Activepieces vs Pipedream: license, pricing and features compared (October 2026)

Activepieces and Pipedream are both listed under No-code automation. Activepieces is open source (MIT (per GitHub license detection: not a single standard license; read the repository LICENSE)); Pipedream is not: Proprietary. Activepieces publishes source on GitHub (activepieces/activepieces, 25,225 stars on Oct 25, 2026); we found no public repository for Pipedream to compare against. Activepieces is the better fit for: teams that want self-hostable automation. Pipedream is the better fit for: developers wiring agents to many APIs with managed auth. Facts were read from vendor and GitHub pages on Oct 25, 2026 and are Reported; what we ran ourselves is under What we measured.

Our pick: Pick Activepieces for teams that want self-hostable automation; pick Pipedream for developers wiring agents to many APIs with managed auth. No overall winner: we have not benchmarked them against each other. Updated Oct 26, 2026 (America/Chicago).

By Agentic Weekly, operated independently from Texas, US · Published Oct 25, 2026 · Last updated Oct 26, 2026 (America/Chicago) · How we work

Evidence: Reported for both tools. The facts in the tables were read from each vendor's own pages and the public GitHub API on 2026-10-25 (America/Chicago). The What we measured section says what we have not run yet; anything we could not confirm is marked as not captured.

Activepieces

Activepieces · 0.92.3-hotfix.1

Reported

Open-source workflow automation with chat, agents, tables and 770+ apps; $20 or $200 flat monthly plans.

Pipedream

Reported

Integration layer for AI agents with managed auth and 10,000+ tools across 3,000+ APIs; free to build, pay in production.

Side by side, from what we recorded

Each row compares one recorded fact for both tools. Rows are not weighted and nothing is added up into a score; the note under each row says what the marker means.

Evidence
Reported for Activepieces
Reported for Pipedream
Tested = we ran it (smoke test); Reported = we read official sources
Pricing we could verify
Verified from official page (Activepieces is ahead on this row) for Activepieces
Partly verified for Pipedream
About our evidence only, not about the price
Steps in our setup guide
2 for Activepieces
2 for Pipedream
Counts our guide's steps, not difficulty
Sources we cite
3 for Activepieces
2 for Pipedream
How much we had to read; more is not better

A list of recorded differences, not a quality score or a ranking. We have not benchmarked these tools against each other; the smoke-test row links each tool's own log. How we label evidence.

What we measured

We have not run either Activepieces or Pipedream ourselves yet, so nothing on this page is Tested; it is Reported from vendor and GitHub pages. Below is what we will run, so the comparison can rest on our own results.

Our own tests for Activepieces and Pipedream
Test	Activepieces	Pipedream
Hands-on test log (install and a real task)	Not tested yet. What we will run: the same three-step workflow, with time to the first successful run.	Not tested yet. What we will run: the same three-step workflow, with time to the first successful run.

How we test and label results: methodology. All test logs: test hub.

Activepieces vs Pipedream at a glance

Activepieces and Pipedream are both listed under No-code automation. Agentic Weekly's Activepieces page names Pipedream as an alternative. Activepieces: Open-source workflow automation with chat, agents, tables and 770+ apps; $20 or $200 flat monthly plans. Pipedream: Integration layer for AI agents with managed auth and 10,000+ tools across 3,000+ APIs; free to build, pay in production.

Activepieces and Pipedream side by side (vendor pages and GitHub, 2026-10-25)
Feature	Activepieces	Pipedream
Vendor	Activepieces	Pipedream
Listed under	No-code automation	No-code automation
License	MIT (per GitHub license detection: not a single standard license; read the repository LICENSE)	Proprietary
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Free tier	Free: $0, 1,000 credits per month	Free: full access in development, no card
Paid plans	$20 flat per month; $200 flat per month; Enterprise from $36k per year; credits $0.007 each	$99 per month billed annually or $150 billed monthly; 100 users and 10,000 credits included; $2 per extra user; $0.012 per extra credit
Platforms	Cloud and self-hosted	Web and API
Public repository	activepieces/activepieces: 25,225 stars, last push Oct 26, 2026 UTC (GitHub API, Oct 25, 2026)	Not captured on the pages we read
Latest release we saw	0.92.3-hotfix.1, Oct 23, 2026	Not captured on the pages we read
Evidence	Reported from vendor pages	Reported from vendor pages

How Activepieces and Pipedream differ

Activepieces is open source (MIT (per GitHub license detection: not a single standard license; read the repository LICENSE)); Pipedream is not: Proprietary.
Activepieces publishes source on GitHub (activepieces/activepieces, 25,225 stars on Oct 25, 2026); we found no public repository for Pipedream to compare against.
Free tier: Activepieces: $0, 1,000 credits per month. Pipedream: full access in development, no card.
Plans and prices differ and are not like-for-like (credits, seats and usage limits vary), so we do not name a cheaper tool. The Paid plans row above quotes each vendor's plan list as read on Oct 25, 2026.
Platforms as the vendors list them: Activepieces: Cloud and self-hosted. Pipedream: Web and API.

Both are listed as "Freemium", so compare the plan tables rather than the model.

Which should you pick?

Pick Activepieces if: teams that want self-hostable automation; Zapier users sensitive to per-task costs. Skip it if: you need the largest app library (Zapier lists 9,000+).
Pick Pipedream if: developers wiring agents to many APIs with managed auth. Skip it if: Non-technical teams wanting only drag and drop.

Strengths and limits

Strengths and limits as listed on each tool page
Feature	Activepieces	Pipedream
Strengths	Flat plan prices; Open-source core	Generous dev tier; Code steps
Limits	Smaller integration count than Zapier	Pricing text is dense

What we did not verify

Activepieces: Self-hosted feature limits.
Pipedream: Release date (none published on the pages we read; the date shown is the day we first covered this entry).
Output quality, speed and reliability beyond the smoke tests listed under What we measured: not compared.

FAQ

Is Activepieces or Pipedream open source?

Activepieces: MIT (per GitHub license detection: not a single standard license; read the repository LICENSE). Pipedream: Proprietary. Licenses come from each project's GitHub repository or the vendor's own pages, read Oct 25, 2026; read the license text itself before redistributing or building a competing service.

Does Activepieces or Pipedream have a free plan?

Activepieces: Free: $0, 1,000 credits per month. Pipedream: Free: full access in development, no card. Checked Oct 25, 2026; prices and limits change, so confirm on each vendor's page.

What is the main difference between Activepieces and Pipedream?

Activepieces is open source (MIT (per GitHub license detection: not a single standard license; read the repository LICENSE)); Pipedream is not: Proprietary. Activepieces publishes source on GitHub (activepieces/activepieces, 25,225 stars on Oct 25, 2026); we found no public repository for Pipedream to compare against.

Sources

Activepieces (fetched 2026-10-25)
Activepieces pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)
Activepieces repository (GitHub) (fetched 2026-10-25)
Pipedream (fetched 2026-10-25)
Pipedream pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)

Page history

Oct 25, 2026: First published. Facts read from vendor pages and the GitHub API on 2026-10-25.

Markdown version for agents: /compare/activepieces-vs-pipedream.md

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