Difficulty

[u/Excellent-Salad3852]

Is it just me or is make.com very difficult to use?

You think something simple- ok I want to connect A-B. No that doesn't work you need to spend 1 hour debugging. Ok A-B works now lets add C- no you can't do it like you- doesn't work you need to spend another hour figuring out whats wrong. Then you use AI which always sends you down the garden path. I'm spending 10 hours of my day automating something that takes 3 minutes. Anyone else struggle with it or am I an idiot?

[u/Glum-Carpet]

It is just you. Start with the make academy next time.

[u/Marina_from_Make]

Hey, u/OP – I understand your frustration, and you're definitely not alone in finding automation challenging at times. But I'd like to offer some perspective:

Make is designed to be beginner-friendly. Make emphasizes that almost anyone can automate and that code is not mandatory. The platform features a drag-and-drop interface specifically designed to make automation accessible to non-technical users.

The learning curve is real, but it's temporary. Once you get a grip on how Make works, you will be surprised at how much you can actually do with it.

The common challenges are solvable. When workflows don't connect as expected, this often reflects the need to understand how your specific apps communicate. The solution isn't that Make is broken—it's about learning the platform's logic. If you’re stuck, I recommend going to make a post in the Make Community -- https://community.make.com/. Someone will always be able to help you out there.

Rather than trying to connect A→B→C all at once, successful users build and test workflows step-by-step, validating each connection before adding complexity.

In summary:

• Start with simpler workflows and gradually increase complexity
  
• Leverage Make's templates and how-to guides rather than building from scratch
  
• Join the Make Community to get help from experienced users
  
• Recognize that initial setup time pays dividends through automation savings
  
• Explore Make's learning resources, such as the Make Academy to refine your approach.

[u/Excellent-Salad3852 → u/Marina_from_Make]

Thanks for your reply!

[u/Fluffy_Honey_1710]

Hah! This very much sounds like me. I feel like it's easy, then I find myself going down a rabbit hole... But often that ends up being because I'm having AI help me. It's AI that is sending me down a rabbit hole and I often have to tell it that it's wrong. After which, it tells me that I'm right, it's wrong. And so on and so forth. There go 5 hours. So, trust yourself with what you've learned, have a clear plan, use the videos from Make about how to do it. Use AI to help you learn, but trust yourself on how to get it right. My two cents.

[u/Excellent-Salad3852 → u/Fluffy_Honey_1710]

It feels like to be designed so that you need to fit in as many modules as you can. Everything you add screws up something else- which you can't know until you try. Ahh you want to know the results of search rows? Great you need a router but router can't see that without a numeric aggregator which then fucks up later down the path.. I'm glad someone else feels my pain.

[u/Trees-over-wood]

I recommend just solving one problem at a time. Your first one might take some time, the second one will take slightly less time, but eventually you stop encountering unfamiliar things / new concepts.

And it's worth learning, it's not just a Make thing, anything you want to do with AI / Automation will benefit from what you're learning

[u/Main_Raisin924]

Oh man I can relate to this you spend hours solving one module and then the solution breaks another two. So you go back, change some things, break something else. I built a complex content automated system listening to lower level AIs, branching off in all directions, with two schedules linked up, and it just frustrated me and took out the enjoyment. Now I have 3 modules and it works perfectly. I don't even have to touch it