What is Workato?

I'm not an engineer, but I do like to tinker. I found Zapier almost a decade ago and used it to automate team admin at the small law firm where I worked. Since then, I've used Zapier to build everything from team-level workflows to an automated reading tracker whose only purpose is to bring joy to my nerdy heart.

None of that would have been possible if automation was gatekept to the IT team.

But not everyone is like me. Some companies—especially larger ones—would rather keep automation centralized and limited to IT. Workato is one of the bigger names in enterprise automation, and it was built for exactly that purpose. Because it was designed with IT departments and developers in mind, that shapes everything from how it's priced to how long it takes to get your first automation running.

If you're in the market for automation software, you're in the right place. Here's everything you need to know about what Workato is, what it does well, and how its IT-centric approach compares to Zapier.

Table of contents:

• What is Workato?

• What is Workato used for?

• Workato pricing

• Workato vs. Zapier

• Workato alternatives

• Workato FAQs

What is Workato?

Workato is an automation platform that connects apps and automates workflows across your organization. It's designed primarily for large enterprises that need to integrate complex systems like ERP platforms, data warehouses, and legacy applications while maintaining strict governance and security controls.

The platform uses what it calls "recipes," which are essentially automation workflows that connect your apps and move data between them. These recipes can range from simple triggers and actions to multi-step processes with conditional logic, data transformation, and error handling.

Unlike Zapier, which makes automation accessible to devs and non-devs alike across organizations, Workato focuses on centralized control. It's built around the assumption that your IT team will be the ones building and maintaining automations for the rest of the organization.

If you have the IT resources and need to connect proprietary systems or less common applications, this can be valuable. But if you value democratizing automation and AI implementation (or your IT team is already stretched thin), you may want to explore other options.

What is Workato used for?

Workato was built for large enterprises, which means it's mostly used in scenarios involving:

• Enterprise integrations. If your stack revolves around tools like SAP, Oracle, or NetSuite, Workato can cover a lot of ground. Workato's integration library is narrower when it comes to the long tail of SaaS apps that individual teams adopt for marketing, support, recruiting, or internal ops.

• Strict IT governance and control. The platform offers role-based access controls, centralized monitoring, and administrative features that help IT departments maintain control over automation across the company.

• Proprietary systems or legacy applications. Your developers can create custom connectors to your niche or bespoke software. It's a way to extend Workato's reach beyond its standard integration library, though it does require ongoing technical maintenance and expertise to implement well.

Zapier handles these same use cases, but with a broader integration library and a model that lets teams across your organization build automations themselves—not just IT.

Workato pricing

Workato doesn't publish its pricing publicly, which is pretty common in the enterprise software world. Instead, pricing is customized based on factors like the number of recipes you're running, transaction volume, and which features you need.

Workato's main customer base is larger organizations with substantial budgets. You're typically looking at annual contracts rather than month-to-month plans, and implementation often involves professional services costs on top of the platform subscription.

For smaller teams or organizations that want to start small and scale up as they go, this pricing model can be a barrier. There's no free tier or low-cost entry point to test the waters. The expectation is that you're making a significant investment upfront, often before you've even built your first automation.

Workato vs. Zapier

It took me several years of dating my now-husband to convince him that 5-in-1 bath soap was an affront to humankind. (Don't worry. He now owns actual shampoo.) It's almost always a bad idea to trust a one-size-fits-all solution, whether we're talking about personal hygiene or automation software.

Both Workato and Zapier help you automate workflows and connect apps, but they're designed with different users and use cases in mind. It's important to understand what each option is built for, and choose the approach that's actually right for your team.

Who it's built for

Workato is built for IT teams and developers in large enterprises. While the interface uses visual workflow builders rather than requiring you to write code for everything, the concepts and terminology assume a certain level of technical knowledge.

For non-technical team members who want to automate parts of their work, Workato can feel overwhelming. Even relatively straightforward automations often require understanding data mapping, error handling, and other technical concepts that aren't intuitive if you're not coming from an IT or development background.

Zapier, on the other hand, is designed so that anyone on your team can build automations without coding and without depending on IT resources. This fundamental difference shapes everything else about the two platforms, from pricing to implementation timelines to how easy it is to get started.

Integration library

While Workato has solid coverage of major enterprise platforms, its connector library is smaller overall compared to Zapier. If your team uses a mix of enterprise tools and newer SaaS applications, you may find yourself needing to build custom connectors to fill the gaps.

That's technically possible with Workato's API platform, but it requires developer time and ongoing maintenance. If your team wants to connect tools quickly without writing code, a narrower integration library means more friction.

Zapier connects with over 8,000 apps (including hundreds of AI tools) and covers everything from major enterprise platforms to niche software. If your team uses a broad mix of tools, Zapier's wider coverage means you're more likely to find the connectors you need without custom development work.

AI capabilities

Workato offers AI features, including pre-built enterprise agents (called "Genies") for tasks like IT support, CRM updates, and campaign optimization. You can also build custom agents using Agent Studio, a low-code tool that combines knowledge bases, chat interfaces, and LLMs. But Workato's AI copilot is primarily focused on workflow generation, and it doesn't include a chatbot builder.

Zapier takes a broader approach to AI. Copilot lets anyone in your organization build agents, chatbots, databases, forms, and custom actions just by describing what they need—no technical expertise required. This makes it easier to take a bottom-up approach where individual teams can solve their own problems with AI. If your sales team needs help with meeting prep, for instance, they can build a Zapier Agent to handle research and agendas without waiting on IT.

For AI workflows that need oversight, Zapier also supports human-in-the-loop approvals at critical steps. And the enterprise admin center gives you visibility into AI activity across your organization, so you maintain control while still letting your teams move quickly.

Speed to value

Getting value from Workato typically takes longer than with other automation platforms. Between the sales process, contract negotiation, onboarding, and actually building your first recipes, you're often looking at weeks or months before automations are running in production.

Part of this delay is inherent to enterprise software. There are more stakeholders, security reviews, and approval processes. But part of it is also Workato's architecture, which assumes you'll be doing significant upfront planning and setup rather than launching quick experiments and iterating as you go.

With Zapier, you can sign up, build your first automation, and have it running in production within minutes. You can start small, see results quickly, and scale up as you go—still building the complex workflows that power your business.

Governance and control

Workato offers more centralized control, with detailed admin features, audit logs, and governance tools that IT departments appreciate. Zapier also has admin visibility and controls like this, but rather than centralizing automation through IT, it lets teams across the organization build their own automations.

For companies that prefer centralized IT control over every automation, Workato's approach is a good fit. For organizations that want to democratize automation and empower teams to solve their own problems, Zapier's model works better.

Cost structure

The combination of subscription pricing, implementation costs, and the need for technical resources to build and maintain automations adds up quickly. For smaller organizations or teams with limited budgets, Workato's total cost of ownership can be prohibitive.

Even for larger companies, it's worth considering whether the investment matches the value you're getting. If most of your automation needs are relatively straightforward (like connecting common apps, moving data between systems, or triggering notifications), you may be paying for enterprise features you don't actually need.

On the other hand, Zapier offers transparent, usage-based pricing with a free tier and affordable paid plans that scale with your needs. You can start small and grow without a major upfront investment, and you're only paying for what you actually use.

Workato alternatives

The right automation platform depends on how your organization works and what you're trying to accomplish.

Workato makes sense if you're a large enterprise with significant IT resources and requirements around centralized implementation. If you're primarily connecting major enterprise platforms like SAP, Oracle, or NetSuite, and you have developers who can build and maintain custom connectors, Workato can handle those scenarios well.

But if you want to move quickly, empower teams across your organization to automate their own work, and connect a wide variety of apps without custom development, Zapier is the better choice. You'll get faster time to value, a broader integration library, and a platform that anyone on your team can use—not just your IT department. And you'll still have all the governance and security power to back it up.

If you're still exploring options, check out our guide to Workato alternatives for a broader comparison of automation platforms. Or, try Zapier for yourself.

Workato FAQs

Is Workato a middleware?

Technically, Workato functions as middleware because it facilitates data exchange and automation between different applications. But Workato is more accurately described as an integration platform as a service (iPaaS).

While traditional middleware requires custom coding and infrastructure management, Workato has a visual interface that lets you build integrations and automations without writing code for every connection.

Is Workato an AI agent?

No, Workato is not an AI agent. It's an automation and integration platform that connects apps and automates workflows based on rules and logic you define. While Workato does incorporate AI features for specific use cases, its core function is executing the integrations and automations you build, not autonomously making decisions or taking actions on your behalf.

Is Workato easy to learn?

Workato has a steeper learning curve than other automation platforms. You don't need to be a developer to use it, but non-technical team members can find it hard to build automations. Most organizations using Workato rely on IT or dedicated integration specialists to build and maintain their recipes.

How expensive is Workato?

Workato doesn't publish pricing publicly, but it's positioned as an enterprise platform with pricing to match. Costs are typically customized based on your usage, required features, and number of recipes. Most organizations should expect annual contracts with costs that include both the platform subscription and professional services for implementation.

Related reading:

• Zapier vs. Workato: Which is best?

• The best enterprise integration platforms

• Is Make good for enterprise?

• Business process automation examples

• What is enterprise application integration?