Zapier costs $49-250/month. You can replace it with 200 lines of Python running on a $5 server. Here's how to build your own automation hub that handles webhooks, triggers actions, and connects any service with an API. Why Zapier Costs So Much Zapier charges per "task" (each action triggered). At 1,000 tasks/month — trivial for any active business — you're on the $49/month plan minimum. Your own Flask webhook server costs $5/month or $0 if you have a server. The Architecture External Service → Webhook POST → Flask Server → Action Handler → Done Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode That's it. Zapier is just a hosted version of this pattern. Building the Webhook Hub from flask import Flask , request , jsonify import logging app = Flask ( __name__ ) logging . basicConfig ( level = logging .…