Ask Lindy, or build it in Zapier.
Lindy is an AI teammate you @mention in Slack. Zapier is where you design workflows that run on their own, the same way every time. Which fits depends on whether you already know the steps. Checked against lindy.ai and zapier.com on 25 September 2026.
- Zapier is build-first. You pick a trigger and the steps, and a Zap runs them across 9,000+ apps with nobody prompting it.
- Lindy is ask-first. You @mention it in Slack or text it, it picks from its 1,000+ integrations, and anything with outside impact waits for an approver.
- Zapier bills tasks per account, from a free plan with 100 a month. Lindy bills per seat, from $29.99 per user a month, with the credits pooled.
- They overlap less than the search suggests. Zapier suits plumbing that must never vary, and an assistant suits requests that always do.
- Cedric works from Lindy's end of that line. You ask, he plans the steps, and he keeps one memory of the company for the whole team.
How Zapier and Lindy describe themselves
Zapier's homepage title is "Automate AI Workflows, Agents, and Apps", and its pitch is "Start building in your favorite AI tool, then run and govern trusted workflows on Zapier". The core is still the Zap, "an automated workflow that completes work across your apps without someone prompting it each time". Tables, Forms, Canvas and Zapier MCP sit around it, and MCP lets the AI tool you already use reach Zapier's 9,000+ apps. Agents and Chatbots are separate products with their own prices.
Zapier calls its approach to AI "Fluid Determinism", laid out in four levels. At one end every step follows fixed rules. At the other, an agent plans and adapts, "bringing you in for review as needed". Governance gets as much room on the page, with SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, GDPR and CCPA, and controls at the app, action and connection level.
Lindy's docs open with "Lindy is an AI employee. It lives in your Slack, connects to your tools, and comes back with the work done". Each person has their own Lindy in direct messages for mail, meetings and scheduling, and team channels share another. Asked to run a customer handoff, its FAQ says, it updates HubSpot, writes the Notion doc, posts to the channel, books the kickoff and sends the welcome email.
So the two start from opposite ends. Zapier runs the process you described for as long as you leave it on, and Lindy works the process out per request. Cedric starts from Lindy's end too. You ask in a sentence, he plans across the tools you connected, joins your meetings, and holds anything he would send, change or spend for a person to confirm.
Side by side
Lindy from lindy.ai, lindy.ai/pricing and its docs. Zapier from zapier.com and zapier.com/pricing. Read on 25 September 2026.
| Lindy | Zapier | Cedric | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How work starts | You @mention it in Slack, or a routine fires | A Zap's trigger fires | A sentence from you, or a schedule set in words |
| Before the first run | Connect Slack and your tools | Choose the trigger and every step, field and path | Connect your tools once, then say what you want back |
| Who decides the steps | Lindy, from your request | You, at build time; AI only where you place it | Cedric, from your request |
| Before it acts | Per-integration rule: always allow, require approval, or don't offer | Runs as built; agentic steps bring you in as needed | A preview card a person approves, on every surface |
| Where you work with it | Slack, iMessage and SMS, Gmail, and its web app | The Zapier editor, or your own AI tool through Zapier MCP | Slack, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Discord, the browser, or by voice |
| Apps it reaches | 1,000+ integrations, and MCP servers | 9,000+ apps | 3,200+ apps; 15 have playbooks built in |
| How the bill works | Per user, credits pooled across the team | Per account, by task volume | Per workspace, no seats |
| How you start | A free week per teammate who joins through Slack | Free plan, 100 tasks; 14-day Professional trial, no card | Free credits at signup, no card |
Prices from lindy.ai/pricing and zapier.com/pricing, 25 September 2026. A Lindy seat is $29.99 on Plus, $99.99 on Pro or $199.99 on Max per user a month, with Enterprise on request. Zapier runs from a $0 Free plan to Professional from $19.99 a month and Team from $69, with Enterprise on request and 33% off for paying yearly. Tasks, Lindy credits and Cedric credits count different things, so no row converts into another.
Lindy or Zapier: how to choose
Ask one question first: do you already know the steps? Say every new form entry has to become a CRM record, a message in a channel and a row in a table. You know the steps, so build it in Zapier. Triggers never cost a task, the ten-thousandth entry runs exactly like the first, and every run shows up in one place.
If the steps depend on what is in front of you, you probably don't know them in advance. Which of this week's calls needs a follow-up? What did the customer actually agree to? That work needs reading and a judgment call, which is what Lindy is built for.
Then look at who will touch it. In Zapier, someone builds the Zap and everyone else benefits without opening the editor. Lindy is meant for everyone to talk to, which is why it bills per person.
The line is blurrier than it was. Zapier Agents promises you can "create your own AI assistants for any task". Its FAQ says agents act only in the apps you connected, with the triggers and actions you set up. Lindy, for its part, runs routines, each a trigger, a plain-English prompt and a destination. Each has borrowed from the other, but each still starts from its own end.
One message
After the call, before anyone forgets
Nadja Meier9:14 AM
@Cedric you were on the Steiner AG call. What do we owe them?
CedricAPP9:15 AM
The call ran 41 minutes. Reto wants a revised quote by Friday and the SLA in writing. Before you write to him, remember he pushed back on the setup fee in March. Ready for your yes: the HubSpot next step dated Friday, a draft to Reto with the revised quote, and a reminder tomorrow at 09:00.
In Zapier
You would build it once: a trigger when the call notes arrive, then a step each for the CRM, the email and the reminder. Every call after that runs the same steps, whatever was said on it.
In Lindy
Lindy joins calls on Meet, Zoom and Teams and updates tools like HubSpot. What it may do in a shared thread depends on the guardrail set for each integration.
In Cedric
The objection from March came from the team's shared memory. Three changes in three tools arrived as one card, and one yes from Nadja covered all of them.
Two meters, and a third
Zapier's meter is the task, drawn from one pool per account. Every step and external connector call uses tasks, at a rate that depends on the kind of step, while checking for new data uses none. A Zapier MCP tool call uses two. Agents are billed apart, free for 400 activities a month or $33.33 a month billed annually for 1,500.
Lindy's meter is the seat. Plus brings 3,000 credits a month, Pro 15,000 and Max 35,000, and every seat adds its credits to a shared pool. Credits do not roll over, and when the pool runs dry Lindy pauses and says so. Admins can buy more at $10 per 1,000 credits.
Cedric bills the workspace, and everyone draws on one balance. New workspaces get 100,000 free credits. Starter costs $19 a month for 40,000 credits and Max begins at $99. Unused plan credits carry over for one month. The pricing page has the rest.
So each bill tracks something different. Zapier's tracks volume, and higher tiers cost less per task. Lindy's tracks headcount, so a team of ten on Plus spends $299.90 a month before top-ups. Cedric's tracks the work done.
Where Lindy or Zapier is the better choice
Choose Zapier when the same thing must happen thousands of times. Intake, syncing and routing want a workflow authored once, not a fresh judgment call on each run.
Choose Zapier when IT has to sign off. Team adds SAML single sign-on, and the admin controls include app and action restrictions, audit logs, log streams and advanced permissions. SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 sit behind them.
Choose Zapier for work with nobody in the loop. A webhook that fires at three in the morning should not be waiting for anyone's yes.
Choose Lindy when the busywork is personal. An assistant of your own that labels mail, drafts replies in your voice, nudges quiet threads and alerts you to urgent mail does not map onto a Zap.
FAQ
They do different jobs. Zapier is better when you can write the steps down and want them run identically at volume. Lindy is better when each request is different and someone would otherwise have to read the thread, the call or the inbox to decide.
For some work. If your Zaps exist to save a person from reading and deciding, an assistant like Lindy can take that over. If they move data between systems on a trigger, keep Zapier, because an assistant would add judgment where you wanted none.
Zapier's Free plan costs $0 and covers 100 tasks a month on two-step Zaps. Lindy has no free plan. A teammate who joins through Slack gets a free week before the seat is billed, and direct signups pay from day one.
Yes, Zapier Agents, a separate product for building your own AI assistants. You set an agent up in Zapier, and it works in the apps you connected. Lindy arrives already set up as a teammate in Slack.
Yes, side by side. Keep your Zaps on the fixed jobs they already do well, and ask Cedric for the work that needs reading and a decision. Cedric also runs his own scheduled jobs and reacts to events in your connected tools. The longer version is on the Cedric and Zapier page.
After the call, ask what you owe.
100,000 free credits, no card. One ask after the call covers the follow-up.
100K credits ($50) through Slack, Teams, Discord, Telegram or WhatsApp, 50K ($25) with Google. No card needed.