Productivity · Head-to-head

Make vs Shortwave

Make vs Shortwave: Free tier with 1,000 credits/mo; paid from $9/mo for 10,000 credits vs Freemium. Side-by-side features, pricing, and which to pick.

🔗 MakeView full review →

ShortwaveView full review →

The verdict

Pick Make if…

→you want our editor's pick for this category
→your primary use case is teams building multi-step, branching automations who want to see the whole flow on a canvas rather than describe it as a list of steps.
→you need: agents, marketing

Try Make →

Pick Shortwave if…

→your primary use case is gmail users who want an inbox where ai drafts replies, summarizes threads, and handles scheduling and search.

Try Shortwave →

Side-by-side specs

Spec	Make	Shortwave
Category	Productivity	Productivity
Pricing model	freemium	freemium
Headline pricing	Free tier with 1,000 credits/mo; paid from $9/mo for 10,000 credits	Freemium
Free tier	Yes, and it runs real scenarios: 1,000 credits a month across 2 active scenarios, with a 15-minute minimum run interval. Annual billing is advertised at 15%+ savings on the paid tiers.	Basic AI features with limited daily queries
AI Score	8.7/10	8.3/10
Best for	Teams building multi-step, branching automations who want to see the whole flow on a canvas rather than describe it as a list of steps.	Gmail users who want an inbox where AI drafts replies, summarizes threads, and handles scheduling and search.
Editor's pick	✓ Yes	—
Use cases	productivity agents marketing	productivity
Date added	2026-08-02	2025-09-15

Pros and cons

🔗

Make

Productivity · freemium

Pros

✓Visual canvas makes branching and conditional automations readable in a way a linear step list does not
✓Routers and error handler modules cost zero credits, so defensive structure does not inflate the bill
✓3,000+ connectors including 400+ AI integrations, which covers most of what a small team needs to wire together
✓Free tier runs genuine scenarios on a schedule rather than expiring like a trial
✓Entry pricing starts at $9/mo, well below what comparable platforms charge for a first paid tier

Cons

×Credits are consumed per module action, so a multi-step scenario burns the allowance far faster than the plan names suggest
×The advertised $9, $16 and $29 prices are only the 10,000-credit rung of a slider, and real costs climb from there
×Free tier caps scheduling at a 15-minute minimum interval and execution at 5 minutes, which rules out anything time-sensitive
×The canvas is harder to learn than a form-based builder, which is a real cost for occasional users
×Full-text log search sits on Pro, so debugging on the cheaper tiers is more painful than it should be