Why is the list of tools so short?

Because it is the list of tools we actually build with, and nothing else. Every tool on it is one we have used ourselves, and a short honest list is more use than a long borrowed one.

Where is Make? Or Airtable, or Power Automate?

Make is a good tool and appears elsewhere on this site, but it is not in the build stack, so it is not recommended here. Every absence is the same: no verdict on the product. Bring your shortlist to twenty minutes with us.

Why are there no prices?

Prices change, tiers get renamed, and a wrong price printed on somebody else's product is not a small error. Every recommendation links to the vendor's own pricing page instead. Those links resolved on 26 August 2026, which is all the checked date means.

Do you get paid if we sign up to one of these?

No. There is no affiliate arrangement, no referral fee and no reseller agreement with any company named on this page, and none of the links is tracked. If that ever changes it will be written on the page before the link is.

How does it actually decide?

Four answers into a short decision tree, checked in a fixed order: the kind of job first, because voice work and CRM work have different answers; then judgement, because it rules out a rules-only tool; then the hosting constraint; then who keeps it alive.

Why does who keeps it running matter so much?

Because the usual failure is not the wrong tool, it is an unmaintained one. n8n is free and better than Zapier at almost everything, and still wrong when nobody in-house can run a server. An automation nobody can fix is worse than a subscription.

It recommended several things. Which one do we start with?

The one marked Start here. The others are what it needs to be useful rather than alternatives to it, which is why they are listed in order rather than tiled as three equal options.

Is anything saved or sent?

No. It runs entirely in your browser. No account, no email box, nothing recorded, nothing to delete afterwards.

Which tool for the job

Four questions about the work, who keeps it running, where it has to live and how much judgement it needs. A straight recommendation from the tools we actually build with, and the reasoning shown.

FREE
NO EMAIL
TWO MINUTES
NO AFFILIATE LINKS

FOUR QUESTIONS, ALL AT ONCE. THE ANSWER MOVES AS YOU CHANGE THEM.

What is the job?

Who keeps it running afterwards?

Where does it have to live?

How much judgement does it need, rather than rules?

WHAT we WOULD REACH FOR

n8n

And deliberately not Zapier. It will do the straightforward path well. The few exceptions are what will end up as six branches and a note nobody can read in eight months.

Why each one is here

START HERE
n8n
Cron, webhooks, the glue between systems.
The exceptions you described are exactly where a drag-and-drop editor starts fighting you, and n8n has room for real logic without needing a developer full time.
No price is printed here on purpose. n8n publishes its own, link checked 26 August 2026.
WITH IT
MCP
One protocol, every tool you already own.
So the awkward cases can reach a model, instead of being routed to a person by default.
An open protocol rather than a product. There is nothing to buy.

How we choose between them

Three columns of judgement, not a feature matrix. No prices, no scores out of ten, and no claim to have benchmarked a market.

Tool	What it is for	Who can keep it running	Where it runs
n8n	Workflows with real logic in them	Somebody who can look after a server, or Cadral	Your own infrastructure, or n8n's cloud
MCP	Connecting an agent to the tools you already pay for	Whoever set the agent up	Alongside whatever it connects

No partnership is implied by any logo on this page: no affiliate arrangement, no referral fee, no reseller agreement, and none of these links is tracked. The list is short because every tool on it is one we have built with ourselves.

WORKED EXAMPLE, NOT YOUR ANSWERS

A firm wants new enquiries copied from a web form into their CRM and acknowledged within the minute. It is the same steps every time, nobody in-house is technical, and it can live wherever is easiest.

Zapier

And deliberately not n8n, which is the better tool for this and free, precisely because somebody has to run the server. An unmaintained automation is worse than a subscription.

THREE PROMISES

Only tools we have built with ourselves
No price printed for anyone else's product
No tracked or paid links

Which is why the list is short. It is the build stack, not a market survey.

How it decides, and the promises behind it

Why is the list of tools so short?: Because it is the list of tools we actually build with, and nothing else. Every tool on it is one we have used ourselves, and a short honest list is more use than a long borrowed one.
Where is Make? Or Airtable, or Power Automate?: Make is a good tool and appears elsewhere on this site, but it is not in the build stack, so it is not recommended here. Every absence is the same: no verdict on the product. Bring your shortlist to twenty minutes with us.
Why are there no prices?: Prices change, tiers get renamed, and a wrong price printed on somebody else's product is not a small error. Every recommendation links to the vendor's own pricing page instead. Those links resolved on 26 August 2026, which is all the checked date means.
Do you get paid if we sign up to one of these?: No. There is no affiliate arrangement, no referral fee and no reseller agreement with any company named on this page, and none of the links is tracked. If that ever changes it will be written on the page before the link is.
How does it actually decide?: Four answers into a short decision tree, checked in a fixed order: the kind of job first, because voice work and CRM work have different answers; then judgement, because it rules out a rules-only tool; then the hosting constraint; then who keeps it alive.
Why does who keeps it running matter so much?: Because the usual failure is not the wrong tool, it is an unmaintained one. n8n is free and better than Zapier at almost everything, and still wrong when nobody in-house can run a server. An automation nobody can fix is worse than a subscription.
It recommended several things. Which one do we start with?: The one marked Start here. The others are what it needs to be useful rather than alternatives to it, which is why they are listed in order rather than tiled as three equal options.
Is anything saved or sent?: No. It runs entirely in your browser. No account, no email box, nothing recorded, nothing to delete afterwards.

Carry on next door

Build, buy or wait

The question before this one. Whether to automate this at all, or leave it alone for now.

Open it

Find your first automation

If you know the tool but not the job, this ranks which one to hand over first.

Open it

Your shortlist has something not on this list

That is common and it is not a problem. Four questions cover the usual cases, and the unusual ones are worth twenty minutes with us rather than a lookup table.

Book twenty minutes

A chat panel asking to make the CRM, accounts and stock agree, the reply that one record now syncs two-way, three system panels joined by teal threads, and a run log. — Whatever the selector picks has to agree with the rest: the integration run, illustrated. The figures are an illustration of a run, not a client's results.

Ran your numbers? Send us the figures and we will come back with a fixed price, or book twenty minutes and talk them through.

Book twenty minutes →Send us the brief

Elsewhere on this site

Each service is its own page. Pricing, the FAQ, the Manchester company page, the free tools and the blog sit alongside them.