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Lightr Zapier integrationAutomate Lightr with Zapier.

The Lightr Zapier integration gives you 0 triggers and 4 actions, with no search. Lightr cannot start a Zap on its own, so another app kicks things off, and the four actions then create, address and finalize a handwritten card order for you.

See the 4 operations

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Overview

What the Lightr Zapier integration actually does

Lightr sends handwritten cards for you, at the moments you choose. Connecting it to Zapier means an event in one of your other apps can place the card order by itself, address it and send it off, without anyone opening Lightr to type a name and a street.

Three results come out of it. An order opened by an event: Create a Order starts a card order for a design you already prepared in Lightr. A card with a real address: Add a Receiver attaches a name and a postal address to that order, using the order ID the first step returned. An order that actually goes out: Finalize Order closes the order so it can be processed. A fourth action, Get a Preset, reads the details of a preset when a later step needs them. All four are actions: none of them can start a Zap.

What Zapier does not do here matters just as much. Lightr has no trigger, so nothing that happens inside Lightr can start a Zap. There is no search step, so the order ID has to travel from step to step. And there is no action to cancel or delete an order once it is finalized. Each of those actions that succeeds counts as one task.

To weigh the alternatives, see our Lightr Make integration page and our Make vs Zapier comparison.

Vocabulary

Zapier words, in plain English

Seven terms come back on this page. Here is what each one means before you open the editor.

Zap
The automation you build in Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run each time the trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event in an app that starts the Zap. Lightr has none, so the trigger always comes from one of your other apps.
Action
What the Zap does after it starts: the step that writes, sends or moves something for you, here inside Lightr.
Task
The unit Zapier bills. One task is one action your Zap completes successfully, and your plan counts those.
Polling vs instant
A polling trigger is checked by Zapier on a timer. An instant trigger is reported by the app itself, the moment it happens.
Multi-step Zap
Any Zap with more than one trigger and one action. A full Lightr order uses several actions, so it is always one.
Connection
Your Lightr account linked to Zapier once, then reused by every Lightr step in every Zap you build.
Cost

What a Lightr order really costs in Zapier

Lightr is not a premium app, so the connection works on the free plan. The bill is counted in tasks, and only actions that succeed are counted.

  • Free plan100 tasks per month
  • Free plan Zap size2 steps: 1 trigger, 1 action
  • Premium appNo
  • Tasks per full order3 (create, receiver, finalize)

The trigger from your other app costs nothing. Each Lightr action that succeeds counts once, so a full order (create, add the receiver, finalize) uses three tasks per card. A failed action is not counted. The free plan gives 100 tasks a month but only two-step Zaps, one trigger and one action. A complete Lightr order needs three actions, which makes it a multi-step Zap and requires a paid plan. The interval grid below applies to the trigger of your other app if it polls.

Connect

Connect your Lightr account in three steps

  1. 01

    Open the Apps page

    From your Zapier account, go to Apps, then click + Add connection. A dialog opens with a search box: type Lightr and pick it from the list of results.

  2. 02

    Add the connection

    Click Add connection. A new tab opens on Lightr: sign in with the account that holds your card designs. You need a Lightr account before you reach this step.

  3. 03

    Grant access

    Allow Zapier to use the account. If the Zap must use designs or presets you do not own yourself, check that your account can read or write them, or the actions will fail later.

First Zap

Your first Zap: a handwritten card for each new CRM contact

GoalWhen a new contact lands in your CRM, create a Lightr order, attach the contact's address, and finalize it so the card goes out.

  1. 01

    Pick the trigger

    Start a new Zap and choose your CRM as the trigger app, with the event for a new contact. Test it: Zapier brings back the three most recent contacts so you can pick a real one.

  2. 02

    Create the order

    Add the Lightr action Create a Order. Pick your design in Card ID and leave Quantity on 1, as Lightr itself advises, to avoid a double order.

  3. 03

    Add the receiver

    Add Add a Receiver. Map the order ID returned by the previous step into Order ID, then the contact's name, country, street, postal code and city.

  4. 04

    Finalize the order

    Add Finalize Order and map the same order ID again. Skip it and the order is never finalized, whatever the first two steps did.

  5. 05

    Test, then publish

    Test each step once and read what came back. This Zap has four steps, so it needs a paid plan. When everything looks right, click Publish to switch it on.

Actions

Lightr actions

Lightr gives you 4 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add a Receiver

Action

In Zapier“Add a receiver to your order”

Attaches the person who gets the card to an existing order: full name, country, street and house number, postal code and city.

When to use it
right after Create a Order, with the address coming from the app that triggered the Zap.
Watch out
the labels read Naam, Adress and Postcal code in the editor, and a country typed by hand must be the right country ID.
2

Create a Order

Action

In Zapier“Create a order in Lightr.”

Opens a new card order in Lightr for one of your designs and returns its order ID, which every later step of the order depends on.

When to use it
as the first Lightr step whenever an event in another app should end in a card.
Watch out
Quantity is required and Lightr asks you to leave it on 1; any other value can produce a double order.
3

Finalize Order

Action

In Zapier“Finalize order of cards.”

Closes the order so Lightr can process it. Until this action runs, the order you built is not finalized.

When to use it
as the last step of every order Zap, once the receiver is attached.
Watch out
its only required field, Order ID, has to come from the Create a Order step of the same Zap.
4

Get a Preset

Action

In Zapier“Get information of a preset”

Reads the information stored in one Lightr preset and passes it to the steps that follow.

When to use it
when a later step needs a detail from a preset you set up in Lightr.
Watch out
it requires a Preset id, and as an action it counts as one task each time it succeeds, even though it changes nothing.
When it breaks

When a Lightr Zap breaks

Zapier attaches no help article to Lightr, so the known failure points are the general ones of any Zap, plus what the action fields themselves warn about.

  • Past contacts never get a card

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you publish it. Contacts or rows that already existed get nothing; sending to them is a separate job.

  • Two cards for one person

    Lightr warns that a Quantity other than 1 on Create a Order makes a double order. Leave it on 1 unless you really mean several cards.

  • The receiver lands nowhere

    Add a Receiver and Finalize Order need the Order ID from Create a Order. Typed by hand or mapped from the wrong step, it fails.

  • A big batch is held back

    If the triggering app suddenly sends a huge batch after an import or a migration, Zapier's flood protection can hold those runs back.
Need help

Need help automating Lightr with Zapier?

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FAQ

Lightr and Zapier: common questions

01Is the Lightr Zapier integration free?
The connection is, since Lightr is not a premium app and works on the free Zapier plan. The catch is the shape of a real order. The free plan allows 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps only, one trigger and one action. A complete Lightr order chains Create a Order, Add a Receiver and Finalize Order, so with its trigger it is a four-step Zap. That makes it multi-step, and a multi-step Zap needs a paid Zapier plan.
02How many tasks does one Lightr card use?
Three tasks for a standard order, and nothing for the trigger. Create a Order, Add a Receiver and Finalize Order each count once when they succeed. If you add Get a Preset to the chain, that is a fourth task per card, because it is an action and actions are what Zapier bills. A failed action is not counted, so a card that stops on a bad address does not use up the steps that never ran.
03Does Lightr start a Zap in real time?
Lightr does not start Zaps at all, because it has no trigger in Zapier. Your Zap begins with a trigger from another app, a CRM, a form or a spreadsheet for instance, and Lightr only acts afterwards. How fast that is depends on the trigger you pick: an instant trigger fires the moment the event happens, while a polling trigger is checked on an interval set by your plan, every 15 minutes on the free one.
04What does it take to connect Lightr to Zapier?
A Lightr account, and at least one card already designed in it. In Zapier, open Apps, click + Add connection, search for Lightr, click Add connection, sign in on the tab that opens and grant access. The card design matters because Create a Order asks for a Card ID chosen from a dropdown, and that dropdown only lists the cards your account has designed. Access to any preset you plan to read helps too.
05Why did one Lightr Zap send two cards?
Most likely because the Quantity field on Create a Order was not 1. Lightr itself tells you to leave it on 1, otherwise you make a double order. The field is required, so it is easy to map something into it by mistake, a number from the triggering app for instance. Set it to 1 by hand, test the step once, and check the order in Lightr before you publish the Zap again.
06What if the Lightr operation you want is missing?
Then Zapier cannot do it for Lightr right now. The list is short: Create a Order, Add a Receiver, Finalize Order and Get a Preset. Nothing in Lightr can start a Zap, nothing can look an order up afterwards, and no action cancels or deletes an order. If your idea needs one of those, keep the order ID from Create a Order in another app at the moment you create it, or look at what the Lightr Make page lists for the same app.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Lightr?
It depends on your criteria, not on a winner. Zapier gives you the four Lightr actions, but a complete order is a multi-step Zap, so you are on a paid plan from the start. If you send many cards, compare how Make and n8n count a run of several steps, what they expose for Lightr, and who on your team will maintain the scenario once it is live. Whichever you pick, the Card ID dropdown still depends on designs made in Lightr first.
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