head to head · open source
Windmill vs astron-rpa
Windmill has 17,982 GitHub stars, 1,097 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped today. astron-rpa has 5,542 stars, 598 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Windmill leads on adoption by 224% (17,982 vs 5,542 stars). Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; astron-rpa is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Windmill has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, astron-rpa 11%. Windmill was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (low-code), 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
| Windmill | astron-rpa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 598 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Windmill if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick astron-rpa if
- You want the astron-rpa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and astron-rpa fits your workflow better
About Windmill
Windmill is an open source developer platform for internal code, including APIs, background jobs, workflows, and UIs. It lives in the self hostable low code automation ecosystem and supports Python, TypeScript, Go, Bash, SQL, GraphQL, PowerShell, Rust, and more. The project is positioned as an open source alternative to Zapier and, in the README, to Retool, Pipedream, Superblocks, and a simplified Temporal.
read the full Windmill overview →
About astron-rpa
AstronRPA is an open source, enterprise grade Robotic Process Automation desktop application written in Java and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It provides a visual designer for low code and no code development, letting users build automation workflows through drag and drop rather than hand written scripts. The project lives in the iflytek/astron rpa repository and sits in the broader iFlytek Astron ecosystem, alongside Astron Agent, which serves as its native agent platform. Topics attached to the repository — agent, ai, llm, mcp, low code, no code, enterprise, data privacy, and on premise — describe tha…
read the full astron-rpa overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Windmill or astron-rpa more popular?
Windmill has 17,982 GitHub stars and astron-rpa has 5,542. Windmill has the larger community by that measure.
Are Windmill and astron-rpa free?
Both are open source. Windmill has no licence declared in this registry, and astron-rpa is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Windmill and astron-rpa?
Windmill is written in Rust and astron-rpa in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Windmill or astron-rpa?
Choose Windmill if you want the larger community (17,982 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose astron-rpa if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.