One of my client needed multi-user Node-RED (50 users, isolated instances) but FlowFuse was over engineered for them. I built them a custom system for handling multi-user flow based segregation and role based access which node-red doesn't support by default.
Now wondering: is this a common problem?
Specifically:
Do people need multi-user Node-RED?
Is FlowFuse pricing a blocker?
Would people consider custom implementation?
Not trying to sell - just gauging if others face this.
I think that multi-user is common. I can't comment on FlowFuse.
It actually isn't really hard to create a multi-user setup using multiple Node-RED instances if you need separate flows for each user. The sensible approach is to either use Docker or just individual instances (since Node-RED is simply a node.js app, this is easy) behind a reverse proxy.
If you only need a separate UI per user with shared flows then UIBUILDER can do that.
If you need the same UI and a single Node-RED instance then that is also possible.
I recently posted this initial flow that handles multiple users in Dashboard 2, using the Multi-tenant function:
For multiple Node-RED instances in a local environment, Docker really seems to be the best way to go.
In some simpler projects where I needed to run several isolated Node-RED instances, I used PM2 to manage multiple Node-RED projects running on Windows.
I don't know that I would agree fundamentally, there are a lot of factors. Raw instances behind a reverse proxy is likely to be less overhead, especially when factoring in a proper IdM tool to handle users and logins. A reverse proxy may still be desirable for Docker as well.
