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Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

trigger.dev

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Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#121

Post by mattaitken »

tonyhb wrote: post #117

Looks like you signed up to us last year at https://www.inngest.com and took... a lot of inspiration! Good luck with the release - nice to see you adding features like keys, sleeps, etc.

Hey, Inngest looks impressive, congrats! We're tackling similar problems. Our actual inspiration to build this was Interval back in November. They make it easy to create internal dashboards inside your own codebase by using their SDK. We wanted to offer the same great developer experience but for creating workflows.

Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#122

Post by kats »

Hey just giving you guys feedback. The emojis are a bit of an issue. NocoDB has this issue as well. If I want to use this at work it's a lot harder sell because of the emojis and statements like "it's blazing fast!!"

For some businesses, it has to look super straight and serious, and give the impression that it's secure (which doesn't necessarily mean writing "we're secure!") Like copying the style of Microsoft Office would be the best. Google Docs or Zoho would be ok too. Of course it's great that you got through YCombinator and pitched, etc. But giving the impression of "Woo! We're a startup!" makes it seem like the company may be gone soon. It could be an issue because the company may not want to change their workflow if it won't stay stable for at least 5 years.

To sell to a more generic established business, it might be better to look like a company that has been around and isn't going anywhere. Like for Microsoft Office, the assumption is that it's secure and your data never leaves your PC.

Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#123

Post by sisve »

rubenfiszel wrote: post #92
gsanderson wrote: post #57

I was recently looking for a simpler alternative to Temporal ( https://temporal.io/ ) so this could be ideal. If you could add instructions for self-hosting it (_sounds_ like you just need an Express server, but I would guess some backend persistent store/database/queue too) that would be great. The Webhook catalog only lists Github: I think integrating with Stripe would be neat. Like, when someone pays an invoice, S…

We do this at windmill https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill , including self-hosting instructions and pre-made integrations with stripe

Does windmill have any way of going into code, without it basically becoming "code in a input box". The developer first solution trigger.dev have here is really scratching a real problem. But as they say they are not for the easiest workflows. I'm really looking for something that is gui first but as a drop down to code when you want. But inline code editor, let me save it to a git repo or similar. And don't have globals aka zapiers inputData and output.

Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#125

Post by rubenfiszel »

sisve wrote: post #123
rubenfiszel wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do this at windmill https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill , including self-hosting instructions and pre-made integrations with stripe

Does windmill have any way of going into code, without it basically becoming "code in a input box". The developer first solution trigger.dev have here is really scratching a real problem. But as they say they are not for the easiest workflows. I'm really looking for something that is gui first but as a drop down to code when you want. But inline code editor, let me save it to a git repo or similar. And don't have glo…

> I'm really looking for something that is gui first but as a drop down to code when you want. But inline code editor, let me save it to a git repo or similar.

That's like, exactly what we are, take a look at this screenshot for instance: https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill/blob/main/imgs/win...

As for syncing code to git, we do it as well through our CLI and Github Actions: https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill-sync-example

Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#126

Post by mfrye0 »

This looks great. I'll have to play around with it.

Related, we built a developer oriented Zapier clone for event scale automations awhile back for our internal product. We've since pivoted and have been debating on potentially open sourcing the engine as well.

We built ours using Rust with a DSL for all the triggers, actions, and action inputs/outputs. The actions themselves are defined as APIs, which makes it easy to add functionality in any language. Most of our actions have been built in Typescript.

Is there interest from anyone in potentially using it?

Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#127

Post by rubenfiszel »

nirga wrote: post #17

At first I thought that a code alternative for a no-code solution like zapier was counterintuitive. But as an engineer using Zapier (for the first time) these past few months I got so frustrated by the lack of an option to just write some "if" or just 2 lines of code to make things work the way I want them. I think trigger.dev nails it. This is exactly what I needed.

Trigger.dev looks like it would be amazing if you want a simplified temporal that is still 100% code based and exclusively in Typescript. If you are looking for a Zapier-for-developer experience, we took an alternative route at Windmill of allowing Python/Javascript/Go/Bash as steps but the workflows are still GUI based: https://github.com/windmill-labs/windmill/blob/main/imgs/win...

Despite them being GUI based, you can do everything that temporal enable, approval steps/suspending workflows until being reactivated by a webhook, branching, etc, etc... It's 100% open-source and self-hostable.

Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#128

Post by mattaitken »

robbiemitchell wrote: post #115
lolinder wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already address that specifically: > We found current workflow / automation tools like Zapier and n8n are good for simple tasks, but not for more advanced use cases. This isn't intended to replace Zapier for your use case. Speaking as a developer who's been asked to set up integrations before, I'm glad to see more competition in this space with a developer focus!

The first example on the homepage is "Create an email drip feed campaign in under 2 minutes" This is not an advanced use case to be developed in house and owned by developers. This is bread and butter marketing or product engagement email flows using anything from Mailchimp to customer.io to HubSpot. The developer side would involve capturing the identities and events from your system and sending them (typically via…

Thanks, this is great feedback. You're right that these examples don't highlight the real advantage of our platform vs no-code tools. We're going to add some new examples to our site based on what our customers are building.

The three categories of problems you identified that are best solved with a code tool are what we're seeing with our early customers. Plus a lot of notification use cases like when developers want to be notified in Slack when something important/bad happens.

Re: Show HN: We built a developer-first open-source Zapier alternative

#129

Post by ArcaneMoose »

ashrafsam wrote: post #82
ArcaneMoose wrote: post #66

This looks great, congrats on the launch! I am interested in a platform that bundles many pre-built integrations to various services that I could wire up through code and execute on my customers' behalf. Essentially, a way for me to present my customers with a plethora of integrations out of the box without having to build them all myself. This seems like it's moving in that direction and I saw another comment where…

We do this at Activepieces (activepieces.com).

Is there an API or SDK for creating/managing flows? I want the flexibility to programmatically wire these integrations together rather than a nocode UI

Additionally, this seems to rely on you inputting your credentials. How would that work for a usecase where my customers are the ones who provide the credentials?

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