TL;DR

• Zapier: Easiest for beginners, 5,000+ integrations, £16-40/month. Rating: 4.4/5
• Make: More powerful than Zapier, visual builder, £9-29/month. Rating: 4.3/5
• Relay.app: Best for team collaboration, shared workflows, £12-30/month. Rating: 4.0/5
• n8n: Most powerful, self-hostable, steep learning curve, £0-50/month. Rating: 3.8/5
• Recommendation: Start with Zapier for simplicity, migrate to Make for power users

Best AI Agent Platforms for Non-Technical Teams

Tested all four with same use case (email classification agent). Here's how they compare.

Comparison Matrix

Zapier

Ease of Use: 9/10 Point-and-click interface. Build agent in 30 minutes with zero code.

AI Integration:

• Native OpenAI, Claude integrations
• "AI by Zapier" for simple prompts
• Formatter for JSON parsing

Pricing:

• Free: 100 tasks/month
• Starter: £16/month (750 tasks)
• Professional: £40/month (2,000 tasks)

Pros:

• 5,000+ app integrations
• Massive template library
• Best documentation

Cons:

• Expensive at scale
• Limited logic (no loops)
• Can't self-host

Best for: Non-technical teams, first agent, simple workflows

Rating: 4.4/5

Make

Ease of Use: 7/10 Visual flowchart builder. More complex than Zapier but more powerful.

AI Integration:

• OpenAI, Anthropic modules
• HTTP module for any API
• Advanced JSON, array manipulation

Pricing:

• Free: 1,000 operations/month
• Core: £9/month (10,000 ops)
• Pro: £16/month (10,000 ops + advanced features)

Pros:

• Cheaper than Zapier (2-3x)
• Visual debugging
• Error handling, retries

Cons:

• Steeper learning curve
• Fewer templates
• Smaller community

Best for: Cost-conscious teams, complex multi-step workflows

Rating: 4.3/5

Relay.app

Ease of Use: 8/10 Modern interface, designed for team collaboration.

AI Integration:

• "AI steps" for prompts
• OpenAI integration
• Human-in-the-loop built-in

Pricing:

• Free: 100 runs/month
• Starter: £12/month (1,000 runs)
• Pro: £30/month (5,000 runs)

Pros:

• Best collaboration features
• Human approval workflows
• Clean, modern UI

Cons:

• Fewer integrations (500 vs Zapier's 5,000)
• Smaller ecosystem
• Newer platform (less mature)

Best for: Teams building agents collaboratively, approval workflows

Rating: 4.0/5

n8n

Ease of Use: 5/10 Node-based builder. Requires technical comfort.

AI Integration:

• LangChain integration
• Custom code nodes (JavaScript)
• Any API via HTTP

Pricing:

• Self-hosted: £0 (your infrastructure)
• Cloud: £20-50/month

Pros:

• Most powerful (full code access)
• Self-hostable (data stays in-house)
• Open-source (customize anything)

Cons:

• Steep learning curve
• Requires developer mindset
• Less hand-holding

Best for: Technical teams, data sovereignty requirements, complex logic

Rating: 3.8/5

Decision Framework

Choose Zapier if:

• Team is non-technical
• Need to build agent this afternoon
• Budget allows £30-40/month

Choose Make if:

• Want power + affordability
• Comfortable with visual logic
• Budget £10-20/month

Choose Relay.app if:

• Building agents as a team
• Need approval workflows
• Want modern UX

Choose n8n if:

• Team has developers
• Need full control
• Self-hosting preferred

Recommendation

Month 1-2: Start with Zapier (easiest, validate use case) Month 3-6: Migrate to Make (save money, add complexity) Month 7+: Consider n8n if hitting limitations

90% of teams never need to leave Make.