Flowroid or Automate?
Automate is a flowchart automation app with more than 410 building blocks and a free edition limited by running blocks. Flowroid is on-device Android automation built on a node canvas or drafted from a sentence by AI, with no root and no accessibility service.
- Automate on Google Play since
- 20146
- Sources checked
Which one should you use?
Start at 1. Each answer names an app or sends you to the next question.
Question 1: Do you need to tap buttons, type, or read the screen inside other apps?
- Yes
- Automatebuilt in, as a last resort
- No
- Go to 2
Question 2: Do you want every feature free, as long as fewer than 30 blocks run at once?
- Yes
- Automateits free edition
- No
- Go to 3
Question 3: Do you want an app that uses no accessibility service and has no root, ADB or Shizuku route at all?
- Yes
- Flowroidit has neither
- No
- Go to 4
Question 4: Do you want AI to draft flows, or to read and sort text inside them?
- Yes
- FlowroidCreate with AI and AI steps
- No
- AutomateorFlowroidboth are visual — try both
Side by side
What each app does, row by row. Numbers are sources, listed at the end.
| Automate | Flowroid | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, up to 30 running blocks; Premium, one in-app purchase, removes the limit.1 | $4.99 once. The optional Flowroid AI subscription ($2.99 / month or $24.99 / year) adds hosted AI; flows never need it.2 |
| Trying it first | The free edition has every feature; only the running-block limit applies.1 | A 14-day free trial of the whole app through Google Play, with no payment method.3 |
| Root | Not for most blocks; a shell-command block runs commands as superuser on rooted devices.4 | Never. No feature uses root, ADB or a computer.5 |
| Accessibility service | Used for UI interaction, key presses, screenshots, toast messages, the foreground app and fingerprint gestures.6 | None, in any release.5 |
| Tapping or reading other apps | Yes, built in: Interact and Inspect layout blocks, which its documentation calls a last resort.7,8 | No. It can launch apps, send intents, and reply to or press buttons on notifications, but it cannot tap or read another app’s screen.5 |
| How you build | Flowcharts of connected blocks.6 | A node canvas you wire by hand, or a sentence that AI turns into an editable flow; 97 ready-made templates.9 |
| Catalog | More than 410 building blocks.6 | 34 triggers and 54 actions, plus conditions, loops and sub-flows.10,11 |
| Code and scripting | Its own expressions, variables and functions, and shell-command blocks.6,12 | Variables and {{ }} template expressions. No JavaScript, Java or shell.13 |
| Tasker/Locale plugins | Yes — Locale/Tasker plug-in blocks.14 | No.11 |
| AI | None listed in its block reference or on Google Play, as of 22 October 2026.6,15 | Create with AI drafts a whole flow from a sentence, and five AI steps run inside flows. Hosted AI needs no API key; your own model (Ollama, LM Studio or any OpenAI-compatible server) is free.16,17 |
| Receiving HTTP requests | A built-in web server through the HTTP accept block, which its documentation describes for simple message exchanges.6,18 | An opt-in HTTP API server that requires authentication and listens only on the phone until LAN access is turned on.19 |
Where each fits better
Where Automate fits better
Where Flowroid fits better
- No accessibility service and no superuser route at all; Automate uses the Accessibility API for several features.5,6
- AI: Create with AI drafts a flow from a sentence, and AI steps classify, extract, summarize or translate inside a running flow.16
- An HTTP API with authentication and scoped keys, off and phone-only by default.19
Sources
Every source was read on . Every claim about another app on this page carries the number of the source that says it. Prices are Google Play’s US prices on that day; apps change, so check the source before you rely on a detail. Something here out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.
- Automate documentation — Premiumllamalab.com
- Flowroid help — Plans & pricingflowroid.com
- Flowroid help — Free trialflowroid.com
- Automate documentation — Shell command superuserllamalab.com
- Flowroid help — Troubleshooting & FAQflowroid.com
- Automate on Google Playplay.google.com
- Automate documentation — Interactllamalab.com
- Automate documentation — Inspect layoutllamalab.com
- Flowroid help — Building flowsflowroid.com
- Flowroid help — Trigger catalogflowroid.com
- Flowroid help — Action catalogflowroid.com
- Automate documentation — Shell commandllamalab.com
- Flowroid help — Template expressionsflowroid.com
- Automate — home pagellamalab.com
- Automate documentation — Block referencellamalab.com
- Flowroid help — The AI assistant and AI stepsflowroid.com
- Flowroid help — Running your own modelflowroid.com
- Automate documentation — HTTP acceptllamalab.com
- Flowroid help — The embedded HTTP API serverflowroid.com
Other comparisons
Or see all four apps on one page.
- Flowroid vs TaskerChoose Tasker to drive other apps’ screens, use plugins or write code; choose Flowroid for automation with no accessibility service and no root, built on a canvas or from a sentence.
- Flowroid vs MacroDroidChoose MacroDroid for a free tier, built-in screen automation or plugins; choose Flowroid for no accessibility service, no root or ADB route, no ads, and flows drafted whole from a sentence.
Try Flowroid against your own automations
The quickest way to know is to rebuild one thing you already run in Automate. The trial is the whole app, and nothing in it needs root or an accessibility service.
14 days free, everything included. Then $4.99 once.