Migrating From Zapier: The Practical Guide

Step 1: Audit Every Automation

Before writing any code, we catalog every Zap and Make scenario. For each automation, we document what it does, how often it runs, what breaks when it fails, and how much it costs in tasks.

Step 2: Categorize and Prioritize

We sort automations into three buckets based on failure impact and complexity:

Replace First: High business impact, failure costs money or customers. These become custom code immediately.

Replace Later: Medium impact, high task consumption. Replace these to reduce costs after the critical path is secured.

Keep in Zapier: Low impact, low volume, simple trigger→action. These stay in Zapier indefinitely — it's the right tool for the job.

Step 3: Build Custom Integrations

For each automation being replaced, we build a custom integration with three layers:

Step 4: Test Thoroughly

Every integration gets automated tests before it goes live. Unit tests verify individual functions. Integration tests verify end-to-end data flow. We also run the custom code in parallel with the existing Zap for a validation period, comparing results to ensure identical behavior.

This parallel running phase is critical — it catches edge cases that testing alone might miss.

Step 5: Switch Over

Once validated, we disable the Zap and let the custom code take over. We keep the Zap available (paused, not deleted) as a rollback option for 2-4 weeks.

Monitoring is heightened during the first week — we watch for any edge cases or failures that didn't appear during testing. After the grace period, the Zap gets archived and the custom code is the permanent solution.

What About Make/Integromat?

The same process applies to Make (formerly Integromat) scenarios. Make's data structures are different but the migration approach is identical: audit, prioritize, build, test, switch. Make scenarios export more cleanly than Zaps, which can help with documentation.