Node-RED
| Company type | Open-source software platform |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software, Internet of Things |
| Founded | 2013 |
| Founder | IBM |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Nick O’Leary (co-creator and CTO) |
| Products | Visual programming tool, Node-RED Dashboard, Node generator, Node-RED Command Line Tool |
| Owner | OpenJS Foundation |
| Parent | IBM (initial creator) |
| Website | nodered |
Node-RED is a low-code, flow-oriented development platform designed for visual programming, initially created by IBM to facilitate integration between hardware devices, APIs, and cloud services within the Internet of things ecosystem.
The platform offers a browser-based flow editor that enables users to build JavaScript functions, with the ability to save and share application components for reuse. Its runtime environment operates on Node.js, and flows are stored in JSON format. Starting with version 0.14, MQTT nodes have supported TLS connections when properly configured.
In 2016, IBM released Node-RED as an open-source initiative under the OpenJS Foundation, promoting wider industry adoption and collaborative contributions.
Node-RED projects
The Node-RED ecosystem comprises several essential elements:
- The Node-RED visual design tool.
- Node-RED Dashboard, providing a user interface layer.
- Node generator, a command-line utility that creates Node-RED node modules from various sources such as OpenAPI specifications and function node scripts.
- Node-RED Command Line Tool, which facilitates remote management of Node-RED instances.
Flows
Within Node-RED, a flow represents the arrangement and interaction of input, output, and processing nodes. Each node executes a distinct operation by handling incoming data before forwarding it. This visual programming methodology allows precise orchestration of multiple tasks and forms the core of Node-RED’s capabilities.
Adoption
Node-RED has seen significant uptake in the industrial internet of things (IIoT) and edge computing sectors. Its open-source nature and active community have resulted in over 4,000 connectors supporting protocols such as Modbus, OPC-UA, Siemens S7, and MQTT. Numerous PLC and IoT manufacturers have adopted Node-RED as their standard integration platform, highlighting its importance in IIoT edge computing frameworks.
Community survey
The 2023 Node-RED Community Survey, involving 780 respondents, demonstrated increasing professional usage across various industries beyond hobbyist automation. More than half reported using Node-RED for over two years, indicating a well-established user base. MQTT and HTTP emerged as the leading messaging protocols, while InfluxDB was the most favored database choice. Challenges cited include perceptions of Node-RED primarily as a proof-of-concept tool and certain missing functionalities; nevertheless, over two-thirds rated their overall satisfaction at 5 out of 5.
Commercial offerings
FlowFuse (previously known as FlowForge) is an open-core enterprise advancing the Node-RED ecosystem. Co-founded by Nick O’Leary, Node-RED’s co-creator and CTO, FlowFuse adds features such as collaborative development workflows, remote deployment management, DevOps pipeline integration, and hosting of Node-RED applications via FlowFuse Cloud.