Node-RED Pricing 2026 — Self-Hosted Cost
Node-RED is the free, flow-based programming tool for wiring together devices, APIs and services. It's self-hosted by design — on a VPS or your own hardware. Here's the real infrastructure cost.
As of June 2026, the cheapest plan we track for Node-RED costs $8 per month at 1,000 runs and $45 at 100,000 runs (cheapest qualifying plan, 3-step workflows, monthly billing), from Node-RED's official pricing, verified by hand. Self-hosting is free — the figure is the server it runs on, not a tool fee.
Node-RED plans & real cost
Cheapest qualifying plan at four typical run volumes (3-step workflows) — prices generated live from our data, never hand-typed. Toggle to see prices when billed annually.
≈ Converted from USD at today's rate — not the amount you're billed.
Self-host · VPS
- 1,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
- 5,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
- 20,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
- 100,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
Monthly figure is the rented server (VPS + database) that scales with volume — the software itself is free.
Self-host · own server
- 1,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
- + ~$90 hardware (one-off)
- 1-2 vCPU, 2GB (Raspberry Pi 4 / mini PC), SQLite
- 5,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
- + ~$90 hardware (one-off)
- 1-2 vCPU, 2GB (Raspberry Pi 4 / mini PC), SQLite
- 20,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
- + ~$200 hardware (one-off)
- 2 vCPU, 4GB + Postgres (mini PC)
- 100,000 runs / month
- self-hosted*
- + ~$350 hardware (one-off)
- 2-4 vCPU, 8GB + Postgres + Redis (queue mode)
Monthly figure is electricity only — the software is free. One-off hardware cost (a mini PC or Pi you keep) is shown per volume.
Node-RED vs alternatives
Price for 20,000 runs / month across every tool we track. Use the Monthly / Annual toggle above to switch how the prices are billed.
| Tool | Price for 20,000 runs (monthly) | Integrations | Self-host |
|---|---|---|---|
| Node-RED | $25 | 5,000+ | Yes (free SW) |
| Zapier | $433.5 | 9,000+ | No |
| Make | $64.71 | 3,000+ | No |
| n8n | $25 | 1,868+ | Yes (free SW) |
| Pipedream | $153 | 3,000+ | No |
| Activepieces | $0 | 747+ | Yes (free SW) |
| Automatisch | $25 | 50+ | Yes (free SW) |
See all Node-RED alternatives → · Cheapest automation tool → · Full interactive comparison → · Plan limits & run caps →
When Node-RED is worth it
| Use case | Verdict |
|---|---|
| IoT / hardware / event wiring | Node-RED is ideal |
| Want a free tool on your own hardware | Near-free to run |
| Developer comfortable with flows and JS | Use Node-RED |
| Need polished SaaS integrations | Make or Zapier is smoother |
| Non-technical, want a hosted no-code UI | Consider Activepieces or Make |
| Need built-in multi-user / team admin | Look at n8n |