Automation Migration Checklist: Rebuild Your Workflows Without Breaking Things

List every active automation with its trigger and actions.

In Zapier: go to Zaps > filter by “On” status. Note the trigger app, action apps, and how many steps each Zap has. A 5-step Zap burns 5 tasks per execution — this matters for volume planning on the new platform.

Categorize automations by business criticality.

Critical: Lead capture to CRM, payment notifications, customer onboarding. Important: Internal notifications, reporting. Nice-to-have: Social media cross-posting, spreadsheet syncing. Rebuild in this order.

Check integration availability on the new platform.

Zapier has 7,000+ integrations. Make has 1,800+. n8n has 400+ built-in nodes. If a critical app isn't available natively on Make, check if it supports webhooks or has an API you can call via Make's HTTP module.

Calculate your actual task/operation volume.

Zapier counts each step as a task. Make counts each module execution as an operation. A 5-step Zap running 100 times/month = 500 Zapier tasks. The equivalent Make scenario = 500 operations (same count, but Make gives you 10,000 on Core vs. Zapier's 750).

Start with one critical automation and rebuild it completely.

Pick your most important workflow. Build it on Make (or your target platform), test with real data, and verify the output matches what Zapier was producing. Budget 30–60 minutes for a simple workflow, 2–3 hours for complex ones with routers and filters.

Rebuild remaining critical automations.

Work through your critical list. Make's visual builder requires a different mental model than Zapier's linear steps. Use routers for conditional logic (Zapier Paths equivalent). Use error handlers — Make's error handling is more granular than Zapier's.

Set up error notifications on every automation.

Make: add an error handler route that sends a Slack notification or email on failure. n8n: use the error trigger node. This is the single most important step people skip. Silent failures in automation cost more than the subscription.

Run both platforms in parallel for 1 week.

Keep Zapier active while the new platform runs the same workflows. Compare outputs. This costs one extra week of Zapier billing ($7.50 for Professional weekly) but catches edge cases you won't find in testing.

Turn off Zapier automations one by one.

Disable Zaps in the same priority order you rebuilt them. Critical first. Wait 24 hours between each batch. If something breaks, you can re-enable the Zapier version instantly.

Cancel the old platform after 2 stable weeks.

Once all automations run successfully on the new platform for 2 full weeks with zero errors, cancel Zapier (or the old tool). Download any Zap configurations for reference before cancelling.