n8n significantly outpaces Windmill in community adoption with 198,027 stars compared to 17,298 stars on GitHub. This 11.4x difference suggests n8n has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, n8n has 59,632 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Both projects show recent activity, with n8n last updated 15 hours ago and Windmill 14 hours ago.

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Typescript. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: n8n uses SCSS, Vue while Windmill leverages Python, Golang, Rust, C, Objective-C, SvelteKit.

n8n has been in development longer, starting 7 years ago, compared to Windmill which began 4 years ago. This 2.9-year head start suggests n8n may have more mature features and established processes.

Both tools serve similar use cases in Workflow Automation, Workflow Orchestration. However, they also have distinct specializations: n8n also focuses on Low-Code/No-Code while Windmill extends into PaaS & Deployment Tools.

Both n8n and Windmill offer self-hosting capabilities, giving you full control over your data and infrastructure.