Loops
Windmill
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $49/mo | Free / from $10/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.4 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | saas-companies, startups, product-led-growth, developers | developers, devops-teams, internal-tools, data-pipelines |
| Founded | 2022 | 2022 |
| Email Campaigns | ✓ | ✗ |
| Automation Loops | ✓ | ✗ |
| Transactional Email | ✓ | ✗ |
| Audience Segments | ✓ | ✗ |
| Analytics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Api | ✓ | ✗ |
| Templates | ✓ | ✗ |
| Workflow Editor | ✗ | ✓ |
| Script To Ui | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| Approval Flows | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Language | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hostable | ✗ | ✓ |
| Audit Logs | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Loops Pros
- Purpose-built for SaaS (not retrofitted from marketing)
- Beautiful default templates and editor
- Transactional and marketing in one platform
- Free plan with 1,000 contacts
✗ Loops Cons
- Newer platform with fewer integrations
- Limited advanced segmentation compared to mature tools
- Not suited for non-SaaS businesses
✓ 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
Loops is built for saas companies and startups, with a focus on email-campaigns and automation-loops. 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 $49/mo for Loops. That $39/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.