Relay.app vs Zapier vs Notis: where should Relay refugees go next?

If you are reading this, you probably got the email. Relay.app is shutting down, and it left without naming a successor. The calendar is unforgiving.

Free accounts and all their data are permanently deleted after Saturday, August 15, 2026 (23:59 PT).

Paid accounts end Monday, September 14, 2026 (23:59 PT).

That is a hard stop. Whatever you built inside Relay stops running, and the connected-app credentials Relay held are deleted along with it. So the real question is not "should I move" — it is "move to what?"

The two names that come up most are Zapier, the incumbent, and Notis, an AI assistant you talk to instead of a canvas you build on. They are genuinely different animals, and the right one depends on why you liked Relay.

Before anything else: export your Relay data now. From the Relay dashboard, choose Export workspace data. The download link Relay emails you is only valid for 48 hours, and free accounts vanish on August 15. Grab the .zip while you still can — you will need the build-prompt .md files for the migration steps below. If you want the short version of this comparison, jump to the Notis vs Relay.app breakdown.

What you are actually losing when Relay goes

Relay's reviews were unusually warm (5.0 on Product Hunt, 4.9 on G2). People did not leave because they disliked it — they are being forced out. So it is worth being precise about what made Relay good, because that is your real shopping list:

Human-in-the-loop approvals. Relay's single most-cited feature: approve or fill a form directly in Slack or email before a workflow continues, with assignees, due dates, and escalation. This is the hardest thing to replace.

AI-native, no API-key juggling. Bundled credits for Claude, GPT, and Gemini meant you never pasted an OpenAI key to test a prompt step.

It felt simple. Reviewers repeatedly said Relay made "sophisticated" feel "simple" — easier to learn than Make, Zapier, or n8n.

Fast time to value. More than one team reported a working system in under three days.

Keep that list handy. It is how you should judge every alternative, including the two below.

Option 1: Zapier — the safe, broad, task-priced incumbent

Zapier is the obvious "nobody gets fired for choosing it" answer, and for good reason. It connects 8,000+ apps — roughly fifty times Relay's ~150-app catalog. If your Relay workflow touched a niche CRM or an obscure SaaS that forced you into webhooks, Zapier probably has a native connector for it. That breadth is Zapier's single biggest advantage and it is a real one.

Zapier has also raced to add AI. Zapier Copilot builds Zaps from plain-English prompts, while Zapier Agents run research and take actions without a rigid trigger. This narrows the gap with Relay's AI-native pitch.

Where it is honestly weaker for a Relay refugee:

The AI can feel bolted on. This was the most common Relay-vs-Zapier complaint from reviewers who used both: Zapier's AI felt "less like a cohesive agent and more like a series of disconnected prompts bolted onto a legacy system." It is improving fast, but it grew on top of a rules engine rather than being designed AI-first.

Task-based pricing adds up. Zapier's Professional plan is $19.99/month billed annually (750 tasks), or $29.99 billed monthly. The Team plan is $69/month annually (2,000 tasks), or $103.50 billed monthly. Every step that runs consumes a task, so a busy multi-step workflow burns through your allotment quickly, and heavy users routinely report bill shock.

You still rebuild on a canvas. Zapier is the closest thing to Relay's visual builder, which cuts both ways: you get a familiar node-and-branch model, but you are still manually reconstructing every workflow step by step.

Zapier is the right call if: you need maximum integration breadth, structured approval routing, or the most battle-tested option and can manage task budgets. For human-in-the-loop approval chains across a team, Zapier or a dedicated approvals tool is more faithful than anything conversational.

Option 2: Notis — the assistant you already text

Notis takes the opposite approach. Instead of a canvas, it is an agentic AI assistant you talk to on WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, Slack, email, voice, or a web portal. You do not draw a workflow; you tell Notis what you want, and it sets up the automation, reminder, or task for you and runs it in the background.

That maps almost eerily well onto how Relay itself tells departing users to migrate. Relay's own docs warn that the workflow-structure JSON in your export is not portable between builders and recommend rebuilding from the natural-language build prompt it generates — or handing that prompt to another AI tool directly. Notis is built to consume exactly that kind of instruction. Which brings us to the migration path.

How the Notis migration actually works

1. Open a workflow folder from your Relay export and find the build-prompt.md file (or use Copy build prompt inside Relay before it shuts down).
2. Paste it to Notis in whatever channel you already use, or just describe the workflow in your own words.
3. Notis interprets it and stands up the equivalent automation or reminder — a post-meeting follow-up email, a recurring competitor digest, a "when a new Gmail with this label arrives, do X" trigger, a lead-qualification step that updates your CRM.

No canvas to reconstruct, no per-step task accounting to relearn. It is AI-native from the ground up — the thing Relay users liked — but delivered through channels you already live in rather than a new browser tab.

Practical facts that matter to a switcher:

Pricing is a flat $13/month — cheaper than Zapier's Professional tier, with no per-task meter to watch.

1,000+ integrations cover the bread-and-butter Relay use cases: Gmail and labels, Notion, Slack, Google Calendar/Sheets/Drive, HubSpot, Todoist, and more.

Automations and reminders handle the scheduled and triggered work that made up most Relay workflows for individuals.

Where Notis is honestly not the answer

Credibility matters more than hype when you are choosing a tool you will depend on, so here is the flip side:

Team approval chains. Notis is built for individuals, not shared-workspace governance. If you relied on Relay's Slack/email approvals with assignees, escalation, and audit trails across a team, Notis does not replicate that. Zapier or a dedicated approvals product is the better fit.

Visual-canvas power users. If you want to see and manage a multi-branch graph with nested paths and reusable sub-workflows, you will miss the canvas. Notis has no canvas by design.

MCP-server authoring. Relay let you build custom MCP servers with a visual tool-builder. That is a specialized capability without a direct Notis analogue.

Notis is the right call if: you were a solopreneur, freelancer, or individual on Relay (the largest cohort, and the one deleted first on August 15), your workflows were personal automations and reminders rather than team approval routing, and you would rather text an assistant than rebuild a canvas.

Side-by-side

So which one?

Be honest with yourself about which Relay you were using.

If Relay was your team's approval-and-routing engine with dozens of collaborators and audit trails, or you need a connector for some niche app, Zapier is the more faithful replacement — just budget for tasks and expect to rebuild on a canvas.

If Relay was your productivity layer — the thing quietly sending your follow-ups, running your recurring research, and nudging you with reminders — then rebuilding a canvas is a step backwards. Notis lets you carry your Relay build prompts straight over and get back to work in the channels you already use, for less than Zapier's entry plan.

Either way, do the one urgent thing first: export your Relay workspace before August 15 (free) or September 14 (paid). Then decide at your own pace.

When you are ready to see how the switch looks in practice — including which of your Relay workflows map cleanly and which do not — start here: Notis vs Relay.app. Paste a build prompt, describe a workflow, and watch it run in the app you already have open.