head to head · open source
Windmill vs puck
Windmill has 17,982 GitHub stars, 1,097 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped today. puck has 13,342 stars, 977 forks, 200 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Windmill leads on adoption by 35% (17,982 vs 13,342 stars). Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; puck is written in TypeScript under MIT. Windmill has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, puck 7%. 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
| Windmill | puck | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 13K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 977 |
| 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 puck if
- You want the puck feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and puck 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 puck
Puck is a modular, open source visual editor for React.js that lets teams assemble their own drag and drop editing experiences from their existing React components, and it is aimed at developers building internal systems or commercial products who want to own both the editor and the data behind it.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Windmill or puck more popular?
Windmill has 17,982 GitHub stars and puck has 13,342. Windmill has the larger community by that measure.
Are Windmill and puck free?
Both are open source. Windmill has no licence declared in this registry, and puck is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Windmill and puck?
Windmill is written in Rust and puck in TypeScript. 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 puck?
Choose Windmill if you want the larger community (17,982 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose puck if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.