Happy Valley

Clay vs Windmill

Clay and Windmill are both data integration & ETL tools. Clay is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Windmill is aimed at developers. Windmill costs less, from $10/mo versus $185/mo for Clay. Both have a free plan.

Clay

Data enrichment and research automation for GTM

Windmill

Open-source developer platform for scripts, flows and apps

PricingFreemium · $185Open source · $10
Starting price$185/mo$10/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial14 days—
Built forSmall businesses, EnterpriseDevelopers
Platformswebweb
CountryUS · 2017FR · 2022
Rating——

Choose Clay if

GTM operations and outbound teams with volume and a willingness to learn.

  • Dramatically better enrichment coverage via waterfalls
  • AI research personalization at scale
  • Flexible, spreadsheet mental model

Look elsewhere if: Solo founders who need a simple list (Apollo) or teams without ops capacity.

Choose Windmill if

Developers wanting code-first automation.

  • Very fast engine
  • Code-first
  • Open source

Look elsewhere if: No-code users.

Clay vs Windmill pricing

Clay

  • Free$0500 actions and 100 data credits per month
  • Launch$185/mo$167/mo billed annually; 15K actions, 2.5K data credits
  • Growth$495/mo$446/mo billed annually; 40K actions, 6K data credits
  • EnterpriseCustom100K+ data credits, 200K+ actions, annual contract

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

Clay · Key features

  • Waterfall enrichment across 100+ data providers
  • Claygent AI agents for custom web research
  • Formulas, conditional logic and scoring
  • CRM and sequencer integrations with two-way sync
  • Signals: job changes, hiring, funding, tech installs
  • Templates and shared workspaces

Cons

  • Credit costs add up quickly
  • Steep learning curve
  • Easy to build fragile tables

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

Clay vs Windmill: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Clay or Windmill?

Windmill starts at $10/mo and Clay at $185/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Clay and Windmill have a free plan?

Yes, both Clay and Windmill have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Which is better for small businesses, Clay or Windmill?

Clay lists small businesses as a core audience, while Windmill is aimed more at developers.

Not sure yet?

Clay vs Windmill (2026): Pricing and Features · Happy Valley