Reprogramming the Web
November 30, 2018

Reprogramming the Web

Marcelo de Vasconcellos | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with IFTTT

I am a game designer and health researcher working at health games in a Brazilian public health institution. Our team is small and we have to take many roles simultaneously. At the same time, it is normal that contacts and events cross between our professional, academic and personal lives. We started to use IFTTT to streamline some routine processes of our daily work schedule, allowing us to coordinate the many apps we use.
  • Save our iOS contacts to a team shared Google spreadsheet
  • Create an iOS reminder on my iPhone when a card (task) is assigned to me on Trello
  • Log our Uber trips to a Google spreadsheet
  • The website section "Activity" tends to get very crowded over time. It would benefit from some search and filter functionalities.
  • Some services lack ingredients. "Ingredients" are attributes passed from one service to another to enhance IFTTT's power. However, some services (like Evernote's notes, for example) currently have too few ingredients available.
  • It is not possible to link more than two services. It would be great, for example, to have an option to take a mail message and post in multiple social networks and blogs with the same applet.
  • IFTTT greatly reduced the time synchronizing contacts among member of our team.
  • It made easier to record information from a number of different sources on a daily basis.
  • IFTTT helped to gather, record and relay relevant information for our project managers and their teams.
As IFTTT, Zapier also helps users to connect apps and services, but it seems more directed to the corporative world. While IFTTT provides support for home devices (as lighting and security systems) and voice assistants (Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, and Siri), Zapier focuses on services such as Amazon S3, SQL Server and Zendesk. However, many services and apps are common to both IFTTT and Zapier.
One major difference between them is that Zapier is able to connect more than two apps/services, allowing its users to create workflows like converting an Evernote reminder both in a Google Calendar event and in a Google task. It also has a more sophisticated system for combining "ingredients" (not under this name, though), which allows greater flexibility. However, these features also make Zapier a bit more difficult to master.
This extra power also has a literal cost. Zapier's free plan is very limited and its paid plans start at $20 per month. On the other hand, IFTTT is completely free, which makes its adoption, even on an experimental basis, painless.

IFTTT is a great tool for people wishing to integrate different productivity tools, but who lack the resources and/or knowledge about programming these connections themselves. Anyone who uses at least email, calendar and social networks on a regular basis can benefit from IFTTT.
However, it probably won't be appropriate and/or relevant to casual users, or users inexperienced with the many possible links between smartphones and online apps.

IFTTT Feature Ratings

Pre-built connectors
10
Connector modification
10
Support for real-time and batch integration
Not Rated
Data quality services
Not Rated
Data security features
Not Rated
Monitoring console
Not Rated

Using IFTTT

It is very easy to understand, it has a clean interface and it presents clear feedback on the user's actions. Its adherence to the website's visual style help to keep the user comfortable and assured about the actions to take. The information on the "Activity" section is clearly depicted and even more detailed than is presented on the website.
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • The ready-made applets help a lot the new users.
  • The system with the phrase "if this..." and the icons are visually appealing and easy to grasp.
  • The identification of applets using color helps to categorize them.
  • Sometimes, is not clear how to reach in the "internals" of an applet, to make customizations.
  • The "Activity" area should have filtering options.
  • Some applets are customizable, others are not. A clear indication of each type would help.
Yes - The mobile app is very efficient and clean. Its "Activity" section is even better than the one on the website since it shows clearly the applets that didn't run correctly. In addition, it keeps the same color and overall style of the website, it maintains the same form of operation and presents feedback in a coherent format.