How we test
How AgentStack Index checks prices and plans, which builders we tested hands-on, and the automated checks every site update has to pass.
Prices and plans
Prices, free plans, and plan limits come from each vendor's own pricing and docs pages. Every builder profile lists the exact source pages we used and the date its facts were last verified. Euro prices are converted to approximate US dollars at a fixed rate shown on the comparison table, and yearly prices are divided by 12. Prices change often, so always confirm on the vendor's site before you buy.
Data checked 2026-10-21. €1 = $1.1242 (open.er-api.com daily reference rate (EUR base), retrieved Oct 17, 2026). Comparison table · Pricing sheet
Hands-on tests
We only publish hands-on results for builders we actually used. For each test we sign up on the free plan or trial and try to build the same small agent: summarize a piece of text into exactly 3 bullets. We write down setup time, whether a card or API key was needed, the free AI credits, the limits we hit, and any friction. Builders we haven't tested are labeled "Not tested hands-on yet," and their facts come from vendor pages only.
These tests show signup friction and whether a basic AI step runs. They don't measure reliability, integrations, error recovery, or ongoing cost.
Test status by builder
- n8n: Tested hands-on
- Make: Tested hands-on
- Zapier Agents: Not tested hands-on yet
- Lindy: Not tested hands-on yet
- Relevance AI: Not tested hands-on yet
- Gumloop: Not tested hands-on yet
- Activepieces: Tested hands-on (AI step only)
- Botpress: Not tested hands-on yet
- Dify: Not tested hands-on yet
- Voiceflow: Not tested hands-on yet
Test results
Build an agent that summarizes text into exactly 3 bullets, free tier/trial only.
- Setup time: ~7 min from signup start to a working run (~4 min after the instance was ready)
- Card / API key: No card, no API key
- Free AI credits: $2.00 of AI credits included with the trial
- Limits: 14-day trial, 1,000 executions
- What we built: Chat Trigger → AI Agent (gpt-5-mini via n8n gateway). Correct run: 4.5s, ~179 tokens, exactly 3 bullets.
- Friction: required 5-question survey; AI Agent node added unconnected (had to drag it in manually); first system-message edit silently didn't save; starts in AI Assistant view.
Build an agent that summarizes text into exactly 3 bullets, free tier/trial only.
- Setup time: ~4 min of setup in Make (about 7 min wall-clock including our tooling lag)
- Card / API key: No card, no API key
- Free AI credits: One run used 1 operation / 1.03 credits (Free plan)
- Limits: Maia AI builder locked on Free (trial ended); Large / GPT-5.x / 6 models are paid-only; default schedule every 15 min
- What we built: Set variable → Make AI Toolkit "Simple Text Prompt" (gpt-5-nano, "Small"). About 12 actions; worked on the first run.
- Friction: auto-generated scenario name had to be renamed; a popup covered the editor.
Not tested yet: no free plan; paid plan required.
Not tested yet: signup is Google/Microsoft only.
Build an agent that summarizes text into exactly 3 bullets, free tier/trial only.
- Setup time: ~5 min from signup start to a successful step test; worked on the first try
- Card / API key: No card, no API key
- Free AI credits: 1,000 AI credits/month shown on the free account
- Limits: Full flow must be published to run; we tested the AI step only
- What we built: Manual Trigger → Ask AI (built-in Activepieces provider, "Fast" model).
- Friction: email-code-only signup; builder slow to load (trigger disabled for ~1 min); search lists third-party AI pieces before the built-in AI.
Checks before every site update
Before an update goes live, we rebuild the site from our data files, and it has to pass automated checks:
- Every internal link and image on the site points to a page or file that exists.
- Every page has exactly one main heading.
- The price math (euro conversion, yearly-to-monthly) and the picker and table sorting logic pass their unit tests.
- Affiliate links keep their tracking and stay marked rel=sponsored.
- We publish each update to a separate preview copy of the site first and check it there, then check it again on the live site. If the live checks fail, the previous version is restored automatically.
These checks run when we publish an update. They are not continuous monitoring of vendor prices, so a vendor can change a price between our checks.
Money and rankings
Some links are affiliate links. Prices, free plans, comparisons, and picks don't depend on whether we have an affiliate deal, and a builder never gets a better spot because it pays us. Read our disclosure.
Spotted a wrong price or an outdated plan? Email [email protected].