Prometheus
Windmill
| Feature | Prometheus | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free only | Free / from $10/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | devops-engineers, sre-teams, kubernetes-users, infrastructure-teams | developers, devops-teams, internal-tools, data-pipelines |
| Founded | 2012 | 2022 |
| Metrics Collection | ✓ | ✗ |
| Alerting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Promql | ✓ | ✗ |
| Service Discovery | ✓ | ✗ |
| Grafana Integration | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi Dimensional Data | ✓ | ✗ |
| Workflow Editor | ✗ | ✓ |
| Script To Ui | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduling | ✗ | ✓ |
| Approval Flows | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi Language | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Hostable | ✗ | ✓ |
| Audit Logs | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Prometheus Pros
- Free and open-source
- Powerful query language
- Great Kubernetes integration
- Active community
✗ Prometheus Cons
- No built-in long-term storage
- Complex setup
- Steep learning curve
✓ 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
Prometheus is built for devops engineers and sre teams, with a focus on metrics-collection and alerting. Windmill targets developers and devops teams and leads with workflow-editor and script-to-ui.
Prometheus uses custom enterprise pricing, while Windmill starts at $10/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Windmill offers broader built-in capabilities (7 features vs 6), while Prometheus takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
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.