The most expensive "system" in a company is often the person who manually retypes data from one tool to another. Integration removes that cost — but the tool choice depends on scale and how critical the process is.
Three approaches to integration
| Tool | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| n8n / Make / Zapier | Standard flows, medium volume | Fast, but cost grows with volume |
| Custom middleware | Critical, high-volume processes | Full control, retry, observability |
| Hybrid | Most real companies | Off-the-shelf where it fits; code where needed |
What to watch for in integration
- —Retry policy — what happens when an external system does not respond.
- —Queues — so a traffic spike does not lose data.
- —Observability and alerting — to know about a failure before the client calls.
- —Zero-downtime data migration — especially for ERP/CRM.
tip
Off-the-shelf tools (n8n/Make) are great to start, but for critical high-volume processes custom middleware usually comes out cheaper and more stable at scale.info
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