head to head · open source
Windmill vs OpenProgram
Windmill has 18,360 GitHub stars, 1,136 forks, 852 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenProgram has 520 stars, 63 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Windmill leads on adoption by 3,431% (18,360 vs 520 stars). Windmill is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; OpenProgram is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Windmill has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, OpenProgram 12%. Windmill was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (python), 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 | OpenProgram | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 520 |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 63 |
| 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 OpenProgram if
- You want the OpenProgram feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenProgram 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 OpenProgram
Self Programming AI Assistant. Capture, automate, and refine all your workflows. Getting Started · Install · Docs · API Reference · Philosophy · 中文 "The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees oneself." — Igor Stravinsky , Poetics of Music We propose Agentic Programming . An LLM is flexible; code is deterministic. Let the model run everything and you get chaos — unpredictable execution, context explosion, no output guarantees; hard code everything and you lose the intelligence. A harness balances the two, interleaved moment to moment — Python for the flow you want…
read the full OpenProgram overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Windmill or OpenProgram more popular?
Windmill has 18,360 GitHub stars and OpenProgram has 520. Windmill has the larger community by that measure.
Are Windmill and OpenProgram free?
Both are open source. Windmill has no licence declared in this registry, and OpenProgram is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Windmill and OpenProgram?
Windmill is written in Rust and OpenProgram in Python. 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 OpenProgram?
Choose Windmill if you want the larger community (18,360 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose OpenProgram if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.