Open source Zapier alternatives: Activepieces, Windmill, Node-RED, Huginn and n8n

Zapier charges per task, so a busy workflow that copies form submissions into a CRM and posts them to chat can cost more each month than the tools it connects. Self-hosted automation tools run as many tasks as your server can handle, keep the data passing between your apps on your own infrastructure, and let you write code when a visual step is not enough. They differ in who they are built for, from non-technical teams to engineers, and in how “open” their licenses really are. We checked each license and latest release on November 5, 2026.

Quick comparison

Tool	License	Built for	Integrations	Best for
Activepieces	MIT (community edition)	Non-technical and technical users	280+ “pieces”	The closest Zapier replacement
Windmill	AGPL-3.0, with proprietary enterprise code	Developers	Scripts in 20+ languages	Code-first workflows, internal tools and jobs
Node-RED	Apache-2.0	Makers, IoT and integration engineers	Thousands of community nodes	Hardware, MQTT and event flows
Huginn	MIT	Tinkerers	Agents for web, feeds, email and APIs	Monitoring the web and personal automation
n8n	Sustainable Use License (not OSI open source)	Technical teams	400+ nodes	Power users who accept its license terms

Activepieces: Zapier’s model, open source

Activepieces works the way Zapier does: pick a trigger, add steps, map data between them, branch and loop, and pause for human approval when needed. Integrations are called pieces; there are more than 280, they are TypeScript packages published to npm, and about 60 percent come from the community. Every piece is also available as an MCP server, so AI assistants can use the same integrations, and there are native AI steps for building agents inside flows.

The community edition is MIT licensed; enterprise features live in a separate directory under a commercial license. Version 0.92.3 shipped on October 12, 2026. Choose Activepieces when non-developers will build the workflows.

Windmill: scripts become workflows and apps

Windmill is for engineers. You write scripts in Python, TypeScript, Go, Bash, SQL and many other languages, and Windmill turns each one into a UI, an API endpoint or a scheduled job, then lets you chain them into flows, data pipelines and AI agents, or build internal apps on top. Code syncs with Git, and the job engine is built to be fast and to scale across workers.

Windmill is AGPL-3.0, with some code under Apache-2.0 and enterprise-only features under a proprietary license that builds without the enterprise flag do not include. The project says it is not seeking outside code contributions. Version 1.850.0 shipped on October 27, 2026. Choose it when your automations are really code, and you want them reviewed, versioned and observable.

Node-RED: flow-based programming for events

Node-RED has been the go-to tool for wiring together devices, APIs and online services since 2013. You drag nodes onto a canvas in the browser and connect them into flows that react to HTTP requests, MQTT messages, timers, serial ports and much more. Thousands of community nodes are shared in its flow library. It runs on anything from a Raspberry Pi to a cloud server, and is part of the OpenJS Foundation.

Node-RED is Apache-2.0 and version 5.0.9 shipped on October 21, 2026. It has fewer ready-made SaaS integrations than Zapier, but nothing beats it for hardware, home automation and industrial data. Choose it when your events come from devices or message queues.

Huginn: agents that watch the web for you

Huginn is a long-running project for building agents that read the web, watch for events and act on your behalf. Agents scrape websites, watch RSS feeds, inboxes, webhooks and MQTT topics, detect peaks in a stream of events, send digest emails and post to chat or social platforms. Recent versions add agents that summarize, classify and translate with OpenAI-compatible APIs. Agents pass events to each other in a graph you design.

Huginn is MIT licensed and version v2026.10.26 shipped on October 26, 2026. Its interface is more technical than Zapier’s. Choose it for personal monitoring and alerting, where it shines.

n8n: popular, but fair-code rather than open source

n8n is the most popular self-hosted automation tool on GitHub, with a visual editor, more than 400 integrations, code steps in JavaScript and Python, and strong AI agent features. It is not open source in the OSI sense: it uses the Sustainable Use License, which allows internal business use and personal use but restricts offering n8n to others as a commercial service, and files marked .ee. need an enterprise license. We therefore do not list it in the directory. Read the license before you build a product on top of it.

Also worth a look

Automatisch describes itself as an open source Zapier alternative with a simple, no-code builder. It is AGPL-3.0, with files marked .ee. under an enterprise license. Its most recent release, v0.15.0, came out in August 2026, and it has fewer integrations than Activepieces, so test the apps you need first.

How to choose

• Non-technical colleagues will build the automations: Activepieces.
• Your automations are scripts that need review and versioning: Windmill.
• Your events come from devices, MQTT or queues: Node-RED.
• You want agents that watch websites and feeds: Huginn.
• You need n8n’s integrations and accept its license: n8n.

Whichever you choose, store credentials in the tool’s secret manager rather than in workflow steps, and back up the database that holds them. Need forms to trigger your flows? See our Typeform alternatives. You can browse every project in the directory.