Node-RED vs n8n

Node-RED and n8n both put a flow editor in your browser and both run on Node.js, which is where the resemblance ends. Node-RED is a flow-based programming tool for event-driven applications — born in IBM's Emerging Technology Services team, now an OpenJS Foundation project — and its natural habitat is MQTT topics, sensors, serial ports and HTTP endpoints. n8n is a workflow automation tool for connecting SaaS APIs, the self-hosted answer to Zapier. People compare them because the screenshots look alike; the jobs do not.

Two different jobs

In Node-RED, a flow is a program: messages travel wire to wire through function nodes, switches, changes and templates, and you reach for a palette of thousands of community-contributed nodes for protocols and devices. It is the tool a homelab uses to glue a Zigbee bridge to a dashboard, or a factory floor uses to move PLC data into a database. It runs happily "at the edge of the network on low-cost hardware such as the Raspberry Pi", in the project's own words.

In n8n, a workflow is an integration: a trigger from one service, a sequence of nodes that call other services, credentials managed centrally, and executions you can inspect afterwards. Its node library is organised around applications — CRMs, chat tools, spreadsheets, AI models — not protocols. You can build API plumbing in Node-RED and event plumbing in n8n, but each one is fighting its own grain when you do.

License and governance

Node-RED is Apache-2.0 under a neutral foundation, which is about as uncomplicated as governance gets: no open-core split, no paid edition, no feature behind a license key. n8n is under the Sustainable Use License — source-available, permitting internal business and personal use but not redistribution — and its Community edition withholds SSO, projects, sharing, environments, external secrets and log streaming for the paid tiers. If the license line decides it for you, Node-RED wins outright.

Footprint and setup

Both are one container, and neither project publishes a RAM minimum: the 1 GB on our n8n page is this site's figure, and the 256 MB on Node-RED's is our estimate for a runtime that is routinely deployed on single-board computers. The Docker images are built by the projects themselves in both cases.

The setup difference that matters is security. Node-RED's editor is not secured by default — the docs say plainly that "anyone who can access its IP address can access the editor and deploy changes". On a public VPS that means editing settings.js in the data volume to enable adminAuth with a bcrypt hash before you open the port, and putting HTTPS in front. n8n requires a login and has an instance owner account. That, and n8n's larger surface of credentials and executions to understand, is why n8n rates 3/5 here and Node-RED 2/5.

Pick Node-RED if…

• The work is events, devices and protocols — MQTT, TCP/UDP, serial, home automation, industrial data.
• You want Apache-2.0 under a foundation with nothing held back.
• The box is small, or is a Raspberry Pi.

Pick n8n if…

• The work is SaaS-to-SaaS: CRM to spreadsheet to chat to AI model.
• You want credentials, execution history and retries managed for you.
• You will run it for your own business or yourself, so the Sustainable Use License's internal-use terms cost you nothing.

The honest trade-off

For the job this hub is about — replacing Zapier — n8n is the better fit, and it is our pick here on that basis: its nodes are the applications you are trying to connect, and it handles credentials and executions the way an integration tool should. Node-RED is not a worse n8n; it is a different tool with a cleaner license and a smaller footprint, and it is the right answer the moment your automation involves hardware, MQTT or anything that speaks a protocol rather than a REST API. Secure its editor before it faces the internet — that step is on you.