Celery vs Windmill
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Celery
Distributed task queue for Python with scheduling support
VS
Windmill
Developer platform for scripts, flows and apps
| Feature | Celery | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary, source | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,774 | ★ 17,474 |
| First released | 2009 | 2022 |
| Replaces | AWS Batch, AWS SQS | Zapier, Retool |
Why pick each one
Choose Windmill if…
- Great for developer automation
- Fast and scalable
- Code-first approach
Frequently asked questions
Is Celery or Windmill better?
Neither is universally better. Celery has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Celery and Windmill free and open-source?
Yes. Celery is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Windmill under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Celery and Windmill with Docker?
Celery: check the project docs for container support. Windmill: yes.