Make or Power Automate: which automates a UK small business on Microsoft 365 for less?
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Quick summary
Use the Power Automate you already pay for inside Microsoft 365. Use Make when the job leaves Microsoft.
Best when the work lives in Outlook, Excel, SharePoint and Teams: Power Automate. Microsoft’s licensing FAQ lists Office 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium among the licences that include Power Automate. That included use covers cloud flows with standard connectors, up to 6,000 actions a day per user. Premium and custom connectors are not included. We do not earn from Microsoft.
Best when the job touches Xero, Stripe, Mailchimp or Calendly, or when nobody in the business has a Microsoft 365 work account: Make. Make’s Free plan is 1,000 credits a month, and Make says it is not time-limited. Make’s own comparison page lists Core at $9 a month, starting at 10,000 credits. On Power Automate, the Stripe, Mailchimp and Calendly connectors are marked Premium, and so are the Xero connectors on Microsoft’s list. Power Automate Premium is £11.50 per user a month, paid yearly, before VAT. We earn from Make.
| When | Named in the article |
|---|---|
| You already pay for Microsoft 365 Business, and the flow only uses Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, Teams or other standard connectors | Power Automate |
| The flow needs Xero, Stripe, Mailchimp or Calendly | Make |
| You are a sole trader with a personal email account, not a Microsoft 365 work account | Make |
| You need to click through an old Windows program that has no connector | Power Automate desktop flows |
| You have a few small jobs a month and want to pay nothing | Either free option, depending on the apps above |
Many UK small businesses already pay for Microsoft 365 for email and Office. Some of those subscriptions include Power Automate, so the first question is not which tool is better. It is whether the job you want to automate fits inside what you already pay for. Microsoft publishes Power Automate prices in pounds, before VAT. Make publishes its prices in US dollars, and a UK card issuer may add a conversion charge. Checked 23 October 2026.
What public reviews say
These are third-party scores, read on 23 October 2026. They are other people’s reviews. Occono has not collected them, and they will move. Make has a Trustpilot profile at make.com. This article did not use a Trustpilot profile for Power Automate. G2 pages were not read for this article, so no G2 score is given.
| Source | Make | Power Automate |
|---|---|---|
| Capterra, read 23 October 2026 | 4.8 out of 5, 409 reviews. The page says it was last updated on 29 September 2026. The rating filter lists 334 at 5 stars, 62 at 4, 9 at 3, 2 at 2 and 2 at 1. Value for money is 4.7 from 358 reviews. Customer service is 4.5 from 325. Capterra lists Core at $10.59 a month, Pro at $18.82 and Teams at $34.12. Those are Capterra’s figures, and they are not the same as the Make page used below. | 4.4 out of 5, 239 reviews. The page says it was last updated on 19 October 2026. The rating filter lists 134 at 5 stars, 82 at 4, 15 at 3, 5 at 2 and 3 at 1. Value for money is 4.3 from 182 reviews. Customer service is 3.8 from 177. Capterra lists a starting price of $15 per user a month. That is Capterra’s figure. Microsoft’s UK page, below, shows £11.50. |
| Trustpilot, www.trustpilot.com, read 23 October 2026 | TrustScore 2.6 out of 5, 170 reviews. The page’s rating counts are 83 five-star, 13 four-star, 6 three-star, 7 two-star and 61 one-star. The profile is marked as claimed by the company. | No Trustpilot profile was used for Power Automate. |
| G2 | Not read for this article. | Not read for this article. |
The two Capterra scores are close: 4.8 for Make and 4.4 for Power Automate. Capterra says 91% of Make’s reviewers are small businesses. For Power Automate it says 45% are small businesses and 40% are enterprises. Make’s Trustpilot score is much lower, at 2.6 from 170 reviews, with 61 one-star reviews. Read both kinds of page before you choose. The reviews below were picked because they describe a small business or a single job, which is closer to the reader of this article than an average is.
“It works well with Microsoft tools like Outlook, Teams, Excel, and SharePoint, and it is great for approvals, notifications, reminders, and moving information between systems.”
Daniel R., Director of Franchise Operations in retail, Capterra, 8 July 2026. Overall rating 5.0, likelihood to recommend 10 out of 10. The same review says: “troubleshooting can take time when a flow breaks or when permissions, triggers, or licensing get involved.” Link to the Power Automate page the review was read on. Checked 23 October 2026.
“It's more effectively for standard business process automation, but starts to fall apart a bit as workflows start to branch out or touch on solutions outside of 365.”
connor Q., Capterra, 21 April 2026, on the same Power Automate page. Overall rating 4.0. The same review says some scenarios “can be limited by things like Connectors or licenses.”
“J’utilise la version gratuite de Make et ça simplifie mon quotidien de graphiste freelance.”
Mael T., freelance graphic designer, Capterra, 2 September 2026, written in French. In English: “I use the free version of Make and it simplifies my day-to-day as a freelance graphic designer.” That translation is Occono’s. Overall rating 5.0. The same review says a former Zapier user will find Make a little complicated. Link to the Make page the review was read on.
“It's a mixed bag. It takes a lot of work to set up the processes, but if there were a simpler and better solution, I'd switch.”
Matyas Z., listed as a CEO in IT services, Capterra, 4 August 2026, on the same Make page. Overall rating 3.0, likelihood to recommend 2 out of 10. Make replied on 11 August 2026.
“What a complex rubbish automation to set up. Even with the assistance of AI we were going around in circles.”
Wayne Thompson, United Kingdom, Trustpilot, 19 September 2026, one star. Link to the Make profile the review was read on.
“Make offers this for free, and their plans are reasonable.”
Ken Carrick, United States, Trustpilot, 18 May 2026, five stars, on the same Make profile. The job was posting each new 5-star review to a Facebook Page. The same review says the interface is not as simple as another tool the reviewer tried.
What you actually get
Checked 23 October 2026. Power Automate figures are from Microsoft’s UK pricing page and three Microsoft Learn pages: the licence types page, the deep dive on specific licences (dated 17 October 2026) and the licensing FAQ (dated 22 September 2026). Make figures are from the FAQ on Make’s pricing page, from Make’s own Make-vs-Zapier comparison page, and from Make’s app pages. The plan cards on make.com/en/pricing did not load for our check: a direct request to that page was refused, and the version that did load showed only the FAQ.
| Make | Power Automate | |
|---|---|---|
| Free option | Free plan, $0. Make’s pricing FAQ says the Free plan has 1,000 credits a month, which also gives 1 MB of data storage and one data store. Make’s comparison page says the Free plan is not time-limited. The Free plan’s other limits are on the plan cards, which did not load, so this article does not list them. | Two routes. Microsoft 365: Microsoft’s FAQ lists Office 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium among the licences with Power Automate included, for “personal productivity scenarios”. The deep dive says Microsoft 365 users can create and run cloud flows with standard connectors, with a daily limit of 6,000 actions per user. Premium connectors, custom connectors and desktop (RPA) bots are marked not included for Microsoft 365. Power Automate Free: the licence types page says it is for work or school accounts in a Microsoft Entra tenant, covers cloud flows without sharing and desktop flows run locally, and uses standard connectors only. |
| Trial | No paid-plan trial is described on the Make pages read for this article. The Free plan is the way to try it. | The UK pricing page says: “Start automating for free with a 30-day trial.” Microsoft’s deep dive says a trial a user starts in the Power Automate portal lasts 90 days, and that a trial an administrator assigns lasts 30 days and can be extended once. The two pages describe different trials. Read the one that matches how you sign up. |
| Entry paid price | Core, $9 a month, “Starting at 10,000 credits/mo”, on Make’s comparison page. Pro is $16 and Team is $29, also from 10,000 credits. Enterprise is custom. That page does not say whether those prices are for monthly or yearly billing. The pricing FAQ says annual payment is cheaper than monthly. Capterra’s $10.59 for Core, above, is a different figure. | Power Automate Premium, £11.50 per user a month, paid yearly. Price does not include VAT. Process is £115.30 per bot a month, and Hosted Process is £165.30 per bot a month, both paid yearly. The page says prices are for marketing purposes and the actual price is shown at checkout. |
| What a unit of work is | Credits. Make’s FAQ says each module action in a scenario uses credits, and most actions use 1. Reading, searching, creating, updating and deleting data in an app all count. Router and error-handler modules do not. Some AI features may use more. | Actions per day. The FAQ gives 6,000 a day for Power Automate Free, Microsoft 365 and all trials, and 40,000 a day for Premium. Limits apply per user and do not pool across a business. Connectors also have their own rate limits: the FAQ’s example is SharePoint at 600 actions a minute. |
| When you run out | Scenarios stop until credits are added. Incoming webhooks queue up to your queue size. You can upgrade, buy extra credits in bundles of 1,000 or 10,000, or turn on automatic purchases of 10,000 on Core, Pro and Teams. Credits expire at the end of the term. | The FAQ says a flow that runs too many actions is throttled, with a banner on the flow, and suggests a Process licence for flows that run thousands of actions a day. A Process licence is 250,000 actions a day. |
| Connectors that matter to a UK small business | Make’s app pages show Microsoft 365 Excel and Xero as Verified apps maintained by Make, listing 22 and 96 triggers and actions respectively. Make’s comparison page says it has 3,500+ apps. The Microsoft 365 Email app page returned a security check, so this article does not describe it. | On Microsoft’s connector pages, Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, Trello, Typeform, WordPress, DocuSign and Twilio are Standard. Stripe, Mailchimp and Calendly are Premium. Microsoft’s premium connector list includes two Xero connectors, “Xero Accounting - Magnetism” and “XeroLite (Independent Publisher)”. This article did not find a Xero connector published by Xero itself on those pages. |
| Desktop automation | Make’s pages read for this article describe cloud scenarios, not clicking through programs on your PC. | Desktop flows (RPA) mimic mouse and keyboard on a Windows PC. Premium includes one attended bot. Unattended runs need a Process licence. The FAQ says Windows 11 users can try attended desktop flows for personal productivity. |
| AI | Make’s comparison page says AI Agents, Make Grid and AI app features are on all paid plans. | The licence types table gives Premium 5,000 AI Builder credits a month. The Microsoft 365 column of the deep dive marks AI Builder credits as not included. |
| Support, as listed | Make’s comparison page says professional support is on all paid plans, and 24/7 priority support is on Enterprise. | The UK pricing page gives a sales number, (0)800 026 0329, available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Capterra’s customer-service score for Power Automate is 3.8 from 177 reviews. |
Power Automate prices: Power Automate pricing, Microsoft UK. Licence types and the Premium, Process and Free entitlements: Types of Power Automate licenses. Microsoft 365 use rights, the 6,000-a-day limit and the trial lengths: Deep dive on specific licenses, dated 17 October 2026. Included Office 365 licences, daily limits by licence, throttling and the SharePoint rate limit: Power Automate licensing FAQ, dated 22 September 2026. Make credits, the Free plan’s 1,000 credits, running out, and payment: the FAQ on make.com/en/pricing, whose plan cards did not load on 23 October 2026. Make’s Free, Core, Pro and Team prices: Make vs Zapier, on make.com. All checked 23 October 2026.
The offer
Power Automate. If your business already has Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Standard or Premium, Microsoft’s FAQ lists those among the licences that include Power Automate, with standard connectors and up to 6,000 actions a day per user. There is also a Power Automate Free licence for work or school accounts. The UK pricing page offers a 30-day trial. Microsoft’s deep dive describes a 90-day trial that a user starts in the portal. Premium is £11.50 per user a month, paid yearly, before VAT. Twelve months of Premium is £138 per user, before VAT. If your business is not VAT registered, adding UK VAT at 20% makes that £13.80 a month, or £165.60 a year. Those totals are Occono’s arithmetic from the page price. Microsoft says the actual price is the one shown at checkout.
Make. Free plan: $0, 1,000 credits a month, not time-limited. Make’s comparison page lists Core at $9 a month starting at 10,000 credits, Pro at $16 and Team at $29. That page does not say which billing period the prices are for, and the plan cards on Make’s pricing page did not load for this article, so Occono does not turn $9 into a yearly total. Capterra lists Core at $10.59 a month. Make’s FAQ lists major credit cards, ACH direct debit and Google Pay for paid plans. If you cancel, the paid plan runs to the end of the term and the account then moves to the Free plan.
A worked example, Occono’s own arithmetic. A website enquiry arrives, is added as a row in Excel, gets an email reply, and a message is posted in Teams. On Make that is a trigger and three actions, so about 4 credits per enquiry, using Make’s rule that most actions use 1 credit. One hundred enquiries a month is about 400 credits, which is under the Free plan’s 1,000. Make’s FAQ also counts reading data from an app as a credit, so a trigger that checks on a schedule can use credits even in a quiet week. Watch the first month’s usage. On Power Automate, Outlook, Excel and Teams are Microsoft’s own apps, and 400 actions a month is far below the 6,000-a-day limit. If the same flow added a Xero contact or took a Stripe payment, the connector would be Premium, and the cheapest route on Microsoft’s UK page is £11.50 per user a month.
Which one fits you?
Daniel R.’s July 2026 review is the case for Power Automate: approvals, reminders and notifications across Outlook, Teams, Excel and SharePoint. connor Q.’s April 2026 review is the warning about leaving Microsoft’s apps. Mael T.’s September 2026 review is a freelancer on Make’s free version. Matyas Z.’s August 2026 review and Wayne Thompson’s September 2026 Trustpilot review are both about how hard setup can be on Make.
An office manager in a five-person firm that runs on Microsoft 365. Leave requests come in by email, go into a SharePoint list, and the manager approves in Teams. That is Microsoft’s own ground. If your plan is one of the Business licences Microsoft lists, Power Automate is already part of it, the connectors are standard, and the limit is 6,000 actions a day per user. Paying for Make on top would be a second bill for work you already have. Check who owns the flow first. Microsoft’s licence types page says the Free licence runs cloud flows without sharing, and the FAQ says action limits are per user, not pooled across the business.
A UK sole trader with Xero, a Stripe link and a Gmail address. A paid invoice in Xero should send a thank-you email and add a row to a sheet. The Xero and Stripe connectors on Power Automate are Premium. A personal Gmail address is not the work or school account the Free licence is described for. Make has a Verified Xero app, and the Free plan’s 1,000 credits a month will cover a small number of invoices if each run is a few steps. The quote follow-up guide is a worked system in the same shape, using a sheet and two chase emails.
A coach or trainer who wants a booking page, a sales page and a course. Neither tool is the product. They connect products. Calendly is a Premium connector on Power Automate. If the real need is a page, email and a course in one place, an all-in-one such as Systeme.io may remove the need for the automation. The Systeme.io and Thinkific comparison covers that choice. Add Make only for the gap the all-in-one does not cover.
A shop or creator who wanted Mailchimp in a flow. Mailchimp is a Premium connector on Power Automate, so the newsletter step is the one that would push you to £11.50 a month. If you are choosing a newsletter tool anyway, beehiiv has a free plan. The beehiiv and Kit comparison and the Mailchimp alternatives guide have the limits, checked earlier this week.
A bookkeeper who retypes figures from an old Windows program. If the program has no connector and no API, Power Automate’s desktop flows can click through it like a person. Premium includes one attended bot, at £11.50 per user a month before VAT. Unattended runs, with nobody at the PC, need a Process licence at £115.30 per bot a month. Make’s pages read for this article do not describe that kind of desktop automation.
Where Power Automate is the better buy
Power Automate wins when the business already pays for Microsoft 365 Business and the job stays inside Microsoft’s apps or the standard connectors. Microsoft’s FAQ lists Business Basic, Standard and Premium among the licences that include it. The limit is 6,000 actions a day per user. Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, Trello, Typeform, WordPress, DocuSign and Twilio are Standard connectors on Microsoft’s pages. Desktop flows are the one thing in this comparison that Make’s pages do not describe. Capterra’s 4.4 from 239 reviews, and Daniel R.’s review, are the public case. connor Q.’s review, and Bonnie B.’s June 2026 three-star review on the same page, which says “the UI needs significant work”, are the reasons to try one flow before you plan ten.
Where Make is the better buy
Make wins when the job crosses into apps Microsoft prices as Premium, or when there is no Microsoft 365 work account to start from. Stripe, Mailchimp and Calendly are Premium on Power Automate, and so are the two Xero connectors on Microsoft’s list. Make’s Free plan is 1,000 credits a month with no time limit, and Make’s own comparison page puts Core at $9 a month from 10,000 credits, against Power Automate Premium at £11.50 per user a month, paid yearly, before VAT. Capterra’s 4.8 from 409 reviews is the higher of the two Capterra scores. Make’s Trustpilot score of 2.6 from 170 reviews, with 61 one-star reviews, is the warning, and most of the complaints quoted above are about how hard setup is. The Make and Zapier comparison and the n8n and Make comparison cover the other two tools people weigh against Make.
Start with one flow you already do by hand every week. Count its steps before you choose. The step count is what both tools charge for.
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