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Beehive vs Node-RED: catalog facts
Beehive	Node-RED
Best for: People who want to connect services in self-managed automations	Best for: Visual flow-based programming tool for wiring together automations and APIs
Free Free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license.	Free Free and open source.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted	Web, Self-hosted
Event-driven workflow automation Connects services through integrations All 3 strengths for Beehive Event-driven workflow automation Connects services through integrations Open-source project with a public repository	Visual drag-and-drop flows make complex if/else automation logic easier to follow than YAML Built-in debugging tools help trace what a flow is actually doing
Requires configuration to connect events and services	Adds another interface to learn on top of Home Assistant's own automation editor Complex flows can become hard to maintain without good node naming and organization
Downloadable app, Self-hosted	Self-hosted, Web application
Open source	Open source
License: AGPL-3.0	License: Apache-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Beehive github.com/muesli/beehive Catalog checked October 8, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Node-RED community.home-assistant.io/t/home-assistant-community-add-… Catalog checked September 22, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.