Flowise
Windmill
| Feature | Flowise | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $19/mo | Free / from $10/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.2 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | developers, startups, non-technical-users, ai-teams | developers, devops-teams, internal-tools, data-pipelines |
| Founded | 2023 | 2022 |
| Visual Builder | ✓ | ✗ |
| Llm Chains | ✓ | ✗ |
| Ai Agents | ✓ | ✗ |
| Rag | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self Hosted | ✓ | ✗ |
| Open Source | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Agent | ✓ | ✗ |
| Workflow Editor | ✗ | ✓ |
| Script To Ui | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| Approval Flows | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Language | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hostable | ✗ | ✓ |
| Audit Logs | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Flowise Pros
- Visual drag-and-drop for rapid prototyping
- Flexible model choice across LLM providers
- Self-hosting for full data control
- 100+ built-in nodes and connectors
✗ Flowise Cons
- Complex flows hard to debug at scale
- Enterprise features locked behind paid tiers
- Documentation quality inconsistent
✓ Windmill Pros
- Open-source and self-hostable
- Supports Python, TypeScript, Go, Bash, SQL natively
- Auto-generates UI from script parameters
- Excellent scheduling and workflow orchestration
✗ Windmill Cons
- Smaller community than Zapier/n8n
- Self-hosting requires infrastructure knowledge
- Less polished documentation for beginners
The Verdict
Flowise is built for developers and startups, with a focus on visual-builder and llm-chains. Windmill targets developers and devops teams and leads with workflow-editor and script-to-ui.
On pricing, Windmill is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $10/mo compared to $19/mo for Flowise. That $9/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Both tools are a solid fit for developers — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.