Huginn vs Windmill
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted automation & workflows options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Huginn
Agents that monitor and act on your behalf
VS
Windmill
Developer platform for scripts, flows and apps
| Feature | Huginn | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 100 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Automation & Workflows | Automation & Workflows |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Ruby | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes |
| GitHub stars | ★ 49,985 | ★ 18,022 |
| First released | 2013 | 2022 |
| Replaces | IFTTT, Zapier | Zapier, Retool |
What are Huginn and Windmill?
Huginn
Huginn is a system for building agents that watch the web and act on your behalf, like an open-source IFTTT. It targets technical users automating monitoring and notifications. It is deployed via Docker.
- Agents that watch and act
- Scrape, filter and transform data
- Chain agents into pipelines
- Email and webhook actions
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
Huginn vs Windmill: key differences
Huginn is written in Ruby, while Windmill is built with Rust. Licensing differs — MIT for Huginn versus AGPL-3.0 for Windmill. Huginn is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Windmill. Huginn is the more established project (first released 2013), while Windmill arrived in 2022. Huginn has the considerably larger community, at 49,985 GitHub stars versus 18,022.
Why pick each one
Choose Huginn if…
- Very flexible automation
- Good for web monitoring
- No vendor lock-in
Watch out for
- Configuration is technical
- UI feels dated
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 Huginn or Windmill better?
Neither is universally better. Huginn has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Huginn and Windmill free and open-source?
Yes. Huginn is licensed under MIT and Windmill under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Huginn and Windmill with Docker?
Huginn: yes. Windmill: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Huginn or Windmill?
Huginn has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Windmill. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.