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Yes, Make.com fully integrates with Follow Up Boss through its API (a way for two apps to talk to each other). You can connect them in about 15 minutes without writing code or hiring a developer. The free Make.com tier gives you 1,000 operations per month, which is enough to test your first automation before spending anything. Real estate agents and small teams are increasingly using this connection to auto-route leads from Zillow, trigger Slack alerts on deal-stage changes, and create Google Drive folders when contracts go live.
The math: Time to set up: ~15 min | Tasks automated: 3+ workflows | Weekly time reclaimed: ~2-4 hours
You just looked at your monthly software expenses and noticed the automation line item creeping upward. Maybe you’re paying per “task” or per “zap” and the bill keeps climbing as your lead volume grows. You searched for alternatives, and Make.com keeps showing up in real estate Facebook groups. But then you landed on their site and saw words like “webhook,” “JSON,” and “HTTP module.” Your gut reaction: this is for developers, not for me.
That fear is valid. And so is the worry that switching tools might break something in your Follow Up Boss setup that’s currently working. Here’s the good news: connecting Make.com to Follow Up Boss is straightforward, and pasting in an API key (a unique password that lets two apps share data securely) won’t delete contacts or overwrite deal data on its own. The real risks come later, during field mapping. We’ll cover how to test safely below.
The Short Answer: Yes (And Why Real Estate Agents Are Switching)
Bottom line: Make.com connects to Follow Up Boss natively, and the free tier handles enough volume for most solo agents to test it risk-free.
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Take the Quiz →Make.com is a visual workflow automation platform (software that moves data between your apps automatically) that helps small business owners and solopreneurs replace manual copy-paste work between tools. Follow Up Boss is a real estate CRM (customer relationship manager, the hub where your leads and deals live). Together, they let you build automations that trigger whenever something happens in FUB: a new lead arrives, a deal stage changes, a note gets added.
Why the migration from other tools? Cost, mostly. If you’re running 20+ automations, the per-task billing on other platforms adds up fast. Make.com’s pricing model counts “operations” differently, and many users report getting 3-5x more automations for the same monthly spend. For a deeper look at how the numbers compare, see our Make vs Zapier comparison.
The Make.com interface looks technical at first glance. Those connected bubbles and flow diagrams can feel intimidating. But each bubble is just one action: “When X happens in Follow Up Boss, do Y in Google Drive.” You’re dragging and dropping, not writing code.
Prerequisites
Before starting, confirm you have:
- A Follow Up Boss account with admin access (you need permission to generate API keys)
- A Make.com (affiliate partner) account (the free tier works for this tutorial)
- About 15 minutes of uninterrupted time
- One test lead in FUB you can use to verify the connection (never test on a real hot lead)
How to Safely Connect Make.com to Follow Up Boss (Plain-English Tutorial)
Bottom line: The entire connection takes three steps and one API key. The connection itself is read/write, so you’ll want to follow the safety checklist below before going live.
Before you start, confirm two things:
- Follow Up Boss API access is available on your current FUB plan. Log into FUB, click Admin > API, and verify you can see the API key field. If it’s grayed out, contact FUB support about upgrading.
- You have a test lead in FUB tagged with something obvious like “TEST – Make.com” so you never accidentally modify a real prospect during setup.
Safety checklist (read before Step 3):
- Always use the “Create or Update a Person” action, not “Create a Person.” This prevents duplicates.
- Map only the fields you actually need. Mapping the wrong field (e.g., putting a phone number in the email slot) creates messy records.
- Tag your first few automated leads with a label like “Make-Import” so you can spot and fix any issues quickly.
- Run every new scenario with Run once before toggling it on. Check the result in FUB before proceeding.
Step 1: Copy Your Follow Up Boss API Key (~3 minutes)
- Log into Follow Up Boss
- Go to Admin > API
- You’ll
- Paste it somewhere safe temporarily (a notepad window works fine). This key is like a password—don’t share it publicly.
Step 2: Create a Make.com Scenario and Add the FUB Module (~5 minutes)
- Log into Make.com (affiliate partner) and click Create a new scenario
- Click the + button to add your first module
- Search for Follow Up Boss in the app directory
- Select the specific action or trigger you need (e.g., “Watch New Leads,” “Create a Person,” “Update a Person”)
- Make.com will prompt you to create a connection—click Add and paste the API key you copied in Step 1
- Name the connection something recognizable like “My FUB Account”
- Click Save. Make.com will verify the connection is live.
If the connection test succeeds, you’ll see a green checkmark. If it fails, double-check that you copied the full API key without extra spaces.
Step 3: Build Your Workflow and Test (~10 minutes)
- Add a second module to your scenario—this is the other app you’re connecting to FUB (Google Sheets, Zillow, your website form tool, a CRM, etc.)
- Map the data fields between the two modules. For example, map the lead’s email field from your form tool to FUB’s email field, first name to first name, and so on.
- Click Run once in the bottom-left corner to test the scenario with real or sample data
- Check Follow Up Boss to confirm the data arrived correctly
- Once verified, toggle the scenario to ON and set your preferred schedule (instantly, every 15 minutes, once per hour, etc.)
Troubleshooting Common Issues
| Problem | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Connection fails during setup | Incorrect API key or extra whitespace | Re-copy the key directly from FUB’s Admin > API page |
| Leads aren’t appearing in FUB | Field mapping mismatch | Verify that email or phone is mapped—FUB requires at least one contact method |
| Scenario runs but creates duplicates | No duplicate-check logic | Use FUB’s “Update or Create” action instead of “Create a Person” |
| Scenario stops working randomly | API key was regenerated | Paste the new key into your Make.com connection settings |
| Rate limit errors | Too many API calls too fast | Add a delay module or reduce scenario frequency |
Your Next Step: Build One Scenario This Weekend
Don’t try to automate everything at once. Here’s your single Task Zero:
You might also explore n8n automation for solopreneurs as a cost-effective alternative if Make.com’s pricing ever becomes a concern.
Make.com is just one option worth considering, and exploring Zapier alternatives for small business owners might reveal an even better fit for your workflow.
- Create a new Make.com scenario with two modules: Watch New Leads (Follow Up Boss) → Create or Update a Person (Follow Up Boss with a “Make-Test” tag).
- Click Run once.
- Check FUB for the tagged test record.
That round-trip confirms your API key works, your connection is live, and data flows correctly. The whole thing takes under 15 minutes. Once that’s working, pick one of the three automations above and build it out. You’ll reclaim hours every week, and you’ll know exactly how your data moves between tools.
If you want to compare Make.com’s pricing against other automation platforms before committing, our Make vs Zapier breakdown covers the real cost differences for small teams.
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Get Your Free Kit →Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Follow Up Boss integration on Make.com free?
The Follow Up Boss module is available on all Make.com plans, including the free tier. However, the free Make.com plan limits you to 1,000 operations per month and two active scenarios. If you’re running high-volume lead routing, you’ll likely need a paid Make.com plan starting at $9/month (as of April 2026). Follow Up Boss itself does not charge extra for API access on plans that include it.
Can Make.com replace Zapier for Follow Up Boss integrations?
For most real estate use cases, yes. Make.com handles the same triggers and actions that Zapier does for Follow Up Boss—creating leads, updating contacts, watching for new events—and often at a lower cost per operation. The main advantage of Make.com is visual workflow building and more granular control over logic branching. The main advantage of Zapier is a slightly larger library of pre-built templates. Either tool gets the job done.
Will using Make.com with Follow Up Boss slow down my lead response time?
Not meaningfully. Most Make.com scenarios execute within a few seconds once triggered. If you’re using an instant webhook trigger, new leads can land in Follow Up Boss in under 10 seconds. Scheduled scenarios (polling every 15 minutes) will have a slight delay, but you can minimize this by setting the interval to the shortest available option on your Make.com plan.
Can I use Make.com to send Follow Up Boss leads to multiple places at once?
Absolutely. This is one of Make.com’s biggest strengths. A single scenario can take a new FUB lead and simultaneously add them to a Google Sheet, send a Slack notification to your team, trigger a drip email in Mailchimp, and create a task in Asana. You build this by adding parallel branches (called routers in Make.com) after the FUB module.
Do I need coding experience to set this up?
No. The entire process is point-and-click. You’ll copy one API key and drag fields from one module to another inside Make.com’s visual builder. If you can use a spreadsheet, you can build these automations. That said, for highly complex workflows involving conditional logic, error handling, and data transformations, some technical comfort helps—or you can hire a Make.com specialist.
What happens to my Make.com scenarios if Follow Up Boss has an outage?
Make.com will detect the failed connection and flag the scenario execution as incomplete. Depending on your settings, it can automatically retry the operation or queue it. You’ll receive an email notification about the error. Once FUB comes back online, you can re-run any failed executions from Make.com’s scenario history—no data is lost.
Can I trigger Make.com automations when something happens inside Follow Up Boss?
Yes. Follow Up Boss supports webhooks (think of them like a doorbell: when something happens in FUB, it rings Make.com instantly). You can set up a webhook trigger so that when a new lead is created, a note is added, or a deal stage changes, Make.com fires your scenario within seconds. To set this up, use the ‘Watch Events’ or custom webhook module in Make.com, then paste the webhook URL into Follow Up Boss’s webhook settings under Admin > API. This gives you near-instant automations without waiting for Make.com to poll FUB on a schedule.
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