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I am using Zapier because their service was very easy to implement a webhook for what I needed at the time. However, the price is high enough that they're on my

I am using Zapier because their service was very easy to implement a webhook for what I needed at the time. However, the price is high enough that they're on my short list of vendors to move on from when I have the time to spend building my own integration (not replacing everything Zapier does, just for my use-case). I suspect I am not their intended customer as I don't get a lot of value out of the dozens (hundreds?) of API implementations they offer. But I wonder how much of that revenue represents customers with similar plans.

mooreds 6y ago
I'll tell you about the first time I started using Zapier. I wanted to move some data from google spreadsheets to some other system (I don't actually recall what it was, it was 2012). I was on a team of three devs supporting a business critical application. The options for me were: * bump something else to have a dev build out the integration * pay the monthly fee to enable a non technical person to build the integration (it was on the order of $50/month). * don't get the work done Above and beyond the value of the UI and uptime managed by someone else, the fact that it could get done by a non programmer made the monthly fee very worth paying. I think I've used it at 3 companies since, mostly on the free plan. But when I exceed the plan, I don't have any trouble pulling out the company's wallet to pay for it.
- monoideism 6y ago
  > pay the monthly fee to enable a non technical person to build the integration I'm just curious how that went. Was a non-technical person able to learn Zapier enough to carry out the task? Were they totally non-technical, or just not a professional dev?
  - mooreds 6y ago
    They were able to do what needed to be done. I'm not sure what you mean by totally non technical? They weren't developers, but knew how to use gmail and google sheets at a pretty sophisticated level.
    - monoideism 6y ago
      > but knew how to use gmail and google sheets at a pretty sophisticated level. Thanks, that's what I meant. I think someone who's is tech savvy but not a professional developer would do fine with Zapier, but my guess is that completely non-technical people (who only understand browsers, email, word processors, etc) would struggle.

mooreds 6y ago

I'll tell you about the first time I started using Zapier. I wanted to move some data from google spreadsheets to some other system (I don't actually recall what it was, it was 2012). I was on a team of three devs supporting a business critical application. The options for me were: * bump something else to have a dev build out the integration * pay the monthly fee to enable a non technical person to build the integration (it was on the order of $50/month). * don't get the work done Above and beyond the value of the UI and uptime managed by someone else, the fact that it could get done by a non programmer made the monthly fee very worth paying. I think I've used it at 3 companies since, mostly on the free plan. But when I exceed the plan, I don't have any trouble pulling out the company's wallet to pay for it.

monoideism 6y ago
> pay the monthly fee to enable a non technical person to build the integration I'm just curious how that went. Was a non-technical person able to learn Zapier enough to carry out the task? Were they totally non-technical, or just not a professional dev?
- mooreds 6y ago
  They were able to do what needed to be done. I'm not sure what you mean by totally non technical? They weren't developers, but knew how to use gmail and google sheets at a pretty sophisticated level.
  - monoideism 6y ago
    > but knew how to use gmail and google sheets at a pretty sophisticated level. Thanks, that's what I meant. I think someone who's is tech savvy but not a professional developer would do fine with Zapier, but my guess is that completely non-technical people (who only understand browsers, email, word processors, etc) would struggle.