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How does this compare to n8n? I read somewhere that node red was more focused on IoT applications, is that correct?

sneak 5y ago
Node-RED is free software, n8n is not.
rcarmo 5y ago
It originated in that space, but the ecosystem has taken it in very different directions. It has lower-level abstractions than n8n (which focuses on automating third-party SaaS), but can arguably do the same. I've used it for an insane amount of things, starting with home automation and telemetry but also fairly sophisticated uses, including: - Sniffing for multicast streams on a LAN and exposing IPTV set top boxes as HomeKit devices - Automating image conversion and video transcoding - Building an RSS aggregation and transformation pipeline that does translations, scraping, etc. - Building a simple GUI for managing backup snapshots and batch file copies - Monitoring Azure deployments (and exposing the data as simple dashboards). - Doing App store price checks and sending Pushover notifications when an interesting app goes on sale (backed by SQLite). - An embarrassing number of Slack and Telegram bots for various user groups/events/etc. As a general rule of thumb, Node-RED can do pretty much any kind of automation you can get a REST API for, and quite often someone out there has already built a module for it. I think of n8n more along the lines of a graphical workflow/BPM tool for SaaS, but with much less flexibility/ability to go "low level".
- beardicus 5y ago
  thanks for listing all of these examples... i really like node-RED, and wrote up a tutorial on it a few years back, but have never actually reached for it to solve a real problem. you've given me some ideas!
- slightwinder 5y ago
  > - Building an RSS aggregation and transformation pipeline that does translations, scraping, etc. About how many feeds are we talking here? One per hour? Ten? Some hundred? I've thought at some point doing similar, but was not sure whether node-red or similar tools would perform well enough with this kinds of jobs.
  - rcarmo 5y ago
    My OPML export is over 200 feeds, and they're all being fetched and handled there.

Node-RED is free software, n8n is not.

It originated in that space, but the ecosystem has taken it in very different directions. It has lower-level abstractions than n8n (which focuses on automating third-party SaaS), but can arguably do the same. I've used it for an insane amount of things, starting with home automation and telemetry but also fairly sophisticated uses, including: - Sniffing for multicast streams on a LAN and exposing IPTV set top boxes as HomeKit devices - Automating image conversion and video transcoding - Building an RSS aggregation and transformation pipeline that does translations, scraping, etc. - Building a simple GUI for managing backup snapshots and batch file copies - Monitoring Azure deployments (and exposing the data as simple dashboards). - Doing App store price checks and sending Pushover notifications when an interesting app goes on sale (backed by SQLite). - An embarrassing number of Slack and Telegram bots for various user groups/events/etc. As a general rule of thumb, Node-RED can do pretty much any kind of automation you can get a REST API for, and quite often someone out there has already built a module for it. I think of n8n more along the lines of a graphical workflow/BPM tool for SaaS, but with much less flexibility/ability to go "low level".

beardicus 5y ago
thanks for listing all of these examples... i really like node-RED, and wrote up a tutorial on it a few years back, but have never actually reached for it to solve a real problem. you've given me some ideas!
slightwinder 5y ago
> - Building an RSS aggregation and transformation pipeline that does translations, scraping, etc. About how many feeds are we talking here? One per hour? Ten? Some hundred? I've thought at some point doing similar, but was not sure whether node-red or similar tools would perform well enough with this kinds of jobs.
- rcarmo 5y ago
  My OPML export is over 200 feeds, and they're all being fetched and handled there.