You’ve heard the name. Maybe a mate mentioned it, maybe you saw it on YouTube, maybe someone in a Facebook group swore it saved them ten hours a week. Make.com. And every time you go to look into it, you hit the same wall: a screen full of connected bubbles and words like “scenarios,” “modules,” and “operations” that mean nothing yet.

So you close the tab and go back to copying data between spreadsheets by hand.

Here’s the thing. Make.com isn’t actually hard. The marketing around it is just terrible at explaining what it does in plain English. So let’s fix that. By the end of this you’ll know what Make.com is, what it really costs in New Zealand, and the exact first automation you should build this week.

What is Make.com, exactly?

Make.com is a tool that lets your apps talk to each other automatically. That’s the whole idea. You build a little workflow once, and from then on Make does the boring middle bit for you while you’re busy doing actual work.

Think about a job you do over and over. Someone fills in your contact form, so you copy their details into a spreadsheet, then write them a reply, then add them to your email list. Three apps, five minutes, ten times a day. Make.com strings those apps together so the whole thing happens on its own the second the form is submitted.

The clever part is that you don’t write any code. You drag, click, and connect. Make calls a single workflow a “scenario,” and each app inside it a “module.” When a scenario runs and does one thing, like sending an email, that counts as one “operation.” Those three words are basically the entire vocabulary you need to get going. If you want the bigger-picture version, we wrote a full explainer on what Make.com is and why everyone’s talking about it.

What can you actually automate with it?

Almost anything that involves moving information from one app to another. Make connects to more than 3,000 apps, including the ones you already use: Gmail, Outlook, Xero, Google Sheets, Shopify, Mailchimp, WhatsApp, Slack, and plenty more.

A few real examples Kiwi business owners set up all the time:

• A new enquiry comes in after hours, and the lead gets an instant reply so they don’t go cold by morning.
• An invoice gets paid in Xero, so a thank-you email fires off automatically.
• A customer leaves a Google review, and you get a Slack message so you can respond fast.
• Someone orders from your Shopify store, and their details drop straight into your dispatch sheet.

None of this is futuristic. It’s the same admin you already do, just handed off to a tool that never forgets and never sleeps. NZ tradies are using exactly this approach to claw back more than 10 hours a week, and they’re not techies. They just built one automation, then another.

It’s part of a much bigger shift, too. Around 84% of businesses have now adopted low-code or no-code tools, and a big chunk of small business owners using automation say they save more than 20 hours a month (no-code adoption data). This isn’t a niche hobby anymore. It’s how small teams compete with bigger ones.

What does Make.com cost in NZ?

This is where most people get nervous, and honestly, it’s the best news in the whole article. Make.com is cheap. Properly cheap for what it does.

Make prices in US dollars, so here’s the rough NZD picture (currency moves, so treat these as ballpark):

• Free plan: 1,000 operations a month, two active scenarios, and access to all 3,000-plus app connections. It costs nothing and never expires. For a lot of small businesses, this alone is enough to start.
• Core plan: around USD $9 to $12 a month (roughly NZD $15 to $20), which bumps you up to 10,000 operations and unlimited scenarios.
• Pro plan: around USD $16 to $21 a month (roughly NZD $27 to $35), adding priority execution and better tools for when your automations get serious.

One heads-up. In 2025 Make shifted from counting plain “operations” to a “credits” system, where heavier tasks (like AI steps) use a bit more than a simple email send. For a beginner running basic workflows, this barely matters. You’ll be nowhere near your limit. You can see the current breakdown on the official Make pricing page.

Compare that to the cost of doing this admin yourself, or paying a staff member to, and the maths gets silly fast. A plan that costs less than a couple of flat whites a week can quietly handle work that used to eat an hour of your day.

Where should a beginner actually start?

Don’t try to automate your whole business on day one. That’s the mistake everyone makes, and it’s why most people give up. Pick one annoying job and automate just that. Here’s the order I’d follow:

1. Create a free account. Go to make.com and sign up. No credit card, no commitment. Have a click around so the canvas stops looking scary.
2. Pick one repetitive task. Choose something you do daily that involves two apps. “When a form is submitted, add the person to a spreadsheet” is a perfect first one.
3. Create a new scenario. Click the big plus to start a blank scenario. This is your workflow canvas.
4. Add your trigger app. The trigger is what kicks things off, like a new form submission or a new email. Add that module first and connect your account.
5. Add your action app. This is what happens next, like adding a row to Google Sheets. Connect it and map the fields (drag the name into the name column, email into the email column, and so on).
6. Run it once to test. Make has a “Run once” button. Submit a test form and watch the data land where it should. This moment is genuinely satisfying.
7. Turn it on. Flip the scheduling toggle so the scenario runs automatically from now on. Done. You just built your first automation.

That’s it. Once one works, the next one takes half the time, because you already understand the building blocks. If you want a ready-made shortlist of beginner-friendly wins, here are the first five automations every solopreneur should build.

Is Make.com hard to learn?

Here’s my honest take after setting these up for plenty of small businesses: the tool isn’t the hard part. The hard part is deciding what to automate first, and then trusting it enough to actually switch it on.

Make looks intimidating because of how it presents itself, all those connected circles on a blank canvas. But the logic underneath is something you already do in your head every day: when this happens, do that. Once that clicks, you stop seeing a complicated diagram and start seeing a to-do list that does itself.

The people who succeed with it aren’t more technical than you. They just start small, accept that their first scenario might be a bit clunky, and tweak it. The ones who struggle try to build a fifteen-step monster on day one, get overwhelmed, and quit. Start with the boring two-app version. Boring is where the time savings live.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know how to code to use Make.com?
No. Make is built specifically so non-developers can use it. You connect apps visually by clicking and dragging. There are advanced features that let coders go deeper, but you can run a genuinely useful business automation without touching a single line of code.

Is the free plan actually enough, or is it a trap?
For many small businesses, the free plan is genuinely enough to start. You get 1,000 operations a month and two active scenarios. If you run one or two simple automations a handful of times a day, you’ll likely stay well inside that. You only need to pay once your automations get busier or more numerous.

What’s the difference between Make.com and Zapier?
They do similar jobs, connecting apps so they work together. Make tends to be cheaper and more flexible for complex, multi-step workflows, while Zapier is often seen as slightly simpler for very basic tasks. For most NZ small businesses watching costs, Make gives you more automation for your dollar.

What apps does Make.com connect to?
More than 3,000, including Gmail, Outlook, Google Sheets, Xero, Shopify, Mailchimp, Slack, WhatsApp, and most tools a small business already runs on. If your apps have any kind of online connection, there’s a strong chance Make can link them.

Will an automation break if I change something?
It can, if you change an app that a scenario relies on, like renaming a spreadsheet column. The good news is Make tells you when a scenario fails and logs exactly what happened, so fixing it is usually a quick five-minute job rather than a mystery.

How long does it take to set up my first automation?
A simple two-app scenario takes most beginners around 20 to 30 minutes the first time, including the inevitable bit of fiddling. Your second one is much faster, because the concepts carry over. The setup is a one-off; the time savings repeat every single day after that.

Ready to build your first automation?

You don’t need to become a tech person to get this working. You just need someone to map out the right first automation and set it up so it actually sticks. That’s exactly the kind of thing we do every day.

If you’d rather skip the learning curve and have it done properly the first time, take a look at our automation services and let’s build something that saves you hours every week.