autobrr vs Windmill
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
autobrr
Automation tool for filtering and processing release feeds
VS
Windmill
Developer platform for scripts, flows and apps
| Feature | autobrr | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,077 | ★ 18,022 |
| First released | 2021 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Zapier | Zapier, Retool |
What are autobrr and Windmill?
autobrr
autobrr is an open-source automation tool that monitors IRC and RSS release feeds, applies filters, and triggers actions such as sending releases to download clients. It is fully self-hosted.
- IRC and RSS monitoring
- Powerful filtering rules
- Download client actions
- Web interface
Windmill
Windmill is a developer platform that turns scripts into workflows, APIs, and internal apps with scheduling and approvals. It targets engineers automating internal tooling. It is deployed via Docker with PostgreSQL.
- Scripts in Python, TypeScript and more
- Auto-generated UIs for scripts
- Flows with branching and retries
- Fast Rust execution engine
autobrr vs Windmill: key differences
Autobrr is written in Go, while Windmill is built with Rust. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for autobrr versus AGPL-3.0 for Windmill. Autobrr is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Windmill. Windmill has the considerably larger community, at 18,022 GitHub stars versus 3,077.
Why pick each one
Choose autobrr if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Choose Windmill if…
- Great for developer automation
- Fast and scalable
- Code-first approach
Watch out for
- More technical than no-code tools
- Requires Postgres
Frequently asked questions
Is autobrr or Windmill better?
Neither is universally better. Windmill has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are autobrr and Windmill free and open-source?
Yes. autobrr is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Windmill under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run autobrr and Windmill with Docker?
autobrr: yes. Windmill: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, autobrr or Windmill?
autobrr has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Windmill. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.