Well… On B-Hub we have the feature that you can share with groups, the entire community on the B-Hub or with everyone who has a link, no log-in required.
Reasoning why this is not available on C-Hub:
Access to all users : if the “Deployer” pays for execution, the cost are not controllable. However, if we let the user pay the execution cost and not the “Deployer”, we could enable that feature easily.
Access with a link, no login required: Cost control not really possible, unless the “Deployer” wants to sponsor the execution of the Data App.
Access for specific groups: on B-hub we use the info we get from e.g. LDAP or Active Directory or SAML or…
Hm. Is “Access to all users, as long as they pay” fitting your use-case?
Let me put one concern I have out there (which should be consistent with my feedback from PRO trial):
no matter who pays - what if the data is “bad" / faulty - i.e. consists of a somewhat infinite loop? Fault of the developer or risk of the user?
What if a bad actor intentionally created such a worklflow, made it accessible to everyone (with the user paying for it incl. mark-up that goes to the bad actor)?
I don’t want to play devils advocate and here and don’t get me wrong - I’d be a BIG fan of leveraging C-Hub to “monetise” useful Data Apps etc., but also think there are some risks to consider / mitigate.
good point - we already today have a mechanism to define a maximum expected runtime for a job execution which can be set by the deployer - that might help?
What if a bad actor intentionally created such a worklflow, made it accessible to everyone (with the user paying for it incl. mark-up that goes to the bad actor)?
Good point, but that’s a broader question (I think of the entire internet ). We will need mechanism to report incidents, allow to up- or down rate certain apps, caution/warnings on first execution etc. Not sure how to solve otherwise, besides explicit sharing e.g. data apps with only specific users and for the user only run data apps from users you trust.
Hi Christian, I have created a deployment with max job exec time set to two minutes, expecting the data app would abort after this time, but it doesn’t..
This is on team plan.
That’s a really good question — I’ve actually wondered about the same thing myself and even asked similar questions here on the forum.
From my business development experience, I think it’s really hard to persuade decision-makers or potential clients to create an account, set up a password, and log in — especially if it’s just to test a small proof-of-concept product. Back when I worked closely with C-level executives, I noticed that even those who personally approved BI tool licenses almost never logged into the tools themselves. I tried many times to get them interested in interactive dashboards, but most of them only wanted short visual summaries or one-page overviews that required no login hassle, instead of exploring the data firsthand.
That’s why I think there’s a lot of potential in a “KNIME Public” concept — something like Tableau Public, where workflows or Data Apps could run publicly in a safe, limited environment, without any login requirement, or be easily embedded into websites. In my humble opinion, C-Hub already sits somewhere in the middle of that road. A setup like that — maybe supported by ads, or through a credit-based system with simple IP-based limits — could make a lot of sense. For example, each unique IP address could be allowed to run a few workflows per day or a certain number of executions per month for free. This would prevent abuse and manage server load, while still keeping access frictionless — no usernames, no passwords, no sign-up walls. It would let creators show real interactivity to clients, investors, NGOs, or students without any login barriers.
In my view, this kind of public execution model could help KNIME grow not just as an analytics tool, but as a living showcase ecosystem that connects creators and decision-makers more naturally.
That said, KNIME is already an amazing tool and it’s creating great opportunities as it is — these are just my humble observations from experience.
It is hard to convince prospects to first create a CHub account and the pay up front for some credits for something that for them at that point is ‘just’ a demo
(defeats the low-code idea)
On B-Hub we have the feature that you can share with groups, the entire community on the B-Hub or with everyone who has a link, no log-in required.