https://zapier.com/blog A blog about productivity, workflow automation, company building and how to get things done with less work. Sun, 30 Aug 2026 04:31:08 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-hubspot HubSpot started as an inbound marketing tool, and today it bills itself as an AI-powered customer platform. But what does that actually mean?  HubSpot is a one-stop shop for managing every stage of the customer lifecycle. Here's a list of some of what HubSpot offers, just to give you an idea of how wide-ranging its features are: Lead generation forms Lead management tools (CRM, call tracking, and prospecting) Social media management  Data quality automations Invoices and payment links AI-powered Hannah Herman Thu, 27 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-hubspot https://zapier.com/blog/migrate-from-dropbox-to-google-drive There's an intersection by my house where seven roads converge into one chaotic circle, all without the guidance of a single traffic light. It's a test of survival skills disguised as traffic engineering, where your only option is to white-knuckle your way through and hope you make it out unscathed. Transferring files from Dropbox to Google Drive is a lot like that traffic circle. It's a multi-step process that can feel overwhelmingly impossible to navigate and may end with you stuck in the midd Allisa Boulette Thu, 27 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/migrate-from-dropbox-to-google-drive https://zapier.com/blog/add-zoom-to-google-calendar-as-default Google Meet is baked into just about everything Google makes—including Google Calendar, where it's the default video conferencing option on every event you create. If Meet isn't your thing, though, you're not stuck with it. Here's how to add Zoom to Google Calendar (and make it the default meeting option).  Table of contents:  How to add Zoom to Google Calendar How to make Zoom the default in Google Calendar  Automate Google Calendar and Zoom with Zapier How to add Zoom to Google Calendar To get Jessica Lau Thu, 27 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/add-zoom-to-google-calendar-as-default https://zapier.com/blog/google-ai-mode I can't be the only person who types a question into Google, opens 12 tabs from the results, and somehow still can't find a straight answer. Google AI Mode is here to save me, specifically, from that tab chaos. AI Mode is a conversational Google Search experience powered by Gemini. It breaks questions into related searches, combines what it finds into an AI-generated response, and includes web links you can use to check the answer or dig deeper. Then you can keep asking follow-ups without starti Nicole Replogle Thu, 27 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/google-ai-mode https://zapier.com/blog/automate-claude With every new model release, Claude tops almost every benchmark. And chatting with Claude makes it clear why: it's good at everything. But while there's power in a back-and-forth conversation, you can accomplish a lot more when you use Zapier to connect Claude to the rest of your apps and let automation carry out entire workflows for you. Here's how it works. Table of contents: Add Claude's brain to your existing workflows Automate workflows directly from Claude Claude automation FAQ Add Claude Steph Spector Wed, 26 Aug 2026 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/automate-claude https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-notes-apps Taking notes used to be a mess of notebooks, Post-its, and scribbled napkins. Tired of flipping pages, you went digital and stored everything on your devices and cloud accounts. Now, as we move forward in the AI age, you can improve the note-taking process even more to get those thoughts out of your head, shape them into powerful ideas, and maybe even start doing something with them. Using new technologies can be tricky, especially when dealing with sensitive data like your personal notes. And y Miguel Rebelo Wed, 26 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-notes-apps https://zapier.com/blog/best-windows-to-do-list-apps It seems like every productivity app lives in the browser these days, but there are still good arguments to be made for native software. Apps that run natively on your Windows desktop perform better, integrate into the operating system with tray icons and widgets, and won't get lost in the sea of tabs in your browser. And to-do list apps are no exception. There are a bunch of great Windows to-do list apps out there, if you know where to look. I spent a couple weeks testing all the top options to Shubham Agarwal Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-windows-to-do-list-apps https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-website-builder Vibe coding tools like Lovable and AI coding agents like Codex and Claude Code have totally changed the concept of building. You can now create a web app from a couple of text prompts, so can you do the same with a website? In short, yes. Though it's not quite as simple as that.  The claim is that AI website builders can streamline everything from designing a site to creating the content, organizing it into the appropriate pages, and even getting it online. It's a bold claim, and it's mostly tru Harry Guinness Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-website-builder https://zapier.com/blog/dropbox-alternatives A while back, a group of my friends, all professional photographers, were discussing the best place to store their digital photos. I couldn't relate: most of the photos on my camera roll are awkwardly framed photos of my dogs, and I store them…on my phone.  It did get me thinking about where I should store everything else, though. Dropbox comes to mind because it's a low-maintenance app packed with hidden features that make file syncing and sharing easy. And people love it because it just works. Jessica Lau Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/dropbox-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-apps Google's product launch events have always been a quirky grab-bag of Pixel phone updates and smartwatch announcements, with celebrity hosts like Trevor Noah doing their darndest to squeeze laughs out of teleprompter-reading Google product managers. But lately, there's been a new addition to these events: Google has begun spotlighting Gemini connections to apps like Wix, Zocdoc, and Ticketmaster. You can currently find ~18 of these third-party Gemini connected apps, and there are a couple dozen m Ryan Kane Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-apps https://zapier.com/blog/claude-for-small-business My friend runs a small dog boarding and training business. It's not a casual side hustle, either. She has a waitlist, a roster of regulars, and the kind of five-star reviews that take years to earn. She also has a full-time job. And somehow, she remains unburdened by the common stressors that keep small business owners up at night.  So, on behalf of all of us who are barely holding it together, working just one 9-to-5 (it's me—I am "us"), I asked her how she does it all. Her answer: Claude Cowor Jessica Lau Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/claude-for-small-business https://zapier.com/blog/intercom-alternatives Intercom is an impressive platform, designed to handle the entire customer lifecycle, across every touchpoint, from onboarding through retention. But not every business needs that level of commitment from its help desk. If you're looking for something a little less complex or a little less eerily omniscient, there are plenty of Intercom alternatives for customer support, customer engagement, and customer experience. The Zapier team and I have spent hundreds of hours in these apps, and based on Nicole Replogle Mon, 24 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/intercom-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/small-business-automation-software I've been automating small business tasks for over a decade. First, for a small law firm I worked for, and then for my own freelance business. And I can confidently say if you're looking for one tool that does it all, the answer is Zapier. It connects every app you could possibly use, works across every function of your business, and scales from a free plan to enterprise-grade workflows without requiring you to switch tools as you grow.  But if you're looking for a more purpose-built automation Nicole Replogle Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/small-business-automation-software https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-gems If a NASA engineer and an amateur cook gave Google Gemini a similar set of prompts, they'd get similar responses—down to the style and structure. Sure, they could explicitly instruct it otherwise, but neither our engineer nor our cook has time to enter detailed instructions and additional context every time they prompt Gemini.  Gemini Gems solve this problem by letting you build custom versions of Gemini tuned to your specific needs. Think of them as the Gemini equivalent of ChatGPT's custom GPT Jessica Lau Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-gems https://zapier.com/blog/small-business-advertising-ideas I spent years working with small restaurants and local businesses to help them grow—and, honestly, very few of them needed a huge advertising budget to drive business. Sure, you could invest thousands in paid ads, hire a top-tier advertising agency, and work with influencers to promote your brand. But you don't have to: there are plenty of free or low-cost advertising options that will attract website traffic and in-person visits.  You might think of advertising as referring only to paid marketi Danielle Antosz Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/small-business-advertising-ideas https://zapier.com/blog/pipedream-alternatives If you're here, you're looking for one of two things: a workflow builder to help you ship automations faster, or an embedded SDK you can drop into your own product so users can connect their accounts without you building OAuth infrastructure from scratch.  I work at Zapier, which solves both of these problems, and I'd unsurprisingly argue it's the best Pipedream alternative. But there are, of course, other automation tools and integration SDKs worth considering. My team and I have spent a lot of Nicole Replogle Fri, 21 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/pipedream-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/replit-alternatives My husband and I have very different relationships with starting things. He reads the entire manual before he touches anything. I open the box, press whatever looks most promising, and deal with the consequences later. We've been doing this dance for a dozen years, and obviously my approach works better. That's pretty much the Replit story. It's a browser-based coding platform that lets you skip the manual entirely: open a tab, describe your app, and the agent figures out the rest. It does front Nicole Replogle Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/replit-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/boomi-alternatives Boomi runs the integration layer for thousands of enterprises, connecting ERPs and legacy systems and on-premises databases that most modern tools refuse to acknowledge exist. If you need SAP talking to Oracle while both of them shake hands with a healthcare system behind a firewall, Boomi says "how high?" But for everyone else, whose stack is mostly cloud apps or who wants their entire team to be able to build without an IT backlog, Boomi isn't where you should go first. I work at Zapier, so y Nicole Replogle Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/boomi-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/salesforce-alternatives Once you're in the Salesforce universe, it's hard to move out. Part of that is because it's getting the job done: it can do almost anything, it scales to almost any size, and its ecosystem is enormous. If you have a dedicated Salesforce admin, a development team, and a budget, it's the gold standard for CRM, by a long shot. But if you're ready to move on—and lots of people are—there are plenty of Salesforce alternatives that cover a lot of the same ground Salesforce does, at a fraction of the co Nicole Replogle Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/salesforce-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/rozas-two-minute-lead-response As COO of Rozas, Matthew Rozas oversees the systems behind a firm that receives about 1,800 calls a week on its main line. He owns finance, HR, marketing, and operations, so he sees exactly where a new lead can slow down: in the gap between someone asking for help and the intake team getting that request into Clio Grow. Rozas represents clients nationwide in family-based immigration petitions, asylum cases, removal defense, employment visas, and other immigration matters. The firm also handles m Rob Ayre Wed, 19 Aug 2026 18:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/rozas-two-minute-lead-response https://zapier.com/blog/chatgpt-work ChatGPT isn't really a chatbot anymore. Now, the focus is on agents, which is why the ChatGPT app suddenly looks very different. It's been rebuilt around a feature called ChatGPT Work. ChatGPT Work is basically Codex, OpenAI's coding tool, for regular people. It uses the same agentic foundation but in a friendlier package. You don't have to worry about git, the terminal, or actual code—unless you want to.  The idea is that ChatGPT Work can operate on its own for an extended period of time. You g Harry Guinness Wed, 19 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/chatgpt-work https://zapier.com/blog/just-eat-spain-ruben-del-fresno-restaurant-partner-onboarding Rubén del Fresno, Sales Project Manager, has spent eight years building automation at Just Eat Spain. His latest system earned him a July monthly Zappy Award: it moves a restaurant partner (partner) from signed to online across Sales, Operations, delivery and logistics, and account management—cutting time to online from 13 days to about 5. Before Rubén built it, each team had to find the partner record, check a dashboard, and copy information into the next step. The five-team handoff The problem Rob Ayre Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/just-eat-spain-ruben-del-fresno-restaurant-partner-onboarding https://zapier.com/blog/fathom-vs-fireflies Watching someone take meeting minutes by hand feels like a portal into a bygone era, like rewinding a VHS tape or printing out MapQuest directions. I found a YouTube video called Mock Meeting for Minute Taking—recorded circa 2014—that was intended to train aspiring notetakers on the art of meeting minutes. A decade later, it all seems impossibly old-fashioned. AI handles everything: summaries, transcripts, action items, and conversational AI systems that let you ask questions about what was disc Ryan Kane Tue, 18 Aug 2026 22:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/fathom-vs-fireflies https://zapier.com/blog/best-android-calendar-apps Most of us are lost without our calendars, which is why Android phones come preloaded with them. But you don't have to stick to the built-in calendar app: there are a ton of Android calendar apps on the Google Play Store. That also means there are a lot of options to wade through, and they can all start to feel really similar. To find the best, I put several dozen of the top-rated Android calendar apps through their paces and found seven that I felt excelled in their categories.  Based on all th Shubham Agarwal Tue, 18 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-android-calendar-apps https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-mcp-guide Large language models can extract, classify, summarize, and write for us. They just can't execute those tasks on their own. Or not without some seriously cumbersome technical upkeep, anyway. For AI to do something in an app you use, a developer has to build a complex integration. Or, much preferred these days, you can fast-track the process with the Model Context Protocol (MCP). It's a translator between AI tools and apps that lets your AI act on your behalf. Most MCP servers connect to a single Steph Spector Tue, 18 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-mcp-guide