Automate.io: work smart and automated

If you want to automate digital processes in your company, you can either program everything yourself or use ready-made software. The latter saves you time and frustration and is available from different providers depending on the size and industry. With Automate.io you can automate complex processes such as customer acquisition, project planning, obtaining and issuing offers, sales, content of newsletters and much more. I.a. Marketing, project management, social media teams, sales, finance, secretariat and Co. benefit from this. The service can also help with small businesses. Details about Automate.io and a comparison with IFTTT can be found in this guide.

TL; DR: Click here to go directly to the provider website

What exactly is Automate.io?

Automate.io is software that can link a wide variety of services, apps and scripts with one another. Inputs of all kinds can be linked to actions, entries, expenses and schedules in order to use automated processes. The focus is clearly on companies; from the self-employed in the home office to the limitless enterprise.

A very simple example of the application is the automatic recognition of dates and contacts in e-mails, which automatically generate a calendar or to-do list entry. Where Siri can do this with Apple's Mail and Calendar, Automate.io works with a wide variety of services such as Gmail, Trello, Slack, Google Calendar, Zendesk, LinkedIn, Monday.com and many more.

An extensive application example

But not only input in a one-to-one ratio is possible. Complex multi-task processes over a longer period of time are the specialty of the service. An example from the website, which is supposed to illustrate the almost innumerable possibilities for pretty much every business with an online segment, is as follows:

1. A customer or partner fills out a "Typeform" form
2. He will be added to the mailing list of a “Mailchimp” campaign
3. There is a waiting period of four days after the campaign email has been sent
4. Then it is checked whether the mail has been opened and the link in it has been clicked
5. If so, a contact with his data is created in "Salesforce"

The names in quotation marks are the apps that can be linked to one another via Automate.io as examples for this purpose. The timer function and many other logic processes are implemented in the service itself. The example shows that day-long customer acquisition or advertising for business contacts can be automated with Automate.io. This saves a lot of time and nerves, not only in small companies, but also in large businesses, where the skills and capacities of employees are certainly in good hands for tasks that cannot be automated.

View options: Website and all offers of the software

Further examples for marketing, sales, e-commerce and business process

If you scroll all the way down on the website, you will find help in the Help Center and messages about the most recently integrated apps (currently: Quick Base, Nexmo, Microsoft Teams, Outreach and LionDesk) and the "Use Cases" section . It currently lists four sample areas: Marketing, Sales, E-Commerce and Business Process. 

Each can be clicked on and shows which apps and services can be linked for the individual purposes in order to enable inputs, outputs, actions, evaluations and the like. For the internal company processes, for example, the following are listed: Slack, Trello, Google Calendar, Google Sheets, Google Contacts, Gmail, DropBox, Asana, Basecamp, SmartSheet, Google Drive, Jira Software, Office 365 and todoist.

Various packages: Automate.io free up to $ 399 / month

On the provider website you will find various offers for different company sizes. For the self-employed as well as to try things out, the free package with 250 actions per month and five single-action bots is probably sufficient for the time being. Additional packages are available for Startup, Growth, Business, and Enterprise - from $ 49 a month to $ 399 a month. But then with multi-action bots.

If the tool is used efficiently, I can very well imagine that these prices will pay for themselves extremely quickly. Because it saves a lot of time, which can be used much more efficiently and thus more profitably by the specialists who are otherwise entrusted with the tasks. In addition, the contact acquisition example (see above) shows that the network around the company can be enlarged automatically.

In comparison: Automate.io and IFTTT

Due to the free package and the very reasonable prices when used consistently, there is hardly any reason to look around for alternatives that are offered completely free of charge. But that can be the case if you want to use smart automation in the private sector or only semi-professionally. Then IFTTT (stands for “IF This Then That”) could be a good Automate.io alternative. 

In addition to the "For business" offer, IFTTT is primarily aimed at private users - with smart home examples, social media connections, voice assistant links and the like. So do you want to have the outside lights activated when the pizza or the Uber driver arrives? Then IFTTT might be more for you. Automate.io is not for the smart home, but for the company.

IFTTT website: Free automation for home and business

Business automation summary

Do you have a company in which a lot of digital processes are necessary for internal work as well as for the organization of contacts, for marketing, sales, shop, social media and so on, then Automate.io is something for you. Thanks to the complex action chains and if-then-else functions, automation is versatile - and the apps used in your company can be efficiently integrated.

But the software can also be used on a small scale - free of charge or at a low monthly price that quickly pays for itself if used correctly. If Automate.io is not for you, you can also use the IFTTT service, which is designed for private and business alike. In the end, the implementation simply has to fit. Feel free to leave a comment if you have found the right tool for your purposes;)

Jen Kleinholz( Founder & Sir Apfelot )

Jens has been running the blog since 2012. He acts as Sir Apfelot for his readers and helps them with technical problems. In his spare time he rides electric unicycles, takes photos (preferably with the iPhone, of course), climbs around in the Hessian mountains or hikes with the family. His articles deal with Apple products, news from the world of drones or solutions to current bugs.