Pros & Cons #
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Automates tasks between apps, devices, and services
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Easy to use
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Capable web and mobile apps
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Competent suite of AI features
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Only paid users can create multistep applets
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Activity section could use better organization tools
Before a scheduled calendar event begins, post a reminder to Slack. Ask AI a question from a widget on your phone’s home screen. Tell Google Assistant to change the color of your Hue smart lights. These automations are simple examples of what you can build with IFTTT, which rhymes with "gift" and stands for "if this, then that." The service makes it easy to connect internet-aware apps, devices, and services without any coding, and we appreciate the bright, visually intuitive designs of its website and mobile apps. Reliable performance and a compelling collection of AI features round out the top-notch experience. The free version has some key restrictions, but IFTTT is nonetheless an Editors' Choice winner for productivity, alongside its more business-oriented competitor, Zapier.
IFTTT vs. Zapier: Similar Automation Builders With Some Slight Differences #
Both IFTTT and Zapier help you connect apps that would otherwise not communicate with each other. Each is an effective productivity tool, but they support a slightly different range of services. For example, IFTTT works with Philips Hue smart lights, whereas Zapier easily connects to Minut smart home sensors. IFTTT also supports LiveWebinar, whereas Zapier opts for GoToWebinar instead. You might even find differences in how they interact with the services they both support. For instance, IFTTT can connect to Siri via Apple Reminders or email, whereas Zapier connects to Siri primarily through Apple Shortcuts.
You should consult IFTTT's and Zapier's full lists of compatible apps before deciding between them. This is especially true for professionals, since Zapier works with more business-focused services. Depending on what you use, either IFTTT or Zapier might be the clear winner.
Another difference between the two is that IFTTT offers Android and iOS apps, whereas Zapier has only a web interface. Zapier supports some mobile functionality, such as SMS messaging, but not much. Meanwhile, IFTTT can access system-level information, such as battery status, Bluetooth connection state, and notification data on Android, as well as App Store data, the Calendar app, and the Reminders app on iOS.
Pricing: Very Affordable Premium Plans #
With IFTTT's free account, you can create just two applets (automations). The good news is that you get an unlimited number of applet runs. That means you can use both applets that the community creates and the two you build as often as you'd like. Applets run at "standard" speed for free. For polling applets, which run after they detect a trigger event, that means a delay of about an hour versus five minutes for paid users.
IFTTT has two paid plans: IFTTT Pro ($2.99 per month, billed annually) and IFTTT Pro+ ($8.99 per month, billed annually). The former lets you access exclusive actions and triggers, create up to 20 applets, and set up multi-action applets. Applets also execute at the fastest speed. Pro+ includes everything in Pro, as well as allows you to build an unlimited number of applets and take advantage of AI services that can summarize blog posts, translate text, and more.
Zapier’s free plan limits you to just 100 task runs per month, which is more punishing than IFTTT’s restriction on how many applets you can create. Otherwise, both free plans lock access to AI features, more advanced automations, and top-speed processing. Zapier's pricing reflects its target audience of businesses, with paid plans starting at $19.99 per month, billed annually. If you’re looking to pay for an automation app, Zapier is hard to justify as an individual.
Ease of Use and Interface: Uncluttered, With Colorful Tiles #
To get started with IFTTT, you need to make an account. You can opt for a weeklong trial of one of IFTTT’s premium plans, but you have to provide payment information. Zapier doesn't require that for its trial. However, you can cancel your subscription immediately afterward to enjoy your trial without the threat of a later charge.
IFTTT's web interface has a bright, inviting, and modern design, complete with bold colors, large tiles, and smooth animations. On the one hand, navigating IFTTT is incredibly easy, but on the other hand, like other tile-based interfaces, IFTTT doesn’t make efficient use of screen space. The navigation menu at the top includes three primary options: Explore, My Applets, and Create. The account profile drop-down menu lets you access support resources, check your billing information, see connected services, view your activity, and more.
You can use applets by clicking the Create button at the top, searching in the central text field, or selecting one of the many tiles that occupy most of the screen. The My Applets page has helpful information on applets’ statuses, and you can click on each applet to change settings and find related information. You can filter by applets you published and archived here.
The Activity page (accessible via the account profile drop-down menu) shows all applet activity, such as when an applet ran (or failed to run) or when you linked a new service, going back to the very beginning. Each instance shows the date and time, and you can click through to see the total number of times an applet ran. This works well at first, but the longer you use IFTTT (and the more applets you have), the more unwieldy this section becomes.
Applets: Use the Community as a Resource #
You have two options when it comes to applets in IFTTT: You can use one that someone else already created or build one yourself. To add an applet to your account, start by searching for the service or topic relevant to the connection you want to create. If someone has already created the applet (the chances are good for common apps), there's no sense in recreating it for yourself. Just click on the card and switch it on. An example—if it's going to rain tomorrow, then send me a text message—is what started the whole site, as PCMag learned in a past interview with IFTTT founder Linden Tibbets.
Some applets require you to sign in to other accounts, but the simplest ones require only an email address or phone number. For example, you could use IFTTT to automatically send a text from your Android device to your spouse (or whoever, really) when you leave work each day. Other applets simply rely on the IFTTT app to push notifications. Some of the prebuilt applets require you to enter additional information or make further customizations, but the methods for doing so are all visually consistent and mostly easy to understand.
Creating IFTTT Applets: Build the Perfect Automations For Yourself
Using and customizing premade applets is the easiest way to use IFTTT, but once you’re comfortable with that process, you can build custom automations. To start, simply click on the Create button in the top menu. Think of an applet as having two main parts: this and that. IFTTT makes this connection obvious, showing a clear sentence structure on the creation screen (see screenshot below). You click on the Add button next to "If This" to choose a trigger and then the Add button next to the "Then That" part to complete the process. It helps to know what you want the applet to accomplish before diving into the creation steps.
Let's say, for example, you want IFTTT to add a new entry to a spreadsheet each time you upload a video to Vimeo. You would select Vimeo for “If This” and then New uploaded video as your trigger. Then, for “If That,” you would select Google Sheets and Add a Row to Spreadsheet as your action. Before finalizing your action, IFTTT lets you specify a spreadsheet name, what cells the new row should have, and where you want to save the spreadsheet. IFTTT calls these customizations ingredients, and you can add ingredients at will. For example, if you want the row in your spreadsheet to have an embed code cell, you click Add Ingredient beneath the Formatted row box and select EmbedCode.
The above is an example of a simple applet you can make on IFTTT, but you can create more complicated ones, too. With the ability to create multistep applets on a Pro account, you could go one step further and post the uploaded video to X, for example. This brings IFTTT's automation capabilities more in line with those of Zapier. However, just keep in mind that as you add further ingredients and steps to applets, they might require some tinkering to work perfectly.
AI: Automate Automations and More #
IFTTT offers a variety of ways to add AI to your automations. These run the gamut from AI summarizations to an AI YouTube assistant and much more. You can take advantage of these directly when creating applets, such as by using the AI Prompt trigger for the “If This” component of your automation. Alternatively, many premade applets have AI functionality. For example, you can use the “Ask AI a question using Note Widget” applet to add a widget to your phone’s home screen, which you can use to quickly ask an AI chatbot a question.
You can also use AI to automate the entire process of creating applets. For example, rather than going through all the steps outlined above to create a Vimeo applet, I can simply tell IFTTT AI that I want an applet that “adds a corresponding new row to a spreadsheet when I upload a new Vimeo video” from the creation screen. This instantly brings me to the end of the process, where I can customize my spreadsheet’s name and what data I want in the row.
IFTTT’s AI features generally work as described, but how useful they are depends on what exactly you want to automate. If you don’t use any AI services already, you probably won’t get much use out of IFTTT’s AI features, outside of creating applets. However, if you do use AI services often, IFTTT has no trouble automating those workflows.
Security: Is Your Data Safe With IFTTT? #
Reading through IFTTT’s privacy policy, nothing stands out as especially unusual. IFTTT collects a large variety of data, such as log data and personal information you provide upon signup, which is par for the course with almost every online service. However, IFTTT makes it easy to export your data to see exactly what information the company has on you, and you can delete your data from its servers whenever you want, too. All that said, IFTTT does currently retain wide latitude to share the data it collects with third parties “in furtherance of [its] business,” so I recommend being careful with what you share.
IFTTT is in the process of updating its privacy policy to be more transparent, promising a “notice every time you connect a new service to IFTTT to use for a specific Applet,” where “the authentication flow will tell you which data is used from your account and the Applet description tells you how that data will be used.” I appreciate these efforts.
I couldn’t find any news of major hacks or leaks in regard to IFTTT and user data in recent history, which is similarly comforting. For additional protection, you can enable multi-factor authentication on all IFTTT plans.
Final Thoughts #
IFTTT is a slick and extremely useful service that helps you create productivity-boosting automated workflows across tons of apps and devices.