Flowise review

Q: How do I install Flowise?

Run npm install -g flowise. It needs Node.js ^24. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Flowise is an open source TypeScript platform for building AI agents, chatbots and multi-agent workflows visually. The project is now archived.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 22, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

Flowise is a visual, low-code platform for building AI agents, chatbots with tool calling and RAG, and multi-agent workflows. It suits developers who want to self-host or embed LLM apps through an API, SDK or chat widget. The repository is archived and the company says it is sunsetting Flowise.

55.5kGitHub stars
+39new stars, week of Oct 25
~5.6kdownloads a week, +76% vs 4-week avg
#43in Agent frameworks this week

Flowise at a glance

Category: Agent frameworks
Maintained by: FlowiseAI (organization, @FlowiseAI on GitHub)
Language: TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML
Repository: github.com/FlowiseAI/Flowise
Website: flowiseai.com
npm package: flowise 3.1.4
Latest release: [email protected] on GitHub, Jul 29, 2026
First published: Mar 31, 2023

What Flowise does

Flowise Agentflow builds multi-agent systems with workflow orchestration across multiple coordinated agents.
Flowise Chatflow builds single-agent chatbots with tool calling and knowledge retrieval (RAG) from various data sources.
Flowise supports human-in-the-loop review, so people can review tasks agents perform within the feedback loop.
Flowise provides execution traces and supports Prometheus, OpenTelemetry and other observability tools.
Flowise exposes flows through APIs, an embedded chat widget, and TypeScript and Python SDKs.
Flowise can turn a chatflow into an MCP server and supports custom MCP stdio commands.
Flowise integrates LLMs, embeddings and vector databases, including nodes for Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, Cerebras, Cloudflare Workers AI and Ollama Cloud.

How it works

Flowise is a Node.js monorepo with a server backend, a React UI and a components package for third-party node integrations. You install it with npm or run it in Docker, then open the editor at localhost:3000. Applications call flows through the prediction API at /api/v1/prediction/:id. It can be self-hosted on AWS, Azure, GCP and other platforms, and can scale horizontally with a message queue and workers.

How to install and start using Flowise

With npm

npm install -g flowise

With Docker Compose (from the docker folder)

docker compose up -d

Run a locally built Docker image

docker run -d --name flowise -p 3000:3000 flowise

Requirements

Node.js: the README asks for version 20.0.0 or later, while the npm package declares engines node ^24.
PNPM is required for building Flowise from source.
Docker is needed for the Docker Compose or Docker image setup.

First steps

Flowise starts with this command after installing it globally: npx flowise start
Open http://localhost:3000 in a browser to reach the Flowise editor.
Configure the instance with environment variables in the .env file inside the packages/server folder.
Call a flow from your app by sending a POST with a question to /api/v1/prediction/:id.

Who Flowise is for

Developers who want to prototype LLM chatbots with tool calling and RAG in a visual editor.
Teams self-hosting AI agent workflows on their own infrastructure or cloud provider.
Developers embedding a chat widget or calling agents through an API or SDK in their apps.

Limitations to know

Flowise has been archived on GitHub, and the homepage says the company is sunsetting Flowise.
Flowise 3.1.0 enables HTTP security checks by default, blocking requests to localhost and internal addresses unless reconfigured.
Building from source can fail with JavaScript heap out of memory, which requires raising the Node.js heap size.

Is Flowise growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Flowise ranked #368 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #43 in Agent frameworks, with a momentum score of 16 out of 100. Its main package had about 5.6k downloads that week, +76% against its own 4-week average.

New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).

Show the weekly numbers

New GitHub stars per week for Flowise
Week of	New stars
Aug 9, 2026	143
Aug 16, 2026	37
Aug 23, 2026	32
Aug 30, 2026	53
Sep 6, 2026	56
Sep 13, 2026	34
Sep 20, 2026	50
Sep 27, 2026	45
Oct 4, 2026	43
Oct 11, 2026	47
Oct 18, 2026	39
Oct 25, 2026	39

On Hacker News

Flowise is shutting down, 58 points and 45 comments (Aug 5, 2026)

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

Flowise alternatives

Other AI agent frameworks on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Agent frameworks ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Rank	Tool	Stars	Downloads/wk
#1	Harness²Harness² is a Python framework from Google Research for recursive agent harnessing, refining an agent's prompts, tools, memory and…	21.7k	–
#2	HyperFramesHyperFrames is an open-source framework that turns HTML, CSS, media, and seekable animations into deterministic MP4 videos, built for AI…	76.6k	1.5M
#3	AgentScopeAgentScope is a Python agent framework with an SDK for building ReAct agents and an agent service backend with a web UI.	35k	51.4k
#4	AG-UIAG-UI is an open, event-based protocol that standardizes how AI agents connect to user-facing frontend applications.	16.9k	4.6M
#5	LangGraphLangGraph is a low-level orchestration framework and runtime for building, managing, and deploying long-running, stateful agents in…	44.2k	18.5M
#6	BifrostOpen-source, high-performance AI gateway that works as your LLM gateway, MCP gateway and agent gateway. One OpenAI-compatible API for…	9.3k	–

All AI agent frameworks, ranked

Recent Flowise releases

[email protected], Jul 29, 2026
[email protected], Jun 25, 2026
[email protected], Apr 14, 2026
[email protected], Mar 23, 2026
[email protected], Mar 16, 2026

Flowise FAQ

Is Flowise free and open source?

Flowise's code is on GitHub (FlowiseAI/Flowise), but the repository doesn't declare a standard open-source license. Check its license file before using it commercially. Its website links to a pricing page: https://flowiseai.com/#pricing.

How do I install Flowise?

Run npm install -g flowise. It needs Node.js ^24. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is Flowise still maintained?

No. The FlowiseAI/Flowise repository is archived, so it's read-only.

How popular is Flowise?

Flowise has 55.5k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 39 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 52 a week. Its main package had about 5.6k downloads that week, +76% against its own 4-week average. That made it #43 among AI agent frameworks on the Devtoolwatch Board.

Flowise vs n8n: how do they compare?

Flowise and n8n are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI agent frameworks. Flowise has 55.5k GitHub stars and n8n has 209.2k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Flowise's main package had 5.6k downloads and n8n's had 147.7k. n8n is a fair-code workflow automation platform for building AI agents and workflows with a visual canvas plus custom code, self-hosted or cloud. n8n review.

Flowise vs Langflow: how do they compare?

Flowise and Langflow are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI agent frameworks. Flowise has 55.5k GitHub stars and Langflow has 156.2k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Flowise's main package had 5.6k downloads and Langflow's had 8.3k. Langflow review.

What are the best alternatives to Flowise?

Other AI agent frameworks on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: Harness² (#1), HyperFrames (#2), AgentScope (#3), AG-UI (#4), LangGraph (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

Is Flowise still maintained?

No. Flowise is archived on GitHub, and its homepage says the company is sunsetting it. The README points to a "Future of Flowise" discussion for details. The last listed release is [email protected], dated 2026-07-29.

Does Flowise support MCP?

Yes. Flowise 3.1.3 added the ability to turn a chatflow into an MCP server. Release 3.1.4 made the custom MCP stdio command allowlist operator-controlled.

How does Flowise work?

Flowise runs a Node.js server and a React editor where you assemble agents and chatbots from modular nodes. Chatflow covers single-agent chatbots with tools and RAG. Agentflow covers multi-agent orchestration. Finished flows are called through APIs, SDKs or an embedded widget.

How do I use the Flowise API?

Flowise exposes each flow at the prediction endpoint /api/v1/prediction/:id. You send a POST request with a JSON payload such as a question, and the response returns the flow's output. TypeScript and Python SDKs are also available.

How do I use Flowise?

Install Flowise with npm, start it with npx flowise start, and open http://localhost:3000. From there you build flows visually in the editor. Docker Compose and Docker image setups are also documented.

Sources

Flowise README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/flowise.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/flowise/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].