head to head · open source
Windmill vs ByteChef
Windmill has 18,370 GitHub stars, 1,135 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped today. ByteChef has 1,054 stars, 178 forks, 455 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Windmill leads on adoption by 1,643% (18,370 vs 1,054 stars). Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; ByteChef is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence. Windmill has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, ByteChef 17%. Windmill 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
| Windmill | ByteChef | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 178 |
| 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 ByteChef if
- You want the ByteChef feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and ByteChef fits your workflow better
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 →
About ByteChef
The open source platform that unifies AI agent orchestration and workflow automation Autonomy and precision — in one platform. Documentation · Live Demo · Discord · Connect on X · Roadmap [//]: ( ) [//]: ( About ByteChef) [//]: () [//]: (ByteChef is an open source platform for AI agents, workflow automation, and API integration.) [//]: () [//]: (Instead of using separate tools for AI agents and automated workflows, ByteChef brings both into a single platform with one orchestration layer, centralized management, and enterprise grade security.) [//]: () [//]: (Built for modern enterprises, ByteChef can run in…
read the full ByteChef overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Windmill or ByteChef more popular?
Windmill has 18,370 GitHub stars and ByteChef has 1,054. Windmill has the larger community by that measure.
Are Windmill and ByteChef free?
Neither Windmill nor ByteChef 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 Windmill and ByteChef?
Windmill is written in Rust and ByteChef in Java. 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 ByteChef?
Choose Windmill if you want the larger community (18,370 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose ByteChef if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.