Is Tines or Windmill better?

Neither clearly leads. Tines starts at Free and Windmill at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Tines or Windmill?

Tines starts at Free and Windmill at Free.

Does Tines or Windmill run on more platforms?

Tines runs on Web. Windmill runs on web, api, linux, windows, mac.

Can I use Tines for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Tines best used for?

Tines is most often used for workflow automation, data integration, process automation, app integration. Of those, workflow automation and data integration are not what Windmill is typically brought in for.

What can Tines do that Windmill cannot?

Tines covers Story builder, Drag-and-drop workflows, Event triggers, Incident response automation. Windmill covers Script-to-workflow engine, Auto-generated UIs, Self-hosted deployment, Git sync.

Automation Integration · head to head

Tines vs Windmill

Tines

Automation Integration

No-code automation for security teams

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Windmill

Automation Integration

Open-source developer platform for building scripts, workflows, and internal apps

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Tines no-code, UI-driven approach is restrictive for complex logic and version control integration with SDLC; Windmill free self-hosted tier caps SSO users at 10 and workspaces at 3, requiring Enterprise for larger teams.
They diverge on capability: Tines covers Story builder, Windmill covers Script-to-workflow engine.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Tines and Windmill actually diverge.

Attributes where Tines and Windmill differ
Attribute	Tines	Windmill
Pricing model	Unknown	open-source
Platforms	Web	web, api, linux, windows, mac
Founded	2018	Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Automation Integration).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Tines

Story builder
Drag-and-drop workflows
Event triggers
Incident response automation
Threat intelligence
Case management
Alert triage
Slack

Only in Windmill

Script-to-workflow engine
Auto-generated UIs
Self-hosted deployment
Git sync
SSO support
Audit logs

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Tines

Workflow Automationnot Windmill
Data Integrationnot Windmill
Process Automationnot Windmill
App Integrationnot Windmill
API Connectivitynot Windmill

Windmill

Turning ad-hoc scripts into scheduled jobs and APIsnot Tines
Building internal tools from existing Python/TypeScript codenot Tines
Self-hosted automation for engineering teamsnot Tines
Orchestrating multi-language workflowsnot Tines

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Tines

No-code, UI-driven approach is restrictive for complex logic and version control integration with SDLC
No native log intelligence layer to validate data completeness
Limited scope to security workloads, cannot handle general business automation
Governance features lag behind EU AI Act compliance requirements

Windmill

Free self-hosted tier caps SSO users at 10 and workspaces at 3, requiring Enterprise for larger teams.
Compute unit and seat-based pricing (developer vs. operator seats, worker compute units) adds pricing complexity beyond a flat monthly fee.
Email triggers are capped at 100/day on the free tier, limiting event-driven use cases without upgrading.
Smaller ecosystem of pre-built integrations compared to more established automation tools like n8n.

Pricing, plan by plan

Tines

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Tines review.

Windmill

Free

Free / Open-sourceFree
- Unlimited executions
- Self-hosted deployment
- Max 10 users with SSO
Enterprise$120/month
- Unlimited executions and workspaces
- Uncapped SSO seats
- 24/7 priority support (3-hour response)

Which should you pick?

Choose Tines if

You need story builder.
You want to start without paying.
You also want drag-and-drop workflows.

Tines review

Choose Windmill if

You need script-to-workflow engine.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api, linux, windows, mac.
You also want auto-generated uis.

Windmill review

Questions people ask

Is Tines or Windmill better?: Neither clearly leads. Tines starts at Free and Windmill at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Tines or Windmill?: Tines starts at Free and Windmill at Free.
Does Tines or Windmill run on more platforms?: Tines runs on Web. Windmill runs on web, api, linux, windows, mac.
Can I use Tines for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Tines best used for?: Tines is most often used for workflow automation, data integration, process automation, app integration. Of those, workflow automation and data integration are not what Windmill is typically brought in for.
What can Tines do that Windmill cannot?: Tines covers Story builder, Drag-and-drop workflows, Event triggers, Incident response automation. Windmill covers Script-to-workflow engine, Auto-generated UIs, Self-hosted deployment, Git sync.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Tines: What are Tines' pricing tiers?

Tines offers a free Community Edition for evaluation, Starter Edition at $500/month with annual billing, and Business/Enterprise tiers starting around $50,000/year for small security teams and scaling to $200,000+ for large SOCs.

Source

Windmill: What does Windmill cost?

Windmill's Free and Open-source edition is $0/month for self-hosted use with unlimited executions, while Enterprise starts at $120/month with unlimited workspaces and uncapped SSO seats, priced further by developer/operator seats and compute units.

Source

Tines: What is the Community Edition limited to?

As of July 2026, the free Community Edition is scoped to 1 builder and 3 flows as an evaluation tool to test Tines' capabilities.

Source

Windmill: Is there a free plan and what are its limits?

The free self-hosted plan supports unlimited executions but caps SSO at 10 users, workspaces at 3, groups/permissions at 4, and email triggers at 100 per day.

Source

Tines: Is Tines limited to security automation?

Yes, Tines is purpose-built for security automation. Teams needing non-security automation on the same orchestration layer would need to evaluate alternatives.

Source

Windmill: How is usage metered on Windmill Enterprise?

Enterprise usage is metered through seats (developer seats at $20/month, operator seats at $10/month) and compute units, e.g. $100/month for 2 standard-worker compute units.

Source

Tines: Does Tines have native log intelligence capabilities?

No, Tines lacks a native log intelligence layer, meaning it cannot determine whether the data feeding your detection tools is complete. Teams must build automation against whatever alerts their existing infrastructure provides.

Source

Windmill: What happens to a self-hosted Windmill deployment if the company shuts down?

The pricing page addresses this directly as an FAQ topic, noting that self-hosted applications built on the open-source edition can continue running independently of Windmill the company.

Source

Tines vs Windmill

Tines

Windmill

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Tines

Only in Windmill

What people use each for

Tines

Windmill

Where each one falls short

Tines

Windmill

Pricing, plan by plan

Tines

Windmill

Which should you pick?

Choose Tines if

Choose Windmill if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Tines

More on Windmill

Keep looking

Other head to heads