head to head · open source
frigate vs Windmill
frigate has 35,947 GitHub stars, 3,601 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Windmill has 17,957 stars, 1,096 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped yesterday. frigate leads on adoption by 100% (35,947 vs 17,957 stars). frigate is written in TypeScript under MIT; Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. frigate has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Windmill 6%. frigate was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| frigate | Windmill | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick frigate if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT 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 frigate
Frigate NVR is a complete and local network video recorder built for Home Assistant, with AI object detection. It uses OpenCV and Tensorflow to run realtime object detection locally on IP cameras, so video analysis happens on your own hardware instead of a vendor cloud. Project lives in the Home Assistant home automation ecosystem, with tight integration through a custom component, and it talks over MQTT so other systems can consume its events. Written mainly in TypeScript, MIT licensed, 8 years old, 35,896 stars and 3,596 forks on GitHub.
read the full frigate overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is frigate or Windmill more popular?
frigate has 35,947 GitHub stars and Windmill has 17,957. frigate has the larger community by that measure.
Are frigate and Windmill free?
Both are open source. frigate is licensed under MIT, and Windmill has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between frigate and Windmill?
frigate 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, frigate or Windmill?
Choose frigate if you want the larger community (35,947 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Windmill if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.