RunLoop — Hosted Automation Heartbeat for n8n and Zapier Workflows
Your automations die the moment your laptop closes. RunLoop keeps them alive in the cloud without forcing you to migrate to a new tool. Pay per execution minute, plug into your existing n8n or Zapier setup in 60 seconds.
Difficulty
intermediate
Category
Automation
Market Demand
Very High
Revenue Score
8/10
Platform
Web App
Vibe Code Friendly
No
Hackathon Score
🏆 7/10
Validated by Real Pain
— seeded from real-world friction
Automation builders on r/automation repeatedly report their scheduled workflows stop running the moment their laptop closes, with no hosted persistence layer that works with their existing tools.
What is it?
Every indie hacker on Reddit has the same story: they build a beautiful automation, it works perfectly, then they close their laptop and chaos ensues. RunLoop is a dead-simple hosted execution layer that acts as a persistent runner for existing n8n and Zapier workflows — no migration, no rebuild. Users paste a webhook URL, set a schedule, and RunLoop pings it on a cron from a always-on cloud instance. It logs every run, shows you exactly what failed and why, and charges per execution minute so small automators pay almost nothing while power users scale naturally. Buildable in a weekend using Next.js, Supabase, and a simple queue on Railway or Render.
Why now?
BullMQ reached stable v5 in early 2026 and Railway dropped persistent worker pricing — making a hosted queue layer under $30/month finally viable for solo founders.
- ▸Webhook scheduler: paste any webhook URL and set a cron expression, RunLoop fires it forever.
- ▸Run log dashboard: every execution shows status, response code, latency, and error body.
- ▸Failure alerts: Resend email fires within 60 seconds of any non-200 response.
- ▸Usage billing: Stripe Meters tracks execution minutes and auto-invoices monthly.
Target Audience
n8n and Zapier power users, indie hackers, and small agency operators — roughly 200k+ active n8n cloud and self-hosted users who complain about uptime on r/automation weekly.
Example Use Case
Maria runs a 12-step n8n workflow that invoices clients every Friday at 9am. Before RunLoop, she left her laptop on all Thursday night. Now she pastes her webhook, sets the cron, and goes to sleep.
User Stories
- ▸As an n8n self-hoster, I want my scheduled workflows to run even when my laptop is off, so that client deliverables are never missed.
- ▸As a Zapier power user, I want to see a log of every webhook execution with error details, so that I can debug failures without guessing.
- ▸As an agency operator, I want failure alerts sent to my email within a minute of a broken run, so that I can fix issues before clients notice.
Done When
- ✓Schedule creation: done when user pastes a webhook URL, sets a cron, saves, and sees it appear as active in the dashboard list.
- ✓Execution logging: done when a fired webhook shows status, response code, and latency in the run log table within 5 seconds.
- ✓Failure alert: done when a non-200 response triggers an email to the user within 60 seconds with the error body visible.
- ✓Billing: done when Stripe Meters correctly increments execution count after each run and usage appears on the billing page.
Is it worth building?
$29/month x 50 users = $1,450 MRR at month 3. Aggressive but achievable via r/automation cold DMs and Hacker News Show HN post.
Unit Economics
CAC: ~$5 via Reddit DMs. LTV: $348 (12 months at $29/month). Payback: under 1 month. Gross margin: ~90%.
Business Model
Usage-based SaaS — $0.005 per execution minute, $9/month floor plan, $29/month unlimited runs up to 10k/month
Monetization Path
Free tier: 100 runs/month. Paid floor plan activates on first schedule creation. Usage billing via Stripe Meters.
Revenue Timeline
First dollar: week 3 via beta upgrade. $1k MRR: month 3. $5k MRR: month 9.
Estimated Monthly Cost
Railway for queue workers: $20, Supabase: $25, Resend: $10, Stripe fees: ~$15. Total: ~$70/month at launch.
Profit Potential
Profitable at $3k MRR given sub-$150/month infra costs.
Scalability
High — add team plans, Slack alert integrations, and a run-history replay feature in V2.
Success Metrics
Week 2: 20 alpha testers. Month 1: 10 paying users. Month 3: 50 paying users at $29/month average.
Launch & Validation Plan
Post on r/automation asking who leaves laptops on for automations. DM the top 20 commenters with a free beta invite.
Customer Acquisition Strategy
First customer: DM 20 r/automation and r/n8n users who complained about uptime in the last 30 days, offer 3 months free for feedback. Then: Show HN post, ProductHunt launch, n8n community forum thread.
What's the competition?
Competition Level
Medium
Similar Products
n8n Cloud handles self-hosted migration but forces platform switch. Pipedream runs workflows but requires rebuilding. Zapier has no always-on guarantee for webhook receivers — RunLoop fills the execution persistence gap for bring-your-own-workflow users.
Competitive Advantage
Zero migration required — works with existing Zapier and n8n webhooks as-is. No new tool to learn.
Regulatory Risks
Low regulatory risk. GDPR: webhook payloads may contain PII — document data-in-transit encryption and offer EU region hosting in V2.
What's the roadmap?
Feature Roadmap
V1 (launch): webhook scheduler, run log, failure email alerts, Stripe usage billing. V2 (month 2-3): retry logic, Slack alert channel, team seats. V3 (month 4+): multi-region runners, run replay, n8n OAuth direct connect.
Milestone Plan
Phase 1 (Week 1-2): schema, queue worker, webhook executor ship. Phase 2 (Week 3-4): dashboard, billing, failure alerts live. Phase 3 (Month 2): 10 paying users, retention > 80%.
How do you build it?
Tech Stack
Next.js, Supabase, BullMQ on Railway, Resend for alerts, Stripe for usage billing — build with Cursor for backend queue logic, v0 for dashboard UI
Suggested Frameworks
BullMQ, node-cron, Supabase Realtime
Time to Ship
2 weeks
Required Skills
Node.js queue management, Supabase cron triggers, Stripe usage billing, webhook relay.
Resources
BullMQ docs, Stripe Meters docs, Railway deploy guides, n8n webhook docs.
MVP Scope
app/page.tsx (landing + hero CTA), app/dashboard/page.tsx (schedule list + run log), app/api/schedules/route.ts (CRUD schedules), app/api/runner/route.ts (BullMQ job enqueue), lib/queue.ts (BullMQ setup), lib/db/schema.ts (Drizzle schema), components/RunLog.tsx (run history table), workers/executor.ts (webhook fire + log), .env.example (required env vars), seed.ts (demo schedules).
Core User Journey
Sign up -> paste webhook URL -> set cron -> see first green run in log -> upgrade to paid.
Architecture Pattern
User creates schedule -> Supabase insert -> BullMQ repeatable job created -> worker fires HTTP request to webhook URL -> response logged to Postgres -> Resend alert on failure -> Stripe Meters increment on success.
Data Model
User has many Schedules. Schedule has many RunLogs. RunLog has status, response_code, latency_ms, error_body, executed_at.
Integration Points
Stripe for usage billing, Resend for failure alerts, BullMQ on Railway for job queue, Supabase for auth and run logs.
V1 Scope Boundaries
V1 excludes: workflow builder, team accounts, multi-region, custom retry logic, mobile app.
Success Definition
A paying stranger schedules a webhook, closes their laptop, and wakes up to a successful run log with zero founder involvement.
Challenges
Distribution is the hardest problem — r/automation users are vocal but free-tier-addicted. The pricing floor must be low enough to convert but high enough to cover Railway costs per user.
Avoid These Pitfalls
Do not build a full workflow editor — that is n8n. Do not offer a free tier with unlimited runs or Railway bills explode. Do not skip rate limiting on webhook executor or bad actors abuse it.
Security Requirements
Supabase Auth with Google OAuth, RLS on Schedules and RunLogs, webhook URLs encrypted at rest, 60 req/min rate limit per user on executor API.
Infrastructure Plan
Vercel for Next.js frontend, Supabase for Postgres and auth, Railway for BullMQ workers and Redis, Sentry for error tracking, GitHub Actions for CI.
Performance Targets
100 DAU, 2k runs/day at launch. Webhook executor target: under 300ms overhead. Dashboard load: under 1.5s. No caching needed at launch scale.
Go-Live Checklist
- ☐Security audit complete.
- ☐Payment flow tested end-to-end.
- ☐Sentry error tracking live.
- ☐Railway worker uptime monitored.
- ☐Custom domain with SSL configured.
- ☐Privacy policy and terms published.
- ☐10 beta users confirmed working.
- ☐Rollback plan: Railway redeploy documented.
- ☐Launch post drafted for HN and r/automation.
First Run Experience
On first run: three demo schedules are pre-loaded with fake run logs showing green and red statuses. User can immediately toggle a demo schedule and see a simulated run fire in the log. No manual config required: Supabase seed script pre-populates demo data on first auth.
How to build it, step by step
1. Define Drizzle schema for Schedule and RunLog entities in lib/db/schema.ts. 2. Run npx create-next-app with Tailwind and install drizzle-orm, bullmq, ioredis, resend, stripe. 3. Set up Supabase project with RLS on all tables and connect via service role key. 4. Build BullMQ repeatable job system in workers/executor.ts that fires HTTP POST to stored webhook URL. 5. Build CRUD API at app/api/schedules/route.ts with cron validation. 6. Build run log writer that inserts pass/fail result after each execution. 7. Add Resend failure alert triggered when response code is not 200. 8. Wire Stripe Meters to increment execution_minutes on each run. 9. Build dashboard with run log table and schedule toggle using v0 components. 10. Deploy workers to Railway and frontend to Vercel, then walk the full schedule-create-to-run-log journey end-to-end.
Generated
May 1, 2026
Model
claude-sonnet-4-6
Disclaimer: Ideas on this site are AI-generated and may contain inaccuracies. Revenue estimates, market demand figures, and financial projections are illustrative assumptions only — not financial advice. Do your own research before making any business or investment decisions. Technology availability, pricing, and market conditions change rapidly; always verify details independently.