Comparison
Belowdecks and Zapier compared point by point
Zapier gives you a tool to build your automations yourself. With Belowdecks, our team installs AI agents for you and monitors their work. This page compares the two on the points that matter to a small business.
Two ways to hand work to AI
Zapier is a no-code cloud automation platform. It connects more than 9,000 apps: an event in one of them, such as a new email or a row added to a spreadsheet, starts a series of actions in the others. Zapier has added AI steps, agents, forms and chatbots to it. You build each automation yourself, then maintain it when an app or a process changes.
With Belowdecks, our team installs AI agents in your business that do the repetitive work, then monitors their work and adjusts them every month. An agent does a piece of work from start to finish, such as answering a quote request received by email. Before an important action, the agent waits for your go-ahead, and it asks your team when information is missing.
Zapier therefore suits a business that has someone to build and maintain its automations. Belowdecks suits a business that prefers to hand this work to our team.
Zapier and Belowdecks, line by line
The facts about Zapier come from its public pages, checked on October 6, 2026. Several Zapier features depend on the plan you choose.
What you get
- Zapier
- Software to build your own automations
- Belowdecks
- Agents installed and monitored by a team
Who builds and maintains it
- Zapier
- You or a partner; with Zapier engineers on Enterprise
- Belowdecks
- The Belowdecks team, from diagnostic to follow-up
What starts the work
- Zapier
- 9,000 apps, email, schedule, webhook
- Belowdecks
- An email, a schedule, another app, a new row in a list
Your go-ahead before an important action
- Zapier
- Human in the Loop step, from the Professional plan
- Belowdecks
- Set up at installation to wait for your approval
Who can approve
- Zapier
- Anyone, with a free Zapier account
- Belowdecks
- The person you choose, also from an email
When information is missing
- Zapier
- A “Collect Data” step you add to the Zap
- Belowdecks
- The agent asks your team and waits
Assistant for your customers
- Zapier
- Chatbots add-on; embedding it on a site is paid
- Belowdecks
- Assistant on your site; the customer confirms the request
Where data is hosted
- Zapier
- AWS servers in the United States
- Belowdecks
- Your Belowdecks workspace; region agreed at the diagnostic
AI bill
- Zapier
- Counted in tasks, even with your own key
- Belowdecks
- Billed in your name by the AI provider
Monitoring the work
- Zapier
- Run history, error alerts
- Belowdecks
- A result for each task, a monthly report
Help and support
- Zapier
- Help in English; guidance on Enterprise
- Belowdecks
- The Belowdecks team
Pricing structure
- Zapier
- Monthly plan based on the number of tasks
- Belowdecks
- From $449 a month, setup quoted separately
Choosing
The situation where each one fits best
Both options meet real needs. The right choice depends mostly on the time and skills your team has.
Zapier fits better if
Someone on your team wants to build and maintain automations between your apps themselves. Your volumes are low, you want to start for free, or you require a vendor audited for SOC 2 Type II.
Belowdecks fits better if
You want to hand over a complete piece of work, from the request received to the finished work, without building the automations yourself. Important actions must wait for your go-ahead, and our team monitors the agents’ work every month.
Common questions about Belowdecks and Zapier
Can we keep Zapier and add Belowdecks?
Yes. At installation, our team can set up a link both ways: a Zap starts a Belowdecks agent, and the agent sends its results to a Zap. On Zapier, this link requires the Professional plan or higher.
The diagnostic determines what stays in your Zaps and what moves to the agents.
Zapier has AI agents too. How are Belowdecks agents different?
Zapier agents are self-service: you write their instructions, choose their tools and monitor their work. Zapier is converting them into Zaps with an AI by Zapier step. Their actions wait for a person if you turn on “Require approval before running” for the tool concerned, or add a Human in the Loop step.
Our team sets up Belowdecks agents with you. Before going live, each agent practices on real cases with the instruction to send and change nothing, in a workspace discarded afterwards, and reports what it would have done. Once live, it sees only its project’s folder and reports at the end of each task whether the work is done, partly done or blocked.
Where is the data kept in each case?
Zapier hosts data on AWS servers in the United States and offers no other region. With Belowdecks, your data is hosted in a region agreed at the diagnostic, which may be outside Quebec.
In both cases, the text read by the AI goes through its provider, which may process it outside Quebec. With Belowdecks, other data also leaves your Belowdecks workspace, such as technical error reports, notification emails, the monthly usage report and the agents’ web browsing. The Security page lists them, and your privacy impact assessment must take this into account.
How do the costs compare?
Zapier sells monthly plans priced by the number of tasks run, with a limited free plan. An AI step counts as several tasks depending on the model chosen, and the Chatbots add-on has its own plans. Add the time of the person who builds and maintains the automations.
With Belowdecks, plans start at $449 a month with Crew, which includes 15 million tokens, and the setup is quoted separately. It includes the agents our team designs for you, and the number of agents does not change the price. The AI provider bills you directly for what the model consumes. The Pricing page details the three plans.
Sources
The information about Zapier comes from its public pages, checked on October 6, 2026: pricing, data privacy, Human in the Loop, embedding chatbots and available languages. Zapier’s features and prices change often, so check them before you decide.
Zapier is a trademark of Zapier, Inc. Belowdecks is not affiliated with Zapier.
First call
Find out whether some of your work suits agents
A free 20-minute call to describe the work that takes up your time. We will tell you whether Belowdecks fits, or whether a tool like Zapier is enough.