https://zapier.com/blog A blog about productivity, workflow automation, company building and how to get things done with less work. Sun, 05 Jul 2026 13:36:42 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-crms-for-small-business As a small business, you're no longer in the early days of figuring out how things work. You have a good client base, your metrics are solid, and now you're looking to scale. To do that, you need CRM software that's not too basic but not too expensive, a blend of useful features and competitive pricing. Efficiency is the name of the game. I know you didn't start a business to shop around for the perfect apps to help you grow. I'm taking some of the load off: I rounded up over 140 apps on the mar Miguel Rebelo Fri, 03 Jul 2026 13:47:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-crms-for-small-business https://zapier.com/blog/best-keyword-research-tool There's no shortage of tools purpose-built for keyword research (literally hundreds of them), and they run the gamut from beginner-focused to highly advanced. They also range from totally basic and unhelpful to super valuable. When done right, the best keyword research tools simplify and streamline your workflow—they make it easier to find the right keywords to target and give you the data you need to actually rank for them. But they shouldn't require you to empty out your bank account and sell Kiera Abbamonte Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-keyword-research-tool https://zapier.com/blog/multi-agent-systems Hot take: I really liked the "Stranger Things" finale. Yeah, the final fight was formulaic, but I love a good boss fight. Everyone has a specialty, and they all contribute to the win. That's how high-performing teams work everywhere, whether it's a psychic, demon-fighting group of teenagers or an automation system.  AI agents can do a lot on their own, but organized into a multi-agent system, they can specialize, share information, and delegate. Like Dustin and Steve, they're better together. In Ben Steele Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/multi-agent-systems https://zapier.com/blog/types-of-ai-agents My whole life, I've held onto a few key metrics of wealth and success: the ability to effortlessly purchase a wheel of fancy cheese, owning a detailed and historically accurate dollhouse, and hiring someone to manage my schedule and decade-old inboxes. AI agents can't do the first two, but they can definitely handle the last one—and that's just one of the simpler tasks they can take on. AI agents can follow rules, remember context, make choices toward a goal, and (in some cases) improve over tim Allisa Boulette Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/types-of-ai-agents https://zapier.com/blog/ai-crm My very first CRM was a DOS-based system I was forced to use in 2009. Which, just to be clear, was well after the invention of the iPhone, streaming services, and functioning graphical user interfaces. It didn't integrate with anything, it didn't suggest or automate a single thing, and if it had any "intelligence," it was the kind that treated the tab key as a threat to its authority. I've seen the CRM evolution—from command lines and black screens to the sleek, AI-infused platforms of today tha Allisa Boulette Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-crm https://zapier.com/blog/ai-agent-security-audit My friend once raved about an AI tool he used for meeting summaries—until I asked what the tool had access to. It was only then that he realized he'd never actually looked into it. For all he knew, his AI tool could've had access to customer profiles with personally identifiable information (PII). You never know how low-stakes a tool truly is until you've investigated its connections and mapped out what it does with those connections.  Here's how to conduct a security audit of your AI agent work Sara J. Nguyen Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-agent-security-audit https://zapier.com/blog/best-llm Large language models (LLMs) are what most people think of when they think of AI. They're what you're interacting with in ChatGPT and Claude, they write the code generated by Claude Code and Codex, and they power other AI features like Google's AI answers and Apple Intelligence. If something has a chatbot, some kind of text generator or text summarization built in, or writes code or automates your computer, it almost certainly uses an LLM. LLMs have been studied in research labs since the late 2 Harry Guinness Fri, 03 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-llm https://zapier.com/blog/power-automate-vs-uipath Power Automate and UiPath overlap just enough to look like rivals, but they're built for very different kinds of work. One is designed to slot neatly into the Microsoft ecosystem and help teams automate everyday processes. The other is built for heavier, more complex automation—especially when things start getting messy. So the useful question isn't "which one is better?" It's "which one fits the way your business actually runs?"—and, as I'll get to, whether a third option fits it better than ei Trent Fowler Thu, 02 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/power-automate-vs-uipath https://zapier.com/blog/best-cold-email-software As a serial email deleter, I know how hard it is to get people to open a cold email. But I've also had the unique privilege (yes, I'm calling it a privilege) of being a sender of cold emails.  I know that personalizing hundreds of emails, scheduling sequences, and replying to leads that bite takes time—so much time that doing it manually is impossible once you have a sizable prospect list.  Cold email software speeds up and optimizes your outreach. If you're looking to try out a cold email app a Dylan Reber Thu, 02 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-cold-email-software https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-uipath Every company has a stack of work nobody wants to claim: copying data between systems, re-keying invoices, and logging into five different tools to move a single record from A to B. It's the kind of work that gets called "quick" by whoever isn't doing it. UiPath is built for the heaviest end of this kind of work—large-scale, rules-heavy processes inside complex business systems. It's serious software for serious enterprise problems and it does what it does well. But if your workflows live mostly Sunny Yadav Thu, 02 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/what-is-uipath https://zapier.com/blog/automate-claude-zapier-mcp I've been playing this game at coffee shops where every time I overhear somebody say they're "building with AI," I take a sip of my cold brew. Suffice it to say, I'm staying caffeinated (and staying up at night). Your IT admins may be losing sleep too, if everyone's handing AI tools like Claude access to their work apps, giving it more chances to do something it shouldn't. You can prevent these mishaps with Zapier MCP, which connects Claude to your tech stack with governance built in. That way, Steph Spector Thu, 02 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/automate-claude-zapier-mcp https://zapier.com/blog/customer-acquisition-strategy Anyone who's lived in the high desert knows that weeds are no joke out here. Even though I'm a die-hard DIYer, I recently succumbed to hiring a neighborhood kid—I'll call him Dave—to rid my backyard of them.  When Dave posted flyers all over the neighborhood at the start of spring, I took the opportunity. The negotiable rate, mission to save for college, and cheery headshot complete with gardening tools and disposable surgical mask promised this would be safe, quality work for a good cause—all a Allisa Boulette Thu, 02 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/customer-acquisition-strategy https://zapier.com/blog/business-automation-software I make a sandwich every day for lunch, and I've put the mayo, turkey, cheese, and veggies in specific places in the fridge so I can grab them all in one go without opening a single drawer. So far, I've got my sandwich-making prep time down to about 45 seconds. Businesses have a similar mindset when they start pursuing automation, and with the right business process automation (BPA) platform, it's possible to streamline tasks far more complicated than putting together a turkey club.  BPA software Dylan Reber Wed, 01 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/business-automation-software https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-search-engine It often feels like Google search has gotten worse. While the issue is complicated, online search has never felt like such a chore. Not only do you have to hop through numerous links to pinpoint what you're searching for, but you also have to navigate a maze of ads, spam, and pop-ups. Even then, how often do you find the answers you need? AI search engines claim they're the solution, so let's see.  The new breed of AI search engines combines the tech behind AI chatbots like ChatGPT with traditio Harry Guinness Wed, 01 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-search-engine https://zapier.com/blog/lovable-vs-bolt Vibe coding is the spray-and-pray of software development: you start from a prompt, and an AI agent magically turns it into working screens, buttons, and features. Getting to the prototype is super fast, but that's where the problems begin: agents fail to fix complex bugs, delete important code on their own, or ship apps with serious security vulnerabilities. This friction made the hype settle, sure, but it didn't stop committed builders: it's still possible to create a competitive app and grow Miguel Rebelo Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/lovable-vs-bolt https://zapier.com/blog/demand-generation I did not need a Diet Coke with coconut syrup, fresh lime, and a splash of heavy cream, but that didn't stop me from driving 26 minutes and paying $6.95 plus tip for the privilege of betraying my own taste buds, all because some 23-year-old on TikTok held up a 44-ounce Styrofoam cup, said the words "dirty soda," and rewired something deep in my brainstem. There isn't an ancestral hunger for fountain soda with fruit purée bobbing around in it. Someone installed a craving inside me for a beverage Allisa Boulette Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/demand-generation https://zapier.com/blog/claude-mythos On April 7, 2026, Claude Mythos Preview was officially announced, but it was apparently too dangerous to release. According to Anthropic, Claude Mythos represented a unique cybersecurity threat (they claimed that "the fallout—for economies, public safety, and national security—could be severe.") Instead of releasing Mythos to the general public, they spun up Project Glasswing, a cybersecurity initiative that also involved some big-name companies. The idea was that they'd be able to deploy Mythos Harry Guinness Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/claude-mythos https://zapier.com/blog/pipedream-pricing In an ideal world, your automation tools don't make you think too hard about cost. You pick a plan, glance at how many tasks you get, and move on. Done. Instead, Pipdedream asks you to think like an engineer. How long does your workflow run? How much memory does it use? How efficient is your code? All of that affects what you pay. Depending on how you look at it, that's either a huge advantage or a fast way to a terrifying line item. So before you commit, it's worth understanding Pipedream's pri Trent Fowler Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/pipedream-pricing https://zapier.com/blog/claude-ai I've been using Claude long enough to remember when the main selling point was that it was a nicer chatbot to talk to than the alternatives. (That's still true, for what it's worth.) But Claude no longer just talks to you about your work; it also does your work for you. You can give Claude a project, head off to make a coffee, and check in occasionally when questions pop up. For enterprises looking to get real productivity gains from AI, Claude has become the default choice. And Claude is equall Ryan Kane Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/claude-ai https://zapier.com/blog/b2b-social-media-marketing I recently came across a LinkedIn post from a B2B software company that opened with: "We're not just a platform. We're a family." It had 847 likes. Eight hundred and forty-seven adult humans looked at that sentence and thought, "Yes, more of this." Moments like that capture everything wrong with B2B social media marketing and everything weirdly, frustratingly right about it. Wrong, because "we're a family" is so familiar, yet so aggressively non-specific. Right, because those 847 people engaged— Allisa Boulette Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/b2b-social-media-marketing https://zapier.com/blog/workato-vs-mulesoft I didn't expect to be comparing Workato and MuleSoft: workflow veterans know they usually show up in slightly different conversations. Workato tends to come up in enterprise conversations about app integration and workflow automation; it's developer-oriented, but built to give business teams more direct access than traditional integration tools. MuleSoft, on the other hand, tends to come up when the conversation shifts to APIs, governance, and connecting a more complex mix of systems—especially Trent Fowler Wed, 01 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/workato-vs-mulesoft https://zapier.com/blog/ai-models-on-zapier New AI models launch practically every week, and keeping up with which ones to use for specific workflows is a job in itself. Consider this article your living reference. At Zapier, we run every model through AutomationBench. It's our benchmark for testing how well models carry out multi-step workflows, not just static prompts. Below, I'll walk through every major AI provider available on Zapier, the models you can plug into your Zap workflows today, and what each one is best for based on Zapier Steph Spector Tue, 30 Jun 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-models-on-zapier https://zapier.com/blog/tokenmaxxing I write about tech and AI for a living, but nothing has made me yearn for the Butlerian Jihad more than learning (against my will) about the term "tokenmaxxing." And if I have to know what that means, you do, too. In early 2026, companies started publishing internal leaderboards ranking employees by how many AI tokens they consumed. At Meta, the board was called "Claudeonomics," and it handed out digital badges with extremely not-dorky titles like "Cache Wizard" and "Model Connoisseur." The high Nicole Replogle Tue, 30 Jun 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/tokenmaxxing https://zapier.com/blog/ai-model-flexibility Every AI provider comes with models of varying strengths. I'm a Claude stan because it just gets my writing style, but I'll often reach for Sonnet over the higher-tier models because its results are more consistent for me. And for some tasks, Claude's lineup doesn't cut it at all—when I need to process data at scale, for example, I might reach for Gemini. When I need a versatile generalist for classification or routing, GPT might be my pick. Other people across my team and at Zapier have altoget Steph Spector Tue, 30 Jun 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-model-flexibility https://zapier.com/blog/best-no-code-app-builder Remember when you had to know how to code to build an app? We've moved on from that world: no-code tools are here to stay, and they're powerful enough to let you build almost anything you can think of without ever typing function(). I've been working with no-code apps for a while, and as a die-hard tinkerer, I have a serious soft spot for them. For this article, I researched and considered over 100 different platforms, exploring each one and then conducting extensive testing on the top contender Miguel Rebelo Tue, 30 Jun 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-no-code-app-builder