IFTTT
IFTTT is the simplest automation tool on the market. If all you need is basic connections between apps, it gets the job done faster than anything else.
IFTTT Ratings Breakdown
Ease of Use
How intuitive and easy to learn the interface is.
Features
Breadth and depth of functionality provided.
Value for Money
Whether the pricing is justified by the features.
Customer Support
Quality and responsiveness of support channels.
Integrations
Ability to connect with other tools in your stack.
Pros & Cons
What We Liked
- Setup takes seconds. Pick a trigger, pick an action, done in two taps. No visual editor to learn, no nodes to wire together.
- The free tier covers 3 applets, which is enough for personal use cases like saving email attachments to Dropbox or getting weather alerts.
- 800+ app integrations cover most consumer services. Smart home, social media, email, file storage, and note-taking are all well-supported.
- Mobile apps are genuinely good. The iOS and Android apps let you create and manage applets on the go, which none of the competitors do well.
What Could Be Better
- Applets are single-trigger only. You cannot combine conditions or build multi-step workflows in the free or Pro plan. This limits it to very simple automations.
- No debugging tools. When an applet fails, you get a notification that something went wrong with no details about why. Debugging is guessing.
- Business features are thin. No team collaboration, no audit logs, no custom API access. This is a personal automation tool, not a business one.
- Pricing changed multiple times in recent years, which has eroded user trust. The current free tier limit of 3 applets feels tight.
IFTTT Review: Simple Automation, Sharp Limits
IFTTT stands for "If This Then That," and the name tells you almost everything. It connects two services with a single condition: when something happens in app A, do something in app B. No branching, no data transformations, no API calls. Just a straight line from trigger to action.
I have been running IFTTT alongside Zapier and n8n for about a month. Here is where it fits and where it falls short.
What IFTTT Does Well
The speed of setup is genuinely impressive. Pick a trigger from 800+ services — new Gmail attachment, weather alert, Instagram post, smart home device event — then pick an action. The applet is live in under a minute. No visual builder, no configuration hoops.
The mobile experience is the best in class. The IFTTT mobile app lets you browse and activate applets on the go. When your phone's location triggers a geo-fence, IFTTT can turn on your smart lights automatically. This kind of physical-world automation is something Zapier and Make do not touch.
The pre-built Applet library is extensive. Most users never need to build a custom applet because someone already made one. Popular ones include saving Gmail attachments to Dropbox, getting SMS weather alerts, and syncing iOS Contacts to Google Sheets.
Where It Falls Short
The biggest limitation is the single-condition architecture. IFTTT cannot handle "if this AND that" or "if this OR that." Each applet is exactly one trigger and one action. This rules out most business automation scenarios where you need conditional logic.
When an applet fails, the error reporting is minimal. You get a push notification saying something like "Applet failed." No stack trace, no log, no clue whether it was a rate limit, an API change, or an auth token expiry. For personal use this is annoying but survivable. For anything business-critical it is a dealbreaker.
The pricing history has been rocky. IFTTT started free, then introduced a subscription model, then backtracked, then changed limits again. The current setup is 3 free applets or unlimited with Pro ($5/month). Compared to n8n's free self-hosted option or Zapier's 100-task free tier, IFTTT's offering feels less generous than it used to.
Pricing
| Plan | Cost | Applets | Multi-step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 3 | No |
| Pro | $5/month | Unlimited | No |
| Pro+ | $12.50/month | Unlimited | Yes (multiple actions) |
Multi-step applets (trigger → action 1 → action 2) require the Pro+ plan at $12.50/month. At that price point, the value proposition weakens significantly since n8n is free and Zapier starts at $20/month with vastly more capability.
Who Should Use IFTTT
Use IFTTT for personal automations that involve smart home devices, social media cross-posting, or simple file management. It is also good for non-technical users who want a single connection between two apps without learning a complex tool.
Skip it for business workflows, multi-condition automation, or anything where you need reliable error handling. For those cases, use n8n (self-hosted, unlimited, free) or Zapier (easier but paid).
Ready to Try IFTTT?
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