Windmill Has a Free Workflow Engine — Build Internal Tools and Automations with Scripts

Windmill is an open-source workflow engine — turn scripts into UIs, APIs, and scheduled jobs.

What You Get for Free

• Script → UI — auto-generate forms from function parameters
• Script → API — every script gets an API endpoint
• Script → Cron — schedule any script
• Flows — visual workflow builder with branching and loops
• Multi-language — TypeScript, Python, Go, Bash, SQL, GraphQL
• Approval flows — human-in-the-loop steps
• Error handling — retries, timeouts, error handlers per step
• Variables & secrets — centralized secret management
• Groups & permissions — RBAC for teams
• Self-hostable — Docker Compose or Kubernetes

Quick Start

docker compose up -d  # from windmill's docker-compose.yml

# This script auto-generates a UI form with inputs for each parameter
def main(customer_email: str, refund_amount: float, reason: str):
    """Process a customer refund"""
    # Windmill creates a form with 3 fields automatically
    db.execute("INSERT INTO refunds VALUES (?, ?, ?)",
               customer_email, refund_amount, reason)
    send_email(customer_email, f"Refund of ${refund_amount} processed")
    return {"status": "refunded", "amount": refund_amount}

Why Developers Switch from n8n/Retool

n8n is no-code only, Retool is expensive:

• Code-first — write real Python/TypeScript, not drag-and-drop
• Auto-UI — function signature → form, no UI building
• Open source — self-host for free, no per-user pricing
• Flows — visual when you want, code when you need

An ops team built 15 Retool apps at $50/user/month ($750/month for 15 users). After Windmill: same functionality, self-hosted, $0/month.

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