> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Make (make.com) Review (Australia, 2026): The Cheap, Capable Automation Tool With an Offshore-Data Problem - URL: https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/make-review-australia-2026/ - Published: 2026-06-02T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T06:33:04.000Z - Description: Make is the most capable no-code automation builder you can buy for under USD $20/mo — but it bills in USD, runs every execution in the US or EU, and its per-credit metering can quietly blow your budget. Here's whether it fits an Australian business. - Author: Adam - Tags: AI Automation & Integration, Make, Celonis, #review **18**/25 ★★★★☆ Very Good Make (make.com) Verified 24 Sep 2026 Reviewed 3 Jun 2026 Value for Money**4**/5 Ease of Use**4**/5 Feature Depth**5**/5 Australian Fit**2**/5 Reliability & Support**3**/5 **The gate:** Five stars need 21+ and Australian Fit of at least 4/5. [Skip to the verdict ](#verdict) *Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow \~10% on top (*[*Methodology*](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/methodology/)*).* > **Verdict (TL;DR):** Make is the most capable no-code automation tool you can buy cheaply — there is now one paid plan priced purely by credit volume — **US$9/mo for 5,000 credits, US$16 for 10,000** (roughly A$13–22/month ex-GST, billed annually), still undercutting Zapier. Buy it if you run on Xero and/or HubSpot, want serious multi-step automation with native AI agents, and don't have a hard onshore-data rule. Skip it if your data must stay in Australia (no AU/Azure-AU region, no self-host) or you run MYOB (no native connector) — look at n8n self-host or Power Automate instead. Watch the per-credit metering: chatty scenarios burn credits fast, with a 25% overage markup since November 2025. Make is the tool you reach for when Zapier stops being enough and you don't want to write code. It's a visual automation builder — a drag-and-drop canvas where you wire apps together into "scenarios" that move data, make decisions and call AI models. It is genuinely more powerful than the linear, point-to-point automation tools, and it's cheaper than most of them. For an Australian operator, that's the good news. The bad news is structural and won't change with a feature update: every scenario you build runs in the United States or the European Union, never Australia. There's no self-host option. Billing is in US dollars. And the way Make charges — per credit, per module, per run — is a budget landmine if you build scenarios carelessly. So this is a tool with a high ceiling and a couple of hard edges. Below is exactly where those edges are, and who should care. ## What it is and who owns it Make (formerly Integromat) is a no-code/low-code automation platform owned by **Celonis**, the EU/US process-mining company. You build automations on a visual canvas: a trigger fires (a new Stripe payment, a new row in Google Sheets), then a chain of modules does things in sequence — create an invoice, look up a contact, post to Slack, call an AI model. Unlike linear tools, Make gives you real branching, loops (iterators and aggregators), error handling and data transformation, all without code. The target user is anyone who has outgrown simple "if this, then that" automation: an operations person, a marketer, a small-business owner who wants their Xero, their CRM and their inbox talking to each other. It rewards people who are willing to learn its model — and quietly penalises people who aren't. ## Pricing in AUD (and the metering trap) Make publishes in **US dollars**. Conversions use the current rate (**1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, 4 September 2026**) and are shown **ex-GST**: under [ATO rules](https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/gst-excise-and-indirect-taxes/gst/in-detail/rules-for-specific-transactions/international-transactions/australian-business-importing-goods-and-services?ref=theaidirectory.com.au), a GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN **is not charged GST** on imported digital services. If you are not GST-registered shown ex-GST (a GST-registered business quoting its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers add \~10%). - **Free — USD $0/mo (A$0).** 1,000 credits/month, 2 active scenarios, a 15-minute minimum interval between runs, 5-minute max execution time, 7-day logs. Genuinely perpetual, not a trial countdown. - **Make Plan — one paid tier, priced by credits.** There is no feature ladder any more. You pick a monthly credit volume and the price follows it: | Credits/month | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Roughly, in AUD (annual) | | ------------- | --------------- | -------------- | ------------------------ | | 5,000 | **US$9/mo** | US$10.59/mo | \~A$13/mo ex-GST | | 10,000 | **US$16/mo** | US$18.82/mo | \~A$22/mo ex-GST | | 20,000 | US$29/mo | US$34.12/mo | \~A$41/mo ex-GST | | 40,000 | US$53/mo | — | \~A$74/mo ex-GST | Every paid plan now carries the full feature set: unlimited active scenarios, 1-minute scheduling, the Make API, priority scenario execution, custom variables, full-text log search, and teams and team roles. The slider runs to 8 million credits a month. - **Still no per-seat charge.** The paid plan includes **unlimited users** at a flat per-organisation price — you pay for credits, not seats. This is the single biggest cost difference against Zapier, and the restructure didn't touch it. - **Enterprise ("Company") — custom, contact sales.** Adds the ISO 27001 program, credits overage protection, SSO/advanced security, 60-day log retention and priority support. *Pricing re-verified 5 September 2026, read directly from Make's own pricing page with the billing toggle and credit slider operated by hand. USD only; the AUD figures are our conversions, not Make-published prices.* **What changed, and who it costs.** Until at least 8 August 2026 Make sold three paid tiers — **Core US$9, Pro US$16 and Teams US$29** — that all carried the same 10,000 credits and differed by features ([archived 8 August 2026](https://web.archive.org/web/20260808000150/https://www.make.com/en/pricing)). Those three prices survive, but they now buy volume instead of capability. The practical effect depends entirely on which one you were buying. **If you needed 10,000 credits on Core, that volume went from US$9 to US$16 — a 78% rise for the same work** (about **A$13 → A$22/month** ex-GST). If you were going to buy Pro anyway, you are square: US$16 bought Pro's features at 10,000 credits in August and buys the same volume today. Small teams came out ahead, because teams and team roles fell out of the US$29 tier into the single plan. The headline prices are real, and they still undercut Zapier. But the headline is not what you pay. **The metering trap.** You pay per **credit** (renamed from "operation" in August 2025; for standard automations 1 credit still equals 1 operation at the same cost). A credit is consumed by *each module action in a scenario run*. Adding a Google Sheet row is 1 credit. Fetching a Gmail message is 1 credit. So a single scenario firing once can burn several credits, because every module in the flow counts. Here's how that bites. A 6-module scenario polling every minute consumes roughly 6 credits × \~1,440 runs/day = **\~8,640 credits per day** — burning through the **5,000-credit entry allowance in well under a day**, and a 10,000-credit plan in barely over one. Iterators and aggregators multiply it further: every item processed in a loop is a credit. Process a 500-row array and that's 500 credits in one run. Run out mid-month and it doesn't just stop you. Since **6 November 2025**, extra credits carry a flat **25% markup** over your plan-included rate (it was 30% on auto top-ups, 0% on manual, before that), bought in 10,000-credit packs at roughly **USD $11 each (\~A$15)**, applied automatically. So a badly built scenario doesn't fail loudly — it quietly bills you more. The lesson: budget on *realistic module-count × run-frequency*, not on the headline credit number. Build lean, filter early, avoid chatty polling and unbounded loops, and Make is cheap. Build sloppily and it isn't. **GST and ABN.** Make doesn't state on any of its own pricing or billing pages whether it adds GST at an Australian checkout or issues a compliant ABN tax invoice; tax-exempt orgs can request an exemption by support ticket, but no AU GST/ABN specifics are published. Assume USD billing at your card's FX rate, and confirm tax-invoice handling with Make before relying on input-tax-credit claims. ## Ease of use The canvas is the best in the category, and it's approachable to start: drag a trigger, drag an action, draw the line, map the fields. A non-technical person can build a working two-step automation in 15 minutes. The complexity arrives with the power. Iterators, aggregators, data mapping, JSON handling and credit-aware design are a real learning curve. This is the trade-off of a tool that can do far more than linear automators — you get the capability, but you also get the genuine complexity. Plan for a weekend of learning, not an afternoon, if you want to build anything serious. ## Features and AI capability This is where Make earns its 5/5\. The builder gives you branching, error handling, loops, 3,000+ app connectors and generic HTTP/JSON modules to reach almost any API that isn't natively supported. The AI story is strong and native, not bolted on: - **Make AI Agents (beta)** — agents that reason and take action across 3,000+ apps directly on the canvas, with visible decision logic. Advertised as available on **all plans, including Free**. - **Make AI Toolkit** — AI Content Extractor, AI Web Search (beta), plus 350+ AI apps. - **Broad model access** — native verified apps for OpenAI (ChatGPT/Sora/Whisper), Anthropic's Claude, Google Vertex AI (Gemini), Mistral, Azure OpenAI and Hugging Face, plus Perplexity, ElevenLabs and Synthesia. The Sora connector goes when OpenAI closes its API on 24 September 2026. - **Bring-your-own-key** — since 6 November 2025, connecting your own OpenAI/Anthropic API keys is open to **all paid plans** (it was Pro+ before). - **MCP Server support** for connecting agents to external tools. Make also ships a native AI assistant, **Maia**, which lets you create, modify and troubleshoot scenarios in natural language — alongside the canvas-based agents. ## Australian fit — the part that decides it This is the criterion that matters most for an Australian business, and it's where Make is weakest. **Data residency — the hard blocker.** Make is cloud-only, on AWS in a private VPC across two-zone clusters. You pick a region when you create your organisation: **US or EU only** (Make confirms US and EU data centres but doesn't publish the specific AWS regions). There is **no Australia/APAC region and no self-host option** — every scenario and all its data runs offshore. **No self-host.** There is no on-premise deployment of the Make platform. Make does offer downloadable "on-prem agents" for *reaching* local resources, but the automation engine itself stays in Make's cloud — that is not equivalent to self-hosting. If onshore data is a contractual or regulatory requirement for you, this is where Make stops being an option. The alternatives that solve it: **n8n** (genuine self-host, your own server) or **Microsoft Power Automate** (Azure Australia regions). **The AU SMB stack — strong on two pillars, a gap on the third:** - **Xero** — a Make-verified, Make-maintained app with **96 modules** (12 triggers / 65 actions / 19 searches). Create invoices from new sales, log Stripe payments, sync contacts. This is deep, first-party support. - **HubSpot CRM** — Make-verified, Make-maintained, **121 modules** (12 triggers / 86 actions / 23 searches). Comprehensive. - **MYOB** — **no native Make-verified app.** MYOB-branded integration URLs return 404\. To connect MYOB you'd build custom HTTP/API modules or use a third-party connector. For a MYOB-based business, that's a real gap and a real cost. Beyond those, the 3,000+ library covers the usual stack (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Slack, Stripe) and the generic HTTP modules reach the rest. **Billing and support.** USD-only, no native AUD option. No AU phone support — support is online (chat/ticket), with dedicated support on Enterprise. (Priority scenario *execution* is now included on the paid plan.) No AU commercial presence. Net: if you live in Xero and HubSpot and don't have an onshore-data rule, Make fits well. Add a MYOB dependency or a data-residency requirement and the fit collapses. Hence **2/5** — strong app coverage is the only thing keeping it off a 1. ## Limitations - **No AU data residency, no self-host.** Every execution runs in the US or EU. A hard blocker for onshore-data requirements. - **USD-only billing; GST and ABN tax-invoice handling not published** on Make's own pages. - **Per-module credit metering is a budget landmine** — chatty polling, loops and multi-step scenarios burn credits fast, with a 25% overage markup since November 2025. - **No native MYOB connector** — MYOB shops must build custom modules or use a third party. - **A steeper learning curve than linear tools** — the canvas is powerful but genuinely complex for a non-technical operator. - **Frequent pricing/credit changes** (operations → credits in Aug 2025; overage and tier caps reworked Nov 2025; the whole Core/Pro/Teams ladder collapsed into one credit-priced plan by Sep 2026) make long-term cost forecasting harder. Budget from the current page, not from last quarter's plan names. - **Online-only support with no AU presence;** phone/priority support is gated to higher tiers. ## How it scores | Criterion | Score | Why | | --------------------- | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Value for Money | 4/5 | US$9 for 5,000 credits (\~A$13 ex-GST) or US$16 for 10,000 still beats Zapier on work-per-dollar, with unlimited users per org; the credit meter now sets the price outright | | Ease of Use | 4/5 | A visual drag-and-drop scenario builder for operators who've outgrown simple if-this-then-that automation | | Feature Depth | 5/5 | Serious multi-step automation with native AI agents and MCP support — more capable than the linear tools | | Australian Fit | 2/5 | Scenarios run in the US or EU, never Australia; USD billing, GST unconfirmed, no native MYOB connector | | Reliability & Support | 3/5 | Online-only support with no AU presence; priority and phone support are gated to higher tiers | | **Total** | **18/25** | **⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good** | ## Verdict Make is the best no-code automation builder most Australian businesses can buy for the money — provided two things are true. First, you run on Xero and/or HubSpot, where the connectors are deep and first-party. Second, you don't have a hard rule that your data must stay in Australia. If both hold, take the **Make Plan at US$9 for 5,000 credits, or US$16 for 10,000 (\~A$13–22/month ex-GST)**, build your scenarios *lean*, and you'll get serious multi-step automation and native AI agents for less than a Zapier subscription. If your data must stay onshore, Make is out — use **n8n** (self-host) or **Microsoft Power Automate** (Azure AU regions). If you run **MYOB**, factor in the cost of building custom API modules, or look elsewhere. And whoever you are, before you commit: confirm GST and ABN tax-invoice handling with Make directly, and price your real scenarios on *module-count × run-frequency*, not the headline credit number. That's where the budget lives or dies. Score: **18/25** — useful and very capable, but the offshore-data reality and metering quirks keep it out of top-pick territory for the average Australian business. Update history - **24 Sep 2026 — ⚠ three dated claims below cited an index page rather than their own articles. Fixed; every date checked and every date was right.** `[SN1]`, raised by sentry 12's pre-launch re-run. The 3 Jun, 17 Apr and 10 Feb entries all pointed at **`help.make.com/2026`**, which is Make's **release-notes index for the whole year** — 100 entries on one page. It is a real vendor page, so nothing here was fabricated, but **it does not document any single claim**, and a launch date is a ⭐⭐⭐ primary-source claim under §13\. Each now cites its own article: `make-ai-agents-new-mcp-tools-are-now-available`, `the-make-cli-is-now-live` and `introducing-mcp-toolboxes`, all read live today and all returning 200\. **The dates were verified against the index and all three match exactly** — Make dates them 3 June, 17 April and 10 February 2026\. **No claim, figure or score changes.** **One thing to know before re-checking these:** the individual articles carry **no visible date**; the date exists only on the index, so an article URL alone proves the change and not when it shipped. **How it surfaced is the interesting part:** sentry 12 fetched that index, read an unrelated notice that **Google** will retire its Chrome app on 31 August 2026, and flagged **Make** as possibly discontinued. The false positive was the vendor's index; the defect was ours. Full context: `Audits/discontinued-rerun-2026-09-24.md` §3\. `reviewed:` untouched per our dating rule. - **20 Sep 2026** — Sora mention dated against OpenAI's sunset: the consumer app closed 26 April 2026 and the API closes 24 September 2026\. Score unchanged. - **5 Sep 2026** — **Pricing restructured.** Core, Pro and Teams replaced by a single credit-priced "Make Plan"; 10,000 credits now US$16, where Core carried them for US$9\. Pricing section rewritten. [Source](https://www.make.com/en/pricing?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) - **3 Jun 2026** — MCP tools available for Make AI Agents — agents can call external MCP-server tools alongside native Make modules in one run. [Source: *Make AI Agents (New): MCP tools are now available*](https://help.make.com/make-ai-agents-new-mcp-tools-are-now-available?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) - **17 Apr 2026** — Make CLI launched for all users — an open-source command-line interface giving developers and AI agents programmatic access to Make from the terminal. [Source: *The Make CLI is now live*](https://help.make.com/the-make-cli-is-now-live?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) - **12 Feb 2026** — Org-wide two-factor authentication enforcement introduced for Enterprise customers. [Source](https://help.make.com/introducing-two-factor-authentication-enforcement?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) - **11 Feb 2026** — Next-generation Make AI Agents app launched — visual agents built and debugged inside the scenario canvas with a reasoning panel. [Source](https://www.make.com/en/blog/announcing-next-generation-make-ai-agents?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) - **10 Feb 2026** — MCP Toolboxes launched, providing dedicated Make MCP servers that connect AI systems such as Claude and ChatGPT to chosen sets of scenarios. [Source: *Introducing MCP toolboxes*](https://help.make.com/introducing-mcp-toolboxes?ref=theaidirectory.com.au) - **3 June 2026** — First reviewed. - **21 Sep 2026** — **Verified by browser from an Australian IP: Make still prices in US dollars.** make.com/en/pricing renders a bare `$` with no currency control and no AUD anywhere in the page source. No change to the review's currency position; `aud_native: false` is now set explicitly in the frontmatter so the directory stops inferring it. Source: https://www.make.com/en/pricing · Wayback: capture pending (archive.org returning 500/429 since 19 Sep 2026). Checked by the `aud-recheck-l-to-z-2026-09-21` pass. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Make available in Australia? Yes, with no geographic restriction on signup. But there's no AU commercial presence, no AU phone support, and — critically — every scenario runs in the US or EU, never Australia. ### Does Make charge in AUD? No. Make bills in US dollars at your card's FX rate. The entry paid tier is US$9/month billed annually for 5,000 credits — about A$13/month at 1.40; 10,000 credits costs US$16 (about A$22). Those figures are ex-GST: a GST-registered Australian business that gives Make its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service, though Make publishes no AU tax-invoice detail of its own. Make doesn't publish AU GST or ABN tax-invoice handling — confirm with Make before relying on input-tax-credit claims. ### Is there a free plan? Yes, a genuinely perpetual free tier — 1,000 credits a month, 2 active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum run interval. It's not a trial countdown. ### Does Make keep my data in Australia? No, and this is the hard blocker. Make is cloud-only with US or EU regions, no APAC region and no self-host. If onshore data is a contractual or regulatory requirement, use n8n (self-host) or Microsoft Power Automate (Azure AU regions) instead. ### Who is Make best for? Australian businesses on Xero and/or HubSpot — both have deep, first-party connectors — that want serious multi-step automation and don't have an onshore-data rule. Skip it if you run MYOB (no native connector) or must keep data in Australia. Watch the per-credit metering. ## Read next - Category guide: [Best AI Automation Tools in Australia 2026](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/best-ai-automation-tools-australia-2026/) - Head-to-head: [Make vs Zapier](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/compare-make-vs-zapier-australia-2026/) - Head-to-head: [n8n vs Make](https://www.theaidirectory.com.au/compare-n8n-vs-make-australia-2026/) ## Sources - https://www.make.com/en/pricing - https://help.make.com/adjustments-to-plans-and-pricing - https://www.make.com/en/security - https://help.make.com/organizations - https://www.make.com/en/ai-agents - https://www.make.com/en/integrations/xero - https://www.make.com/en/integrations/hubspotcrm --- *Primary facts re-verified against each vendor's own pages on 3 June 2026.*