Kestra vs Windmill(2026)
Kestra is better for teams that need strong data engineering use case. Windmill is the stronger choice if excellent for internal tooling. Kestra is open-source (from $0) and Windmill is open-source (from $0).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
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Kestra
Kestra is a declarative, YAML-based orchestration platform for data pipelines and workflows. Define flows as code, schedule them, and monitor executions — fully open source and self-hostable.
Starting at $0
Visit KestraWindmill
Windmill is an open-source developer platform to build internal tools, workflows, and scripts. Write scripts in Python/TypeScript, chain them visually, and share with your team.
Starting at $0
Visit WindmillHow Do Kestra and Windmill Compare on Features?
| Feature | Kestra | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | open-source | open-source |
| Starting price | $0 | $0 |
| YAML-based flows | ✓ | — |
| Open source | ✓ | ✓ |
| 400+ plugins | ✓ | — |
| Kafka/Postgres triggers | ✓ | — |
| Retry strategies | ✓ | — |
| Namespace isolation | ✓ | — |
| Enterprise SSO | ✓ | — |
| Script editor (Python/TS/Go/Bash) | — | ✓ |
| Visual flow builder | — | ✓ |
| Auto-generated UIs | — | ✓ |
| Job queuing | — | ✓ |
| Secret management | — | ✓ |
| Self-hostable | — | ✓ |
Kestra Pros and Cons vs Windmill
Kestra
Windmill
Should You Use Kestra or Windmill?
Choose Kestra if…
- •Strong data engineering use case
- •Git-friendly YAML flows
- •Excellent scheduling
Choose Windmill if…
- •Excellent for internal tooling
- •Auto-generates UIs from scripts
- •Free self-hosted