Nussknacker vs Node-RED
Low-Code Streaming Intelligence or Visual IoT Automation?
Node-RED & FlowFuse together offer simplicity for tinkerers and IoT developers. Nussknacker delivers power and precision for streaming-focused data teams.
What is Node-RED (FlowFuse)?
Node-RED is an open-source, low-code programming tool designed for wiring together hardware devices, APIs, and online services. It uses a visual flow editor where users connect "nodes" (representing actions or logic) into workflows. FlowFuse is a commercial platform and company that builds on top of Node-RED to make it more enterprise- and team-ready.
Choose Your Industrial IoT Architecture
Base Features of Node-RED & FuseFlow
- visual flow editor, drag-and-drop UI for creating logic flows without coding,
- built-In protocol support, supports MQTT, HTTP, WebSocket, and file-based I/O,
- JavaScript function nodes, add custom logic directly within your flows,
- extensible node library, access thousands of prebuilt and community-contributed nodes,
- FlowFuse cloud platform, enables cloud hosting, versioning, and device fleet management.
Nussknacker Core Features
- intuitive visual workflow editor, features a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface enabling business users and analysts to easily design and manage streaming workflows without extensive coding knowledge,
- different processing types, it brings together all data processing methods by enabling streaming, batch, and synchronous (HTTP) workflows,
- stateful computations support, enables windowing, aggregations, joins, and event correlation for advanced stream analytics,
- scalable and performant, utilizes Apache Flink distributed architecture to achieve horizontal scaling, fault tolerance and high-throughput data processing,
- customization and integration, allows businesses to seamlessly integrate with various databases and other technologies. It also lets us extend Nu’s possibilities with custom Flink operators so they better suit individual needs,
- comprehensive monitoring and debugging, rich built-in tools for seamless workflow management and troubleshooting.
Choose Your Proper IoT Solution
While both Nussknacker and Node-RED / FuseFlow focus on low-code data automation, they serve different purposes. Nussknacker is built for scalable, real-time stateful stream processing with strong support for business users and domain logic. In contrast, Node-RED (and FlowFuse) excels at lightweight, flow-based automation, particularly in IoT and edge environments.
| Node-RED / FlowFuse | Nussknacker | |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Wiring together IoT devices | Real-time actions on data |
| User Interface | Visual low-code flow editor for automating IoT logic | Drag and drop, rule-based low-code editor for automating business logic using SpEL language |
| Target Users | Industrial engineers, software developers | Business analysts, domain experts |
| State management | Basic state management without time-windowed operations and aggregations | Full stateful support, including time windowing and aggregations |
| Data Processing | Not primarily designed for data processing | Streaming & batch based on Apache Flink, synchronous (HTTP) |
| Extensibility | Possibility to write custom node.js nodes | Exposed API for custom components, supports UDFs |
| Reliability | Basic persistence, no fault tolerance or delivery guarantees | Apache Flink-based, offering resilient processing through checkpoints and recovery |
Nussknacker or Node-RED / FlowFuse? Making the Right Choice
Both FlowFuse and Nussknacker utilize user-friendly graphical interfaces, allowing users to quickly design intricate event-driven workflows without coding. Node-RED or FlowFuse, designed for IoT/OT systems, simplifies integration with industrial devices through its FlowFuse Device Agent. It excels at representing logical operations, facilitating collaboration with machines and enabling actions based on graphically defined processes.
However, Node-RED and FlowFuse may not be the optimal choice for Big Data environments with large data streams. It might struggle with performance and complex operations like aggregations or windowing. Nussknacker, on the other hand, is designed for such scenarios. It efficiently manages large datasets with low latency and supports advanced operations including data aggregation, windowing, data transformation, filtering, and enrichment. Therefore, Nussknacker is a more suitable tool for handling large data streams and supporting real-time business processes.
Your Low-Code Platform for Industrial IoT Streams
Take control of your industrial IoT data and harness the power of real-time stateful stream processing with Nussknacker’s low-code platform. Contact us to start building scalable, intelligent IoT solutions today.
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