ByteChef puts AI agents and workflow automation in one visual editor: an agent is just another step, and each of its 250+ connectors doubles as a tool the agent can call.
How ByteChef stacks up against other workflow apps. Add or remove apps to change the comparison.
| Requirement | ByteChef | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free + Paid | Free + Paid | Free | Free + Paid | Free |
| Web UI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Architecture | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM | x86 + ARM |
| Min hardware | 4 GB RAM | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Containers | 2Plus PostgreSQL | Worth checking: 4Plus Worker, Postgres, Redis | 1The app alone | 1The app alone | 1The app alone |
| Database | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL | MySQL / PostgreSQL | SQLite | none |
| Runtime | Java | Node.js | Ruby | Node | Node |
| Docker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Linux package | – | – | – | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | – | – | – | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | – | – | – | Yes | Yes |
Yes. Everything outside the server/ee and client/src/ee folders is Apache 2.0, including the visual editor, AI agents, workflows and the 250+ connectors. The AI Copilot, Git-native workflows and workflows-as-APIs sit in the Enterprise Edition under a separate licence, and there is also a paid ByteChef cloud.
Yes. Run Ollama on your own server and connect it to the AI Agent component with no API key. ByteChef also connects to hosted providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral and Groq.
Use the Docker Compose file from the repo, which starts ByteChef and PostgreSQL, then open port 8080 and create an account. A single container with the embedded H2 database also works, but the project says H2 is for evaluation only and there is no migration path from H2 to PostgreSQL.
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