Question 1

Activepieces or Windmill: which should a small business choose?

Accepted Answer

Choose Activepieces if you want: simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack). Activepieces and Windmill publish no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.

Question 2

Which is cheaper to self-host, Activepieces or Windmill?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Windmill: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Our estimate is the cheapest Hetzner Cloud plan that meets each project's official RAM and vCPU figure; it covers the server only.

Question 3

How much hardware do Activepieces and Windmill need?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: not published. Windmill: not published.

Question 4

What is the license difference between Activepieces and Windmill?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: MIT (core) + Activepieces Enterprise License (ee directories) (Open core). Everything outside packages/ee and packages/server/api/src/app/ee is MIT. Code in those directories needs a commercial license. Windmill: AGPLv3 + Apache-2.0 clients; proprietary enterprise code; Community Edition images under Windmill terms (Open core). The source without the "enterprise" flag is AGPLv3 (clients and OpenAPI spec Apache-2.0). The official Community Edition images include proprietary code: free to use internally and redistribute as is, but not to sell, offer as a managed service, modify or wrap. Embedding it in a product you sell needs a commercial license. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Question 5

Is Activepieces or Windmill more actively maintained?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces: Active, last commit Oct 23, 2026. Windmill: Active, last commit Oct 24, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 24, 2026.

Question 6

Which is easier to deploy, Activepieces or Windmill?

Accepted Answer

Activepieces installs via Docker (single container, embedded DB) (single container); Windmill via Docker Compose (multi-container stack). Activepieces lists 3 known gotchas and Windmill lists 4; see each app page.

	Activepieces	Windmill
Category	Workflow automation with AI	Workflow automation with AI
What it is	Open-source Zapier alternative with AI agents, MCP and human-in-the-loop steps.	Open-source developer platform for scripts, workflows, AI agents and internal apps, self-hostable.
License	MIT (core) + Activepieces Enterprise License (ee directories)	AGPLv3 + Apache-2.0 clients; proprietary enterprise code; Community Edition images under Windmill terms
License type	Open core	Open core
License conditions	Everything outside packages/ee and packages/server/api/src/app/ee is MIT. Code in those directories needs a commercial license.	The source without the "enterprise" flag is AGPLv3 (clients and OpenAPI spec Apache-2.0). The official Community Edition images include proprietary code: free to use internally and redistribute as is, but not to sell, offer as a managed service, modify or wrap. Embedding it in a product you sell needs a commercial license.
Status	Active	Active
GitHub stars	25.2k	18.3k
Last commit	Oct 23, 2026	Oct 24, 2026
Latest release	0.92.3-hotfix.1	v1.848.2
Minimum hardware	Not published	Not published
Recommended hardware	Not published	Not published
RAM measured by us	1.3 GiB idle, 2.4 GiB working (our test, v0.92.3, Oct 22, 2026)	Not tested yet
GPU	Not required / not stated	Not required / not stated
Est. server cost	from €35.99/mo (based on our test, not official)	Not estimated
Deploy method	Docker (single container, embedded DB)	Docker Compose
Known gotchas	3 listed	4 listed
Telemetry	On by default	On by default
Calls home by default	Not documented	Not documented
SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP)	Paid / enterprise only (SAML paid)	Free with limits (OIDC free with limits · SAML paid)
Audit log	Paid / enterprise only	Basic free, more in paid plan
RBAC	Paid / enterprise only	Basic free, more in paid plan
Details	Full Activepieces guide →	Full Windmill guide →

Activepieces vs Windmill

Short answer