Browser-based automation built from npm pieces
Activepieces is a browser-based automation platform. A flow starts from a trigger (a webhook, a schedule, an event in some app) and runs a chain of steps that call other services. Connectors are called pieces, and each one is an npm package written in TypeScript; that is how Google Sheets, OpenAI or Discord plug in without code. The README pitches the project as "an open source replacement for Zapier", and the company behind it, Activepieces Inc., also sells a hosted version.
The comparison of open source automation tools sets Activepieces against the AI agent builders and internal tool platforms that also chain services together with little or no code.
Flows that pause for a human or become MCP tools
- Real logic in the builder: loops, branches, automatic retries, HTTP requests and a code step that can pull in NPM packages. Every flow is versioned.
- Open pieces: all of them are published on npmjs.com, and the README credits the community with 60% of them. Custom pieces are written with the project's TypeScript framework.
- Human in the loop: a flow can pause for a set delay or until someone approves, and form or chat triggers collect input from a person.
- An MCP server in every edition: Claude Desktop, Cursor or Windsurf can read a project's flows, tables and runs, and a flow built on the MCP trigger becomes a tool they can call.
Mostly MIT, still short of 1.0
MIT, except two ee directories. The LICENSE file puts the whole repository under MIT apart from packages/ee/ and packages/server/api/src/app/ee/. Those fall under the Activepieces Enterprise license, and running them in production requires a subscription for the right number of user seats. The MIT core can be modified and resold as long as the license notice stays in. n8n is stricter: its Sustainable Use License limits use to internal business, personal or non-commercial purposes. ToolJet is under AGPL-3.0, so a modified version offered as a network service has to publish its source.
Teamwork costs money, self-hosted included. The license activation docs list the paid features: team projects, SSO, roles, SCIM, audit logs, Git Sync, global connections, the embeddable builder and custom branding. In the code, the Community edition's plan also turns off agents and the AI chat, and each user works in a single personal project. The Team plan, at $200 a month flat for 25 users, adds SSO and standard roles; SCIM, Git Sync and audit logs wait for the Ultimate plan, priced on request.
Who the vendor says it's for: a handful of people. The pricing FAQ calls the Community edition "the automation core on its own" and says paying adds what you need "once more than a couple of people depend on it".
The recommended installer sets up the Enterprise edition. The one-line install script and the Helm chart both set AP_EDITION=ee. Without a key, that edition runs the free plan, "with the same features as community" according to the script. A hand-built Docker Compose setup without that variable gives you the Community edition, and the docs warn that no license key can be activated on it later. Both the script and .env.example turn telemetry on; it can be switched off in the platform admin settings.
PostgreSQL, Redis, and one worker per concurrent flow. The self-hosted install starts four containers (app, worker, PostgreSQL, Redis) and needs at least 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM. The "hobby" mode fits in one container with PGLite, an embedded PostgreSQL, but the docs keep it for personal projects: it can't scale and can't move to Enterprise. For production, the docs plan one worker at 0.5 vCPU and 1 GB per flow running in parallel, with S3 storage as a hard requirement. At 50 concurrent flows, the workers alone take 25 vCPU and 50 GB.
Still 0.x. The repository dates from December 2022 and has never tagged a 1.0; version 0.92.2 shipped on October 7, 2026. Release notes send self-hosters to the docs' Breaking Changes page before any upgrade, and that page lists 18 affected versions between 0.75.0 on January 2 and 0.91.0 on September 14, 2026.