Ever wished you had an app like Zapier exclusively for WordPress? For gluing WordPress plugins together?

Uncanny Automator lets you integrate your favorite plugins and even cloud apps together, and let them communicate with each other right inside of WordPress.

It saves you a lot of time in admin tasks, saves time in custom development, gets you rid of dozens of tiny-teeny plugins, and helps you externalize creative workflows stuck in your head!

It is a fairly new entry in the WordPress market. But it is a product from Uncanny Owl which has an excellent track record of creating quality products for WordPress and LearnDash.

In this blog post, I’ll be reviewing Uncanny Automator, how it works, and also will help you decide if it’s right for you now or not.

Uncanny Automator – In brief

Uncanny Automator is a really good automation plugin for WordPress.

If you’re reading this blog post, you’re already using WordPress and the chances are there that you are already using plugins like Elementor, WooCommerce, LearnDash, EDD, etc. on your site.

Now, in order to integrate your WooCommerce store with your CRM or email software, you may be using Zapier or Integromat.

It can save you a lot of time and money when it comes to integrating plugins together (huge win here) and also with other external tools and services.

This plugin is highly recommended for you if you’re running your eCommerce business, training business, community, right inside of WordPress.

It uncovers superior and deep WordPress automation possibilities that tools like Zapier simply can’t deliver sitting outside of the WordPress ecosystem.

When it comes to working, similar to other automation plugins, Uncanny Automator works on the basis of triggers and actions that I will discuss later on in this blog post.

Pros

• Has deep integrations with various popular WordPress plugins for automating admin tasks.
• Ability to add recipes for logged in and also anonymous users.
• Ability to have multiple triggers and actions in a recipe.
• Comes with “Magic button/link” as one of the core functionalities, which can act as a trigger to execute actions (helpful for one-click sign up for webinars).
• Product from a reputed developer with a good track record and a strong backing.
• Feature to automatically redirect users to a webpage once the automation is complete (helpful for redirecting users to the product fulfillment page once the payment is done)
• It has functionalities to both receive and send webhook data to external apps even if Uncanny Automator doesn’t natively support them.
• Comes with a generous free version and also a paid version with a yearly fee.
• The premium versions don’t come with any trigger/action limits unlike Zapier or other cloud-based automation softwares.
• As a WordPress automation plugin, it has integration with other cloud automation apps like Zapier and Integromat (you can pass upto 5 variable tokens via webhook to Zapier, for example). So, the Uncanny Automator is aiming to complement your automation setup rather than replacing it. It’s a blue ocean they’re in!

Cons

• When setting up anonymous-user recipes, first you need to create a WordPress user under their email and then you can do any “action” with their data (not a deal-breaker, but quite a hassle).
• Limited integrations with external cloud-based email marketing apps, CRMs, etc. Of course, it’s not primarily meant for that – and they know that.

Although Uncanny Automator may not entirely replace your current Zapier or Integromat, it does cut down your bills (with features like webhooks and some cloud integrations). It also enables you to do deep WordPress integrations and automation without any custom development.

Even good, it integrates natively with Zapier and Integromat to supercharge your workflows.

Uncanny Automator – Installation

Uncanny Automator is a freemium WordPress automation plugin.

It comes with a free version with limited triggers, actions, and also supports only logged-in recipes.

You can head over to their All Triggers and Actions page* (https://automatorplugin.com/all-triggers-and-actions/), there you can see for some apps’ triggers and actions the “pro” badge is present. It indicates that the feature is reserved only for pro customers.

You need to have both the free version and also the pro plugin installed on your site.

When you create a recipe under “All Recipes”, you can file it under a category and add multiple tags to it for efficient organization.

You have separate logs for recipes, triggers, and actions helping you troubleshoot any issues you encounter when running your automation workflows.

How does it work?

With Uncanny Automator, the automation workflows are called “Recipes”.

You begin by adding a new recipe.

Types of recipes

When you create a new recipe, the first step is to select the type of recipe.

It’s crucial to understand this, as the type of the recipe can’t be changed later on.

Logged in recipe: These recipes will only be run on users who are already logged in to your site. Like your WooCommerce signed-in users, your LearnDash students, etc.

Anonymous recipe: Here, the term “anonymous” refers to those who’re not logged in to your site. If you ‘d like to perform automation on people who have not yet registered on your site, you’ll be using this type of recipe.

For example, if you’re trying to register Elementor Form submissions (unregistered WordPress users) to a Zoom Webinar.

When running actions on anonymous users, you need to first register them as a user on your site or map them (if the email is already registered) and then only can you do something with their data in the subsequent action steps.

Triggers and actions

A trigger is an event that needs to happen in your WordPress site, for the actions to be executed.

You can have multiple triggers and actions set up under a single recipe.

In the above example, you can see there are two triggers:

• A user clicks on Automator Magic Button
• A user submits an Elementor form

When either of these triggers happens, the below actions get executed:

• Send data to webhook (external app – like your email marketing app)
• Add the user to Zoom webinar (using native Zoom integration with Uncanny Automator)
• Send data to Zapier (let it handle the automation from only there on)

You can even make use of the variables feature to use the trigger data in the subsequent action steps as you can see in the screenshot.

The trigger and actions are not limited to this.

As you install more and more plugins on your WordPress site, the plugin-specific triggers and actions will be unlocked for you to play with.

Above are the triggers and actions provided by some popular plugins like LearnDash, WooCommerce, BuddyBoss, BuddyPress, GamiPress, and Elementor.

Other than this, it integrates with almost all the popular WordPress plugins.

It also integrates with Zapier and also Integromat, to take your automation game outside of the WordPress ecosystem.

You can send webhook data back and forth of these popular automation tools.

If you consider Zapier, for example, you can send upto 5 tokens/variables to the webhook. For any use case, this is enough.

Automation workflow examples

• When a user views a particular WooCommerce product “x” many times, trigger an email from your autoresponder – “Hey <name>, are you interested in this <product>?”. This is similar to the site tracking feature present in tools like ActiveCampaign or Drip, right inside of WordPress!
• When a user completes a LearnDash lesson, quiz, or assignment, assign him some score on GamiPress. Now, once he reaches a score in GamiPress, enroll him in a bonus LearnDash course! See how the two plugins can be integrated in two-ways!
• When a user updates his avatar in BuddyBoss (incentivizing behaviors), award him some GamiPress points that he can redeem in his future purchases.
• When a person buys something on your shopping cart app, send the webhook data to Uncanny Automator and grant him access to a course (with LearnDash, LifterLMS, LearnPress, or TutorLMS) or a membership (WishList Member, MemberPress, etc.).
• When an existing WordPress user (student or a customer) clicks on a magic button, automatically register them for the Zoom meeting/webinar rather than again forcing him to fill out a form.

You may be now realizing how many tiny plugins, and client developmental work you can get rid of!

A plugin like this makes fulfilling client requests really fast and efficient.

Uncanny Automator alternatives

There are mainly two plugins that come to your mind when you think of WordPress-based Uncanny Automator alternatives.

1. WP Fusion
2. AutomatorWP

WP Fusion vs. Uncanny Automator

WP Fusion is mainly focused on marketing integrations with WordPress plugins. It works really well with external CRMs and email softwares. It has direct integration with cloud apps like ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, etc.

Whereas, Uncanny Automator is more suitable to be used within WordPress for inter-plugin deep integrations.

Although it has some cloud app integrations like Zapier, Integromat integrations, and also webhooks (both incoming and outgoing), it excels inside of the WordPress platform.

It truly excels at gluing WordPress plugins together making emergence of new use cases possible right inside of WordPress!

Although both of these plugins may have some overlapping features and audiences, they are not really competitors.

In fact, Uncanny Automator integrates with WP Fusion.

AutomatorWP vs. Uncanny Automator

When I was first starting out with WordPress automation, I was in a dilemma – which one to choose, AutomatorWP or Uncanny Automator?

Both are damn similar.

As per my research, AutomatorWP seems to be a fork of Uncanny Automator so their branding, copy, all looks similar.

And also, unlike Uncanny Automator, you don’t get the entire package with AutomatorWP. You still need to buy individual add-ons adding up the cost.

Pricing

As I told you before, Uncanny Automator is a freemium plugin. You are free to play with the plugin before investing in the pro versions.

For most of the people, the Pro plan would be good enough. It comes with access to install the plugin on two different websites.

If you’re into agency business and want unlimited site installations, you need to go with their agency plans.

All of their paid plans come with 1-year support and updates.

With any of their plans, you don’t have to worry about a limited number of triggers and actions as you’ll be in a self-hosted environment.

Bottomline

Uncanny Automator is the best automation plugin for WordPress, with a very bright way ahead!

It makes inter-plugin deep integrations possible that apps like Zapier may not find it worthwhile to focus on.

Right outside of the box, if Uncanny Automator does any of these things for you:

• Reduce your admin tasks significantly.
• Implement ideas easily that you never thought were possible (that are gathering dust in your closet!).
• Enables you to get rid of small custom plugins, addons, to achieve simple automations.
• Boosts community engagement, WooCommerce conversions, implement gamification, etc. without the hassle of hiring developers.
• Cuts your Zapier bill by half.

… then, it is worthwhile for you to consider it at an yearly fee of $149.