Firecrawl 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?
Firecrawl
Turn websites into clean data for AI applications
VS
Windmill
Developer platform for scripts, flows and apps
| Feature | Firecrawl | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 162,961 | ★ 17,474 |
| First released | 2024 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Apify | Zapier, Retool |
Why pick each one
Choose Firecrawl if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 163k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Windmill if…
- Great for developer automation
- Fast and scalable
- Code-first approach
Frequently asked questions
Is Firecrawl or Windmill better?
Neither is universally better. Firecrawl has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Firecrawl and Windmill free and open-source?
Yes. Firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Windmill under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Firecrawl and Windmill with Docker?
Firecrawl: yes. Windmill: yes.