Node-RED vs Windmill

Node-RED

• Home automation and device projects on hardware such as a Raspberry Pi
• Industrial teams collecting and transforming operational data
• Developers who are comfortable running a Node.js service themselves

Windmill

• Engineering teams that want internal tools and automations kept as code
• Organizations that must run workflows on their own infrastructure
• Replacing scattered cron jobs and scripts with one orchestrated platform

Node-RED

• Node-RED is software you install and run yourself; the project offers no hosted service of its own, though third parties such as FlowFuse do.
• The machine that runs it needs a supported version of Node.js, or Docker.
• The project calls it low-code: custom logic is written as JavaScript in function nodes.
• Running on Android through Termux is described in the docs as a bit experimental.

Windmill

• Windmill is code-first: scripts and most flow steps are written in a programming language, so it suits engineers more than non-technical users.
• The free self-hosted edition stops at 3 workspaces, 50 users and 10 SSO users, has no audit logs and keeps run details for up to 30 days.
• Cloud Free covers 1,000 executions a month, and an execution is one job of under a second; each extra second of compute counts as another.
• Enterprise and Pro bill at least 2 compute units, and their instances report seat and memory use to Windmill through license telemetry.

Node-RED

Browser-based flow editor

Flows are built by wiring together nodes from a palette in the browser, then deployed to the runtime in a single click.

Function nodes

JavaScript functions can be written inside the editor in a rich text editor, and a built-in library saves functions, templates and flows for reuse.

Community nodes and flow library

The palette can be extended with new nodes, and the project says the community has shared more than 5,000 nodes and flows. An online flow library hosts them.

Runs from edge devices to the cloud

The Node.js runtime is light enough for low-cost hardware such as the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone, and guides also cover Docker, Windows, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Flows stored as JSON

Flows are saved as JSON, which can be imported and exported to share with others. A Projects feature, which needs git, puts flows under version control.

APIs and embedding

An Admin HTTP API administers the runtime remotely, and module APIs let developers embed Node-RED in an existing Node.js application.

Windmill

Scripts in more than 20 languages

A function in TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust, Bash, SQL, PHP or another supported language becomes an API endpoint and a form. Imports are resolved and versions locked at each deploy.

Workflows as a graph or as code

Flows are drawn in a flow editor or written in Python or TypeScript and called as an API endpoint. Retries, approval steps and parallel branches are built in.

Internal apps

An app is a React or Svelte frontend whose backend is your existing scripts and workflows. It can be shared with teams, published publicly or embedded in another product.

AI agents and AI-assisted building

Agents run on any of 12 model providers or your own OpenAI-compatible endpoint, with scripts and MCP servers as their tools. Scripts and flows can also be generated with AI in the UI.

Forks, review and rollback

Changes are made in a fork of the workspace, reviewed as a diff, then deployed to staging and production. Each deployment keeps its version, so an earlier one can be redeployed.

Run history and observability

Every run keeps its inputs, logs and result, and a failure can alert a team on Slack, Teams or by email. Enterprise adds audit logs, queue metrics and OpenTelemetry tracing.

Node-RED

• Node-RED$0

  The whole project under the Apache 2.0 license: the runtime, the browser-based editor and access to the community's nodes and flows.

Windmill

• Free and Open-source$0

  Self-hosted Community Edition with unlimited executions, capped at 3 workspaces, 50 users, 4 groups and 10 SSO users. Community support on Discord.

• Free (Cloud)$0

  Windmill Cloud with 1,000 executions a month, sign-in with Google, GitHub or GitLab, and community support on Discord. No credit card required.

• Team (Cloud)$10

  per seat / month, billed by usage each month

  Set per workspace. A seat covers one developer or two operators and includes 10,000 executions a month. 10 seats at most, with audit logs kept for 7 days.

• Pro (self-hosted)From $48

  per month: $8 per seat plus compute units

  For individuals, seed-stage startups and companies under 10 employees and $250k in revenue. Capped at 10 compute units and 10 SSO users, with no audit logs.

• Enterprise (self-hosted)From $120

  per month: $20 per developer seat, $50 per compute unit

  Audit logs, SAML and SCIM, Git sync, autoscaling, a commercial license and 24/7 priority support with a 3-hour response time. Operators count as half a seat.

• Enterprise (Cloud)From $840

  per month: $40 per developer seat plus compute

  A dedicated Windmill Cloud instance with isolated workers and database, unlimited audit log retention and 24/7 priority support.

Node-RED

No public discounts listed.

Windmill

• Annual discount

  16% off Enterprise and Pro with annual billing

  With the Annually option selected, the pricing page applies a 16% annual discount to Enterprise and Pro subscriptions, which comes to 10 months' price for the year.

• Nonprofit

  40% off Enterprise for nonprofits

  Windmill gives non-profits the regular Enterprise plan at a 40% discount: $12 per developer seat a month instead of $20 when self-hosted.

• Education

  40% off Enterprise for universities

  Universities get the same 40% discount on the regular Enterprise plan that Windmill gives non-profits.

• Startups

  Pro plan for seed-stage startups

  The self-hosted Pro plan, at $8 per seat against $20 on Enterprise, is open to individuals, seed-stage startups and businesses with fewer than 10 employees and $250k in revenue.