head to head · open source
ProxmoxVE vs Windmill
ProxmoxVE has 29,607 GitHub stars, 2,887 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Windmill has 17,957 stars, 1,096 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ProxmoxVE leads on adoption by 65% (29,607 vs 17,957 stars). ProxmoxVE is written in Shell under MIT; Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. ProxmoxVE has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Windmill 6%. Windmill 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
| ProxmoxVE | Windmill | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Shell | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ProxmoxVE if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- 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 ProxmoxVE
Proxmox VE Helper Scripts (Community Edition) is a collection of Shell scripts that install and configure self hosted services as containers or virtual machines on Proxmox VE. It is a community project built on the foundation of @tteck's original work, distributed under the MIT license, and it lives in the Proxmox VE and homelab ecosystem alongside LXC, Docker, Debian, Ubuntu, and Alpine tooling. The scripts cover hundreds of services across home automation, media, networking, monitoring, databases, security, and developer tooling.
read the full ProxmoxVE 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 ProxmoxVE or Windmill more popular?
ProxmoxVE has 29,607 GitHub stars and Windmill has 17,957. ProxmoxVE has the larger community by that measure.
Are ProxmoxVE and Windmill free?
Both are open source. ProxmoxVE is licensed under MIT, and Windmill has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ProxmoxVE and Windmill?
ProxmoxVE is written in Shell 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, ProxmoxVE or Windmill?
Choose ProxmoxVE if you want the larger community (29,607 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Windmill if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.