Node-RED HostingFully Managed

Build and operate low-code IoT automation - without operational overhead. merkaio handles setup, monitoring, and ongoing operations.

  • Fully managed Node-RED instance
  • Persistent context & automatic backups
  • Native integration with MQTT, databases & APIs
  • SLA-backed support & monitoring
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Node-RED

merkaio is an independent managed hosting provider and is not affiliated with the OpenJS Foundation or IBM. Node-RED is an open-source project under the Apache 2.0 license, originally created by IBM and now a project of the OpenJS Foundation.

Node-RED

What is Node-RED?

Node-RED is a browser-based flow programming environment. It connects sensors, APIs, databases, and services through visual drag & drop - without traditional coding. As middleware, Node-RED normalizes data, translates protocols, and orchestrates your IoT logic.

Visual Flow Programming

1000+ Community Nodes

MQTT, HTTP, Modbus & more

Why Self-Hosted Node-RED Often Fails

Running Node-RED on a Raspberry Pi or VM sounds simple - until the complexity of production operations becomes visible.

Stability

Raspberry Pi crashes, SD card fails, power outage wipes the state. Node-RED starts, but your flows are corrupted.

merkaio solution: Container-based hosting with automatic restart and health checks

Security

No login by default, no HTTPS, no firewall. Anyone on the network can read and modify your flows.

merkaio solution: HTTPS, authentication, network isolation and regular security updates

Persistence

Context data lives in RAM. A restart wipes counters, states, and accumulated values.

merkaio solution: Persistent context store with automatic backups

merkaio ops

Managed Node-RED by merkaio.

We handle operations - you focus on your flows.

Version Management

Controlled updates to new Node-RED versions without breaking changes

Palette Management

Installation and management of community nodes from npm registry

Automatic Backups

Regular snapshots of your flows, credentials, and context data

Multi-User Access

Team access with different permission levels

Typical workflows in the merkaio stack.

Node-RED is the bridge between your IoT components.

Sensor → Normalization → Database

ChirpStack delivers LoRaWAN payloads. Node-RED decodes, transforms, and writes to InfluxDB or PostgreSQL.

Alerting Engine

Monitor thresholds, detect anomalies, send notifications - via email, Slack, or SMS.

ERP & API Connector

Connect IoT data with existing systems: SAP, Salesforce, custom APIs - Node-RED speaks HTTP, REST, and SOAP.

Transparent. Fair. No hidden costs.

One price for your complete private cloud deployment. No limits, no surprises.

Private Cloud
from99.90€ / month

excl. VAT

Get started
Isolated private cloud deployment
VPN-secured access
Custom subdomain
Unlimited devices
Unlimited gateways
Unlimited users
Managed updates & backups
SLA-based support

FAQ - Node-RED Hosting

Yes, we install community nodes from the npm registry upon request. Security-critical modules are reviewed first.
Yes, node-red-dashboard is pre-installed. For production dashboards, we recommend Grafana from our stack.
This is a classic challenge. Since our cloud instances aren't physically next to your machine, we use site-to-site VPNs (e.g., WireGuard or IPsec). We tunnel the connection securely from the merkaio Cloud into your local network. For Node-RED, it then looks like the Siemens S7 or Modbus TCP slave is on the same network.
Absolutely. Node-RED is 'born for MQTT'. We can connect your instance directly with our Managed Mosquitto Cluster or external brokers (AWS IoT, HiveMQ). We store certificates and credentials securely in environment variables, so they're not hardcoded in the flow.
Yes. Node-RED works excellently as an API gateway. You can use http in nodes to receive data from external services (e.g., The Things Network, Shopify, SAP). We secure these endpoints on request through our reverse proxy with API keys or Basic Auth.
Yes. For professional teams, we enable the 'Projects' feature in Node-RED. This lets you push your flows directly to a Git repository (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket). It enables versioning, rollbacks, and team collaboration without overwriting each other's changes.
By default, Node-RED stores variables only in RAM (volatile). In our managed instances, we configure file storage as the default for the context store. When we restart the container for an update, your counters and status variables are still there.
Node-RED is based on Node.js and is therefore single-threaded. It's extremely efficient for I/O tasks (moving data), but not for heavy computations (video encoding, cryptography). If you hit limits, we scale CPU resources or offload compute-intensive tasks to microservices (merkaio dev) that Node-RED just triggers.
Yes. We strongly advise against storing passwords in nodes. We inject secrets (API keys, database passwords) as environment variables (ENV vars) into the container. You can access them in your Node-RED flow without them being visible in exports or the frontend.
If a flow runs amok, it can paralyze the instance. Our monitoring detects high CPU/RAM loads. In emergencies, we can start the instance in 'Safe Mode' (flows don't start automatically), so you can fix the error without the system immediately crashing again.
We recommend Node-RED as 'digital glue': For moving data from A to B, converting formats (JSON/XML), or building quick logic. For complex business logic, large data analyses, or high-load applications, we recommend dedicated backend services (which we also host). The mix makes the difference.
Yes, very easily. You export your flows.json (or use Git) and import them into our cloud instance. We help you convert local paths or hardware dependencies (like GPIO pins, which don't exist in the cloud) to network protocols.

Let's discuss your infrastructure. Digital and on-site.

Whether it's IoT platform development, hardware selection, managed hosting for ChirpStack, ThingsBoard, Grafana or NetBird VPN, or migration from a self-hosted setup - we'll find the right solution for your use case. Book a free 30-minute consultation, no commitment required.

Timo Wevelsiep

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Timo Wevelsiep

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