Airbyte vs Windmill
Airbyte and Windmill are both data integration & ETL tools. Airbyte is aimed at developers and small businesses, while Windmill is aimed at developers. Windmill costs less, from $10/mo versus $20/mo for Airbyte. Both have a free plan.
Open-source data movement with 600+ connectors
Open-source developer platform for scripts, flows and apps
| Pricing | Open source · $20 | Open source · $10 |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | — |
| Built for | Developers, Small businesses | Developers |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | US · 2020 | FR · 2022 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Airbyte if
Data teams who want connector breadth and control at lower cost and can manage some operations.
- Open source with huge connector catalog
- Build custom connectors quickly
- Lower cost than Fivetran at volume
Look elsewhere if: Teams wanting fully managed, zero-maintenance pipelines (Fivetran).
Choose Windmill if
Developers wanting code-first automation.
- Very fast engine
- Code-first
- Open source
Look elsewhere if: No-code users.
Airbyte vs Windmill pricing
Airbyte
- Core (self-hosted)$0Open-source edition, self-managed
- Standard$20/mo5 credits included, extra credits $5; 1-hr syncs
- Plus$189/mo40 credits; 15-min syncs, SSO, 2 workspaces
- ProCustomCapacity-based; 5-min syncs, premium support
- Enterprise FlexCustomHybrid or in-boundary deployment
Windmill
- Community Edition$0Self-hosted, unlimited executions, max 10 users with SSO
- Cloud Team$10/seat/moManaged cloud; per seat (from page structured data)
- Enterprise (self-hosted)from $120/mo$20/dev/mo + $50/worker/mo compute; audit logs, SAML
- Enterprise (cloud)CustomBased on seats and compute units
Airbyte · Key features
- 600+ connectors with certified and community tiers
- No-code Connector Builder and AI connector generation
- Incremental sync, CDC and schema change handling
- Self-hosted (Docker, Kubernetes) or Cloud
- dbt integration and orchestration hooks (Airflow, Dagster)
- PyAirbyte for running connectors in Python
Cons
- Community connector quality varies
- Self-hosting requires infrastructure skills
- Cloud pricing can be hard to forecast
Windmill · Key features
- Scripts to workflows
- Schedules and triggers
- Auto-generated UIs
- App builder
- Multi-language
- Self-hosting
Cons
- Developer-oriented
- Smaller community
- Learning curve
Airbyte vs Windmill: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Airbyte or Windmill?
Windmill starts at $10/mo and Airbyte at $20/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Airbyte and Windmill have a free plan?
Yes, both Airbyte and Windmill have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Airbyte or Windmill?
Airbyte lists small businesses as a core audience, while Windmill is aimed more at developers.