CircleCI vs Zapier comparison

Read 48 Zapier reviews

1,779 Views
160 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

CircleCI

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

CircleCI and Zapier serve distinct purposes in the automation and integration domains, with CircleCI excelling in continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) and Zapier offering extensive workflow automation capabilities. While both platforms improve operational efficiencies, Zapier's expansive feature set provides broader utility for various business functions, making it a preferable choice in a wider range of applications.

Features: CircleCI provides robust CI/CD tools with automated testing, integration with third-party applications, and powerful GitHub integration. It also supports container-based builds, parallel execution, and secure environment configurations. Zapier's key features include an extensive library of app integrations, seamless workflow automation across platforms, and customizable workflows using webhooks and multi-step integrations.

Room for Improvement: CircleCI could enhance its user interface and expand integration options beyond its current offerings. Additionally, improving documentation for more complex configurations would benefit new users. Zapier could improve its pricing structure as automation needs grow, expand support for less common integrations, and enhance features for non-technical users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CircleCI's deployment process is straightforward, supported by detailed documentation and responsive technical support, making developer onboarding efficient. Zapier offers an intuitive setup process complemented by comprehensive guides and community support, ensuring easy access for non-technical users, which enhances its adoption in various business contexts.

Pricing and ROI: CircleCI provides competitive pricing based on usage tiers, appealing to small to medium teams that require CI/CD pipelines, offering a good ROI. On the other hand, Zapier's flexible pricing scales with the number of integrations, providing value as automation demands increase, making it suitable for expanding businesses that seek comprehensive automation solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed CircleCI vs. Zapier Report (Updated: December 2025).

Download the complete report

CircleCI vs. Zapier

December 2025

Helped 881,114 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

CircleCI

Ranking in AI Software Development

200th

Average Rating

6.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (13th)

Zapier

Ranking in AI Software Development

14th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (17th), Cloud Data Integration (12th), Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (16th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the AI Software Development category, the mindshare of CircleCI is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zapier is 0.5%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

AI Software Development Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Zapier	0.5%
CircleCI	0.1%
Other	99.4%

AI Software Development

Featured Reviews

RahulArora

Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Automated CI/CD pipelines have transformed deployment speed and collaboration for my teams

CircleCI offers fast parallel builds, easy integration with GitHub, and the ability to deploy applications on Kubernetes pods, which are amazing features. Fast parallel builds and GitHub integration have definitely helped my team reach faster time to market for our applications. Previously, our deployment used to take a couple of hours when doing it manually, but with CircleCI pipeline, our hours-long job has been converted to a couple of minutes. Its simplicity, fast pipeline execution, and strong GitHub and GitLab integrations are definitely unique advantages I discovered while using CircleCI. Time saved is one of the key aspects I have seen since using CircleCI. I have noticed fewer deployment errors, and it has helped me with easy debugging. Time saved is directly proportional to the cost and effort saved. CircleCI has positively impacted my organization by integrating directly with my Git repositories as a fully managed SaaS platform. CircleCI has a great impact on my team's collaboration and communication, with around 25 to 40 developers and DevOps engineers using it daily across multiple repositories and environments, helping us use it at scale. CircleCI has significantly increased our release frequency and deployment speed compared to before I started using it. CircleCI improves security for my organization by enforcing automated checks in the pipeline and securely managing secrets through environment variables while providing auditable deployments. CircleCI integrates seamlessly with my DevOps toolchain by connecting directly to GitHub, container registries, and my cloud platform AWS, allowing the entire CI/CD flow from code commit to deployment and monitoring with minimal manual effort.

Read full review

René Ludwigs

Product Owner | Integration

Diverse integration options support workflow automation while pricing and support need improvements

You can build similar or dependent automations in one Zap, which helps with understanding the process without switching between different records. I would appreciate quicker response times and more direct interactions. It would be great to have a direct contact person for support, but bigger companies usually have solution partners handling support. I do not have a solution partner for Zapier due to using it for small use cases.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The solution offers continuous integration and continuous delivery."

"Some of the most valuable features include container-based builds, integration with Bit Bucket and being able to store artifacts."

"CircleCI has positively impacted the organization, as it has been used for many years and serves as the main source for application deployment."

"It's a stable product."

"The automation workflow in CircleCI related to third-party applications is very good and allows standardization of applications."

"The ability to automate the build process in a seamless way and run workflows effortlessly. It supports parallel builds so it can scale well. Also, it covers the basics of any build and integration tool, including email notifications (especially when tests are fixed), project insights, etc."

"CircleCI has significantly reduced build and deployment times, saving substantial engineering hours and effort for me, which has directly improved my productivity and release velocity, reflecting incredible ROI."

"Enables us to detect exactly which build failed and why, and to push multiple builds to our production environment at a very fast rate."

"With the previous CRM we were using – the Google Ads landing pages we had – we were collecting leads manually. That process was not efficient and took a sales team a lot of time to insert these leads manually. Currently, the process is smooth and we use Zapier to collect the leads for us."

"Zapier handles everything under the sun that you would think you need in automation. It is the most mature integration platform and service on the market."

"Zapier is user friendly and makes it easy to integrate different tools. It has a drag and drop functionality which makes it easy to connect environments."

"The solution is time efficient and has saved considerable development effort."

"We find it effortless to set up. We really don't have to do anything other than finding the application in the Zapier catalog. And as long as the application has been re-integrated into Zapier, they're able to then just provide the connection details and hook it up."

"The initial setup is pretty easy to do."

"The most valuable aspect of this solution is that it is very intuitive and has a very flat learning curve."

"The most valuable aspect is the ability to integrate with over 20,000 applications, which is a superior feature compared to Make.com that has limited applications access."

More Zapier pros

Cons

"The solution’s pricing could be better."

"A return on investment with CircleCI has not been observed, and no relevant metrics such as time saved or fewer employees needed can be shared."

"There needs to be some improvement in the user interface of CircleCI."

"Billing is a mess."

"Integration with Microsoft Azure is one area for improvement. Azure is growing in its user base, and supports various cloud infrastructure components such as Service Fabric, App Service, etc. Some of Azure’s deployment models (like Kudu) require a steep learning curve, but if CircleCI would come up with such features (deployment to App Service) out of the box, it would be amazing."

"I believe debugging complex pipelines and managing credits can sometimes be challenging, especially for large workflows, so these areas can be improved."

"There could be improvements in creating more complex workflows within the data domain."

"At the moment, they allow a limited number of apps. I look forward to getting more apps for each package."

"It could support various languages along with Python."

"The pricing of the solution is quite expensive."

"My biggest concern with Zapier would be their pricing strategy."

"It can be challenging to get timely responses as they typically answer questions after a long period, sometimes taking up to a month to respond."

"To make it a complete BPM solution, the UI component needs significant enhancement."

"System-to-system is fine, but when it comes to system-to-user, where Zapier is helping to communicate to a user, that's a one-way communication. If that user has to perform some action on that notification, the action isn't handled by Zapier. So there's no way to orchestrate that and it's very cumbersome."

More Zapier cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of CircleCI could be less expensive."

"The price of Zapier is approximately $75 monthly."

"Zapier's price is good."

"The least expensive plan is $24 a month, and you can go all the way to $800 a month if you're a huge company using many tasks."

"There is a free plan that is, of course, limited. However, it allows you to understand and check true scenarios for a while."

"It's very affordable."

"It's very straightforward licensing. There's only one cost you have to pay, and if you want a relevant pricing plan, I think you have two or three different models or packages which include the number of notifications or Zaps, as they call it, that you can program."

"Per task, there is a monthly plan involving 15 euros...Also, in different forms, they just give you the ability to use different features. They charge 18.58 euros for the first standard plan, which includes 750 tasks. So, it is about 25 cents per task."

"Zapier is a paid service. Its license renews monthly, and Zapier will downgrade your subscription to the free version when your credit card doesn't have funds. That significantly impacts your service because everything halts completely. Zapier doesn't have any hidden costs."

More Zapier pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which AI Software Development solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

University

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

University

10%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CircleCI?

There is not much experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because that is managed by the legal team.

What needs improvement with CircleCI?

CircleCI's Orbs are not as easy to use as they could be. If CircleCI implemented a function approach similar to GitHub Actions, it would be significantly better. CircleCI could be improved if it co...

What advice do you have for others considering CircleCI?

For others looking into using CircleCI, study thoroughly about CircleCI's Orbs because they are quite complicated. The overall review rating for CircleCI is 6 out of 10.

What do you like most about Zapier?

The product's most valuable feature is automation.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zapier?

The pricing is in accordance with market standards and even lower in some cases. The license setup cost is reasonable.

What needs improvement with Zapier?

In my opinion, what could be improved in Zapier is its UI, which operates as a one-line system. Compared to Make.com and other tools that have a drag-and-drop system, this is lacking. If the scenar...

GitHub Actions vs CircleCI

Comparisons

Tekton vs CircleCI

Compared 13% of the time

GitLab vs CircleCI

Compared 10% of the time

Compared 9% of the time

TeamCity vs CircleCI

Compared 9% of the time

Jenkins vs CircleCI

Compared 6% of the time

More CircleCI Competitors

Fivetran vs Zapier

Compared 7% of the time

Matillion Data Productivity Cloud vs Zapier

Compared 6% of the time

Workato vs Zapier

Compared 6% of the time

Coefficient vs Zapier

Compared 6% of the time

Tray.io vs Zapier

Compared 6% of the time

More Zapier Competitors

Product Reports

Download CircleCI product report

Build Automation

January 2026

Download Zapier product report

January 2026

Overview

CircleCI is a continuous integration and delivery platform that automates software development, streamlining the process for engineers and developers. It's valued for its ability to enhance development speed while maintaining high software quality.

Known for its robust CI/CD capabilities, CircleCI supports a wide range of programming languages and integrations, allowing teams to build and deploy code with efficiency and reliability. Its flexibility and automation features help teams quickly adapt to changing project requirements. CircleCI's cloud-based architecture ensures scalability and accessibility, making it an attractive option for modern development environments.

What are CircleCI's key features?

Continuous Integration: Automates code integration with testing to catch errors early.
Continuous Deployment: Simplifies the process of deploying code to production environments.
Customizable Workflows: Offers flexibility in defining build, test, and deployment stages.
Parallel Execution: Speeds up builds by running multiple tasks at once.
VCS Integration: Seamlessly integrates with platforms like GitHub and Bitbucket.

What benefits can users expect when using CircleCI?

Increased Efficiency: Streamlines development workflows, reducing the time to market.
Improved Code Quality: Early error detection through automation increases overall quality.
Scalability: Ability to handle growing workloads as development needs evolve.
Enhanced Collaboration: Facilitates teamwork through shared visibility and control over development processes.

In tech-driven industries, CircleCI enables efficient software development pipelines. Its ability to run automated tests and manage deployments effectively is particularly beneficial in fast-paced, innovation-driven fields like fintech, mobile app development, and SaaS platforms. Offering tools that meet high-demand environments, it supports teams in delivering timely and quality software products.

CircleCI

Zapier connects thousands of apps, enabling seamless automation without coding. It supports webhooks, multi-step tasks, and a wide array of integrations. Despite needing enhancements in Google Sheets capabilities, API limits, and UI, it remains a tool for boosting productivity across many sectors.

By linking tools such as Google Sheets, HubSpot, Slack, and Salesforce, Zapier allows users to automate workflows without coding expertise. Its integrations serve logistics operations, CRM, and social media management. Users can process tracking exceptions and streamline operations with third-party software like QuickBooks, Zoho, and Power BI. Although users suggest features like better Google Sheets handling and improved collaboration tools, Zapier continues to provide expansive automation, enhancing efficiency and facilitating new opportunities through integrations.

What Features Stand Out in Zapier?

App Connectivity: Integrates thousands of tools, simplifying task automation.
Ease of Use: No coding needed to set up integrations.
Webhooks: Offers real-time data transfer between applications.
Multi-step Zaps: Allows complex workflows across various apps.
Comprehensive Library: Extensive list of app integrations for users.

What Benefits Should You Expect?

Increased Productivity: Facilitates seamless automation of tasks.
Efficiency Improvement: Streamlines processes across multiple tools.
Business Agility: Supports varied workflows to meet specific needs.
Integration Flexibility: Connects a wide range of popular applications.
Simple Automation: Users automate processes without technical skills.

In logistics, Zapier enhances operations by automating exception tracking and third-party software integration. Its use in CRM and social media streamlines lead creation and workflow automation. Users from diverse industries leverage its extensive connectivity to support intelligence management, generate analytical insights, and execute cross-functional tasks efficiently.

Sample Customers

Shopify, Zenefits, Concur Technologies, CyberAgent

BuzzFeed, Groupon, Spotify, Columbia University, FOX