https://zapier.com/blog A blog about productivity, workflow automation, company building and how to get things done with less work. Thu, 23 Apr 2026 01:22:57 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-image-generator AI image generators have been brewing (generating?) up a storm for the last few years. If you've been on social media, watched prime time news shows, or read a magazine, AI-generated images have been impossible to miss. These kinds of AI-generated images are everywhere, and sometimes you won't even realize. If you want to join in the fun, or add some AI-powered features to your business workflows, the apps on this list will give you what you're looking for. I've been writing about AI image gener Harry Guinness Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-ai-image-generator https://zapier.com/blog/chatgpt-alternatives ChatGPT is the biggest name in AI chatbots, but it's far from the only one around. And depending on what you're trying to do, it might not even be the best option for you. It's a great general-purpose chatbot, but like most jacks-of-all-trades, it can lose out to more specific tools for certain jobs. So if you need something that better suits your needs, your workflows, or even your personality, there are plenty of ChatGPT alternatives to consider. I've been using and writing about ChatGPT sin Harry Guinness Wed, 22 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/chatgpt-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/ai-automation-examples I use and write about AI for a living, but even I tend to roll my eyes whenever I see an ad for AI in the wild. They're usually generic and surface-level ("AI can write emails for you!" "A chatbot can summarize books so you don't have to use your human brain to process them!") and don't reflect how AI is best used. To have an impact, AI needs to be integrated with your existing workflows. With AI automation, you can pull the power of AI into your work to transform your operations and redefine ho Nicole Replogle Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-automation-examples https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-sdk-guide Right when I perfected my AI chatbot workflows, I found out all the cool kids had already migrated to building with AI coding agents. So I made the switch to vibe coding. And luckily for me, fellow vibe coders, and technical builders everywhere, Zapier SDK launched right on cue. Zapier SDK is a resource that gives AI coding agents governed access to more than 9,000 pre-built app integrations in the Zapier directory. That means you can carry out more than 30,000 actions in your other tools withou Steph Spector Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-sdk-guide https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-mcp-vs-sdk If you've been paying attention to new products in the tech space, you may have noticed two initialisms popping up a lot: MCP and SDK. Zapier has two dedicated products for these: Zapier MCP and Zapier SDK. Both connect AI to Zapier's ecosystem of more than 9,000 apps, but the right one for you depends on how you like to build. Here's what each one does, how they work, and why you should use one (or both) based on your needs. Skip ahead Zapier MCP vs. Zapier SDK at a glance What is Zapier MCP? W Steph Spector Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-mcp-vs-sdk 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 Zaps and Agents today, and what each one is best for based on Zapi Steph Spector Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-models-on-zapier https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-reverse-image-search Have you ever stumbled upon a photo online—be it an uncredited meme, a stunning place you'd love to visit, or a celebrity wearing a vintage tee you now must have—and wondered, "Where'd this come from?"  You could take some wild guesses, go down some rabbit holes, and cross your fingers that you'll find the source. Or you can take the much faster route to solving your mystery: reverse image search.  Here's a step-by-step guide on how to reverse image search on Google using desktop or mobile. Tabl Jessica Lau Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-reverse-image-search https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-become-a-social-media-influencer As of 2026, the creator economy is on track to reach roughly $480 billion by 2027—and the influencer marketing industry alone is projected to hit around $33 billion this year. That leaves at least a million for you after my dog finally gets the Instagram stardom she deserves. If you're tempted to turn your casual social profile into a consistent income source, be warned: it's not as easy as your favorite influencers make it seem. Standing out, staying organized, and avoiding burnout all take the Nicole Replogle Tue, 21 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-become-a-social-media-influencer https://zapier.com/blog/introducing-automationbench Today we're releasing AutomationBench, an open benchmark that measures whether AI models can complete real business workflows. Current model evaluations tell you whether an LLM can answer math olympiad questions, write code, or reason through a logic puzzle. Those are important, but they don't tell you the thing that matters most to enterprises: whether it can get work done. As in, find the right CRM records, send the right follow-up, update the right systems, and get to a verifiable end state w Anna Marie Clifton Mon, 20 Apr 2026 07:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/introducing-automationbench https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-write-business-letter There may be no more comically vague term in the entire business world than the word "business." It means so many things that it really means nothing—and yet here you are, wondering how to write a business letter.  You could argue that any letter composed in a business setting counts as one, and you'd be more or less correct. But with such a wide range of applications, how are you supposed to get it right? Whatever your purpose, there are certain rules, expectations, and formatting specs you nee Bryce Emley Mon, 20 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-write-business-letter https://zapier.com/blog/ai-guardrails-guide When everyone around you is declaring that AI is making and breaking businesses overnight, it's hard not to feel like you need to adapt now—or risk getting left behind. And by all means, build with AI. Just don't forget to protect your business against the risks that come with it, like sensitive data ending up where it shouldn't, harmful content reaching your customers, or bad actors manipulating your AI workflows. AI-generated content isn't the only thing that needs screening. User-generated co Steph Spector Mon, 20 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/ai-guardrails-guide https://zapier.com/blog/full-page-screenshots-in-chrome Tell me if this sounds familiar: you need to take a screenshot of a whole web page (or, at least, more than one small part of it), so a drag-and-snap screenshot is out. You also need to capture info "below the fold" (content that's only visible after you scroll), so that's another no to your usual screenshot method.  So how can you avoid the painful task of scrolling down a page at a time, capturing one window screenshot again and again, and then cobbling it all together at the end? Well, you co Jessica Lau Mon, 20 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/full-page-screenshots-in-chrome https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-vs-chatgpt ChatGPT had a two-year head start on Gemini, and for a while, it showed. But Google has spent the last couple of years building aggressively and now has a set of models and features that make it a truly competitive alternative to ChatGPT. If you haven't looked at Gemini recently, you might be surprised by what you find.  Both tools are now equally impressive AI assistants in nearly all the ways that matter. Their flagship models are neck and neck on AI benchmarks, and the experience of using eit Ryan Kane Mon, 20 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/gemini-vs-chatgpt https://zapier.com/blog/iphone-automation-ideas I, like many of my fellow millennials, am still on my parents' family phone plan. Sure, I could switch to my own plan, but why would I go out of my way to change phone plans, only to make my bill and my parents' bill more expensive? I'm getting off track. Keep doing your thing, millennials. The monthly Venmo payment I make to my parents is my only recurring payment that doesn't happen automatically, which means I end up sending it late a lot. Luckily my parents don't charge late fees. On my jour Will Harris Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/iphone-automation-ideas https://zapier.com/blog/celigo-alternatives Everything looks possible on a Saturday morning. Painting the spare bedroom or cleaning out the garage feels like an easy weekend project, but odds are the room will still look like a disaster zone three months later. (This has never happened to me personally, of course. But I've had friends go through it.) Celigo isn't a weekend project, either. It's a complex enterprise integration and automation platform built for connecting ERPs, commerce stacks, finance systems, and the teams around them. A Nicole Replogle Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/celigo-alternatives https://zapier.com/blog/one-pager-examples My clients are busy people. I'm not deluded enough to think they're reading every single line of the monthly performance report I send their way. That's why I always include an executive summary at the top, which highlights "must-knows" in a few bullet points.  One-pagers serve the same function as these executive summaries. They boil down pages of detailed information into a single, concise document, enabling stakeholders or investors to quickly review what matters and make important decisions. Cecilia Gillen Fri, 17 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/one-pager-examples https://zapier.com/blog/open-wifi-login-page You open your laptop in a public space—perhaps an airport, a coffee shop, or your hotel room. You sit down to work, select the correct Wi-Fi network, and ... nothing. Your Wi-Fi icon shows it's connected, but your browser says, "You are not connected to the internet." No matter how hard you try, that pop-up login screen never loads.  We've all been there. As a remote team that has spent a lot of time working from co-working spaces and coffee shops, we at Zapier have wasted far more time than we' Jessica Lau Thu, 16 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/open-wifi-login-page 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 turn AI hype into real productivity gains, Claude has become the default choice. And Claude is Ryan Kane Thu, 16 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/claude-ai https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-vs-make Start small, then scale. It's good advice when you're automating processes in your business; most enterprise organizations start with a pilot project to figure out how much time they can actually save. But automation pilots tend to be run by technical staff, which means that scaling to non-technical departments is the first "real world" test your workflows will face. What happens next? It depends on your automation platform. If it's intimidating to non-technical users, then rolling out automatio Ryan Kane Wed, 15 Apr 2026 05:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/zapier-vs-make https://zapier.com/blog/best-email-hosting-services Email seems simple as a user, but that's because your email provider is taking care of all the complexity on the back end. If your business is just starting out, you can get by with BusinessName@gmail.com, but as your company grows and you want to give each staff member their own email account, have specific sales email addresses, or just present a more professional front, you'll need to invest in a dedicated email hosting service. Attempts to kill email have failed. Slack is a great tool and re Harry Guinness Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/best-email-hosting-services https://zapier.com/blog/which-is-the-best-value-zapier-vs-make My dad unexpectedly lost his job when I was little. After a few frantic months, he finally found a new one a few states away—and it even paid more. My parents were initially thrilled…only to realize, after we'd moved, that the cost of living in Chicago is much higher than in Oklahoma. (But I'll be forever grateful that my young parents' naiveté let me grow up in a much cooler place. No offense to any Oklahomans reading this.) When evaluating automation platforms, it's best to apply the lesson my Nicole Replogle Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/which-is-the-best-value-zapier-vs-make https://zapier.com/blog/api-endpoint Every time two apps share data—like when your email marketing tool pulls in new subscribers from your website, or when your project management app sends you a Slack notification—they use an API endpoint to communicate. Endpoints are the doors, windows, and occasionally the poorly labeled trapdoors of modern software. More specifically, one app acts as the client (the one doing the asking), and the other acts as the server (the one doing the answering). The API endpoint is the address that makes Nisar Ahmad Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/api-endpoint https://zapier.com/blog/make-com-pricing Not to get all "back in my day" about it, but texting etiquette today is so different from when I was in high school. Gen Z seems to have an aversion to long text blocks, so instead, it's multiple messages with one idea per text (sometimes in quick succession). But if you had a cell phone in 2009, you remember phone plans that charged per text, not per month. When you don't have unlimited texting, every message has a cost—so you make sure every text counts. Make's credit model will feel familiar Nicole Replogle Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/make-com-pricing https://zapier.com/blog/data-enrichment There's a moment in every police procedural when a detective squints at a blurry security clip and shouts, "Enhance!" A technician taps a few keys, and suddenly the image sharpens, the license plate becomes readable, a reflection of the suspect's distinctive tattoo is visible in a conveniently placed spoon, and the case basically solves itself. (Ignore the laws of physics; we are storytelling.) Data enrichment is the closest thing to that button you get in business systems. You already have the Humna Ghufran Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/data-enrichment https://zapier.com/blog/process-improvement Most "broken" work isn't actually broken. What fails is the process behind it: messy handoffs, slow approvals, unclear ownership, and tasks that sit in inboxes like forgotten produce because nobody knows what the next step is. That's what process improvement is for: looking at a slow workflow and deciding it deserves better than "that's just how we do it." In this post, I'll break down the essentials of process improvement, show how it fixes clunky daily workflows, and provide a practical playbo Nisar Ahmad Wed, 15 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT https://zapier.com/blog/process-improvement