Founder of windmill.dev here, airplane is not backed by YC but the founder is an alumni.
Aside from the obvious open-source aspect, here is one notable difference.
We explicitly do not provide an integrated DB but offer simply a K/V store api, and recommend to use some dedicated services for persistence storage like supabase/neon.tech/aurora/s3: https://docs.windmill.dev/docs/core_concepts/persistent_stor.... We do not believe we can build both the fastest workflow engine at scale and the best DB so we leave the last bit to others.
From what I can see, the assumption of the userbase look a bit difference. Although we have a hub (hub.windmill.dev) where users can share premade actions, we focus on script/code in typescript/python/go/bash as the unit for workflows. From there, we focus on building workflows with most of the same primitive as temporal (suspend/resume also called reactivity, error handlers, retry, etc, and some others like caching of step results) and running arbitrary code on your own infra and being able to use your full nodes without overhead. The code for the steps can also be developed locally and deployed from your github repo.
Last we have a retool-like + react app capability which seems to be out-of-scope. So to summarize, although you can use windmill to do backend prototyping or as your product backend given that we generate per script/workflow webhooks, we focus on workflows with code and internal tools with enterprise scale requirements such as complex permission per-user/groups.
Windmill and Airplane have done some cool stuff and while we do share some common elements with both, there are a few key distinctions. Here’s how we think we’re carving out our own niche in the space:
1. Visual Flow Builder - We've gone all-in on making the interface really interactive and visual. Drag-and-drop actions to build rest APIs and workflows - it's super intuitive and handy for rapid prototyping.
2. Integrated Database - Fastgen has an integrated Postgres database, providing a unified environment for managing your data.
3. Debug Mode - We've got a 'Debug Mode' that throws light on how flows are churning away under the hood, step-by-step. It makes troubleshooting issues and optimizing workflow performance much easier.
4. Flexibility - We understand the need for a tool to be both accessible to less technical users and powerful enough to not restrict more advanced ones. With fastgen we try to strike that balance without compromising very technical users.
In short, we believe Fastgen adds a unique flavour to the broader low-code space with a blend of its features and focus on user experience.
At the moment, no. Our focus has been on providing a cloud-based low-code experience that you can access from anywhere without the need for local setup. However we are exploring ways to support it. For more details check out my other comment in response to a similar question.
