Automate Desktop vs Node-RED
Automate Desktop
automate.fortra.com
Node-RED
nodered.orgSide by side
| Figure | Automate Desktop | Node-RED |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Task Automation Software | 7.8 (#19) | 8.5 (#9) |
| Founded | 1982 | 2013 |
| Integrations | Listed integrations include AWS, Azure, VMware, SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, Dynamics CRM, Excel, Chrome, Firefox, Oracle, MySQL, XML, JSON, PDF, and PowerShell. | Official getting-started material covers local computers, Docker, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Android through Termux, AWS and Microsoft Azure. |
| Purpose | Automate Desktop helps individual users automate repetitive desktop tasks, web interactions, data extraction, reporting, and file transfers from a single machine. | Node-RED is a low-code flow-based programming tool for building event-driven applications that collect, transform, and visualize data. |
| Support | Fortra's Automate Desktop page lists phone, email, and support request contact options and describes Automate Care as providing a dedicated Technical Account Manager. | The project points users to its community forum and Slack for help and discussion. |
Plans
In their own words
Automate Desktop
Automate Desktop has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Node-RED
Node-RED is a free, open-source tool for building event-driven applications with flow-based programming. It is designed to collect, transform and visualize data, and its listed capabilities include workflow orchestration, real-time sync and API management. In the browser-based editor, users connect nodes into flows and deploy them to the runtime. Core nodes support triggering, inspecting, changing, routing and templating messages. The lightweight runtime is built on Node.js and is intended for use on low-cost edge hardware or in the cloud. More than 5,000 nodes and flows are available through the community Flow Library. Flows are stored as JSON for importing, exporting and sharing, and projects use Git for version control and collaboration through remote repositories. Node-RED can run on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, self-hosted systems and the web, among other listed installation options. Its editor is unsecured by default: anyone with access to its IP address can access it and deploy changes. The project points users to its community forum and Slack for help.