What is the main difference between Kestra and Windmill?

Kestra and Windmill are both workflow orchestration tools but differ in their approach, features, and target audience. Compare their GitHub stats, technology stack, and community adoption to make the best choice.

Which is better: Kestra or Windmill?

The choice between Kestra and Windmill depends on your specific needs, technical requirements, and team preferences. Both are quality open source solutions with active communities.

Can I migrate from Kestra to Windmill?

Migration between Kestra and Windmill is possible but requires careful planning. Consider data export/import capabilities, feature parity, and potential workflow changes.

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Kestra vs Windmill

Learn how Kestra and Windmill differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these workflow orchestration tools is best for you.

Kestra

YAML-based orchestration platform with 1400+ plugins for running data pipelines, AI workflows, and infrastructure automation across teams at scale.

Visit Kestra

Windmill

Powerful, self-hosted platform for building and running workflows, scripts, and apps with code-first approach and collaborative features.

Visit Windmill

Detailed Comparison

Kestra appears to have several advantages over Windmill, particularly in popularity, maturity and licensing. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.

Kestra wins

Community & Popularity

Kestra leads in popularity with 27,812 stars vs 17,550 stars for Windmill. The 58% higher star count indicates stronger community adoption. In terms of developer contributions, Kestra has 2,919 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Windmill wins

Growth Momentum

Windmill is growing faster, adding 377 stars in the last 30 days (+2.2%) against adding 403 stars for Kestra (+1.5%). Windmill is the smaller project of the two, so it is closing the gap rather than extending a lead.

Comparable

Development Activity

Both projects show recent activity, with Kestra last updated 11 hours ago and Windmill 10 hours ago.

Comparable

Technology Stack

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, Bash, Typescript, Python. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Kestra uses JSX, SCSS, Vue, Java while Windmill leverages CSS, Golang, C, Rust, Objective-C, SvelteKit.

Kestra wins

Project Maturity

Kestra has been in development longer, starting 7 years ago, compared to Windmill which began 4 years ago. This 2.7-year head start suggests Kestra may have more mature features and established processes.

Kestra wins

Licensing

Kestra is licensed under Apache-2.0, while Windmill's license terms are not publicly specified.

Comparable

Use Cases & Features

Both tools serve similar use cases in Workflow Orchestration. However, they also have distinct specializations: Kestra also focuses on ETL & Data Integration while Windmill extends into PaaS & Deployment Tools, Workflow Automation.

Comparable