ForwardThis vs Workato
Workato and ForwardThis solve different problems. Workato is an enterprise integration platform: a team builds recipes, promotes them through environments, and runs them at scale behind role-based access and audit trails, reaching systems as large as SAP, Workday and NetSuite. ForwardThis has nothing to build: you forward an email, write what you need, and it happens. Governed, high-volume integration favours Workato; varied one-off jobs favour ForwardThis.
ForwardThis and Workato, side by side
How it works
Setup
Runs without you
Pricing unit
Free plan
Paid from
Apps
Governance
Undo
Workato pricing and limits checked 5 September 2026.
Which one fits how you work?
Choose Workato if
Integration is a team's job rather than one person's. Workato has environments, role-based access, versioning and audit trails built for the people who have to answer for what an automation did.
The volume is high and the flow is fixed. A recipe designed once and run against a whole ERP, CRM or HR system is what Workato exists for.
The systems are large, and some of them are on-premises. Workato reaches SAP, Workday, NetSuite and databases behind the firewall through its own on-prem agent, which ForwardThis cannot do.
The automation has to outlive whoever wrote it. A recipe is an artefact the next person can read, test and promote between environments. A forwarded email is not.
Choose ForwardThis if
The work starts as an email and looks slightly different every time. There is no recipe worth building for a job that happens once.
Nobody wants a platform to own. There is no builder, no environment to promote through and no recipe to keep working when an app changes.
The budget is a card rather than a procurement cycle. ForwardThis publishes its prices and starts free; Workato's enterprise tier is quoted through sales.
You want to see a message before it goes out, and undo reversible work for 24 hours after it lands.
What a single forwarded email does
The trigger is the email you forward. There is no editor and nothing to design in advance. This whole job is one email. In Workato it would be a recipe you build first.
Dara Okonjo
PO 88214 approved - Northgate
po-88214.pdf
Your instructions
Log the approved order against Northgate Logistics, add PO 88214 to the Purchase Orders sheet, and give Priya a task to book the delivery for Friday.
Salesforce
Log the approved order
Northgate Logistics
Google Sheets
Add PO 88214 as a row
Purchase Orders / Q3
Monday.com
Create the delivery task for Priya
Due Friday
You receive a confirmation email once complete, with an undo button that works for 24 hours.
Setup in 30 seconds.
What is ForwardThis?
ForwardThis is an ops assistant for your inbox. It turns email into action, without the hassle. Compatible with over 145+ of the apps you use every day.
Works with any email
Compatible with any personal or professional email provider. Gmail, Outlook and more.
145+ apps
Works across all the apps you already use every day. With more being added every month.
Setup in seconds
No complex setup, apps to install or workflows to build. Sign up, forward, done.
Secure & private
ForwardThis only acts on the emails you send it, and no data gets retained after actions have been completed.
Try it with a real email.
Forward any work email to the address below and see what ForwardThis can do. No signup required.
Occasional product emails may follow.
FAQs
- Is ForwardThis a Workato alternative?
- For the admin that arrives in your inbox, yes. The approved purchase order above is logged against the account, added to the purchase orders sheet and turned into a delivery task from one forwarded email, with nothing built first. For governed system-to-system integration at enterprise scale, no. Workato is built for that and ForwardThis deliberately is not.
- Can I use both?
- Yes, and larger companies usually should. Workato for the integrations the business depends on and audits, ForwardThis for the emails that need a judgment call.
- How does the pricing actually compare?
- The units measure different things. Workato meters credits from the trigger and app steps inside each recipe, so a recipe that touches six apps spends against that allowance every time it runs. Workato Free is a one-time grant of 50,000 credits, Pro is $100 a month with a recurring monthly allowance, and Enterprise is quoted through sales. A ForwardThis action is one forwarded email, however many things it asks for, free for 10 a month and $15 a month for 100. High identical volume favours Workato's model; varied one-off jobs favour ForwardThis.
- What about governance and audit?
- This is Workato's home ground, and it is a real gap. Workato has environments, role-based access, versioning and audit trails, plus an on-prem agent for systems behind the firewall. ForwardThis is scoped much smaller: it acts only on emails a verified person forwards, holds outbound messages for approval, confirms every action by email, and undoes reversible work for 24 hours. If a compliance team needs to review automations as artefacts, that is Workato.
- Which one has more integrations?
- Workato, comfortably. Its own headline count is 14,000+ apps, and its catalogue reaches enterprise systems like SAP, Workday, NetSuite and Oracle that ForwardThis does not touch. ForwardThis covers the everyday tools, 145+ of them; if one app decides it for you, look it up on both sites.
- Does ForwardThis have triggers?
- It has exactly one, and it is the email you forward. Nothing happens unless you send that email, so nothing runs overnight, nothing loops, and there is no recipe to version, test or promote. Every action traces back to an email somebody chose to send, and you give up unattended integration, which is the thing Workato does best.