head to head · open source
ActivePieces vs Windmill
ActivePieces has 25,343 GitHub stars, 4,422 forks, 573 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Windmill has 18,360 stars, 1,136 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ActivePieces leads on adoption by 38% (25,343 vs 18,360 stars). ActivePieces is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. ActivePieces has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, Windmill 6%. ActivePieces was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai-agents), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| ActivePieces | Windmill | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 18K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.4K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ActivePieces if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Windmill if
- You want the Windmill feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Windmill fits your workflow better
About ActivePieces
An open source replacement for Zapier Documentation 🌪️ Create a Piece 🖉 Deploy 🔥 Join Discord 🤯 Welcome to Activepieces All in one AI automation designed to be extensible through a type safe pieces framework written in TypeScript . When you contribute pieces to Activepieces they become automatically available as MCP servers that you can use with LLMs through Claude Desktop, Cursor or Windsurf! 🔥 Why Activepieces is Different: 💖 Loved by Everyone : Intuitive interface and great experience for both technical and non technical users with a quick learning curve. 🌐 Open Ecosystem: All pieces are open source…
read the full ActivePieces overview →
About Windmill
Open source developer platform for internal code: APIs, background jobs, workflows and UIs. Self hostable alternative to Retool, Pipedream, Superblocks and a simplified Temporal with autogenerated UIs and custom UIs to trigger workflows and scripts as internal apps. Scripts are turned into sharable UIs automatically, and can be composed together into flows or used into richer apps built with low code. Supported languages: Python, TypeScript, Go, Bash, SQL, GraphQL, PowerShell, Rust, and more. Try it Website Docs Discord Hub Contributing Windmill Developer platform for APIs, background jobs, workflows and UIs…
read the full Windmill overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ActivePieces or Windmill more popular?
ActivePieces has 25,343 GitHub stars and Windmill has 18,360. ActivePieces has the larger community by that measure.
Are ActivePieces and Windmill free?
Neither ActivePieces nor Windmill declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ActivePieces and Windmill?
ActivePieces is written in TypeScript and Windmill in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ActivePieces or Windmill?
Choose ActivePieces if you want the larger community (25,343 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Windmill if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.