Save emails to Notion: Zapier vs TaskRobin
If you haven’t heard about Zapier before, it is a no-code online automation tool that can help you automate a variety of tasks. One of it’s application is to save emails to Notion. But how does Zapier, a generalised automation tool, compare to TaskRobin, a Notion integration built specifically for saving emails to Notion? Let’s explore the differences between Zapier and TaskRobin in terms of Ease of Setup, Functionalities and Cost.
Ease of Setup
A basic, 2-step Zap with a total of 7 multiple-field forms is required to start saving emails to Notion. There are 10 required fields and it takes about 5 minutes to set up. Unable to get the email trigger test to work during our Zap creation flow. Could not get tags to set up. There are no explanations of regarding tags and how they can be used in Notion.
A TaskRobin integration with Notion consist of 3 steps, with a total of 4 required fields to link your Notion database and start saving emails. It should take less tan 2 minutes to set up. The onboarding process includes helper texts and a video guide to help you get started. For subsequent Notion databases you would like to link to TaskRobin to save emails to, it is only a quick 2-step process.
Functionality Comparison - Kitchen Knife vs Swiss Army Knife
| Feature | Zapier | TaskRobin |
|---|---|---|
| Save email text as Notion page | Yes | Yes |
| Get data from From, CC, date | Yes | Yes |
| Customize Notion database item content appearance | Yes | No, standard content sections |
| Free Tier | Yes, 50 emails/month | No, 7 day free trial |
| Auto forward to save emails | No | Yes |
| Save email attachments | No | Yes |
| Save in-line email media | No | Yes |
| Tag emails while you save them | No | Yes |
| AI summary of email content | No | Yes, in plus and above plans |
| Quick URL back to Gmail | No | Yes |
| Parse forwarded message information | No | Yes |
| Save information in Notion properties | No | Yes |
| Filter Notion items and create views | No | Yes |
| Simplify HTML emails | No | Yes |
| Create multiple versions of the same integration to a Notion database | Yes | No |
| Save emails from multiple email addresses | Create multiple Zapier accounts | With one TaskRobin account |
The functional comparison shows that Zapier and TaskRobin has very different approaches to product focus.
Zapier is a well known, generalised integration platform connecting hundreds of external applications. The feature focus in our Notion use-case displays this ideology. Zapier provides the essential but basic ability to get the content, sender and timestamp information into a new item in your Notion database and nothing more. Zapier is a sufficient solution to save emails to Notion if you do not plan to do extensive filtering, sorting and linking emails to other templates or dashboards in Notion.
On the other hand, TaskRobin provides more in-depth features that allow you to present, sort and organise your emails in Notion with different views and Notion properties to prioritise certain tasks. The auto forward to save emails to Notion function is a great help for Notion power users who wish to boost their productivity by cloning and managing their email inboxes in Notion. Saving attachments and in-line email media are also key differentiators compared to the Zapier features. If you have the budget for a Plus and above plans, you can also take advance of AI email summaries to create a tweet sized summary for long emails that you save to Notion with TaskRobin.
Cost
Zapier charges by the number of ‘Task’ completions.
Assuming you only need a basic Zap to receive emails and save them to a Notion database, every email saved will consumed 2 Tasks.
With a 100 tasks/month limit under the Free plan, you can effectively save at most 50 emails. For the Starter plan at $19.99 per month, you get 750 tasks/month, with which you can save 325 emails. That is approximately 6.15 cents per email saved with the above mentioned features available in Zapier.
With TaskRobin, it costs 1.66 cents per email saved in the Lite plan ($4.99/month to save 300 emails). If you want to use more advance features available in the Plus plan ($14.99/month to save 1000 emails) and a higher monthly email limit, the cost per email is even lower at 1.59 cents each.
Conclusion
Zapier is a robust, generalised integration platform that supports both email triggers and Notion. It is sufficient for a Notion beginner to test and explore to configure a Notion system that suits their needs. TaskRobin is a specialized email integration tool that primarily serves Notion users. With more Notion specific features and AI powered options, TaskRobin appeals more to professionals who seek to create efficient systems to prioritise, sort and filter their tasks and todos from their email inboxes.