What is Windmill?
Windmill is an open-source, self-hostable code-first platform for workflows, apps and AI agents, running on the fastest self-hostable orchestrator. Engineers write code in TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP, Bash, C#, SQL, Rust, Ruby and R, or any Docker image. Business teams build on the same platform with AI sessions, and engineers control what ships through review, promotion between environments and dedicated workers: see let business teams build with AI safely. It's an alternative to the likes of Lovable, Retool, n8n, Airflow, Prefect, Kestra and Temporal, and includes:
- An execution runtime for scalable, low-latency function execution across a worker fleet.
- An orchestrator for assembling these functions into flows, built in a visual editor, as YAML or as workflows as code.
- A full-code app builder for custom frontends in React or Svelte connected to Windmill backend runnables.
- Data tables, DuckDB and DuckLake for storing and transforming data, wired into pipelines (alpha).
- A low-code app editor (legacy) for creating data-centric dashboards with drag-and-drop components.
You can build in the web IDE, with AI in the browser, or locally with the CLI and your coding agent, deploying from a Git repository.
Start your project today with our Cloud App (no credit card needed) or opt for self-hosting.
Take a tour of Windmill
Explore our platform by watching these demos of our main features:
Develop faster
Focus on code that matters: your critical business logic, from data transformation to internal API calls, starts as scripts and SQL files. Windmill transforms these into scalable microservices and tools without the usual heavy lifting.
Boilerplate code is eliminated as Windmill takes care of the repetitive work of building UIs, handling errors, scaling logic, and managing dependencies, making these aspects more streamlined.
Core features
An efficient runtime: execute code across languages with minimal overhead and instant starts.
Smart dependency and input management: automatically generate lockfiles and input specs from your code, ensuring consistent dependency versions and simplified input handling.
Web IDE, visual builders and AI: build with AI in AI sessions, create scripts with advanced editing tools and auto-generated UIs, build flows with a drag-and-drop interface, build full-code apps with React or Svelte, or design low-code apps (legacy) without extensive coding.
Enterprise-ready: Windmill offers permissioning, secret management, OAuth, and more, wrapped in an enterprise-grade platform.
Integrations and automations: with webhooks, an open API, and a scheduler, Windmill connects to the rest of your infrastructure.
Local development: develop scripts and flows locally using your favorite IDE with the VS Code extension and CLI, then sync with Git integration for version control and deployment workflows.
Compare
Workflow engines like Temporal and Airflow, internal tool builders like Retool and AI app builders like Lovable each cover part of what Windmill does. Windmill runs workflows, apps, AI agents and data pipelines on one open-source platform you can self-host, with review and promotion for what business teams build with AI.
Learn how Windmill compares to other products like Retool, n8n, Airflow, Prefect, Kestra and Temporal.