https://zapier.com/blog A blog about productivity, workflow automation, company building and how to get things done with less work. Wed, 29 Jul 2026 20:01:21 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-mind-mapping-software Mind mapping is a creative way to brainstorm and find connections between different ideas. Done right, it's a great way to come up with new ideas and solutions to tricky problems, outline an article or presentation, and generally just get your thoughts in order. While it can be done as a group, it's often a solo practice. I do most of my mind mapping digitally—and even when I don't, I often recreate a paper mind map online so that I can have it safely stored and easily searched. (It's a weird hy Kiera Abbamonte Wed, 29 Jul 2026 15:55:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-mind-mapping-software https://zapier.com/blog/best-webinar-software Webinars allow you to share your expertise at scale, helping you connect directly with new customers and deeply engage with existing ones. But there's more to webinars than just the content—you also need to invite and manage attendees, run the online event, facilitate real-time engagement, and measure success.  That's where webinar software comes in. The best webinar platforms help you streamline and automate all the logistics related to running a webinar so you can focus on sharing your knowled Kiera Abbamonte Wed, 29 Jul 2026 14:49:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-webinar-software https://zapier.com/blog/dropbox-vs-google-drive On its own, cloud storage is a commodity. Any provider worth its salt will let you back up your files to the cloud, sync them across devices, and share them with other people. But cloud storage apps like Dropbox and Google Drive now offer far more than just storage: with AI tools, real-time collaboration, and eSignatures all bundled together, each platform is now a destination for getting work done rather than just a place to stash files. As a result, Dropbox and Google Drive are more useful tha Ryan Kane Wed, 29 Jul 2026 06:30:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/dropbox-vs-google-drive https://zapier.com/blog/best-productivity-apps-mac If you're a Mac user, you have high standards. You invested in a high-quality machine for a reason—and you expect the best software to match. It shouldn't just work on your operating system and respond to familiar keyboard shortcuts—it should feel like a Mac app. It should be that ideal blend of form and function that you've come to expect from the Apple ecosystem. And developers know this—which is why there are so many productivity apps for Mac that are miles better than what you can find for o Nicole Replogle Wed, 29 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-productivity-apps-mac https://zapier.com/blog/ai-workflows If your company's idea of "using AI" is keeping ChatGPT open in a browser tab—congrats, you're doing the bare minimum. You're also missing out on the real efficiency gains AI can deliver. Ad hoc prompting is great for one-off requests ("draft this email," "explain this bizarre spreadsheet formula"), but it doesn't scale—and it definitely doesn't count as integrating AI into your workflows. AI workflow automation is what happens when you build AI into repeatable processes instead: tasks like draf Jessica Lau Wed, 29 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-workflows https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-build-automated-system-on-zapier At Zapier, we're big believers in automation. That's a given. But our platform goes beyond automating simple "if this, then that" work. An automated workflow—what we call a Zap—is the perfect starting point to get more work done. But it's just one piece of a larger picture. The real goal is a complete system: one place to capture your data, store it, and act on it, with security, access controls, and permissions built in at the platform level. You can create that entire system on Zapier. And if Steph Spector Tue, 28 Jul 2026 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-build-automated-system-on-zapier https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-vs-celigo NetSuite organizes monthly events for its users around the world, from Dubai to Sydney, and in each and every city you'll find a similar sight: people in Celigo shirts handing out swag. Officially, Celigo is an enterprise iPaaS solution with lots of use cases. But practically speaking, it's best known as the go-to platform for NetSuite integrations. If you're processing thousands of eCommerce orders daily through NetSuite, Celigo should probably be a part of the solution. But most enterprises al Ryan Kane Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-vs-celigo https://zapier.com/blog/agent-skills My dog knows a lot of tricks, and she's willing to show them off to you if (and only if) you offer a high-value treat. You don't have to teach her to lie down or shake paws every time you give the command; she's already learned what's expected from her. Agent skills work the same way—except your AI agent's compliance is a lot less dependent on its mood that day or whether you have a blueberry-flavored Greenie to tempt it with. Agent skills are like teaching your AI a new trick, so they do specif Nicole Replogle Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/agent-skills https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-vs-uipath Some of the world's most critical infrastructure runs on technology that predates the internet. Updating it is risky and complex, so banking systems, government agencies, and insurance firms frequently apply the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule to the decades-old technology that powers their core systems. UiPath rose to prominence by automating legacy systems like these with its robotic process automation (RPA) platform, which lets IT teams design robots that complete actions at the user i Ryan Kane Tue, 28 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-vs-uipath https://zapier.com/blog/product-lifecycle-management I make a mean homemade pretzel, but it took a while to get there. In my early days, I watched a few quick videos and just decided to wing it, not knowing how to mix the dough, when and how long to let it rest, and even forgetting to add baking soda to the boiling water (a mortal sin in the pretzel world). But then I got a cookbook that completely changed my life, and standardized my processes to help me make golden, twisted bliss. Wayward businesses have the same problem as my early pretzel year Ben Lyso Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/product-lifecycle-management https://zapier.com/blog/tray-vs-zapier It's easy to let edge cases influence your decision-making—thinking you need the most technical tool for the few times your developers will want to code their way out of a tough problem. And with enterprise software, it's tempting to assume you have to choose between power and ease of use. But that's not always true. The best automation platforms deliver both, scaling to meet complex enterprise needs while remaining intuitive enough for anyone to start building right away. You can use either Zap Ryan Kane Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/tray-vs-zapier https://zapier.com/blog/hootsuite-vs-buffer Whether you're an occasional poster or a social media marketer, you need social media management apps to automate posts, monitor performance, and run multiple social media accounts without too much chaos. There are plenty of options to choose from, but the two names you'll see popping up most often in this category are Buffer and Hootsuite. They're both synonymous with social media management, but they differ quite a bit in their features and how they approach the task at hand. I spent time test Ryan Kane Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/hootsuite-vs-buffer https://zapier.com/blog/omnichannel-customer-experience Last week, I had to return some workout clothes to a company that I've decided to redact, as I don't want to get sued. I started on the app but gave up halfway through as I was being led on a virtual goose chase. I then called the support line and had to explain the whole thing again to a very nice person who had no idea I'd ever opened the app. To add insult to injury, I got an email a few hours later asking me to rate the app experience. Three touchpoints, minimal memory, and one frazzled (to Ben Lyso Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/omnichannel-customer-experience https://zapier.com/blog/best-applicant-tracking-systems When you open the floodgates that are a new job posting, you have to be ready for the wave of candidates that can follow. It's not easy to sort through hundreds or thousands of applicants to find those best fit for the job—which is why the agency I work for uses an applicant tracking system (ATS) to manage the best possible talent pipeline. To help you pick the best solution for your organization, I researched several dozen ATS platforms, testing them whenever I could and speaking to the folks w Luke Strauss Tue, 28 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-applicant-tracking-systems 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 Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-models-on-zapier 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 Mon, 27 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-model-flexibility https://zapier.com/blog/google-gemini Google has been in its "Gemini era" for a couple years now, and while the confusing rebrandings have slowed, everything else continues to improve at a rapid pace. Gemini is the name Google gave to its current generation family of multimodal AI models, but in typical Google fashion, it also applies to basically everything else that's related to AI. It can get a touch confusing since, by my reckoning, Google has: Google Gemini, a family of multimodal AI models. The latest is the 3.6 series, thoug Harry Guinness Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/google-gemini https://zapier.com/blog/best-texting-app Let's make one thing clear: unfortunately, there's no one best texting app. Unless you absolutely require one or two specific features or are a real stickler for security, the best text message app will be the one that the people you want to text also use. Depending on where you are in the world, that can be iMessage, WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, LINE, WeChat, or even SMS. If you're looking for some magic WhatsApp alternatives that are a million times better, you're out of luck. But if, for whatev Harry Guinness Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-texting-app https://zapier.com/blog/mulesoft-vs-zapier In The Office, bumbling boss Michael Scott famously tries to declare bankruptcy by yelling, "I declare bankruptcy!" Some enterprises take a similar approach to getting people to use AI—"I declare that AI is an organizational priority!"—while leaving all the details for later. But as fun as the move-fast-and-break-things approach is, the inevitable result is agent sprawl, shadow AI, and credentials scattered across a dozen different tools. Zapier is built with these challenges in mind. It offers Ryan Kane Mon, 27 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/mulesoft-vs-zapier https://zapier.com/blog/ai-by-zapier-guide Guilty of tokenmaxxing? I get it. Now that AI is ubiquitous in all of our work, it's easy to let an agent harness take the reins for every workflow. But tossing your important tasks into the agent void and letting it run amok in your wallet isn't always the cheapest—or smartest—way to go. Some work requires determinism, which means the same input produces the same output every time. Conventional automation handles that more reliably than AI. And it's also less expensive. There's no reason to pay Steph Spector Wed, 22 Jul 2026 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-by-zapier-guide https://zapier.com/blog/mach-1-mcp Most AI agents can complete a task inside a single tool. Running them reliably across an entire business is a different problem. Chris Olson is co-founder and CEO of Mach 1, an AI operations platform that helps mid-market companies deploy agents across go-to-market, customer success, sales, support, and finance operations. He developed the approach after applying AI-driven operations at a sports technology company, helping move the business from a $9 million annual cash burn to $5 million in fre Rob Ayre Wed, 22 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/mach-1-mcp https://zapier.com/blog/best-photo-editing-apps-iphone-android "The best camera is the one you have with you" is an old adage in photography, and there's a lot of truth to it. Even as someone who has at least five cameras at home, I capture more photos with my smartphone than I do anything else. Smartphone cameras have been so good for so long now that it really doesn't feel like a tradeoff. My DSLR definitely doesn't have a wide-angle and an 8x telephoto lens built in. But capturing photos is just the first half of creating a good image. To really make gre Harry Guinness Wed, 22 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-photo-editing-apps-iphone-android https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-for-enterprise-automation Zapier is easy to use—and sometimes ease of use gets conflated with simplicity. But at Zapier, we know that being easy to use and being enterprise-ready aren't mutually exclusive. Any enterprise tool should prioritize ease of use. If you want your entire organization to adopt software, there can't be barriers to entry. Zapier helps your entire company operate more efficiently and achieve mission-critical goals at scale. And it goes beyond workflows: Zapier is an AI orchestration platform where y Nicole Replogle Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-for-enterprise-automation https://zapier.com/blog/mulesoft-integrations I have an engineering degree, which I once bravely attempted to use for its intended purpose. I tried connecting devices that absolutely didn't want to be connected. After all, where else was I supposed to use the IoT concepts I spent years pretending I fully understood? My smart setup included a light that needed one app, a plug that needed another app, and a speaker that refused to talk to either of them. That small adventure taught me that integrations sound simple until they meet real-world Sunny Yadav Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/mulesoft-integrations https://zapier.com/blog/best-automation-software Automation software seems like a straightforward enough concept until you start shopping for it. Suddenly, you're staring down a list of tools that range from no-code automation builders to enterprise API platforms that require a six-month implementation and a dedicated IT team. They all say they automate things, but that's pretty much where the similarity ends. I've been writing about automation tools for Zapier for years, which means I've tested a lot of these myself. And the opinions I've for Nicole Replogle Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-automation-software