head to head · open source
ProxmoxVE vs Windmill
ProxmoxVE has 30,000 GitHub stars, 2,939 forks, 27 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Windmill has 18,360 stars, 1,136 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ProxmoxVE leads on adoption by 63% (30,000 vs 18,360 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 | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| 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 One command installations for services, containers, and VMs on Proxmox VE A community project — built on the foundation of @tteck 's original work What is this? Simplify your Proxmox VE setup with community driven automation scripts. Install and configure popular self hosted services with a single command — no manual package hunting, no config file archaeology. Paste a command into your Proxmox shell, answer a few prompts, and your container or VM is up and running. The collection covers hundreds of services across categories like home automation, media servers, networking tools…
read the full ProxmoxVE overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ProxmoxVE or Windmill more popular?
ProxmoxVE has 30,000 GitHub stars and Windmill has 18,360. 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 (30,000 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Windmill if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.