Activepieces alternative: FlowRunner vs Activepieces

TL;DR

• FlowRunner and Activepieces share the billing idea that matters most: one run counts once, however many steps it has. FlowRunner keeps it that way when the flow uses AI. Agents run on your own model keys on every plan, including Free, and the run is still one execution.
• FlowRunner has unlimited users on every plan, runs that wait up to a year on Professional and above, and AI agents that can call a person as a tool and wait for the answer.
• Activepieces caps Free and Plus at five users, adds 2 to 20 credits per AI step unless you bring keys on a paid plan, and pauses a run for 30 days at most.
• Activepieces is stronger if you want to self-host its MIT-licensed Community Edition, if your flows skip AI and fit its entry plans, or if you need SSO at $200 a month.

Who this comparison is for

You build automations for a team, and some of them have started to use AI: a step that reads an email and classifies it, an agent that drafts a reply, a check before anything goes out to a customer. Maybe you’re on Activepieces now, or you picked it because it was open source and counted runs instead of steps. Now you’re checking how the bill and the limits behave once AI, more people, and approvals that take days come into the flows.

Start with what the two share. Both connect apps with triggers and actions, both have a canvas where you build flows from steps, both include AI agents and MCP, and both count a whole run as one unit. FlowRunner does all of that. The differences are in what happens around the run: whether AI changes the count, how many people can work in the account, how long a run can wait for a person, and who decides when to ask.

What FlowRunner is good at

FlowRunner is Orchestration as a Service. Flows are the unit of work, and AI agents are blocks inside them. The core idea is agents that know when to stop and ask a person.

The mechanism is specific. An AI agent can use your own flows as tools. One of those flows can be a review step that reaches a person on email, Slack, WhatsApp, phone, or a Form, waits for the reply, and hands it back. When the agent calls it, the agent suspends, and the run resumes with the person’s answer. That’s human-in-the-loop as something the agent decides at runtime, for the automation exceptions it shouldn’t settle alone.

FlowRunner is strong on:

• One run, one execution. A run counts once however many steps it has, AI steps included.
• BYOK on every plan. Agents run on your own provider keys, on Free too, with no markup and no AI meter. You keep your provider’s rates and data terms.
• Unlimited users and workflows on every plan, including Free.
• Long waits. A run can wait up to 30 days on Free, Starter, and Growth, and up to a year on Professional and above.
• Depth per integration. 2,100+ integrations and 56,000+ callable actions (as of September 2026), about 26 per integration, each with the descriptions and typed parameters an agent needs to call it.
• Governance at published prices. Audit trails and RBAC on Professional at $299 a month. SSO/SAML and SLA tracking on Business at $999.

What Activepieces is good at

Activepieces is open-source automation. Its flows are built from pieces, and the 772 pieces in its catalog are open-source TypeScript packages that grow by pull request. The core platform is MIT-licensed, so you can read the code, run it on your own servers, and change it.

It sells a cloud with five tiers (Free, Plus, Team, Ultimate, and Embed for software companies that put Activepieces inside their own product), plus custom-priced options for self-hosted and air-gapped installs.

Where FlowRunner is stronger

• AI doesn’t change the count. On Activepieces a run is one credit, and each AI step adds 2 credits on a fast model, 10 on a smart model, or 20 on a frontier model, plus 1 per agentic action. Bringing your own keys drops each AI step to 1 credit, and that option starts on Plus. On FlowRunner a run with ten AI steps is still one execution, and your keys work on every plan, Free included. When the flows you’re adding are AI flows, that’s the number that moves.
• Unlimited users. Activepieces allows up to five users on Free and on Plus, and 25 on Team. FlowRunner has no user limit on any plan, so the people who review, approve, and fix flows can all have accounts from day one.
• Waits and run time. A paused Activepieces flow lives up to 30 days, and an Activepieces Cloud run stops after 10 minutes of active time. FlowRunner holds a run up to a year on Professional and above, and active run time is 1 hour on Free, Starter, and Growth, 4 hours on Professional, 12 hours on Business, and unlimited on Enterprise. On Professional, a contract that waits six weeks for a signature is an ordinary flow.
• The agent decides when to ask. Activepieces’ Approval piece pauses a flow until someone approves or disapproves, and its To-Do step lets an assigned person approve, deny, or modify. Both are steps you place in the flow. FlowRunner’s review flow can also be a tool the agent calls on its own judgment, mid-reasoning, with the context it’s looking at. The agent suspends until the person answers in their own channel, then carries on.
• Governance at a published price. FlowRunner’s audit trails and RBAC come with Professional at $299 a month. Activepieces puts audit logs and custom RBAC on Ultimate, which is custom-priced.
• Depth per integration. Activepieces lists 772 pieces with 6,524 actions, about 8.5 per piece. FlowRunner lists 2,100+ integrations and 56,000+ actions, about 26 per integration, so more of each app’s API is there as a ready step or agent tool.
• Compliance paperwork. Activepieces publishes no BAA. FlowRunner signs a BAA on Business ($999) and up, where HIPAA setup is available (see Trust).

Where Activepieces is stronger

• A self-hosted open-source core, today. The Community Edition is MIT-licensed, and you can run it on your own servers now, with the pieces’ source in the open. Activepieces’ own description of it is “the automation core on its own”: SSO, audit logs, and custom roles come with the paid and custom-priced tiers, and on any self-hosted install your team runs the servers, upgrades, and backups.
• More runs on the entry plans, for flows without AI. Free includes 1,000 credits and Plus is $20 for 10,000, against FlowRunner’s 100 executions on Free and $15 for 3,000 on Starter. That holds while the flows skip AI. Each AI step adds 2 to 20 credits, your own keys only work from Plus, and both plans stop at five users.
• SSO at a lower tier. Team includes SSO for $200 a month. FlowRunner’s SSO/SAML comes with Business at $999. Team includes 25 users and standard roles, while audit logs and custom roles still need Ultimate. FlowRunner’s audit trails and RBAC start at $299.

Starting free

Both have a permanent free plan with no card.

• FlowRunner Free: 100 executions a month, where one execution is one whole run, AI steps included. Every integration, AI agents on your own keys, human-in-the-loop on email, Slack, WhatsApp, phone, or a Form, unlimited users and workflows, one concurrent run, and 24 hours of log history. Every new account also starts with 14 days of Professional, so you can try audit trails, RBAC, and year-long waits before you choose a plan.
• Activepieces Free: 1,000 credits (its pricing page lists the reset as daily in the plan table and as monthly in the FAQ), up to five users, unlimited flows, agents, tables, and MCP. Bringing your own AI keys isn’t on Free, so AI steps cost 2, 10, or 20 credits each.

Past free, FlowRunner’s paid plans start at $5 a month for 300 executions, then $15 for 3,000 and $45 for 12,000. Activepieces’ next plans are Plus at $20 for 10,000 credits and Team at $200 for 50,000.

Feature comparison

Dimension	FlowRunner	Activepieces
Billing unit	Execution: one whole run, AI steps included	Credit: one run; AI steps add 2, 10, or 20 credits; agentic actions 1 each
Bring your own AI keys	Every plan, including Free; no AI meter	Plus and higher; each AI step then costs 1 credit
Free plan	100 executions a month, no card	1,000 credits (reset listed as daily and as monthly), no card
Paid plans	$5 (300), $15 (3,000), $45 (12,000), $89 (30,000), $149 (60,000), $299 (75,000), $999 (250,000), Enterprise custom	Plus $20 (10,000 credits), Team $200 (50,000), Ultimate custom
Users	Unlimited on every plan	Up to 5 on Free and Plus, 25 on Team, unlimited on Ultimate
Longest wait in a run	30 days on Free to Growth, 1 year on Professional and above	30 days (paused flow lifetime)
Active run time	1 hour (Free to Growth), 4 hours (Professional), 12 hours (Business), unlimited (Enterprise)	10 minutes on Cloud
Human-in-the-loop	Every plan; a review flow the agent can call as a tool; email, Slack, WhatsApp, phone, or a Form	Approval piece (Wait for Approval, approval links) and To-Do step
AI agents	AI Agent block; tools are actions, your flows, MCP tools, and knowledge bases	Agents on every plan, billed per AI step and agentic action
MCP	Agents use tools from registered MCP servers; FlowRunner Prompt to Flow builds and runs flows from your AI tool	Agents use MCP servers; pieces exposed through one Activepieces MCP server
Integrations	2,100+ integrations, 56,000+ actions (about 26 each)	772 pieces, 6,524 actions (about 8.5 each)
Custom code	Custom Cloud Code (JavaScript, with fetch); npm packages in custom extensions	Code steps; pieces written in TypeScript
Audit trails	Professional ($299)	Ultimate (custom)
Roles	RBAC on Professional ($299)	Standard roles on Team ($200); custom RBAC on Ultimate
SSO	Business ($999)	Team ($200)
SOC 2	Security program designed to meet common audit requirements	Program in progress
HIPAA / BAA	BAA and HIPAA setup on Business ($999) and up	No BAA published
Self-hosting	Enterprise	MIT Community Edition; air-gapped on custom plans

Decision framework

Pick FlowRunner if:

• Your flows use AI, and you want each run to count once on your own keys, whatever plan you’re on.
• More than five people need to work in the account, and you don’t want users to set your plan.
• Some runs wait days or weeks for a person, or compute for longer than 10 minutes.
• You want the agent itself to decide when to ask a person, and reach them on email, Slack, WhatsApp, phone, or a Form.
• You need audit trails and RBAC at a published price ($299), or a signed BAA (Business, $999, and up).

Pick Activepieces if:

• You want to run an MIT-licensed automation platform on your own servers, and your team is ready to operate it.
• Your flows have no AI steps, fit in Plus’s 10,000 credits, and five users is enough.
• You need SSO for up to 25 users at $200 a month.
• Your developers want to write and contribute open-source pieces.

Ready to move?

Activepieces exports each flow as a JSON file, and FlowRunner Prompt to Flow can read that file in your AI tool and build the same flow in your workspace. The steps are in How to move from Activepieces to FlowRunner. If you’d like to talk it through first, contact us.