# FlowFuse Cloud

FlowFuse Cloud is a hosted service allowing users to sign-up and start creating Node-RED instances without having to install and manage their own instance of FlowFuse. The Concepts remain the same, but we run the platform for you.

# 14-day Free Trial

When users sign-up to FlowFuse Cloud they get a 14-day free trial of the platform. During that trial, they can create up to two Small Node-RED Instances and connect two devices. This is a great way to start using FlowFuse and discover a lot of the value it provides.

Users can end their trial by heading to the Billing page of their team and setting up their payment information. This includes the option to pick which plan you want to upgrade the team to.

Otherwise, at the end of the 14-day trial period, any instances created in the team will be suspended. This means they will no longer be running and the editor will not be accessible. Users will need to add their Billing details at which point they will be able to restart their suspended Node-RED instances.

We will email users about their trial when it is nearing the end to ensure they know what is happening.

# Billing

Customers are billed at the team level for each Node-RED instance they create. This is a recurring monthly charge. See the Billing page for more detailed answers about billing.

# Support

Premium customers can get support by filing a ticket. We offer support for the FlowFuse application and your account, any issues relating to Node-RED such as your flows or a 3rd party node should be raised in the community forum.

# Requesting a new verification email

When a user signs up for FlowFuse Cloud an email will be sent to verify it. If this email doesn't get delivered one can be resend by signing in to FlowFuse and click the button to resend it.

# Node-RED on FlowFuse Cloud

FlowFuse currently offers Node-RED 2.2 and 3.0 to customers. When creating a new instance a Stack is chosen, which later can be upgraded to a later version.

Each Node-RED can install custom modules as advertised in the Flow Library.

# Cloud Instance Sizes

Size	Memory (RAM)
Small	256MB
Medium	768MB
Large	3840MB

Medium and Large instance types require the Teams or Enterprise tier.

# Use of the File System

FlowFuse Cloud provides support for using the standard File nodes in flows with some limits. The standard filesystem is not persisted between Node-RED restarts, so a custom set of nodes are used to store the files in persistent storage.

Each Node-RED instance has a quota of 100MB of file storage. A single write operation is limited to 10MB in size.

Some 3rd party nodes try to access the filesystem directly. This can lead to unpredictable results if the data does not persist between restarts.

# Node-RED context

Node-RED Context can be used to store small pieces of application state within the runtime. By default, this is stored in memory only.

FlowFuse Cloud provides an optional context store that can be used to persist the data.

Persistent context has a quota limit set at 1MB per instance.

# Network Connections

# HTTP(S) & Websockets

Node-RED exposes an HTTPS interface on port 443 with each instance having its own hostname (example.FlowFuse.cloud). Plain HTTP requests to port 80 will receive a redirect to HTTPS on port 443. You MUST connect using the hostname not the IP address to reach your Node-RED instance. Websocket connections over SSL (wss:) are also supported.

The payload size per request is limited to 5MB, which is the Node-RED default. When a request exceeds this limit, the whole request is rejected with a 413 Payload Too Large error.

# TCP and UDP

The default TCP and UDP nodes have been removed from the Node-RED palette. This is because it is not possible to route these sorts of connections to the container running Node-RED inside the FlowFuse Cloud platform.

# MQTT

MQTT Connections to an external broker using the standard MQTT nodes will work fine as the connection is initiated by Node-RED.

FlowFuse does not provide an MQTT broker for general use by Node-RED instances. However the Project Nodes can be used to easily pass messages between Node-RED instances running in the platform.

# IP Addresses

Outbound connections from FlowFuse will always come from the IP address 63.33.85.112.

This can make access to a remote database or corporate network possible where those systems are protected by IP address filtering firewalls.

All incoming connections MUST use the hostname and not an IP address.

# Single-Sign On

FlowFuse supports configuring both SAML and LDAP based Single Sign-On for particular email domains.

This can be configured on request for FlowFuse Cloud by submitting a support request via our Contact Us page.

For SAML providers, you must have the ability to configure a SAML endpoint on your Identity Provider, and have the authority to configure SSO for your email domain.

We have currently validated our SSO support with the following Identity Providers:

Microsoft Entra
Google Workspace
OneLogin
Keycloak

If you are using a different Identity Provider, please still get in touch, and we can evaluate what will be required to enable it.

# Custom Hostnames

FlowFuse Cloud can support custom hostnames for instances in Enterprise teams.

This allows you to point your own subdomain, such as dashboard.example.com at one of your instances.

See Custom Hostnames for more information.

# Removing your account

Before you can delete your account, teams you own must either be deleted or have at least 1 other owner. Once this is done, you can remove your account by going to the "User Settings" page and clicking the "Delete Account" button.