Node-RED

Rating: 4.2

User Satisfaction: 85%

Node-RED is a tool that lets you build automation workflows by visually wiring together inputs, transformations and outputs so you can integrate devices, APIs and services quickly.

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Overview

Node‑RED is an open-source, browser-based, flow-oriented development environment built on Node.js. It allows you to visually wire “nodes” (inputs, outputs, processing steps) to build event-driven applications, connect hardware, APIs, services and dashboards.

If you’re working in IoT, automation, edge computing, or need to orchestrate data flows between devices, services and dashboards — Node-RED helps you move faster without writing fully custom code from scratch. It supports rapid prototyping and integration: for example you can connect sensors, MQTT, HTTP, databases, dashboards, etc., visually. It’s especially useful for makers, DevOps/IoT teams, or operations engineers who want to build workflows with less boilerplate.

You install Node-RED (locally, on a Raspberry Pi, in a Docker container or on a cloud instance) and open its browser-based flow editor. You drag nodes from a palette, wire them together to define your flow, configure them (e.g., set topic names, APIs, transform logic), then deploy your flow with a button. Flows are stored as JSON and the runtime processes messages through the nodes at runtime.

Details

Tool Launch / Founded Date

approx. 2013-01

Best for

Makers, IoT/embedded teams, operations engineers, rapid prototyping teams, small-to-medium automation/integration projects

Access Type

Free open-source download / self-hosted. (There’s no paid “core Node-RED” licensing.)

Licensing Model

Core project under Apache 2.0 license. Individual nodes/modules may use MIT, ISC, BSD etc; you must check them individually.

Feature

Visual flow-editor in a web browser: drag & drop nodes and wire them together.
Built on Node.js — lightweight, event-driven, can run on low-cost hardware (Raspberry Pi, edge devices) as well as cloud.
Large ecosystem: thousands of community-nodes (connectors) covering MQTT, HTTP, databases, UI dashboards, devices etc.
Flows exportable/importable (JSON) and shareable.
Flexible deployment: run locally, on device, via Docker, in cloud, and integrate with services.

Pricing Tables

Free

Since Node-RED is free and open-source, there are no formal pricing tiers for the core product.

Analytics

Traffic Analysis

Domain Rating
78

Organic Traffic
47602

Majority Users
Germany

Visits Over Time

No visit data found.

Traffic Sources

No traffic data found.

Last Update Date: 2025-11-22

FAQ

Can I use Node-RED commercially and for production systems? ▼

Yes — the core framework is licensed under Apache 2.0 which permits commercial use and inclusion in production. However, you must check the individual nodes/modules you use, as each may have its own license.

How many flows or runs can I have per month? ▼

There is no built-in commercial usage cap for Node-RED itself — it is self-hosted and open-source. Any limits will depend on your infrastructure (hardware, server, cloud).

Can I edit or customise what Node-RED generates or how flows work? ▼

Yes — you have full access to flow JSON, the node definitions are extensible, you can write custom function-nodes in JavaScript, or build your own node modules.

Does Node-RED integrate with other tools / platforms? ▼

Yes — it supports a wide range of integrations via community nodes and standard connectors (MQTT, HTTP, WebSocket, databases, cloud services, dashboards). It’s extendable so you can integrate with virtually any API or protocol via custom nodes.

Does my data or flows get used to train machine-learning models or shared publicly by default? ▼

No — since Node-RED is open-source and self-hosted under your control, your flows and data remain under your infrastructure. There’s no secret training usage of your flows by the project (that said, if you choose a managed third-party service you should check their policy).

What do I get if I scale to many devices / enterprise usage? ▼

At scale (many edge devices, multiple teams, DevOps pipelines, multi-tenant deployments) you may need extra tooling beyond vanilla Node-RED: e.g., version control, CI/CD, device fleet management, monitoring. Some companies build services on top of Node-RED for that use case.