# Paragon ActionKit + MCP vs Windmill API + MCP

> Windmill API + MCP has a score of 56.1 (C) against Paragon ActionKit + MCP's 47.8 (D). Both do automation embedded. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 39 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paragon-vs-windmill
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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paragon-vs-windmill.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

Windmill API + MCP has a score of 56.1 (C) against Paragon ActionKit + MCP's 47.8 (D). Both do automation embedded. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 39 points.

- Paragon ActionKit + MCP: grade D, 47.8/100, rank #381 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paragon.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paragon.json
- Windmill API + MCP: grade C, 56.1/100, rank #306 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/windmill.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/windmill.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Paragon ActionKit + MCP for reliability (+20), security & auth (+5).

Pick Windmill API + MCP for schema & documentation (+6), agent ergonomics (+32), payments & pricing (+35), maintenance & community (+39).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Paragon ActionKit + MCP | Windmill API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 40 | Paragon ActionKit + MCP +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 79 | Windmill API + MCP +6 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 41 | 73 | Windmill API + MCP +32 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 60 | Paragon ActionKit + MCP +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 35 | Windmill API + MCP +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 87 | Windmill API + MCP +39 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 67 | Windmill API + MCP +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **47.8 · D** | **56.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Paragon ActionKit + MCP | Windmill API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Paragon | Windmill Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://actionkit.useparagon.com` | `https://app.windmill.dev/api` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | proprietary | AGPL-3.0 (core), Apache-2.0 (clients and OpenAPI), commercial for enterprise-only parts |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-10-01 |
| Popularity | 48 stars, 175k npm/wk | 18k stars, 126k npm/wk, 218k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Paragon ActionKit + MCP.** Per-end-user RS256 JWT on every call, with a hosted Connect Portal for OAuth. No published prices and no self-serve paid 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

### Paragon ActionKit + MCP

1. Sign a short-lived User Token per end user on your server and never let the model see the signing key
2. Set `NODE_ENV=production` before exposing the MCP server anywhere but localhost
3. Fetch the tool list once per session with `categories` set, and cache it
4. Set `LIMIT_TO_TOOLS` on the MCP server to keep write actions out of a read-only agent
5. Proxy API requests count as tasks, so prefer ActionKit tools for routine actions

### 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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