Compare

Processes that run where your work already is

Zapier, Make and n8n pass data between other apps, and count every step they take. FasterOS agents run your processes inside the forms, records, chats and people they’re about: started by a form, a schedule or by hand, asking for approval and waiting days if they must, with every step on record and no per-task bill.

• No task meter Agent steps are activity, paid by use, not tasks counted against a plan.
• People in the loop Agents ask for approval by chat and email, then wait, remind or escalate.
• Plain words Describe the process; the agent is written in steps you can read and edit.
• Nothing to connect Forms, records, chat, calendars and docs are already in the same place.

What's different underneath

Every step, counted

Zapier counts each action as a task: Professional is $19.99 a month for 750, $49 for 2,000 and $129 for 10,000, billed yearly. Make counts credits for every module that runs, with AI steps using more. n8n Cloud counts executions: 2,500 a month on Starter. A process with five actions, run 1,000 times a month, is 5,000 Zapier tasks.

An agent’s steps are activity, paid with the rest of your hosting by use. There’s no task count to plan around, and building or changing an agent costs nothing. AI steps are paid at each model’s own price.

People in the loop, built in

Approvals and waits are possible (Zapier has human-in-the-loop steps; n8n can wait for a reply or a form), but who to ask, how to remind them and what to do when they don’t answer is yours to build, often across an email tool and a chat app.

An agent asks a team chat group or a person, by chat and email, and waits: for an approval, a decline with a note, or a task marked done. Give it a time limit and it reminds someone, asks someone else, or decides without them. Approvals & runs shows what’s waiting, and every step of every run.

Described in plain words

Each automation is built step by step: pick an app and an event, map fields from the step before, test. Logic past filters and paths means code steps (JavaScript or Python), and the AI helpers draft the same canvas.

Describe the process; the Agent Creator asks for what’s missing and writes the steps in Jade, checking every form, field, chat and person they name against your team. Read them, edit any one, or build from explained functions by clicking. Conditions, loops over records, dates and documents need no code.

The data is already here

An automation service holds little data of its own, so every process starts by connecting the apps it reads and writes, and stops when one of those connections breaks or an app changes its fields.

The forms, records, calendars, docs, team chats and customer conversations an agent works with are all in FasterOS, so it finds, creates and updates records, writes documents, puts dates on calendars and messages people without connecting anything.

Side by side

What it takes, and where each one comes from.

Automate the same client intake

A firm wants each new client request checked against existing clients, approved by a partner (the managing partner if nobody answers in two days), an engagement letter written, the deadline put on a calendar and the client emailed. Here’s what each takes.

FasterOS: 5 steps, nothing to connect

1. Create your team and invite the partners1:34 how-to
2. Build the client request form1:56 how-to
3. Describe the process in plain words; the Agent Creator writes the steps
4. Read the steps: the conflict check, the approval and its time limit, the letter and the deadline
5. Start it from the form, so every request runs it

The first two are shown start to finish in narrated how-tos. About 4 minutes of video in all.

Zapier, Make or n8n: connect, map, then build the waiting

1. Choose a form tool, a client database, a document tool, a calendar and an email service
2. Connect each one to the automation service
3. Build the trigger, then map fields from step to step
4. Look up existing clients in the database
5. Build the approval: send it, wait, check for an answer, and branch for a timeout
6. Make the letter in the document tool and the event in the calendar
7. Watch the task count, and fix the run when a connected app changes

If your process is mostly moving data between apps you already use, this is what these services are built for. If it’s mostly your own forms, records and people, FasterOS needs no connections at all.

Your first year, priced

Our own published prices, and theirs as published or benchmarked. Change anything to match your quotes.

Each of these is one tool for one job, with its own bill. FasterOS is a platform: the first solution pays for your team’s seats, and every one after it (a site, a store, a support desk, agents) adds only its hosting and any add-on.

Beyond automation

What an automation service connects from other apps, FasterOS already has in one place.

Your first year with each

Automation services

• Watch the task, credit or execution count, and move up a tier as runs grow
• Pay for each connected app separately
• Fix runs when a connected app changes its fields or its connection
• Build the reminders and timeouts for every approval by hand

FasterOS

• No task count to watch
• The forms, records and chats are already here
• Nothing to reconnect: agents check every form, field and person they name
• Time limits, reminders and escalation come with every request

When an automation service is the better fit

• Moving data between apps you already pay for (a CRM, an email tool, accounting), where the integrations are the point.
• Engineering teams who want to self-host and write code in their workflows (n8n).
• High-volume data pipelines between systems, with no people or approvals in them.

Questions

Sources, as published in 2026: Zapier pricing (Professional $19.99 for 750 tasks, $49 for 2,000, $129 for 10,000 a month billed yearly); Zapier app directory (8,000+ apps); Make pricing (credits per module run); Automation Atlas: Make pricing in 2026 (Core about $9 a month for 10,000 credits); n8n pricing (Starter €20 for 2,500, Pro €50 for 10,000 executions a month billed yearly; Community edition free to self-host).