Using Node-RED as an open-source alternative to Zapier for workflow automation
Zapier is a great tool for automating busywork but it can get expensive quickly. Billing is based on the number of steps in a workflow that get executed, so adding just a few extra tasks like parsing or formatting text can inflate your costs. Node-RED is an open-source project for low-code event-driven programming, very similar to Zapier but a bit more technical. It’s built on NodeJS and allows you to define automation flows with pre-made or custom-made nodes as well as inline JavaScript functions.
Node-RED is usually mentioned in the context of connected devices and home automation because that’s the use-case that the project was originally built for, but with all the functionality that has been added over the years it’s grown to be capable of almost any workflow you could want.
One area where Node-RED shines in comparison to Zapier is in versioning of workflows. Zapier doesn’t keep previous versions of your Zaps so if a workflow change doesn’t work the way you expected you’ll need to manually undo your changes. Flows in Node-RED are defined with a flat JSON file which makes it easy to manage in Git.
