The Verdict
This one depends on your priorities. Relay.app wins on affordability and is built for structured workflows that require human approval. Itβs ideal for operations teams who need to maintain control and auditability over automated processes.
Lindy.ai wins on features, offering a more powerful, AI-native approach. It's designed to create autonomous 'AI employees' that can handle complex, conversational, and multi-step tasks with less direct oversight. If you want to delegate entire workflows to an AI agent, Lindy.ai is the more capable choice.
Pricing Comparison
Relay.app More Affordable
Billed annually for the Professional plan.
Relay.app offers a full-featured free forever plan and a significantly lower starting price for its paid tier, making it more accessible for individuals and small teams.
Lindy.ai
For the Plus plan.
Lindy.ai's entry point is higher and it offers a 7-day free trial instead of a permanent free tier. Its pricing is geared towards users who need a more powerful, all-in-one AI assistant.
| Plan | Relay.app Price | Lindy.ai Price |
|---|---|---|
| Free / Trial | $0 (200 steps/mo, 500 AI credits) | $0 (7-day trial, 500 credits) |
| Starter Tier | Professional: $19/mo (billed annually) for 750 steps & 5,000 AI credits. | Plus: $49.99/mo for personal AI assistant features. |
| Team / Pro Tier | Team: $69/mo (billed annually) for 10 users, 2,000 steps & 5,000 AI credits. | Pro: $59.99/mo for 5,000 credits and full automation capabilities. |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing. | Custom pricing with expanded usage and team settings. |
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Relay.app | Lindy.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Core Concept | Visual workflow automation with human checkpoints. | Autonomous AI agents ('Lindies') that you delegate tasks to. |
| Human-in-the-Loop | β Core feature (approvals, decisions, tasks). | β Designed for more autonomy. |
| AI Capabilities | Built-in AI actions (summarize, classify, extract). | AI agents that can make decisions, understand context, and handle multi-step tasks. |
| Natural Language Setup | No, uses a visual builder. | β Core feature, describe tasks in plain English. |
| Integrations | 100+ | 3,000+ |
| Pre-built Templates | β For specific workflows. | β 100+ customizable agent templates. |
| Multi-Agent Workflows | No | β Can create 'agent swarms' to complete tasks in parallel. |
| Data Handling | Works with structured data from apps. | Can parse unstructured data from emails, PDFs, and documents. |
While both platforms automate work, their approaches and feature sets are fundamentally different. Relay.app focuses on creating structured, reliable workflows. Its standout feature is the 'human-in-the-loop' capability, which allows you to insert manual approval steps, tasks, or decisions into any automation. This is perfect for processes like expense approvals or content reviews where you need human oversight.
Lindy.ai, however, wins on the breadth and depth of its AI features. It's not just about connecting apps; it's about building autonomous AI agents that can reason, make decisions, and handle complex tasks from start to finish. You can create 'Lindies' using natural language to manage your inbox, summarize meetings, or even perform sales outreach. With a vastly larger library of over 3,000 integrations, Lindy.ai can connect to a much wider array of tools, making its AI agents more powerful and versatile.
Ease of Use
Relay.app
- Visual, drag-and-drop workflow builder is intuitive for mapping out processes.
- Clear, step-by-step logic makes it easy to understand how automations run.
- Designed for both technical and non-technical users to build and manage workflows.
Lindy.ai
- Natural language setup lets you create agents by simply describing what you want them to do.
- Large library of pre-built templates helps users get started quickly.
- No-code platform designed to be highly user-friendly for non-technical people.
This category is a tie because both platforms excel at usability, but they cater to different user preferences. Relay.app is praised for its clean, visual builder that makes automation feel effortless without sacrificing power. It's ideal for users who like to map out processes visually and see the logical flow of their automations.
Lindy.ai is exceptionally easy to use for those who prefer a conversational approach. Instead of building a flowchart, you simply tell Lindy what you want in plain English, and it builds the AI agent for you. This natural language interface, combined with a robust template library, makes it incredibly fast to get powerful automations up and running, even for complete beginners.
Reliability & Ecosystem
| Category | Relay.app | Lindy.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Support Channels | Email support, Help Center. | Help center, community support, dedicated support for Enterprise. |
| Security & Compliance | SOC2 & GDPR compliance on Enterprise plan. | Enterprise-grade encryption, SSO, SCIM, and HIPAA compliance on Enterprise plan. |
| API Access | Yes, for custom integrations. | Yes, for advanced configuration. |
| App Ecosystem | 100+ integrations with major SaaS tools like Notion, HubSpot, and Slack. | 3,000+ integrations, significantly wider reach. |
In terms of reliability and ecosystem, both platforms are on solid ground, resulting in a tie. Both offer standard security features and compliance options (like SOC2 and HIPAA) on their enterprise tiers, making them suitable for business use. Support options are also comparable, with standard help centers and email support, and dedicated help for enterprise customers.
While Lindy.ai has a much larger number of pre-built integrations, both platforms provide API access for developers to build custom connections. Relay.app has a focused ecosystem that covers the most popular business applications well, while Lindy's vast ecosystem is a core part of its value proposition, enabling its AI agents to work across a huge range of tools. Ultimately, neither has a decisive edge in reliability or the fundamental tools needed for scaling, making this a draw.
Who Should Pick What
Choose Relay.app if...
- You need to insert manual human approvals or decisions into your workflows.
- Your processes are structured and require clear, auditable steps.
- Affordability is a top priority, and you want a strong free plan to start.
- You prefer a visual, flowchart-style automation builder.
Choose Lindy.ai if...
- You want to create autonomous AI agents that can make decisions and handle complex tasks.
- You need to automate work across a very wide range of applications (3,000+ integrations).
- You prefer using natural language to describe your automation needs.
- Your workflows involve parsing unstructured data from emails, documents, or calls.
Also consider: Zapier. If you need a pure integration platform to connect thousands of apps with powerful, rule-based logic but without the AI-agent or human-approval focus of Lindy and Relay, Zapier remains the market leader with over 7,000 integrations.
Our recommendation: try both
The best way to understand the difference between a workflow builder and an AI agent is to experience them firsthand.
Relay.app offers a generous free-forever plan, and Lindy.ai provides a 7-day free trial.

