Question 1

Skyvern or Windmill: which should a small business choose?

Accepted Answer

Choose Windmill if you want: fewer license conditions (Open core vs Network copyleft (AGPL)). Windmill publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.

Question 2

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

Accepted Answer

Skyvern: from €19.99/mo. 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 Skyvern and Windmill need?

Accepted Answer

Skyvern: recommended 4 GB RAM (no separate minimum published). Windmill: not published.

Question 4

What is the license difference between Skyvern and Windmill?

Accepted Answer

Skyvern: AGPL-3.0 (anti-bot features only in the managed cloud) (Network copyleft (AGPL)). Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Skyvern and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source under AGPL-3.0. Anti-bot measures are not in the open-source repository. 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 Skyvern or Windmill more actively maintained?

Accepted Answer

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

Question 6

Which is easier to deploy, Skyvern or Windmill?

Accepted Answer

Skyvern installs via Docker Compose (multi-container stack); Windmill via Docker Compose (multi-container stack). Skyvern lists 4 known gotchas and Windmill lists 4; see each app page.

	Skyvern	Windmill
Category	Workflow automation with AI	Workflow automation with AI
What it is	Browser automation agent that uses LLMs and computer vision to fill forms and run workflows on websites.	Open-source developer platform for scripts, workflows, AI agents and internal apps, self-hostable.
License	AGPL-3.0 (anti-bot features only in the managed cloud)	AGPLv3 + Apache-2.0 clients; proprietary enterprise code; Community Edition images under Windmill terms
License type	Network copyleft (AGPL)	Open core
License conditions	Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Skyvern and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source under AGPL-3.0. Anti-bot measures are not in the open-source repository.	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	23.3k	18.3k
Last commit	Oct 24, 2026	Oct 24, 2026
Latest release	v1.0.56	v1.848.2
Minimum hardware	Not published	Not published
Recommended hardware	4 GB RAM	Not published
RAM measured by us	Not tested yet	Not tested yet
GPU	Not required / not stated	Not required / not stated
Est. server cost	from €19.99/mo	Not estimated
Deploy method	Docker Compose	Docker Compose
Known gotchas	4 listed	4 listed
Telemetry	On by default	On by default
Calls home by default	Not documented	Not documented
SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP)	Not documented	Free with limits (OIDC free with limits · SAML paid)
Audit log	Not documented	Basic free, more in paid plan
RBAC	Not documented	Basic free, more in paid plan
Details	Full Skyvern guide →	Full Windmill guide →

Skyvern vs Windmill

Short answer