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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

#181

Post by mstipetic »

vhanda wrote: post #167
eightysixfour wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

n8n is also great about this. It retains the visual “easy mode” environment but lets you drop in a JavaScript node whenever you need to do something more complex

I found the JavaScript nodes to be quite annoying. Specifically - 1. I want a proper IDE 2. Proper typing so the feedback cycle is faster. 3. Being able to use external packages 4. Being able to quickly test my custom node across old runs. Their JavaScript nodes take me an absurd amount of time to get right. And I've needed to use them far more often than I would like.

Wow, I’m never gonna try to build a tool for developers

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

#182

Post by 40four »

csomar wrote: post #163

As someone who got burned by past "Open Source" projects, yours raises all redflags: - Advertised as "Open Source", yet this is actually a paid product with a pricing page. - You don't even have a guide on how to install this thing... euh, I mean what's the point of this if I can't use it? - You have a complicated license: https://github.com/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev/blob/main/LICEN... . You might have an "open" sour…

I’m having trouble seeing the issue here. It’s not uncommon for open source projects to offer hosted services for a price. Seems like a reasonable way to generate revenue to me.

I’ve dabbled in self hosting, and I enjoy it, but sometimes it’s not worth my time and energy. If there is a product I really like and gives me value, I think having the option to pay them to host is a win/ win. I’d rather have that option then not.

As far as the missing self hosting guide, there is a section for it at the bottom of the README that says “Coming soon”. They stated they have only been working on this for a matter of months, and this is an early beta version. I’d imagine the team has been fervidly working on the core product & features, therefore finishing this part of the documentation keeps getting punted down the line.

It’s clearly going to be an option, so I feel like your judgment is a little harsh. I’m willing to be patient, and test drive the product on the free tier in the mean time :)

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

#183

Post by mattaitken »

csomar wrote: post #163

As someone who got burned by past "Open Source" projects, yours raises all redflags: - Advertised as "Open Source", yet this is actually a paid product with a pricing page. - You don't even have a guide on how to install this thing... euh, I mean what's the point of this if I can't use it? - You have a complicated license: https://github.com/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev/blob/main/LICEN... . You might have an "open" sour…

First off, thanks for this feedback – it makes it clear that we need to do a better job.

We're following the GitLab open core model. Our licensing is the same as their's (and many other open core companies).

This means that all existing code and the vast majority of future code will be under the MIT license. At some point, we will add some enterprise features that are in /ee folders and they will be licensed differently. This is to protect us against a competitor taking the code and launching an alternative hosted service without any effort on their part. We felt that this was a friendlier option than going with something like AGPL.

Sorry that our self-hosting guide isn't available yet, we will get it up really soon. We want people to use Trigger.dev and that includes self-hosting.

There are lots of open core companies that have a cloud version and the ability to self-host. I don't think that our business model conflicts with being open source – anyone contributing will make the experience better for everyone (cloud or self-hosted).

Hopefully this answers your questions and helps to alleviate your worries about the project. We are big believers in open source and have thought hard about how we can create something valuable for everyone.

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

#184

Post by mattaitken »

prepend wrote: post #174
csomar wrote: post #163

As someone who got burned by past "Open Source" projects, yours raises all redflags: - Advertised as "Open Source", yet this is actually a paid product with a pricing page. - You don't even have a guide on how to install this thing... euh, I mean what's the point of this if I can't use it? - You have a complicated license: https://github.com/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev/blob/main/LICEN... . You might have an "open" sour…

I don’t see an ee folder or ee/LICENSE so according to their license, everything in their repo seems open source although annoying they did this instead of just a real OSI recognized license. Not having install docs isn’t the end of the world if I can figure it out and contribute back. But I don’t want to waste my time if it’s not actually open source and my work will be commercialized by a single org. I don’t mind c…

All the code that has been pushed so far is under MIT and we currently have no enterprise features (/ee folders). The majority of future code will fall into this same bracket.

Some features that are for "enterprise" will be put in /ee folders – ideally we will put all of that in a single /ee folder in the root but we wanted to cover the case where that's non-trivial to implement.

This open core model (that Gitlab use) is popular because it strikes a nice balance between having an open source project (good for everyone) and it puts off bad actors from building a commercial competitor with zero effort.

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

#186

Post by mattaitken »

tluyben2 wrote: post #170
csomar wrote: post #163

As someone who got burned by past "Open Source" projects, yours raises all redflags: - Advertised as "Open Source", yet this is actually a paid product with a pricing page. - You don't even have a guide on how to install this thing... euh, I mean what's the point of this if I can't use it? - You have a complicated license: https://github.com/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev/blob/main/LICEN... . You might have an "open" sour…

I always check the license first and this is not too nice. These mixed licenses are a real nightmare for companies and their lawyers. Keep it clean & simple or there won't be a lot of adoption really.

We're using the open core model that Gitlab use. It's popular because it mean 95% of the code is MIT (good for everyone) and a small number of enterprise features are under a different license. This puts off bad actors from building a commercial competitor with zero effort. The alternative we considered was AGPL but that felt worse for our open source users.

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

#187

Post by mattaitken »

dachryn wrote: post #166
csomar wrote: post #163

As someone who got burned by past "Open Source" projects, yours raises all redflags: - Advertised as "Open Source", yet this is actually a paid product with a pricing page. - You don't even have a guide on how to install this thing... euh, I mean what's the point of this if I can't use it? - You have a complicated license: https://github.com/triggerdotdev/trigger.dev/blob/main/LICEN... . You might have an "open" sour…

self hosting feels like an afterthought. That's a red flag, it means they actually don't have any open source users or ecosystem.

Really sorry about this – we are working on a guide and it will be released soon.

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

#188

Post by lorendsr »

gsanderson wrote: post #179
Too wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone curious to try out Temporal. What makes you think it is not simple, is it tricky enough that one should avoid it? What else makes this Trigger.dev stand out compared to Temporal? Temporal already has self hosting option, multiple language support and a battle proven history. Even if trigger looks good on paper, it would need some other really convincing reason for me to consider a completely fresh tool ove…

I share that curiosity! Temporal looks great and is proven. Running it looks simple enough. I mean getting their self-hosted version deployed (to production). I was reading through their docs and that does _not_ look simple (to me). Plus the guide is open about being a work in progress ( https://docs.temporal.io/cluster-deployment-guide#elasticsea... ). I am going to try it at some point though.

The simplest way to self-host is with Render: https://render.com/docs/deploy-temporal

Scaling takes a lot of expertise, and I'd say almost everyone saves time & money and gains in reliability by using Temporal Cloud over self-hosting.

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

#189

Post by hajrice »

Zapier is very easy to use - everything you want to do/learn is in the no-code interface page, no need for reading documentation. This (as a developer myself) seems very complex to use. I have to read each integration's library, and also use Typescript (why not JS or something more popular?), at which point, I may aswell just write code and use an API.

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

#190

Post by jonny_eh »

mattaitken wrote: post #106
jonny_eh wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the meantime, maybe remove "Your workflows run on your servers, not ours. We only receive the data you choose to send to us." from your front page marketing?

The website is correct, it's just a bit confusing so I'll explain more here: The workflow code is in your codebase and runs on your servers, we don't host that. We host the service that triggers your code (using events like scheduled, webhooks, customEvents) and that you can call using our SDK to do requests, logging and delays inside the workflow (e.g. using our Slack integration or using our fetch that auto-retries…

lol, I need a diagram.
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