With all the tech tools and apps for our smartphones, it can be hard trying to find the ones that work for you. Worse yet, once you find the ones you like, you discover they don’t work together.
Enter IFTTT and Zapier. These two apps are used to automate actions across your devices, apps, and more.
IFTTT is marketed more for consumers and tech enthusiasts, while Zapier is more for business users such as marketers and freelance writers.
Both have free options (Zapier has a paid offering as well), so it can be hard to figure out which one to use.
Which is better for you and your business? Will it also work for your personal life? What features are best for what you’re looking to do?
Let’s dive in to see how you could use them for your freelance writing business and discover which is best for you.
What is IFTTT?
IFTTT stands for If This Then That and is a play on the computer programming concept of conditional statements.
It uses triggers called “applets” that tell it what to do and when to do it. Each applet has a name, you choose the online services you want to trigger and then tell it explicitly what do to.
IFTTT supports over 360+ popular services like Gmail, WordPress, Dropbox, Facebook, Twitter, and more. Check out the full list here.
If you don’t know where to start, check out their collections based on activities, services, subjects, your house, or even groups like small business owners or marketers.
You can also create an applet for yourself if you don’t find one already made that works for you.
IFTTT is accessible via your desktop through the web app or browser and also on mobile apps for iOS and Android.
IFTTT Specs
Skill level: Beginner to Intermediate
Ideal User: Everyone
Apps: 360+
Price: Free
Zapier
Zapier works almost exactly like IFTTT, but is focused more on business and marketing users.
You can tell right from the homepage, where Zapier talks about “automation” and “workflows” instead of the more casual language on IFTTT’s homepage (“getting all apps talking to each other” and “playing nice”).
Zapier supports over 1,000 services in categories like customer relationship management (CRM), customer support, drip emails, e-commerce, education, email newsletters, and more.
So you could hook up HootSuite, AWeber, HelloSign, Shopify, Google Docs, and GoToWebinar, as well as Twitter, LinkedIn, and SoundCloud.
Where Zapier excels is all the business tools it gives you access to, so that if you’re in a specialized niche like real estate, accounting, or education, you could hook up those tools and automate your work as well.
One area in which Zapier excels is their learning center, which includes guides on everything you’d need to know about using the service and the compatible platforms available.
Whether you’re a beginner or expert, the learning center helps you move forward in your knowledge so you can create some pretty complex “zaps.”
There are no mobile or third-party apps you can use with Zapier, however, and to use the more complex zaps or services, you need a premier (read: paid) account.
That said, you can do a lot more with Zapier than IFTTT with a premier account, so depending on your needs, it may be worth the cost.
Zapier Specs
Skill: Intermediate to Advanced
Ideal User: Professionals
Apps: 1,000+
Price: Free for up to 5 zaps of 2 or less steps, $20 per month for unlimited zaps of 3 or more steps
Comparing IFTTT and Zapier
Now that you know what each of them is, it’s time for the showdown: IFTTT vs Zapier.
The post How IFTTT and Zapier Can Help Your Freelance Business appeared first on B2B Writing Success.