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Head to head · Automation workflows · October 2026 research run

Activepieces API + MCP vs Windmill API + MCP

Activepieces API + MCP has a score of 57.8 (C) against Windmill API + MCP's 56.1 (C). Both do automation workflows. The largest gap is reliability, 15 points.

Activepieces API + MCPActivepieces · HTTP API C57.8/100#288 of 452 Windmill API + MCPWindmill Labs · HTTP API C56.1/100#306 of 452

Which one, for what

Pick Activepieces API + MCP for

  • reliability (+15)
  • transparency & trust (+9)

Pick Windmill API + MCP for

  • agent ergonomics (+8)
  • maintenance & community (+7)

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runActivepieces API + MCPWindmill API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%205540Activepieces API + MCP +15
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28079Activepieces API + MCP +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.26573Windmill API + MCP +8
Security & auth14%17.56460Activepieces API + MCP +4
Payments & pricing10%12.53535even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88087Windmill API + MCP +7
Transparency & trust7%8.87667Activepieces API + MCP +9
Negative events≤15-6-5
Total57.8 · C56.1 · C

Facts side by side

FactActivepieces API + MCPWindmill API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorActivepiecesWindmill Labs
Hosted endpointhttps://cloud.activepieces.com/api/v1https://app.windmill.dev/api
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMIT (core), commercial licence for enterprise-only partsAGPL-3.0 (core), Apache-2.0 (clients and OpenAPI), commercial for enterprise-only parts
Tools exposed45none
Context cost (tools/list)n/an/a
p95 latencynot measured yetnot measured yet
Availability (30d)not measured yetnot measured yet
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listednot listed
Last release2026-09-302026-10-01
Popularity25k stars, 452k npm/wk18k stars, 126k npm/wk, 218k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)3/5 (2)

Verdicts

Activepieces API + MCP

MIT core, self-hostable, with the enterprise parts clearly separated. Docs say API keys come from the platform dashboard in Platform and Enterprise editions, while the pricing page lists the API on every plan.

Windmill API + MCP

Token scopes down to a single script path, with expiry. The default MCP URL puts the token in ?token= unless a superadmin turns that off.

Before you call either

Activepieces API + MCP

  1. Run ap_validate_flow before publishing a flow
  2. Use ap_search_actions with a plain task description rather than listing pieces
  3. Turn off the Flow Building and Tables groups for a project the agent should only read
  4. Page with limit and cursor and stop when next is null
  5. Cloud runs stop at 10 minutes of active time. Waits and approvals don't count

Windmill API + MCP

  1. Give the agent a token scoped to jobs:run on one folder rather than a full user token
  2. Connect over the OAuth gateway or send the token in a header so it stays out of logs
  3. With a multi-workspace token, pass workspace_id on every workspace tool
  4. Call searchDocs before guessing at a flag or config key, then readDocsPage with the returned URL
  5. Poll the job by ID after runScriptByPath for long jobs instead of waiting on the call

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