Make connects thousands of apps in visual scenarios. pylo puts flows on top of a full backend with data model, typed API, permissions, admin UI, forms and analytics, hosted in Germany.

TL;DR

Make is a visual automation platform: you build scenarios from modules, connect more than 3,000 apps and pay in credits per module run. Data stores give you simple storage inside Make, but your actual data usually lives in a CRM, a spreadsheet or a database that your scenarios move data between. pylo is a backend platform where the data model, API, permissions, admin UI, forms, analytics and flows are one system. You build automations just as visually, but they run directly on your own data, with the same permissions as everything else. If you mainly need to glue many SaaS tools together, Make is a great choice. If your automations need a data model, permissions and a UI for the people who work with that data, pylo gives you all of that from day one.

What is pylo?

pylo is a Backend-as-a-Service platform from Germany that you can use to build the operating system for your company. You model entities, fields and relations in the admin panel or through the API, and pylo generates a typed GraphQL API instantly. The same permission model governs that API, the admin UI, forms, flows and the MCP server. pylo flows run business processes and automations on top of your own data model and connect to the tools you already use. With pylo you build apps, automations and products on one coherent data base across your whole team.

What is Make?

Make is a cloud automation platform: a scenario chains a trigger and modules from more than 3,000 apps, with routers, iterators, if-else branches and five types of error handlers. Make Code runs JavaScript and Python inside a scenario, and Make AI Agents use tools, knowledge files and MCP servers. Data stores keep simple records inside Make, and Make Grid draws a map of all your automations. Make runs only in the cloud, in EU and US zones on AWS.

At a glance

A backend instead of an integration platform

Make is built to move data between other systems, not to be the system where your data lives. Data stores are its own storage: each store has a typed data structure, but there are no relations between stores, and the available space is tied to your credit volume, with 1 MB per 1,000 credits. So most Make setups keep the real data in a CRM, a spreadsheet or a separate database, and scenarios copy it back and forth.

In pylo the data model is the center: you add an entity, a field or a relation in the admin panel and the typed GraphQL API updates at once, without any migration or redeployment. Field types include relations, enums, JSON, public or private files, rich text, dates, booleans and number/text formatters, with validation built in. Relations work across your whole workspace, you filter across them and group aggregations by any field. pylo flows run directly on top of those records, so you benefit most when you build on top of your own data model.

pylo flows compared to Make scenarios

Make's scenario editor is mature and very visual: routers split a scenario into branches, iterators and aggregators handle lists, and five error handler types let you skip, retry, resume, commit or roll back. Make Code adds JavaScript and Python on paid plans. Make bills in credits, one per module run, and a scheduled trigger costs a credit even when it finds no new data.

pylo's editor brings almost as many options to structure your flows, but fewer pre-defined integrations. Any event in pylo can start a flow, in addition you can use cron schedules and incoming webhooks. pylo flows include retries, custom rate limiting, error handling and full event logs and everything is statically typed. pylo ships integrations for email sending and a growing selection of third-party systems, for anything else you write your own custom flow actions in TypeScript and they slot into the builder like the built-in ones. Make has far more ready-made modules than pylo has integrations. The difference is that a pylo flow works on your data model directly, with the same types and permissions as the API, so the benefit grows the more broadly you adopt pylo.

Permissions that follow the data everywhere

Make's roles control who can build, run and monitor scenarios, with organization roles and, from the Teams plan, team roles. There is no permission model or login for the people who use an app or a process you build on top. A webhook or a scenario input doesn't know who is asking.

pylo separates tenants at the row level. Inside a tenant, any entity can act as the requester (ARO) and any entity as the requested object (ACO), with hierarchies and field-level rules. Every path into the data is GraphQL, so the same rules apply to the API, the admin panel, forms, flows and MCP. With email/password, Microsoft and Google SSO and API keys, pylo also handles login for the users of your apps or pylo forms.

An admin dashboard your operations team will actually use

In Make, non-developers meet the data in whatever tool a scenario writes to. Make has no form builder of its own, so forms usually come from a third-party tool that starts a scenario through a webhook. The editor and Make Grid are made for the people who build automations.

pylo's admin UI is built for your whole team, no matter if they are developers or not: you compose list and detail views from predefined components, decide who sees what and show or hide fields depending on a record's state. The pylo form builder maps forms directly to your entities, including relations, with public or authenticated access, hidden fields, conditional rendering and submission limits per form or per user.

Events and dashboards built in with pylo analytics

Make logs every scenario run, kept 7 days on Free, 30 days on Core, Pro and Teams and 60 days on Enterprise. That's great for debugging, but it isn't meant for business reporting.

In pylo, every create, update and delete emits an event with the full before and after state, which you can enrich with your own event data through our API. On top of your events and regular pylo data you can build customized dashboards directly next to your data and workflows.

AI and MCP with guardrails

Make takes AI seriously: AI Agents can call tools and MCP servers, the MCP Client module calls external servers, and Make's own MCP server lets AI clients run scenarios you set to on-demand. On paid plans the MCP server can also manage scenarios, connections, webhooks and data stores. For people who build automations with AI, that's a strong setup, and it also means an AI client with those scopes changes scenarios and data directly.

pylo's MCP server is made for both, developers who want to use agentic coding and team members who want to analyze their data. The AI gets exactly the connected user's read permissions, nothing else. pylo never applies an AI's writes directly, instead they arrive as proposals that a human accepts or declines. With the pylo MCP you also get help creating flows and writing custom flow actions.

File handling

pylo stores files in EU-hosted object storage with public or private links, no file size limit and for any file type. Files are fields on your entities and follow the same permissions as the rest of the record. Make passes files through a scenario with a maximum file size per plan, from 5 MB on Free to 1,000 MB on Enterprise, and long-term storage happens in the apps your scenarios connect to.

Agencies and multi-tenant work

With pylo, agencies can run many client workspaces from one user account. Each workspace is its own tenant separated by RLS and one login switches between them, with unlimited users on every plan. In Make, agencies usually run client automations in separate teams or organizations, and each client's data still lives in the tools the scenarios connect, so access for client staff happens there, not in Make.

Pricing

For pure automation volume, Make is cheaper per step: a few dollars buy thousands of module runs, and the free plan is enough to try real scenarios. Extra credits cost 25% more than your plan rate and expire at the end of the billing cycle.

But pylo's price already includes the data model, API, admin UI, forms, analytics and personal onboarding, which in a Make setup you run in other tools that cost extra. Every pylo plan has every feature and unlimited users, plans differ only in included usage.

Hosting, compliance and reliability

All pylo content data, data models and databases live in data centres in Germany, our subprocessor list is public and names every non-EU parent company openly. A GDPR data processing agreement is part of the terms and we never use customer data to train AI models. Paid plans come with a 99.5% availability SLA, hourly encrypted backups kept for 30 days at a separate German location and support from the team that builds the product.

Make runs on AWS and offers EU and US zones, which you choose at signup. Make belongs to Celonis, holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II and offers a DPA with Celonis, Inc. Make can't be self-hosted; an on-premise agent on Enterprise only tunnels Make into your local systems.

Where Make is the better choice

We would rather tell you than have you find out later:

• More than 3,000 app integrations and thousands of templates, far more ready-made building blocks than pylo has.

• A very mature visual editor with routers, iterators, aggregators and five error handler types.

• A low entry price per module run and a free plan for real scenarios.

• ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II and a bigger community

If your job is to connect many SaaS tools, Make is excellent. pylo is for teams whose automations need a real data model, permissions and a back office underneath.

Where pylo is a great Make alternative

We think these are the main reasons to pick pylo over Make:

• A real data model. Entities, relations across your whole workspace and a typed GraphQL API, instead of data stores without relations and storage tied to credits.

• One system instead of a stack. The data model, API, permissions, flows, admin UI, forms, events and MCP are all one product. There's no CRM, spreadsheet or separate database to keep in sync through scenarios.

• Schema changes without a deploy. Add an entity or field and the typed GraphQL API is live immediately, without any migration or redeployment.

• Permissions and login for your users. API, admin panel, forms, flows and MCP all go through the same permission layer, down to single fields, and pylo handles authentication for the people who use your apps.

• Flows on your own data. A change on a record starts a flow the moment it happens, with retries, rate limiting, typed actions and full logs. Custom actions are plain TypeScript.

• Non-developers can work without you. Configurable admin views, state-dependent fields and a full form builder let operations teams handle their own changes.

• Analytics you don't have to instrument. pylo records every change as an event with before and after state, and dashboards sit right next to the data.

• AI access that's safe for production. MCP runs with the connected user's exact read permissions, and every write goes through human approval as a proposal.

• Built for agencies. You can run many client workspaces with separate tenants and permissions, switch between them with one login and give client teams access on every plan.

• German hosting from a German company. pylo hosts user data in Germany and the DPA is part of the terms. You get a 99.5% SLA from the first paid plan, hourly backups with 30-day retention, and personal support from the people who build the product.

FAQs - Questions and answers about pylo

• Can pylo replace Make completely? For automations on your own data, yes. If you mainly connect many third-party tools, Make has more ready-made modules, though you can write your own connectors in pylo and we are open to suggestions for our integration catalogue. You can also keep Make for those and let it call pylo's GraphQL API or webhooks.

• Is pylo open source? No, but you can export all data at any time as CSV or JSON or through the API. The data models, flow definitions and generated SDK code are yours to keep, even after you leave.

• Can I self-host pylo? No, but if you need specific hosting options, we can discuss them as part of the Enterprise plan.

• Does pylo scale? Yes, production workspaces already run with millions of records and tens of thousands of flow runs today.

• Where exactly is my data? Content data is in data centres in Germany and backups are kept at a different German location.

• Can I get access now? pylo is currently in private beta. Request access and we will set up your first entities with you on a call and onboard you personally for your first project.