Apache NiFi vs Windmill
Apache NiFi
nifi.apache.org
Windmill
windmill.devSide by side
| Figure | Apache NiFi | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $120/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 4 |
| Spec score · API Integration Platforms | 9.0 (#4) | 8.7 (#6) |
| Integrations | The component catalog lists connectors for Kafka, AWS services, Azure services, Google Cloud, databases, HDFS, Elasticsearch, MQTT, Slack, FTP and many other systems. | Windmill Hub lists more than 200 resource types, including Google services, GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Microsoft Teams, AWS, S3, BigQuery, ClickHouse, Datadog and Discord. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.2 out of 5 from 26 reviews | 5.0 out of 5 from 2 reviews |
| Security | The project homepage lists HTTPS, configurable authentication, multi-tenant authorization, and encrypted communications such as TLS and SSH. | Windmill lists granular permissions, RBAC, secret management, OAuth, SSO and audit logs among its enterprise features. |
| Security controls | Official documentation describes two-way SSL, pluggable authorization, encrypted sensitive properties and component-level multi-tenant permissions. | The platform documents PID namespaces, optional NSJAIL sandboxing, agent workers and worker groups for process isolation. |
| Self-hosting | NiFi runs on a laptop or across clustered enterprise servers and stores processing data on local repositories, so sizing depends on flow and repository needs. | Self-hosting is supported with Docker Compose or Kubernetes Helm charts, using a server, workers and PostgreSQL. |
| Support | The project lists a users mailing list and Slack workspace for help, questions, and problem reports. | The free self-hosted plan includes community support on Discord, while Enterprise lists 24/7 priority support with a 3-hour response time. |
| What it does | Apache NiFi automates data movement between systems through visual, scalable dataflow graphs for routing, transformation and mediation. | Windmill is an open-source workflow engine and developer platform that turns scripts into APIs, workflows and UIs for internal software. |
Plans
Apache NiFi
- Apache NiFiFree
- Apache NiFi self-hosted open-source distributionFree
Windmill
- Free and Open-sourceFree
- Free and Open-sourceFree
- Enterprise$120 a month
- Enterprise example configuration$170 a month
In their own words
Apache NiFi
Apache NiFi is free, open-source software for automating data movement between systems, including cybersecurity, observability, event stream, and generative AI pipelines. Its browser-based interface lets users design, control, and monitor dataflows and receive feedback. NiFi records and indexes provenance data to track information as it passes through the system. Flow controls include guaranteed delivery, back pressure, prioritized queues, and quality-of-service settings for individual flows. Users can change dataflows while they run, applying updates to affected components without stopping the whole flow. Documented processors connect to Kafka, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, databases, Slack, S3, and Salesforce. Security features include HTTPS, configurable authentication, multi-tenant authorization, and encrypted communications such as TLS and SSH. NiFi runs in a JVM on a host operating system and can be installed from a ZIP archive. It supports clustering and can scale down to edge devices through MiNiFi. The project lists a users mailing list and Slack workspace for questions and problem reports. Its security model assigns users responsibility for operating-system commands and custom code they configure.
Windmill
Windmill is an open-source workflow engine and developer platform for building endpoints, workflows and user interfaces. It is aimed at teams making internal software across engineering, data, sales, support and marketing. Scripts can be written in TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP, Bash, C#, SQL, Rust, Ruby and R, among other languages. Windmill combines a script editor, low-code flow builder, and low-code, React or Svelte app builders. Scripts and flows can be triggered by webhooks, schedules, HTTP routes, queues or an open API. Its Hub lists more than 200 resource types, including GitHub, Slack, AWS, BigQuery and PostgreSQL; users can also define custom resource types with schemas. Local development through the CLI and Git sync support version control and deployment workflows. Self-hosting is supported. The free and open-source plan is free and includes three workspaces, 50 users, 10 GiB of workspace object storage and 100 guest app users per 30 days. Enterprise is $120 a month and includes a month-long trial. Enterprise features include granular permissions, RBAC, secret management, OAuth, SSO and audit logs.