Automate vs Node-RED

Automate is an Android app for turning repetitive smartphone and tablet tasks into flowcharts. Users connect blocks for actions, conditions, event triggers, loops, and other tasks, then configure them with options, expressions, variables, and functions. More than 410 building blocks support multi-step workflows, conditional logic, and webhook triggers. The app works with applications supporting the Locale or Tasker plug-in API and connects to web services through HTTP. File transfers can use Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, FTP, or HTTP. An in-app Community provides flows shared by other users. The free edition costs nothing and permits 30 running blocks. Premium is a single in-app purchase that removes that limit and belongs to the purchasing Google account and its registered devices. Automate says it shows no ads, gathers no usage statistics, and stores flows and settings locally unless users share them. The app is currently unavailable on platforms other than Android.

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.