head to head · open source
Windmill vs magic
Windmill has 17,982 GitHub stars, 1,097 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped today. magic has 1,192 stars, 176 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Windmill leads on adoption by 1,409% (17,982 vs 1,192 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 (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 | magic | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 176 |
| 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
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 magic
Magic is an MIT licensed low code platform and MCP server, written in C for .NET 10, that turns plain English into a working full stack application — database, secure API, business logic and frontend — running on your own hardware with no vendor lock in.
read the full magic overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Windmill or magic more popular?
Windmill has 17,982 GitHub stars and magic has 1,192. 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 (17,982 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose magic if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.