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A true open source alternative to N8N / Zapier / etc? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

16 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi all,

I have seen lately that the 'source available' N8N (which is excellent), has starting increasing pricing and restricting what you can get for your pricing.

In time, I can only assume this will get worse. Now, they deserve to get paid, and that's fine, but I had gone in thinking this was open source, but I see now it's not that at all.

This has led me to wonder if there's a true open source / self hosted alternative to N8N out there? Doing a bit of a hunt shows 'source available' alternatives, with a price point, and restrictions. I'm wondering if any team has tackled this in a truly open manner and if there's something out there?

Thanks so much

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Depending on what you're trying to do, Node-RED might be an option.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Don't go into that rabbit hole called Node-Red. You will end up writing a lot of code, and node.js isn't the best scripting language, and my suggestion is to just write a simple Python script.

Debugging is hell, version control is hell, it doesn't have VSCode integration, plus sometimes it has some weird bugs, when you forget to clean up headers, etc. and it can truly make you crazy.

If you need something super simple and it has a good integration, you might consider it, but for anything more complex, stick to Python, or some other scripting language you are familiar with.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Node red is for visual node programming. I don't think you'll need to be writing node.js

Ive used it for years and wrote more bash / python for those nodes than I even touched js.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

And I am using it almost every day and believe me I am writing a lot of code in those function nodes.

As soon as you want something more complicated that's not covered by the nodes, you need to write your own code. And then debugging this code or version controlling it becomes a nightmare.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

in that case you are doing the whole "no-coding" all wrong. If you really need something that cannot be done by connecting the nodes and grouping them in flows, then instead of developing new function nodes, develop your own contrib packages. But there are a lot of existing packages, so maybe you don't need even that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Node red is designed to use as little function nodes as possible. Sure, you can do anything with function nodes, but at this point, why use node red at all?

Look at sub flows, grouping flows and environment variables for sub flows, it will enhance what you can do a lot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

That seems to be the consensus, I will definitely try it out. Thank you

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I second Node Red. I use it on different home automation systems and I'm very happy with it. I've never ever had any problem through updates and some nodes have been operating for at least 6 years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Thank you for the recommendation, I will have a look at it as it seems to be the most likely option.