head to head · open source
Windmill vs magic
Windmill has 18,372 GitHub stars, 1,135 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped yesterday. magic has 1,223 stars, 178 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Windmill leads on adoption by 1,402% (18,372 vs 1,223 stars). Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; magic is written in C# under MIT. Windmill has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, magic 15%. 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 | magic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| 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 magic if
- You want the magic feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and magic 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 magic
Instant SECURE Full Stack Apps and AI Agents Turn plain English into a working full stack app — database, secure API, business logic, and frontend — running on your own hardware , with zero lock in . An open source alternative to Lovable, Bolt, and Replit that gives you the whole backend, plus an MCP server that turns every endpoint into a tool for Claude, Cursor, or Codex. Read more about Hyperlambda. [ ] Run it in 60 seconds Then open localhost:5555 , point it at localhost:4444 , and log in with root / root . Point the API Wizard at your database, and it generates a complete, secured REST API — then extend it…
read the full magic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Windmill or magic more popular?
Windmill has 18,372 GitHub stars and magic has 1,223. Windmill has the larger community by that measure.
Are Windmill and magic free?
Both are open source. Windmill has no licence declared in this registry, and magic is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Windmill and magic?
Windmill is written in Rust and magic in C#. 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 magic?
Choose Windmill if you want the larger community (18,372 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose magic if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.