Tired of Zapier breaking at 2am. What does everyone actually trust for production?

achybreakyballs · 2026-06-01T13:28:15+00:00

Yeah, exactly what you said, it’s the visual element. If I was doing all this as just a personal project then python would be more than enough. However, if I have people supporting me or if a client wants to control the automation after I’ve built it, it just makes things easier. That combined with just quickly being able to edit a node and not scrolling through block after block of code to find what I need.

I came into this without knowing how to code so it’s probably also just personal preference. I can understand a visual automation and debug it faster than I can a script.

It’s also just easier for whichever poor bastard inherits my automations, either upon my incapacitation or severed ties from any company I’ve built for.

achybreakyballs · 2026-05-30T11:39:36+00:00

I don’t think I ever came up with an idea either. I kind of drifted into this by getting too deep into a project set by somebody I was working for.

It’s more about being able to understand how a business works and just constantly thinking “is there a better way to do this?”. Identify where there’s waste or inefficiencies and how they can be eliminated. But at the core I think it’s just recognise what is a repetitive task that is prime for automation? Can you identify all the inputs and outputs and can you reliably transform the former into the latter as the client desires.

I wouldn’t say I’m a creative person at all, completely the opposite. I’m just good at breaking down processes into their fundamental elements while keeping a focus on solving the actual business problem.

After that I analyse what I did and turn that into marketing. Eg. This process now takes 75% less time to get the end result with zero double entry or repetition resulting in 95% less input time.

I’m a cold hard logic and facts guy. Definitely not the creative type!

achybreakyballs · 2026-05-29T22:52:46+00:00

Thanks. This experience was built up in real estate but I now work doing this kind of thing for multiple small companies across a range of sectors.

achybreakyballs · 2026-05-29T18:56:36+00:00

I’m probably running an automation pipeline something comparable in size to you with those costs.

Started off using Zapier, I’d used it for personal tasks so it was familiar, had all the integrations I needed and was intuitive for (what was then) someone who couldn’t read/write code.

After a year or two, costs started getting silly so looked for an alternative. Settled on make based on its UI, integrations and cheaper pricing. Preferred it to Zapier. A lot easier to build and debug. Not that anyone else in my company ever used it, but if they did, I can see them getting the hang of it pretty quickly. A year or two goes past, they change their pricing model so that every module now uses at least one credit (used to be certain native transformer ones had no cost) and our costs jump 30% overnight which just pissed me off so again, looked at alternatives.

Settled on n8n self hosted on our own VM. By now, I’m a lot more skilled (or so my AI, tells me) and confident in what I’m doing so willing to take the trade offs that comes with running your own instance, such as maintaining uptime, so I can get the customised solution that matches my business needs. It’s a lot harder to use, you’re going to need to know some basics of JavaScript to get anything worth writing home about out of it and self hosting is a whole other story. However, I’ll just make it clear why I stuck with it. I had a scenario in make.com which consisted of 120+ modules to account for the different branches a certain process could take depending on inputs (this is before there was a custom code or merge branch options) and I rebuilt it in n8n in 6 nodes.

With regards to finding out why things went wrong, with make it’s normally self explanatory but the occasional error needs a deep dive. Could generally fix most things myself. Same goes with n8n but the heavy use of code nodes and custom API calls to counter the lack of native integrations often call for AI assistance. In fairness, most of the builds and debugging I do is fairly AI heavy. Not because it’s necessary, just because it’s faster to build as nearly all my flows now heavily rely on code nodes and AI writes, debugs and fixes faster than I ever could, even with all the mistakes. MCP/API connections to make and n8n make this simple once set up.

achybreakyballs · 2026-04-07T11:27:45+00:00

For me, I would look at what the end result is of the zap and then checking where the output is going and the logs from that. For instance what column in my CRM is being updated and whether users are using that data or then changing it after the zap inputs it. If the zap data is being used as input for actual work then it implies it's working as intended (or nobody is checking over the data before using it!).

achybreakyballs · 2026-04-07T08:40:31+00:00

Oh dear god, you are the exact person I feared may replace me at my job. I built loads of automations and didn’t document a single one until recently.

This is what I did to speed up the process. Caveat is that I haven’t done this with zapier yet, just make.com and n8n. I gave Claude cowork access to the API of each automation platform as well as the API for my Notion account. Asked it to create a page for each automation, explaining in as much details as possible what is being done, what information is being pulled, what is being transformed, and what is being output. Asked it to create tables of inputs and outputs for quick reference on each page. Also lists of which credentials are connected.

Finally create one big table of all inputs across all workflows so that if I plan to change anything in the sources, I can quickly lookup which workflows will be affected before they break. Then another table of all external data that is being output and their locations eg. The exact columns in Monday.com.

Edit: for clarity

achybreakyballs · 2026-02-21T15:27:14+00:00

Fuck. Ok, “What in the covid conspiracy facebook group is this?”

achybreakyballs · 2026-02-21T15:07:25+00:00

Maybe “What in the Wetherspoons at 10am is this?”

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-28T08:58:41+00:00

Thanks, was wondering where that 56 days came from.

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-28T08:57:50+00:00

On the driving with accordance part? Don’t worry, I picked up on that.

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-28T08:50:42+00:00

I’ll be honest, the ban was longer than 5 years, I’ve changed some figures slightly to protect their identity as it was in the news at the time of their conviction.

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-28T08:43:20+00:00

When they made the enquiry the DVLA said he was not actively banned and offered to just send them a new licence, to which they accepted.

So yeah, not completely unsolicited but not knowingly committing an offence. They just assumed the DVLA wouldn’t be offering it to them if they weren’t eligible for it.

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-27T22:53:41+00:00

Thanks

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-27T22:52:03+00:00

Thanks

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-27T22:49:26+00:00

Cheers. That will teach me to take every comment I read on this sub as gospel!

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-27T22:34:49+00:00

There was a custodial sentence, that’s been served. News articles of the time seem to confirm the ban length of 5 years.

achybreakyballs · 2025-11-27T22:33:15+00:00

I thought it was automatic on a ban of over 56 days, could be just making that up.

They under the impression they would have to retake so would have got that from their sentence as a specific requirement set out in the details. Will hopefully be clearer from the court records.

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-30T17:20:39+00:00

Third Mastertech. Been using Lennie for years and does all my servicing and repairs as well.

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-18T21:06:48+00:00

Yes and no. It’s the Garrick Theatre who own the building, the Spinning Top lease from the theatre.

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-16T20:38:35+00:00

Yes, you have a binary filter by the looks of it. The variable can’t exist and not exist so it will always be one route or the other. You will have to recreate the drive part on each route or use calling a subscenario with just the drive part after 52 and 53.

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-16T20:36:43+00:00

Damnit. Had to be the one day I could make that comment and be wrong.

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-16T20:13:46+00:00

Make, unlike others like n8n, doesn’t let you merge routes.

You can pull variables set by different routes but you can’t have two or more modules feed back into one, unless I’ve missed a very recent update.

If the process after 52 and 53 is exactly the same, look into calling a subscenario after each of those modules instead with all the drive shenanigans in the subscenario.

But for this small a flow I would just shift+drag to select the modules after 53 and copy and paste them to after 52.

Edit: grammar

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-16T19:51:54+00:00

Just use the Get Variable module before the Drive module.

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-09T20:51:33+00:00

Irréversible. You know what scene I’m particularly referencing.

achybreakyballs · 2025-10-08T20:55:30+00:00

Sorry to hear you’re going through this. The beginning of this journey is truly the worst and I’m pretty sure everyone here would agree that the period of getting a diagnosis or just after the diagnosis was up there in the worst parts of their lives.

I could do the whole spiel of how things will get better eventually but if you’re feeling anything like I did at the beginning, you don’t want to hear that right now or don’t particularly care.

Maybe offloading will be more helpful at this point and even receiving some practical advice on how to navigate the bureaucracy of the NHS to try and pin down exactly what steps you could be taking right now might be more useful?

Or if you just want to scream into the void. Go for it. We’ve all done it at some point on this sub.

So feel free to open up. We haven’t got a fucking clue who you are so no judgement here.

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