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Show HN: My affordable solution to costly workflow automation: Embed Workflow

81 points by ewf 3y ago

ewf 3y ago
working on custom workflow software for almost a decade. I built a lean solution with no fluff - and it is free. I am looking for feedback. Anything helps!
- mtmail 3y ago
  Add 'Show HN' to the submission title. Then it will also be listed on https://news.ycombinator.com/show https://news.ycombinator.com/show where users ask for feedback. (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
  - ewf 3y ago
    updated, thank you
- Onavo 3y ago
  The pricing is a bit steep. For churn heavy sites it is completely unusable. You will miss out on a lot of customers. Formspark for example gives you 50K submissions for $25. I think you should come up with a recurring subscription plan in addition to the current usage based pricing, perhaps 10k actions for $5, 25k for $10.
  - ewf 3y ago
    Would you be utilizing our embed capabilities? The embeddable workflow builder makes us stand out from Formspark and others. I'm curious to know if I set something up similar to Formspark's monetization model, at what price would you say it's expensive but still something you'd consider purchasing, AND at what price would you say it's a bargain for your money? Thanks!
lharries 3y ago
This looks great! Are you thinking of making it open source but still being a for profit company (with an open core business model etc.)? I would be much more likely to use it if this was the case
- ewf 3y ago
  Thanks! That is a consideration. Similar to how n8n does it.
majestic5762 3y ago
Love the idea! But if i understand correctly, a developer like myself can use your React components to build a workflow that runs on your infrastructure. Neat! But i'm pretty paranoid and i don't want some unknown service provider to peek into my data. Not saying you're doing it, not at all, but i'd rather deploy n8n somewhere myself. Personally I would love to see a React component library like yourself, but could point to my service endpoint. Sure, individual developers will use your work for free, but startups could pay you to take care of their infra
- ewf 3y ago
  I understand entirely and deeply relate to this, as I built three different custom solutions for other companies. We are working towards a self-hosted option, but for now, the focus is on receiving quick feedback with our cloud setup. Thank you so much for checking it out. Honestly, it means a lot!
michaelmior 3y ago
Looks cool! Minor nit: "slack" should be capitalized.
- ewf 3y ago
  appreciate it! I just made the code changes and it will get shipped soon
latortuga 3y ago
I don't get it. I scrolled through your marketing site and I just don't get what I'd use this for. It seems to be targeted at developers because there's literally code above the fold on page load but there's no explanation of what this is even for. I clicked through to the demo and maybe it's because I'm on mobile but I don't get what it's even doing.
- ewf 3y ago
  home page could use some improvements. Again, all feedback is welcome and appreciated. A real world example: You are a dev at a real estate software company. You want to allow your users to send an email, send a text, and perform a webhook when a lead signs up. We have created developer tools (API, SDK, UI components) so you can accomplish this in your app with ease. Hope that helps... questions welcome!
  - hliyan 3y ago
    I seem to be your target market as well (CTO of a real estate software company), but the homepage is not very clear. Perhaps the GIF next to your "triggers" section should be at the top. Also, I'd like to see a demo of the workflows being triggered. Currently I can only see the workflow editor in action.
    - ewf 3y ago
      Noted. I also like the idea of workflow's actions performing. Currently, it executes as it would in production but communication is disabled for the demo (emails won't send, webhooks won't POST). Thanks for the feedback!
msencenb 3y ago
I think I’m in your target market-I own a small b2b saas that will be adding user generated automations to our product soon. I love the UI and would use a UI only version of this. I pay for highcharts and pintura. The backend stuff is not super helpful in my case because my app already has all those capabilities (email, SMS, etc) and it’s wrapped up in messaging within the app. I wouldn’t want to use an outside provider for that stuff. I also generally want custom automations - otherwise I would just be using Zapier - so while the example basic stuff is reasonable, I would be looking for a fully custom option for each building block. Best of luck - seems like it has potential.
- ewf 3y ago
  That is a very thoughtful response. Thank you! The backend can get complicated. Our workflows are stored as a directed acyclic graph, and each action is scheduled. There are also dynamic data placeholders, error handling, and much more. I’ve seen users create custom webhooks called “send text message” that hit their API. Are you using React? I recommend checking out react flow if you want a UI-only solution.
appleflaxen 3y ago
The buttons "Get started - It's free" and "Pricing" are right next to each other. I get it, but it feels a bit disingenuous.
- ewf 3y ago
  Glad you pointed this out. Going to make an improvement here
dan91 3y ago
You beat me to it. This is the exact vision I had. A workflow automation with embed first in mind. Well done and best of luck

81 points by ewf 3y ago

ewf 3y ago

working on custom workflow software for almost a decade. I built a lean solution with no fluff - and it is free. I am looking for feedback. Anything helps!

mtmail 3y ago
Add 'Show HN' to the submission title. Then it will also be listed on https://news.ycombinator.com/show https://news.ycombinator.com/show where users ask for feedback. (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
- ewf 3y ago
  updated, thank you
Onavo 3y ago
The pricing is a bit steep. For churn heavy sites it is completely unusable. You will miss out on a lot of customers. Formspark for example gives you 50K submissions for $25. I think you should come up with a recurring subscription plan in addition to the current usage based pricing, perhaps 10k actions for $5, 25k for $10.
- ewf 3y ago
  Would you be utilizing our embed capabilities? The embeddable workflow builder makes us stand out from Formspark and others. I'm curious to know if I set something up similar to Formspark's monetization model, at what price would you say it's expensive but still something you'd consider purchasing, AND at what price would you say it's a bargain for your money? Thanks!

lharries 3y ago

This looks great! Are you thinking of making it open source but still being a for profit company (with an open core business model etc.)? I would be much more likely to use it if this was the case

ewf 3y ago
Thanks! That is a consideration. Similar to how n8n does it.

majestic5762 3y ago

Love the idea! But if i understand correctly, a developer like myself can use your React components to build a workflow that runs on your infrastructure. Neat! But i'm pretty paranoid and i don't want some unknown service provider to peek into my data. Not saying you're doing it, not at all, but i'd rather deploy n8n somewhere myself. Personally I would love to see a React component library like yourself, but could point to my service endpoint. Sure, individual developers will use your work for free, but startups could pay you to take care of their infra

ewf 3y ago
I understand entirely and deeply relate to this, as I built three different custom solutions for other companies. We are working towards a self-hosted option, but for now, the focus is on receiving quick feedback with our cloud setup. Thank you so much for checking it out. Honestly, it means a lot!

michaelmior 3y ago

Looks cool! Minor nit: "slack" should be capitalized.

ewf 3y ago
appreciate it! I just made the code changes and it will get shipped soon

latortuga 3y ago

I don't get it. I scrolled through your marketing site and I just don't get what I'd use this for. It seems to be targeted at developers because there's literally code above the fold on page load but there's no explanation of what this is even for. I clicked through to the demo and maybe it's because I'm on mobile but I don't get what it's even doing.

ewf 3y ago
home page could use some improvements. Again, all feedback is welcome and appreciated. A real world example: You are a dev at a real estate software company. You want to allow your users to send an email, send a text, and perform a webhook when a lead signs up. We have created developer tools (API, SDK, UI components) so you can accomplish this in your app with ease. Hope that helps... questions welcome!
- hliyan 3y ago
  I seem to be your target market as well (CTO of a real estate software company), but the homepage is not very clear. Perhaps the GIF next to your "triggers" section should be at the top. Also, I'd like to see a demo of the workflows being triggered. Currently I can only see the workflow editor in action.
  - ewf 3y ago
    Noted. I also like the idea of workflow's actions performing. Currently, it executes as it would in production but communication is disabled for the demo (emails won't send, webhooks won't POST). Thanks for the feedback!

msencenb 3y ago

I think I’m in your target market-I own a small b2b saas that will be adding user generated automations to our product soon. I love the UI and would use a UI only version of this. I pay for highcharts and pintura. The backend stuff is not super helpful in my case because my app already has all those capabilities (email, SMS, etc) and it’s wrapped up in messaging within the app. I wouldn’t want to use an outside provider for that stuff. I also generally want custom automations - otherwise I would just be using Zapier - so while the example basic stuff is reasonable, I would be looking for a fully custom option for each building block. Best of luck - seems like it has potential.

ewf 3y ago
That is a very thoughtful response. Thank you! The backend can get complicated. Our workflows are stored as a directed acyclic graph, and each action is scheduled. There are also dynamic data placeholders, error handling, and much more. I’ve seen users create custom webhooks called “send text message” that hit their API. Are you using React? I recommend checking out react flow if you want a UI-only solution.

appleflaxen 3y ago

The buttons "Get started - It's free" and "Pricing" are right next to each other. I get it, but it feels a bit disingenuous.

ewf 3y ago
Glad you pointed this out. Going to make an improvement here

dan91 3y ago

You beat me to it. This is the exact vision I had. A workflow automation with embed first in mind. Well done and best of luck