By Fabian Frank, Head of Product | Posted in Integrations, SaaS Tools, API Strategy
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When it comes to integrating with third-party apps — whether it’s CRMs, accounting platforms, or HR systems — there’s no shortage of tools claiming to make it easy. But not all connector platforms are created equal.

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In this article, we’ll break the ecosystem into three clear categories. Choosing the right one for your business depends on what you're building, who it’s for, and how deeply you want to integrate.

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Let’s take a look at the three different categories:

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🔁 Workflow Automation Tools

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Examples: Zapier, Make, Integrately
Best for: Non-technical teams automating simple tasks
Effort: Minutes to set up

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These are “no-code” tools that let you quickly stitch apps together — think: “When a new email arrives, copy the attachment to a folder in Google Drive.”

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When to choose these:

• You’re solving small, repetitive business ops problems
• You’re not working with a lot of data or sending many requests
• You don’t need perfect reliability
• You want something that works right now, without engineering help
  

Limitations:

• Limited in what you can do
• Difficult or expensive to scale
• Often break under high data volume
• Not suitable for product-native integrations

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🧱 Embedded iPaaS Platforms

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Examples: Tray.io, Prismatic, Paragon
Best for: SaaS products offering user-facing, in-app integrations
Effort: Weeks to months, full engineering squad

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These platforms provide drag-and-drop builders, multi-step logic, tenant-specific customization, and embed directly into your product’s UI. They allow customers or CSMs to build highly customized workflows with a wide range of applications from within your product. 

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When to choose these:

• You’re building a product that needs lots of integrations (20+) across multiple markets
• Each customer configures their own connections or workflows, and has the know-how to do so
• You need conditional logic, field mapping, and per-tenant flows
  

Limitations:

• Higher upfront investment and setup cost per connection added
• Higher platform fees
• Complex UX to manage and maintain
• Significantly slower to connect to an entire market category than Unified API options
  

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🔗 Unified APIs

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Examples: Grid Squid, Merge, Apideck
Best for: Engineering teams needing to connect to a category (e.g. CRMs)
Effort: Hours to Days

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Unified APIs expose one normalized schema for a whole category of tools. Instead of building a separate integration for each provider, you build to the unified model once — and unlock access to dozens of platforms.

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When to choose these:

• You’re syncing data to/from a market category like CRM, HRIS, or Accounting
• You want to scale your business as fast as possible with a minimum of engineering effort
• You want fast, reliable backend integrations that are quick to set up 
• You don’t need a custom UI builder or need less per-customer configuration
  

Limitations:

• Less support for per-connection or per-customer workflow customization
• May need to choose providers that specialize on your vertical of interest if you need more depth of functionality or edge-case coverage
  

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💡 Not Sure Which to Choose?

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Here’s a simple question to guide you:

“Do I want my customers to configure their own workflows, or do I just want my app to integrate with a category of platforms?”

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If it’s the former, Embedded iPaaS might be your best fit.
If it’s the latter, look at Unified APIs.

If you're just looking for a one-off automation without building product-native integrations, a workflow tool like Zapier could suffice.

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If Unified APIs are right for you...

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Then Grid Squid is the top pick if you’re looking to integrate with CRMs. According to Filter Advisors' 2025 Buyer's Guide to Integration Solutions and Software Connectors, Grid Squid ranked #1 for CRM connectivity because of its:

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• Deep coverage of all major CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, Dynamics, Zoho, Insightly, NetSuite)
• Fast setup with clean, normalized schemas
• Flat-rate pricing with no usage overages and monthly billing options
• Hands-on support and enterprise-grade reliability
  

If you’re building a SaaS product that talks to CRMs, Grid Squid is the fastest and most scalable way to get there.

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📖 Want to dig deeper? Read Filter Advisors' full Buyer’s Guide
⚡ Want to see Grid Squid in action? Schedule a demo

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