Top 15 Make.com Alternatives (Open Source, Free, Self-Hosted)
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Make.com, formerly known as Integromat, has established itself as a major player in the workflow automation space. Its intuitive visual interface empowers users to connect diverse web applications, automating tasks and processes without needing deep coding knowledge. However, relying exclusively on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) like Make.com isn't without potential drawbacks. Users might face rising subscription costs, data privacy concerns, the risk of vendor lock-in, and limitations on how much they can truly customize the platform to their unique needs.
Fortunately, for individuals and organizations seeking greater control, enhanced flexibility, and potentially reduced long-term expenses, a thriving ecosystem of open-source, free (often featuring generous free tiers or a core free product), and self-hosted solutions exists. These platforms provide a powerful **make.com alternative** by allowing you to run automation workflows on your own infrastructure, modify the underlying code for specific requirements, and leverage the support of active developer communities.
While other SaaS competitors like Zapier or Workato offer similar functionality, this article specifically dives into options that champion open source licensing, provide free usage models, and enable self-hosting. This combination grants you maximum autonomy over your automation processes and data.
Here are 15 compelling options to consider if you're looking for a robust **make.com alternative**:
Direct Visual Workflow Competitors
These platforms most closely mirror the core functionality and visual approach of Make.com, focusing on connecting cloud applications through a graphical interface.
n8n (Node-based 8 Notation)
Description: n8n stands out as perhaps the most popular and direct open-source **make.com alternative**. It features a powerful node-based visual workflow editor that enables users to link hundreds of different applications and services seamlessly.
Key Features: Intuitive visual workflow builder, extensive library of built-in integrations (nodes), capability to insert custom JavaScript code snippets, robust error handling mechanisms, support for manual triggers and webhooks, user management (often a paid feature in cloud/enterprise).
Why it's an alternative: Offers a very similar visual workflow paradigm to Make.com. Its "fair-code" license (source available, free for self-hosting, some restrictions on commercial embedding) ensures wide accessibility. Known for its flexibility and power, n8n appeals to both technical users and those with moderate technical skills looking for a self-hosted **make.com alternative**.
Licensing/Hosting: Sustainable Use License / Apache 2.0 with Commons Clause (verify specific components); Free self-hosting is core, with optional paid cloud and enterprise versions.
Description: Originally developed by IBM and now part of the OpenJS Foundation, Node-RED is a flow-based programming tool. Initially aimed at the Internet of Things (IoT), its versatility makes it excellent for general web service integration as well.
Key Features: Browser-based visual flow editor, vast ecosystem of community-contributed nodes (integrations), lightweight architecture (can run on devices like Raspberry Pi), exceptional for hardware integration tasks, single-click flow deployment.
Why it's an alternative: Provides a solid visual editor for connecting APIs and services. Its particular strength in IoT and hardware control is a distinguishing factor. Fully free and open-source (Apache 2.0), it's a highly accessible **make.com alternative**. While perhaps less polished specifically for pure SaaS app integration compared to n8n, its adaptability is immense.
Licensing/Hosting: Apache 2.0 License; Completely free for self-hosting.
Target User: Developers, IoT hobbyists, makers, engineers, and users comfortable with a slightly more technical, node-centric interface.
Activepieces
Description: A newer player in the open-source automation field, Activepieces focuses on providing a user-friendly experience with a clean interface, positioning itself as a direct open-source **make.com alternative** and Zapier competitor.
Key Features: Sleek visual workflow builder ("Flows"), a continuously growing library of integrations ("Pieces"), standard triggers and actions model, support for flow templating, built using modern TypeScript.
Why it's an alternative: Delivers a modern, approachable UI reminiscent of leading SaaS tools. Its permissive MIT open-source license makes it very attractive. It's specifically designed for connecting cloud applications, making it a strong **make.com alternative** for common web automation tasks.
Licensing/Hosting: MIT License; Free self-hosting available, alongside a managed cloud version.
These tools might employ different models, such as agents or event streams, but can effectively achieve similar automation outcomes as Make.com.
Huginn
Description: Huginn operates as a system for creating 'agents' that perform automated online tasks. Imagine it as your personal group of web agents constantly checking data, monitoring events, and executing actions based on your rules.
Key Features: Agent-based architecture (agents can monitor websites, detect changes, process RSS feeds, send/receive events), highly flexible scheduling options, webhook support, customizable actions through various agent types, strong community support.
Why it's an alternative: Offers potent automation capabilities, particularly excelling at web scraping, data monitoring, and event-driven tasks. It's highly customizable if you're comfortable configuring agents (often via JSON). As a mature and stable project, it's a reliable self-hosted **make.com alternative**.
Licensing/Hosting: MIT License; Free for self-hosting.
Target User: Developers, tinkerers, data scientists, users comfortable working with configuration files and setting up specific monitoring agents.
StackStorm
Description: StackStorm is a powerful, event-driven automation platform primarily geared towards IT operations, often dubbed "IFTTT for Ops." It excels at orchestrating actions across existing infrastructure and application environments.
Why it's an alternative: While more Ops-centric than Make.com, StackStorm can integrate web services and automate intricate cross-tool processes triggered by specific events. Its power and scalability make it a suitable **make.com alternative** for complex, event-based automation scenarios, particularly within IT environments.
Licensing/Hosting: Apache 2.0 License; Free self-hosting (Community Edition), enterprise version available via StackStorm HA.
Target User: DevOps engineers, Site Reliability Engineers (SREs), IT Operations teams requiring robust, scalable, event-driven automation for infrastructure and application management.
Developer-Centric & Low-Code Platforms
These platforms often bridge the gap between no-code and full code, typically requiring some scripting knowledge but offering free tiers and self-hosting.
Windmill.dev
Description: Windmill positions itself as an open-source platform for developers to transform scripts (Python, TypeScript, Go, Bash) into reusable workflow steps and simple internal UIs.
Why it's an alternative: Ideal for teams where developers need to automate script execution and potentially provide simple interfaces for non-technical colleagues. It serves as a **make.com alternative** by blending code-based automation with visual workflow composition and UI generation.
Target User: Developers, DevOps teams, data engineers looking to automate scripts, build internal tools, and manage workflows programmatically.
Pipedream
Description: Pipedream is a low-code integration platform primarily built for developers. Though mainly a SaaS offering, its extremely generous free tier and developer-first approach make it a relevant consideration. Key components are open-source, emphasizing code-level control within workflows.
Key Features: Serverless execution model, extensive code-level control (Node.js, Python, Go, Bash support within steps), large library of pre-built app integrations and actions, diverse event sources (HTTP, email, cron, app events), state management between workflow steps.
Why it's an alternative: Offers immense flexibility for developers needing custom logic embedded within their automations. The free tier is substantial, making it cost-effective for many use cases. While not primarily self-hosted in the traditional sense (it's serverless SaaS), its open components and developer focus position it as a powerful **make.com alternative** for code-centric automation.
Licensing/Hosting: Primarily SaaS with a very large free tier; Core workflow execution components are open source (MIT/Apache 2.0). Traditional self-hosting is complex and not the standard model.
Target User: Developers needing fine-grained control over integrations, quick API connections, custom code execution, and a serverless environment.
Automatisch
Description: A newer open-source project, Automatisch aims for simplicity and straightforward self-hosting. It facilitates connecting different services using a clean visual workflow editor.
Key Features: Simple visual workflow editor, focus on essential integrations, built with Python (Django framework), designed for easy deployment (often via Docker).
Why it's an alternative: Provides a direct, uncomplicated, open-source (AGPL) solution focused purely on workflow automation, mirroring the core idea of Make.com but entirely self-hostable. A good **make.com alternative** for those prioritizing simplicity and self-hosting.
Licensing/Hosting: AGPL v3 License; Free for self-hosting.
Target User: Users seeking a simple, self-hostable automation tool without the extensive features (and potential complexity) of larger platforms.
Internal Tool Builders with Automation
These platforms primarily focus on building internal applications (like admin panels or dashboards) but often incorporate workflow automation features.
Budibase
Description: Budibase is an open-source low-code platform designed for rapidly building internal tools, admin panels, and dashboards. It integrates automation workflow capabilities.
Key Features: Visual application builder, connects to various databases (Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, etc.) and REST APIs, offers a built-in database, supports custom JavaScript, includes automation workflows (triggers, conditions, actions like sending email or running queries).
Why it's an alternative: If your primary need is building an internal tool and automating tasks related to that tool (e.g., notify Slack when a new user signs up via the internal app), Budibase offers both functionalities in one package, serving as a specialized **make.com alternative** in this context.
Target User: Teams needing to build internal applications quickly, citizen developers, IT departments managing internal processes.
Appsmith
Description: Appsmith is another popular open-source framework for constructing internal tools, dashboards, and admin panels. It allows embedding JavaScript extensively and connecting to numerous data sources and APIs, along with workflow automation features.
Key Features: Drag-and-drop UI builder, connects to APIs and databases (SQL, NoSQL), allows writing JavaScript almost anywhere within the app (queries, transformations, logic), Git-based version control, workflow automation triggered by UI events or data changes (JS-based).
Why it's an alternative: Similar to Budibase, Appsmith combines UI building with automation. If your automation requirements are closely tied to a custom internal interface you need to build, it presents a strong **make.com alternative** for that specific niche.
Target User: Developers, product managers, data analysts constructing custom internal applications requiring integrated data workflows and JS-driven logic.
Tooljet
Description: Tooljet is an open-source low-code framework for building and deploying internal tools swiftly. It supports connecting to various datasources, APIs, embedding custom code, and includes workflow automation.
Key Features: Visual app builder interface, connects to databases, APIs, cloud storage services (S3, GCS); allows writing JavaScript or Python for queries and logic; incorporates workflow automation features.
Why it's an alternative: Offers a consolidated platform for developing internal tools and automating associated tasks, providing flexibility through code integration where needed. Acts as a **make.com alternative** when automation is part of a larger internal application need.
Target User: Developers and teams building internal applications that require significant data integration and embedded automation capabilities.
Specialized & Adjacent Automation Tools
These tools might overlap with Make.com's capabilities but often cater to more specific domains like IT operations or data orchestration.
Rundeck
Description: Rundeck (now part of PagerDuty) is an open-source runbook automation platform primarily targeting IT operations tasks such as incident response automation, standardized deployments, and diagnostic procedures.
Key Features: Web-based console for defining, scheduling, and executing jobs; fine-grained role-based access control; integrates with configuration management (Ansible, Chef, Puppet), monitoring systems, and cloud providers; offers a graphical workflow designer for job steps.
Why it's an alternative: While focused on Ops, Rundeck automates sequences of tasks across diverse systems. This can include API calls or script executions that overlap with Make.com use cases, making it a viable **make.com alternative** especially within an IT operational context.
Licensing/Hosting: Apache 2.0 License (Community version); Free self-hosting, commercial enterprise version offered by PagerDuty.
Target User: IT Operations, DevOps engineers, SREs needing to automate routine operational procedures and incident response workflows.
Apache Airflow
Description: Airflow is a widely adopted open-source platform for programmatically authoring, scheduling, and monitoring complex workflows, with a strong emphasis on data engineering pipelines (ETL/ELT processes).
Key Features: Workflows defined as Python code (DAGs - Directed Acyclic Graphs), comprehensive UI for monitoring, managing, and debugging workflows, highly extensible through plugins and custom operators, scalable scheduler and worker architecture.
Why it's an alternative: For intricate, code-driven, data-intensive workflows, Airflow provides significantly more power and control than visual builders like Make.com. While not a direct replacement for simple app integrations, it excels as a **make.com alternative** for orchestrating complex data tasks and dependencies.
Licensing/Hosting: Apache 2.0 License; Free for self-hosting.
Target User: Data engineers, data scientists, developers building sophisticated, scheduled data pipelines.
Prefect
Description: Prefect is another modern workflow orchestration platform, often compared to Airflow. It focuses on data pipelines and managing complex task dependencies, offering a Pythonic API designed for developer experience.
Key Features: Python-based workflow definition, support for dynamic DAGs (workflows that change based on runtime conditions), hybrid execution model (cloud orchestration plane manages self-hosted agents), state-driven execution logic, rich UI for observability and control.
Why it's an alternative: Similar to Airflow, Prefect is a powerful tool for code-defined, data-heavy, or complex workflows. Its focus on developer ergonomics, testing, and observability makes it an appealing **make.com alternative** for advanced automation needs beyond simple point-to-point app connections.
Target User: Data engineers, ML engineers, developers dealing with complex, dynamic data workflows requiring robust orchestration.
Kestra
Description: Kestra is an open-source data orchestration and workflow platform notable for using YAML to define workflows. This declarative approach can make it more accessible than pure Python-based tools like Airflow or Prefect for some teams.
Key Features: Declarative YAML interface for defining workflows, language-agnostic task execution (run scripts in Python, Shell, Node.js, etc.), integrated UI for workflow editing, monitoring, and execution visualization, event-driven workflow triggers, scalable microservices architecture.
Why it's an alternative: Provides powerful orchestration similar to Airflow/Prefect but with a different, declarative definition style (YAML). It's capable of handling both data pipelines and more general-purpose automation tasks, positioning it as a flexible **make.com alternative** for teams preferring YAML configuration.
Licensing/Hosting: Apache 2.0 License; Free self-hosting, offers an Enterprise edition with additional features.
Target User: Data engineers, developers, DevOps teams looking for a declarative, scalable workflow orchestrator suitable for diverse tasks.
Choosing Your Ideal Make.com Alternative
Selecting the best **make.com alternative** hinges on your specific requirements and priorities:
Technical Proficiency
Evaluate the technical skills of the primary users. Are they non-coders, low-coders comfortable with some scripting, or professional developers? (e.g., Activepieces caters more to non-coders, Node-RED to tinkerers, Windmill/Airflow to developers).
Primary Use Case
What kind of automation do you need most? Simple app-to-app connections? Complex data transformations and pipelines? IT infrastructure automation? Building internal front-ends with backend workflows?
Integration Requirements
Does the platform natively support the specific applications, databases, and services you need to connect? If not, how easy is it to build custom integrations or execute generic HTTP requests/scripts?
Hosting and Maintenance Burden
Are you prepared and equipped to manage the deployment, updates, security, and resource scaling of a self-hosted application? Or would a managed cloud version (if offered by the open-source project) be a better fit?
User Interface Preference
Do you strongly prefer a visual drag-and-drop interface like Make.com's, or are you comfortable working with configuration files (like Huginn or Kestra) or writing code (like Airflow or Windmill)?
Community, Documentation, and Support
How active is the open-source community? Is the documentation comprehensive and easy to follow? Are commercial support options available if your organization requires them?
Scalability Needs
Estimate the volume and complexity of workflows you plan to run. Ensure the chosen platform's architecture can handle your anticipated load reliably.
Licensing Implications
Carefully review the specifics of the open-source license (MIT, Apache 2.0, AGPL, Fair Code, etc.). Understand any restrictions or obligations, especially regarding distribution or commercial use.
Conclusion: Embracing Open Automation
While Make.com provides significant value, the expanding landscape of open-source, free, and self-hosted alternatives offers compelling advantages. Whether your priority is maintaining absolute data sovereignty through self-hosting, requiring the deep customization only open source provides, aiming to minimize recurring SaaS fees, or needing developer-centric features unavailable elsewhere, a suitable **make.com alternative** likely exists.
From direct visual competitors like n8n and Activepieces to potent developer platforms like Windmill, specialized orchestrators such as Airflow and StackStorm, and internal tool builders like Appsmith and Budibase, the choices are rich and varied. By carefully assessing your technical needs, primary use cases, integration requirements, and desired level of operational control, you can identify a powerful automation solution that truly empowers your workflows without vendor lock-in. Don't hesitate to experiment with a few promising candidates – your ideal automation engine might be waiting in the open-source world.
