What happens when you stick to one trigger
When I first started using Zapier, I only built Zaps around single triggers. It felt safe. One new subscriber in my email list fired a trigger, and then Zapier pushed that email into my CRM. Done. But here’s the thing — single triggers sound simple until you realize real life is messy. For example, I had a zap where the trigger was “New Google Sheet Row.” The problem? A sheet that multiple people were updating at once. Zapier would sometimes miss one of the rows, or it would double post because someone went back and edited a row after it was created. Watching data leak out like water through a crack in a bucket is not fun. 😛
With single triggers, you always have this brittle feeling… like one wrong move and the whole automation either doesn’t fire or fires in the wrong way. It works when your needs are really basic but collapses quickly if you try to stretch it.
Why multi step zaps feel like cheating
The first time I stacked steps in a Zap, it felt like bending the rules. For example, I had a form submission come in through Typeform, then instead of just sending it directly to Slack, I added a filter. If the response had “yes” to a certain question, then it would tag the lead differently and also send an email. The whole thing was just one Zap, with branching logic I would have normally cobbled together in different automations. Somehow it made me feel like I was writing code without writing code.
The odd part is Zapier sometimes shows what I’d call ghost runs. The multi step zap shows as successful, but half the downstream steps silently skip. For instance, I once had it sending a Trello card, then updating the due date, but only half of those finished. In the task history, it looked green. But in real life, the due dates just weren’t there. No error, nothing. I had to build in a second Zap that “watched” Trello cards after creation just to make sure the dates weren’t missing. That’s the day I realized multi step zaps aren’t safer — they’re just more convenient until you catch them messing up in subtle ways.
When you get stuck deciding which type to use
I’ll be honest, I flip flop. For a simple integration, my first instinct is always to throw it in a single trigger zap. For example, when I needed to pipe every new Google Drive PDF into Dropbox, a single trigger was perfect. Just point A to point B. But then a week later I realize I actually want to rename the file before it saves, and maybe tag it with the date. Suddenly that single trigger setup looks small and clumsy compared to a multi step chain.
The rookie mistake I made dozens of times is building five single trigger zaps that all do slightly different things off the same Google Sheet. Later, I’d look back at my dashboard and it’s a graveyard of partial automations, all half broken. Multi step zaps make the whole situation cleaner, until of course they glitch, and then you don’t even know which step failed because it all runs in a blur.
Real bugs I ran into running both styles
Here’s a table of some of the issues I’ve personally hit:
| Setup Type | Problem |
|——————–|—————————————————————–|
| Single Trigger Zap | Google Sheet “new row” firing twice when a line edited later |
| Single Trigger Zap | Trigger did not capture data if another user updated too fast |
| Multi Step Zap | Downstream Trello due date never applied even though “green” |
| Multi Step Zap | Code step randomly skipped with no error |
| Both | Webhooks sometimes misfire if the payload is large |
I could rant for hours about webhook misfires actually. Once I pushed data into a webhook URL, Zapier counted it as a task, but nothing hit my app. My solution? I added a quick delay in Zapier — literally waiting 2 minutes between steps — and suddenly everything started to show up correctly again. Makes no sense, but it works. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
How to think about filters and paths
What really makes multi step zaps powerful are the filters and paths. A filter is basically a gatekeeper. If your Zap runs, but the condition says “stop,” then nothing else after it fires. Paths are like those videogame books where you decide which door to open. Door A runs these steps, Door B runs those. Cool in theory, but here’s where I messed up: you pay in Zapier tasks for every path check. So if you think you’re being clever by putting five different outcomes in one Zap, you might end up burning through more task credits than if you just split them out.
I realized this after checking my Zapier task usage history and saw it skyrocketed. Each filter that validated cost me a task. I literally had a test run where three different branches evaluated, only one executed, but I paid for all three checks. Felt a bit like paying rent on rooms I never lived in.
Performance differences when running many tasks
If you’re automating heavy stuff, like pushing every email into multiple platforms at once, the style you use actually matters. With single triggers, Zapier just passes the baton to another tool. Fast, clean, usually reliable. But when I stacked steps, especially with formatting and code blocks in between, Zapier slowed down. I’d see a new email trigger instantly, but the operations four steps later, like creating an Asana project, lagged behind by minutes. That delay was enough to throw off my notifications pipeline completely.
It reminded me of carrying groceries upstairs one bag at a time versus stuffing them all in both arms. Yes, you make fewer trips, but if one bag rips midway, everything hits the floor. 🙂
Finding a balance that does not burn everything
I don’t think there’s one correct format for everyone. These days I mix them. My rule of thumb is: if the automation is like a Lego tower stacked high, I try to use multi steps but add stop points — basically splitting into two zaps that pass data to each other. If it’s just a simple one-move connection, I keep it as a single trigger.
Sometimes that’s still not enough though. I’ve had days where nothing looked wrong, but nothing worked either. I tore apart a whole Zap that used multiple steps and built five single trigger Zaps to replace it. Two days later, Zapier support claimed there was a temporary glitch that made multi steps unstable that week. And now I had doubled my workload for no reason. That’s the kind of week that makes you want to take a long walk away from the screen and any workflow software forever.
Why you might keep testing both anyway
Even with all the frustrations, I still bounce between them, like a bad habit. Multi step zaps give me those little victories of cutting out extra apps and keeping my dashboard clean. Single triggers are scrappy, dependable, and easier to debug because you can see exactly what ran. Every time I swear I am sticking to one method, a new workflow comes along and forces me to change again.
If you’re new, don’t be afraid to just pick one and run with it. You’ll probably break it, rebuild it, and break it again anyway — that’s just Zapier life. And honestly, Zapier’s own website is worth bookmarking just so you can check if the issue is really you or if the platform itself is acting haunted: https://zapier.com