeping it is often the right answer.
Frequently asked
Questions, answered straight
Related pages
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When to keep HubSpot, and when to have the marketing work in it run for you.
Semrush Alternative
When to keep Semrush, and when to have the SEO work done for you.
Your marketing, run for you
Tell us what is not getting done. The free breakdown starts there.
AI Marketing Automation Guide
How AI changes the repetitive parts of marketing work.
AI Marketing: The Complete Guide
An overview of where AI helps in marketing work, and where it does not.
How to Build an AI Marketing System
What goes into an AI marketing system, step by step.
Not sure whether to keep Zapier?
Ask for a free written breakdown. It starts from your website and what is publicly visible, plus anything you choose to share, and needs no logins. It shows what we found, what would still need private access to confirm, and the first thing we would fix, including whether Zapier should stay.
Book your free breakdown