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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

#191

Post by mattaitken »

hajrice wrote: post #189

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.

We think Zapier is a fantastic product and we've used it ourselves many times. But it's more focused on simpler use cases and we found ourselves hitting the wall and then being frustrated that there wasn't a good alternative that could live in our code.

You can use JavaScript and will have a great experience – all of our code is in TypeScript which means you get a really nice experience as either a JS or TS developer.

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

#193

Post by thebeardisred »

rubenfiszel wrote: post #127
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…

Be still me heart!

A contributors guide? Documentation? A PUBLIC ROADMAP!

THIS is an example of open source done well.

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

#194

Post by Existenceblinks »

mstipetic wrote: post #181
vhanda wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

All of the list and they also want to pay you $0. $20 sounds like a robbery. Meanwhile it costs 20 minutes of a freelance time.. for the whole product.

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

#195

Post by ElFitz »

rangledangle wrote: post #58
ElFitz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yup I've done the AWS Step Functions thing in the past, and it usually was about 90% wrangling with AWS and 10% writing code... we wanted to flip that ratio around (that's the goal at least!) That was the final straw what led a friend and me to try to do what you’ve done. We had started off using Zapier, and it’s horrendous objects & arrays handling, then moved on to Step Functions, then gave up on what we were ini…

Now that AWS App Composer is a thing is this still an issue though? I felt that pain in the beginning, but once you get the hang of Step Functions it doesn't seem so bad. I never found a good alternative. My company is using Workato and it's a nightmare.

I should have mentioned this was more than 4 years ago. I remember having to use a Choice State to hack together my own looping mechanism.

Considering how much progress has been made since, and even though I haven’t gotten around to try App Composer for myself yet, I would tend to agree on both, with two caveats.

First, after Amplify, I am wary of any and all AWS "It just works™" claims.

It seems they have a hard time figuring out what "easy", "simple" and "straightforward" mean. And I say that as someone who very much appreciates Lambda, DynamoDB, EventBridge & co, and really wanted to like using Amplify.

Second, considering how expensive those can be to run, I would think twice before using them in a "high"-throughput and low margins scenario, and definitely appreciate there being alternatives.

Regarding Workato… I’d never heard of it. But the description they picked for Google and their landing page makes it clear who they’re appealing to and on what grounds. Sorry you have to deal with that.

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

#196

Post by ElFitz »

mattaitken wrote: post #102
ElFitz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yup I've done the AWS Step Functions thing in the past, and it usually was about 90% wrangling with AWS and 10% writing code... we wanted to flip that ratio around (that's the goal at least!) That was the final straw what led a friend and me to try to do what you’ve done. We had started off using Zapier, and it’s horrendous objects & arrays handling, then moved on to Step Functions, then gave up on what we were ini…

Thanks! That's been our experience exactly and is the reason we're building it. The experience of AWS step functions on one extreme and Zapier on the other.

Oh, no. The other extreme wasn’t Step Functions. It was AWS Lambdas stringed together through DynamoDB Streams, SQS, SNS and S3 triggers, all obscurely tied together in a murky single-file yaml template deployed by JAWS (now the serverless framework, which has definitely made some much-appreciated improvements).

But something

- offering a clear visualisation

- and allowing to simply integrate with third-party APIs

- without having to deal with some’s quite obscure documentation

while at the same time

- easy to monitor & debug

- offering versioning

- allowing to just write a few lines instead of going through pointy-clicky drag-and-droppy mess

Yes, that was lacking. Reminds me of Zenaton (https://zenaton.com/). I can only wish you to be more successful than they were.

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