Sim
Shares rank 4 of 7 workflow automation tools by recommenders
Open-source AI agent workflow builder with native LLM support, debug mode, and an Apache 2.0 core. Caveats: a 12GB minimum RAM requirement and no custom LLM endpoints in the Copilot.
Open-source AI agent workflow builder with native LLM support, debug mode, and an Apache 2.0 core. Caveats: a 12GB minimum RAM requirement and no custom LLM endpoints in the Copilot.
8 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 7
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 88%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 7 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Built for AI agent workflows
“Sim is built specifically for AI agents—native LLM support, tool-use control, structured outputs, token-level observability”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative” “allowing us to do neat things like human in the loop”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative” Stable, open-source core and cloud
“The core—execution engine, all integrations, deployment—is fully Apache 2.0.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative” “We keep all workflows running on Sim cloud backwards compatible always.”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Cannot use own LLM endpoints in Copilot
“not being able to use my own LLM endpoints for the Copilot is an instant turn-off”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative” High 12GB minimum RAM requirement
“The 12GB minimum RAM requirements seem quite steep though.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative” Doubts about long-term business strategy
“What is your business strategy, if someone like AWS could treat you like Elastic or Redis?”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Sim – Apache-2.0 n8n alternative”
Other workflow automation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other workflow automation tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n8n | 46 | 27 | 63% | 11 | — | — |
| Zapier | 15 | 17 | 47% | 6 | — | — |
| Node-RED | 13 | 3 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| SimThis page | 7 | 1 | 88% | 1 | — | — |
| Graph Compose | 7 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“you'll be able to run the workflow in debug mode and get really granular information”
“This is amazing! Thank you all for building this!”
“not being able to use my own LLM endpoints for the Copilot is an instant turn-off”
“We keep all workflows running on Sim cloud backwards compatible always.”
“sounds super cool! let me know how it goes”
“The core—execution engine, all integrations, deployment—is fully Apache 2.0.”
“Sim is built specifically for AI agents—native LLM support, tool-use control, structured outputs, token-level observability”
“What is your business strategy, if someone like AWS could treat you like Elastic or Redis?”
“allowing us to do neat things like human in the loop”
“this sounds like a great candidate workflow to build in sim”
“This looks really cool for DIYing workflows”
“The 12GB minimum RAM requirements seem quite steep though.”
“the readme gifs are a little too fast, it's hard to tell what exactly is happening”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.