Software Alternatives & Reviews

Node-RED VS ioBroker

Compare Node-RED VS ioBroker and see what are their differences

Node-RED logo Node-RED

Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services in new and interesting ways.

ioBroker logo ioBroker

flexible and modular application for the IoT and Smarthome
  • Node-RED Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-23
  • ioBroker Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-07-22

More than 500 different modules(adapters) that can be interconnected with each other. E.g. Homematic or KNX can control HUE or sonos and vice versa.

Node-RED

$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

ioBroker

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
free
Platforms
Linux Windows Mac OSX REST API JavaScript
Release Date
2015 October

Node-RED videos

Intro to Node-RED: Part 1 Fundamentals

ioBroker videos

ioBroker: Rock64 Langzeit-Review - Bereue ich den Kauf?

More videos:

  • Review - iObroker Teil1 | Grundlagen/Übersicht | Review Smart Home Kombination 2019 [GERMAN/DEUTSCH]
  • Review - SMARTE ZENTRALE | ioBroker als kostenlose SmartHome-Automation

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Node-RED and ioBroker)
Automation
100 100%
0% 0
Data Dashboard
20 20%
80% 80
DevOps Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Home
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Node-RED and ioBroker.

What makes your product unique?

ioBroker's answer:

  • Multi-Host support for Scalability and better connectivity (you can connect many ioBroker hosts together),
  • Comprehensive visualization(Vis, iQontrol, ...),
  • Flexibility (jsonl for simplisity as DB or Redis as high performance DB),
  • ioBroker is highly flexible and customizable...

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

ioBroker's answer:

  • Compatibility: ioBroker supports a vast range of devices and protocols, making it one of the most versatile smart home automation systems available. It is compatible with many popular brands and can integrate with virtually any smart device, offering a level of flexibility that might not be available with other platforms.

  • Open Source: As an open-source platform, ioBroker is free to use and continuously updated and improved by a community of developers. This allows for greater customization, transparency, and control over your home automation setup.

  • Scalability: ioBroker is designed to handle complex smart home setups. No matter how many devices you have or plan to add in the future, the platform is designed to scale and manage a large and diverse range of devices efficiently.

  • JavaScript and Blockly support: For those comfortable with programming, ioBroker offers the option to write scripts in JavaScript. For users who prefer a graphical interface, Blockly is available. This versatility can be appealing for both beginners and experienced users.

  • Data Logging: ioBroker has extensive data logging capabilities, allowing users to store, analyze, and visualize data from their smart devices over long periods of time. This can be incredibly valuable for monitoring energy usage, tracking trends, and optimizing your smart home setup.

  • Community and Support: ioBroker has a strong and active community of users and developers who can provide assistance, share ideas, and help troubleshoot any issues you may encounter.

How would you describe your primary audience?

ioBroker's answer:

Mostly users are german speaking, but all documentation is primary in english.

What's the story behind your product?

ioBroker's answer:

ioBroker is an open-source Internet of Things (IoT) platform that was developed with the aim to provide a unified and flexible solution for smart home automation. It's primarily driven by a community of enthusiasts and developers contributing to its ongoing development and expansion.

The project was initiated to overcome the limitations of existing smart home platforms, particularly the inability of many platforms to integrate with a wide variety of devices and brands. ioBroker was designed with a focus on compatibility, scalability, and flexibility, aiming to provide a solution that can integrate a vast array of smart devices, regardless of manufacturer or protocol, and handle complex home automation setups.

While the platform was initially more popular among the tech-savvy due to its need for more technical involvement, over time, efforts have been made to make it more user-friendly and accessible to a wider audience.

As an open-source project, the ongoing development of ioBroker is dependent on the contributions of its community, including software developers and end-users, who continually work on refining the software, expanding its compatibility with different devices, and improving its features.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

ioBroker's answer:

JavaScript, Redis, Mqtt, MUI-UI.

User comments

Share your experience with using Node-RED and ioBroker. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Node-RED and ioBroker

Node-RED Reviews

10 n8n.io Alternatives
Node-RED is a flow-based development and programming tool for visual programming presented in the market by IBM for wiring together online services and hardware devices as part of the internet of things. Web browser-based flow editor is available over this software to create JavaScript functions, and elements of apps can be saved or shared for using reprocess. Back in 2016,...
Open Source Internet of Things (IoT) Platforms
Node-RED is a visual tool for lining the Internet of Things, i.e., wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services in new ways. Built on Node.js, Node-RED describes itself as “a visual means for wiring the Internet of Things.”
9 Home Automation Open-Source Platforms for Your projects
If you would like to know how to build your own home automation system with Node-RED, Raspberry Pi, ESP8266 and Arduino, I’ve just released a new course on this subject: Build an Home Automation System for $100.

ioBroker Reviews

16 Open Source Home Automation Platforms To Use In 2020
ioBroker appeared on the open source home automation spectrum at the beginning of 2017, but it went on to become one of the fastest growing communities in the game. With more than 21,000 users happy to chime in, ioBroker is a strong proposition that offers a total of around 300 integrations. That's great considering that the software is completely free to use. Why not give...
Source: ubidots.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Node-RED seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 120 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Node-RED mentions (120)

  • Devin, the First AI Software Engineer
    Good question. I expect that we're moving into a phase of AIs talking to AIs, and initially it'll be wasteful (because it'll be mostly English), but eventually, they'll derive their own language and seamlessly upgrade protocols when they determine they're talking to an AI. No clue how that will come about or what that language will look like, but honestly, it's kind of exciting. Really interesting to think about... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • IFTTT is killing its pay-what-you-want Legacy Pro plan
    Https://n8n.io/, https://github.com/huginn/huginn, https://automatisch.io/, https://www.activepieces.com/ and theres a lot more... I've used n8n, node-red, and huginn (a while back), but imo n8n has been the simplest off the shelf. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Pipe Dreams: The life and times of Yahoo Pipes
    I skipped to chapter 9 in the article ("Clogged"), and it looked like Pipes failed because it didn't have a large enough team or a well-defined mission. As a result they couldn't offer a super robust product that would lure in enterprise users. "You could not purchase some number of guaranteed-to-work Pipes calls per month" is the quote from the article. The reason I think that interesting is because that's the... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • n8n.io - A powerful workflow automation tool
    I believe Node-RED (https://nodered.org/) the way to go. It's just an NPM package to install and you can run it how ever you wish (even on Windows). It has a friendly and helpful community with even the main developers tirelessly answering even beginner level questions. In fact the community forum its THE friendliest forum I've ever been a member of by a large margin. Node-RED's development is supported by the JS... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Loops and conditional branching (IF then else) in ComfyUI?
    Does anyone know if their are plans to implement something like this (or if there are already custom nodes out there). I'd like to experiment with things like looping and incrementing values (like a for loop) for a Ksampler for example. It's only an example though, so I am not looking for a ksampler specific solution; just a generic way to have a variable (e.g. Seed value), run some nodes that use that value,... Source: 8 months ago
View more

ioBroker mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of ioBroker yet. Tracking of ioBroker recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Node-RED and ioBroker, you can also consider the following products

n8n.io - Free and open fair-code licensed node based Workflow Automation Tool. Easily automate tasks across different services.

Home-Assistant.io - Home Assistant is an open-source home automation platform running on Python 3.

Zapier - Connect the apps you use everyday to automate your work and be more productive. 1000+ apps and easy integrations - get started in minutes.

openHAB - "empowering the smart home" - vendor and technology agnostic open source home automation

ifttt - IFTTT puts the internet to work for you. Create simple connections between the products you use every day.

Google Home - Set up, manage, and control your Chromecast, Chromecast Audio and Google Home devices.