Introducing the Partner API: Build Zapier Into Your App

Adam DuVander / April 18, 2017

No app can go it alone. Your customers use a slew of tools to keep their business going, and you can't win when you're working against their workflow.

Zapier gives you and your customers access to more than 750 integrations that help your app fit into any scenario. They don't just fill gaps in your product—they make your product capable of tricks you never intend to teach it.

But even though native integrations come with lots of overhead, they boast one advantage: They show up when and where your customers wanted them. We've tried a few embed options for Zaps in the past, but none felt completely unified with the user's experience.

That's why we built the new Partner API. It helps you expose your best Zapier use cases where it's most helpful for your users: within the flow of your tool.

Our partners asked for a better way to inject Zapier's power into their app experience. Starting today, you can feature integrations inside your app without sacrificing the look, feel, and flow that your customers love.

The Partner API provides titles, descriptions, and app information for Zap templates, which you can style and format however you want. Plus, once you’ve built in this new API, your integration directory will expand automatically as new apps are added to Zapier.

Our most successful partners have found Zap templates, our pre-made workflows, powerful for discovery of app connections. The Zapier Partner API brings those templates within your app, letting you display them how you want, seamlessly.

Plus, users who enable integrations are more likely to pay and less likely to churn. It makes sense if you think about it from the customer perspective. They have a workflow that works for them right now. No matter how many applause-worthy features your app offers, if it’s separate from that workflow they may drift to another app that enables their specific need. Integrations are like gravity pulling your app into their daily work.

If you already have an app on Zapier, you can request an API key right now, and start embedding templates on your site. Or, read on to see how we’re working to streamline how you build integrations into your app.

Growth Through Investment in Integrations

Your app will never fit everyone's workflow. And if you invest time and money into every feature your users ask for, your product will morph into an unmaintainable blob of one-off widgets.

You only win by concentrating on what your tool does best. But rather than allowing customers who need advanced features to float away from your app, pull them back in with an integration that clears their roadblock.

Small business accounting software Freshbooks discovered the power of its API at the beginning of this decade.

“We find that if our customers use any single integration, they are three times as likely to convert to paid.”

Data collection app Typeform has also reaped the benefits of integrations—to the tune of more revenue.

"Those that use Zapier and Typeform together have a lower rate of churn than those that just use Typeform."

For that reason, you’ll already find Zap templates embedded in Typeform’s interface. These Zap templates provide example app pairings built around a specific use case, such as adding survey responses to a Google Sheet, or using them to create Trello cards.

To quantify the value of integrations, we partnered with Typeform to dig into the statistics in their churn data. As mentioned above, users of both Typeform and Zapier churn at a lower rate, meaning more customers continue paying longer. Zapier enables those who value Typeform most to get even more from the service.

If customers using integrations are more likely to upgrade and also inclined to stick around, you want to promote integrations as widely as possible. Building into your interface, as Typeform has, is a great way to expose the options available. Anyone with an app on Zapier can now build what Typeform and others have using the new Partner API available today.

Unify the Integration Experience

For a while now, we've offered JavaScript-powered snippets for our Zap templates. But many of our partners wanted more customization. With access to the raw integration details, such as app names, description, and links, you can make your integrations page look and act exactly how you want. That’s exactly the kind of flexibility that's available via our Partner API.

For example, landing page app Unbounce is currently integrating the new API to expose popular Zapier integrations alongside existing native integrations. Logos, labels, and other metadata for each integration are pulled in dynamically. As Zapier continues to connect to more apps, they will then become available in the Unbounce integrations directory.

Task app MeisterTask is also building Zapier into its app using the Partner API.

Their team considers automation a core part of its experience. Zapier exposes its users to a fully-featured workflow tool, so MeisterTask wanted to incorporate Zap templates in a way that felt natural in its interface.

Technically, Unbounce, MeisterTask, and others receive Zap Template results as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), which can be easily parsed by most modern languages. When you use this API, you can retrieve a list of Zap templates that connect with your own app. See the description of each use case, the logos and colors schemes of other apps and more.

You can see more in the Partner API documentation and if you already have an app on Zapier, request an API key to gain access.

Personalize the Integration Experience

There is a lot you can do for customers once you’ve integrated to Zapier and exposed those integrations through Zap Template embeds. However, we know that more is possible. Along with making the Partner API available to anyone, we are also opening a beta to another API to authenticate Zapier users via OAuth. These two services, used in tandem, can “close the loop” to bring integration data from Zapier back into your application.

Our Trello Power-Up makes use of both the Partner API and the authentication. From right within the Trello interface, you can create new Zaps and see the status of your existing Zaps with Trello steps. Eventually, we want to bring this sort of functionality to anyone with a Zapier app. We’re starting with a Beta to make sure we build what’s most useful to you and your customers.

Among our early Beta participants are Unbounce, MeisterTask, and Trello. In the way the Partner API allows all of these apps to provide a seamless view of integration options, our OAuth option fulfills a feedback loop that feels more tightly integrated. Customers can actually see their Zap integration within the non-Zapier tool.

You can see our OAuth documentation or request access to the beta.

Your Complete Integration Platform

Our new Partner API helps your customers find even more ways to use your app, and lets you feature those integrations in a way that feels natural. The upcoming OAuth authentication will seamlessly expose any customer’s Zaps within your own interface.

Together, these two new tools give you access to the largest app directory in a single, unified view. Get the feeling of a native integrations without actually building or maintaining them. (We've got 750+ of the web's top apps covered).

The Zapier Developer Platform lets you tap into an ever-expanding library of apps. When you build this single integration, any of Zapier’s 1.5 million users can incorporate your app into their workflows. Even better, your customers now have access to 750+ other services, many of which they already use. Customers that connect apps together are more likely to pay and more likely to stay.

As you consider how you’ll help customers find more value in your app, a really great way is through integrations. Zapier helps you plumb every depth of integration:

Plan how you’ll expose your integrations from the beginning by getting a Partner API key

If you haven’t already built a Zapier app, see what’s possible when you connect your service to Zapier

We’re excited to help you and your customers build great new things. You can’t possibly connect every service your customers use, but with Zapier you’ll be pretty close. Now you’ll be able to bring our ever-expanding app directory right into your app for a unified experience.