Node-RED Server Requirements: Node.js, Port 1880, Memory and the Monthly Hosting Cost

Node-RED's documentation, checked on 1 November 2026, is written for a tool that runs on a Raspberry Pi, and it does: a supported Node.js, a port, and a flag to cap the heap are the whole story on a device. Hosting it for a fleet of devices, a factory dashboard or a team of integrators asks a few more questions, and this guide answers them for the Node-RED package on MassiveGRID PaaS, built on Virtuozzo Application Platform (formerly Jelastic).

What Node-RED requires

The local install page asks for a supported version of Node.js (its FAQ lists which; the page's sample log shows a Node.js 22 runtime) and starts the editor on port 1880 by default, settable with the port option. Its memory advice is written for constrained devices: on a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone the node-red-pi launcher passes --max-old-space-size=128 to cap the heap. It notes that the Snap package cannot reach GPIO hardware and that a full install is needed for hardware access, which on a hosted server is moot: a hosted Node-RED talks to devices over MQTT, HTTP and databases, not GPIO.

What sizes a hosted Node-RED

Node-RED is a single Node.js process, and its footprint is set by three things. Flows and nodes: each installed node package is loaded into the process, and a palette of fifty community nodes is a few hundred megabytes before a message flows. Message rate and payload size: a flow that receives a thousand MQTT messages a second and writes them to PostgreSQL needs CPU and a heap that does not thrash; a flow that handles a form submission a minute needs almost nothing. Context storage and dashboards: flow context kept in memory grows with what you store in it, and the dashboard nodes hold websocket connections per viewer. The marketplace package deploys a Node.js node with persistent flows and nodes, editor authentication and HTTPS, and HTTP endpoints for devices and dashboards.

The three configurations on PaaS and their cost

Cloudlets are 128 MiB RAM plus 400 MHz CPU, billed at $0.003372 per cloudlet-hour, $2.46 per cloudlet-month; Node-RED is Apache-2.0 with no licence fee.

Add a Mosquitto broker and a PostgreSQL node from the marketplace beside it for a complete IoT back end; the factory dashboard post builds one in an afternoon, and the Mosquitto post sizes the broker for a 5,000-device fleet. The figures are ceilings before volume discounts; the PaaS pricing calculator prices the combination.

Heap size and the cloudlet limit

Node.js does not use all the memory a container allows by default; its heap has its own ceiling, and on the Standard row it is worth setting --max-old-space-size explicitly, to about three quarters of the node's RAM, so that a burst of messages is buffered rather than crashing the process. The platform's vertical scaling then adds cloudlets up to the limit as the heap grows, and the dashboard's memory graph shows whether the limit should move. Persist flows and credentials on the node's storage, which the package does, and set the credential secret in settings so an environment clone can decrypt them.

Security on a public server

A Node-RED on the internet with no login is a remote shell for anyone who finds it. The package enables editor authentication and HTTPS; keep both, put the HTTP endpoints that devices call behind an API key or a token node, and use the platform's internal network for the broker and database so that only Node-RED's own endpoints are public. For a team of integrators, the projects feature with Git keeps flows in a repository, and an environment clone is a staging Node-RED that costs cents for an afternoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Node-RED require to run?

A supported version of Node.js and a free port, 1880 by default, per the Node-RED local install documentation checked on 1 November 2026; on constrained devices the heap is capped with --max-old-space-size. The package on MassiveGRID PaaS installs a Node.js node with persistent flows, authentication and HTTPS.

How much memory does Node-RED need?

Node-RED runs on a Raspberry Pi with a 128 MB heap; a hosted instance with dozens of community nodes and busy flows wants 1 GiB, and high message rates or dashboards with many viewers 2 GiB, which are the Standard and Production configurations at about $19.68 and $39.36 a month.

What does hosting Node-RED cost?

About $9.84, $19.68 or $39.36 a month for the three configurations on MassiveGRID PaaS at $0.003372 per cloudlet-hour before volume discounts, plus a Mosquitto broker and a database from the marketplace when a fleet needs them. There is no licence fee.