HoldMyTwist
How to plan your first automation workflow
Use a filled example and a copyable workflow brief to plan your first automation. Check expected results and whether the build is worth your time.
Topic
Start with Make Free
Six guides for a first Make workflow on the Free plan: plan the steps, compare Make and Zapier, budget credits, then add a filter, a fallback route and duplicate protection.
Read these in order if you have not built a Make scenario before. Start with planning, then compare Make and Zapier Free before choosing a tool. Write down the manual steps and test draft output before anything sends or publishes on its own.
The Free plan limits guide compares one item with three and shows how polling uses credits. The last three add control to a working scenario: a filter that blocks records, a fallback route for anything no other route matches, and a data store that stops the same record from running twice.
Read in this order
Make vs Zapier Free: which fits your first workflow?
Compare Free-plan filters, workflow steps and billing, then use Make to turn a fictional enquiry into a project summary and an estimate of hours.
Is Make Free enough for your workflow?
Check Make Free's limits, fill in a monthly credit budget, and decide what to measure before you rely on a workflow.
Make filters for beginners: stop the wrong records
Build a harmless Make Free practice scenario, add two filter rules and test which records pass before using the rule in a real workflow.
Make Router: catch records that match no route
Add a fallback route in Make Free. Test a matching and unmatched status with fictional data, and inspect which branch actually runs.
In this guide
Stop duplicate records in Make with a Data Store
Remember IDs across runs, block repeated records, and test a missing ID on Make Free. See the limits when runs overlap.
In this guide