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FME vs Zapier comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

FME
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (22nd)
Zapier
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (10th)
 

Featured Reviews

Alan Bloor - PeerSpot reviewer
Great for handling large volumes of data, but it is priced a bit high
When I do coding, I think about every single function. Some of these functions can be very elementary, like doing a substring or some capitalization. But FME removes all that coding because it's a transformer, so the time to develop an application to get to a point where you're producing results is decreased massively. It used to take weeks and months to develop software, and now I can use something like FME, and within one day, we get results. We can look at and validate data. We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else.
Sachin Shrtivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation of simple tasks improves with user-friendly interface but needs enhancement in handling complex scenarios
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 scenario or automation is complex, it becomes difficult to create and deploy because of various routes. For example, with 20 routes, it becomes really difficult to create them due to certain limits, and the UI is not conducive for viewing all the routes.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has standard plug-ins available for different data sources."
"All spatial features are unrivaled, and the possibility to execute them based on a scheduled trigger, manual, e-mail, Websocket, tweet, file/directory change or virtually any trigger is most valuable."
"It has a very friendly user interface. You don't need to use a lot of code. For us that's the most important aspect about it. Also, it has a lot of connectors and few forms. It has a strong facial aspect. It can do a lot of facial analysis."
"We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else."
"FME is spatially aware and understands how to deal with the conversion of spatial objects and their attributes."
"The most valuable feature of FME is the graphical user interface. There is nothing better. It is very easy to debug because you can see all steps where there are failures. Overall the software is easy to optimize a process."
"The most valuable feature of Zapier is it saves me time doing repetitive tasks."
"The ability to connect web applications to trigger actions in another app after having enriched, formatted, delayed, grouped, and filtered is really valuable for many businesses."
"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."
"Webhooks are the most valuable feature of Zapier."
"Zapier's best feature would be the ease of use, and it is really easy to use and really user-friendly."
"The solution is time efficient and has saved considerable development effort."
"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."
"The main thing I appreciate about Zapier is that it has maximum availability of apps, with most tools being available compared to different solutions."
 

Cons

"FME's price needs improvement for the African market."
"FME can improve the geographical transformation. I've had some problems with the geographical transformations, but it's probably mostly because I'm not the most skilled geographer in-house. The solution requires some in-depth knowledge to perform some functions."
"The one thing that always appears in the community is the ability to make really easy loops to loop through data efficiently. That needs to be added at some point."
"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."
"We are looking at the possibility of using Glue instead of FME, using the native AWS product."
"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."
"Zapier needs to improve in the same way most RPA solutions should, such as Robocorp, Make, or UiPath. They are not good at helping you find the connections that you need for the problem that you have. For example, if need something on Instagram. I'm going to have to do research for hours to be able to find the components or the app, which is going to do what I need it to do. It makes it difficult to use the system when you don't know what to use."
"Zapier needs more YouTube or video tutorials or more training for people. That would help a lot. In particular, Zapier should have documentation for every connector. Its documentation needs to be more detailed and visual."
"There is a bug that bothers me whenever you try to open a workflow. There is this chatbot that opens up automatically, and you have to close it always manually, so that is something that is really irritating, so I would want that removed."
"My biggest concern with Zapier would be their pricing strategy."
"Zapier could be a little faster, but that might not be possible. I would encourage Zapier to make more API endpoints for each application"
"It is not worth the money if you have a little bit of a technical mind...Zapier is not able to set up different modules. When automation doesn't work, it's not that easy to find why it didn't work."
"After mapping them out, and they'd worked for a while, I've had Zapier fail."
"The pricing could be a little cheaper."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"FME Server used to cost £10,000; now it can cost over £100,000."
"The product's price is reasonable."
"We used the standard licensing for our use of FME. The cost was approximately €15,000 annually. We always welcome less expensive solutions, if the solution could be less expensive it would be helpful."
"Think your Zaps through to make sure you don't use more Zaps than you need."
"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."
"The product is reasonably priced."
"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."
"The price of Zapier is approximately $75 monthly."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
30%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
University
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FME?
We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FME?
The pricing is really bad. Last year, they rebranded the whole pricing structure. It used to be moderately priced at about £400 per user per year. Now they've changed the whole thing, and it's expe...
What needs improvement with FME?
The one thing that always appears in the community is the ability to make really easy loops to loop through data efficiently. That needs to be added at some point. There must be a technical or comm...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Shell, US Department of Commerce, PG&E, BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, Enel, Iowa DoT, San Antonio Water System
BuzzFeed, Groupon, Spotify, Columbia University, FOX
Find out what your peers are saying about FME vs. Zapier and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.