Casdoor
Nine releases in four days, all of them small — Casdoor is grinding on tenant-level governance.
Comparison · Infra & APIs
Depot vs Windmill
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Depot and Windmill — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Depot vs Windmill: at a glance
| Feature | Depot | Windmill |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Infra & APIs | Infra & APIs |
| Velocity score | 7.5 | 8.8 |
| Sparks · 30d | 2 | 3 |
| Top themes | ci-cd, test-analytics, source-control, infrastructure | dbt, open-core, ai-authoring, workspace-deployment |
| Last editorial update | 3h ago | 1h ago |
| Website | — | Visit → |
What is Depot?
Depot is no longer a build accelerator — it is assembling the whole CI stack underneath itself.
In roughly a month Depot shipped its own source-control hosting in private beta, took test results to GA with timing-based sharding and org-wide flake analytics, moved CI and Sandboxes onto its own bare-metal compute platform, and filled in the GitHub Actions compatibility surface with stacked pull requests, three additional triggers, and Tailscale access to private networks. Sherlock's AI analysis now runs on any workflow or job, not just failed ones.
What is Windmill?
Windmill absorbed dbt, un-gated its warehouse languages, and turned AI authoring on by default.
Windmill had a dense fortnight across three fronts. Unmodified dbt projects now run as first-class Windmill scripts — drop the project into a __dbt/ folder, push, and Windmill runs dbt build on your own workers with per-model progress and results, dbt retry and row previews. BigQuery and Snowflake script languages left the Enterprise license and became available on every edition including self-hosted community instances. AI sessions entered beta enabled by default, tying a chat to a workspace or fork with a live preview, building scripts, flows and apps as drafts reviewed in a diff drawer. Deployment also got tightened: Compare & Deploy accepts any target workspace, while the workspace-level 'deploy to' setting was removed in favor of a target derived from workspace lineage.
Depot vs Windmill: editorial side-by-side
Depot
7.5INFRA · APIS
Depot is no longer a build accelerator — it is assembling the whole CI stack underneath itself.
◆ Current state
In roughly a month Depot shipped its own source-control hosting in private beta, took test results to GA with timing-based sharding and org-wide flake analytics, moved CI and Sandboxes onto its own bare-metal compute platform, and filled in the GitHub Actions compatibility surface with stacked pull requests, three additional triggers, and Tailscale access to private networks. Sherlock's AI analysis now runs on any workflow or job, not just failed ones.
◆ Where it's heading
The pattern is vertical integration: storage, compute, source control and test intelligence all being pulled in-house so Depot controls every tier. Test results is the first piece with its own metered price ($1 per million passing tests) rather than being folded into build minutes, which suggests the products are being built to stand alone. GitHub compatibility work continues because migration friction is the main thing standing between Depot and its target users.
◆ Prediction
Expect Depot Code to move from private beta toward general availability with Depot CI as its primary integration point, and expect GitHub Actions runners and container builds to complete the announced move onto Depot Metal.
Windmill
8.8INFRA · APIS
Windmill absorbed dbt, un-gated its warehouse languages, and turned AI authoring on by default.
◆ Current state
Windmill had a dense fortnight across three fronts. Unmodified dbt projects now run as first-class Windmill scripts — drop the project into a __dbt/ folder, push, and Windmill runs dbt build on your own workers with per-model progress and results, dbt retry and row previews. BigQuery and Snowflake script languages left the Enterprise license and became available on every edition including self-hosted community instances. AI sessions entered beta enabled by default, tying a chat to a workspace or fork with a live preview, building scripts, flows and apps as drafts reviewed in a diff drawer. Deployment also got tightened: Compare & Deploy accepts any target workspace, while the workspace-level 'deploy to' setting was removed in favor of a target derived from workspace lineage.
◆ Where it's heading
Windmill is widening what it can be the execution layer for while lowering the price of entry to find out. Running dbt unmodified means a data team can move orchestration without rewriting models, and un-gating the two warehouse languages removes the license wall from exactly the workloads that would arrive alongside dbt. The AI work runs on a distinct principle — output lands as reviewable drafts inside the existing deployment flow rather than as direct changes — which is consistent with the deployment cleanups happening at the same time. One deployment target derived from lineage is the same instinct as one diff drawer before deploy: fewer places where state can disagree.
◆ Prediction
The dbt integration is new enough that scheduling and observability around dbt runs are the obvious next surface, given Windmill already ships per-model results and retry. Expect AI sessions to exit beta on the strength of the draft-and-diff review model rather than by loosening it.
Alternatives to Depot and Windmill
Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Depot or Windmill.
Resend
Resend spent a month making itself something agents and third-party apps can log into.
Prowler
Prowler turned its assistant from a read-only explainer into something that can change your tenant.
NetBox
NetBox is spending 4.6 paying down query cost, not adding models.
Buildkite
Buildkite is rebuilding its MCP server around what an agent actually does with a failed build.
Dashy
The self-hosted dashboard finally let you drag things around instead of editing YAML.
See all Depot alternatives → · See all Windmill alternatives →
Recent activity from Depot and Windmill
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoDepotDepot CI now supports native GitHub stacked pull requests
- 3d agoWindmillRun dbt projects as a first-class Windmill runtime ⚡
- 5d agoWindmillCompare & Deploy into any workspace
- 5d agoWindmillOne deployment target, derived from the workspace lineage
- 6d agoDepotTest results are now generally available ⚡
- 10d agoWindmillBigQuery and Snowflake available in the community edition ⚡
- 13d agoWindmillAI sessions (beta) ⚡
- 14d agoDepotAI analysis available for all Depot CI workflows and jobs
- 14d agoWindmillAttach text files to AI chat messages
- 20d agoDepotSplit CI test suites with historical timing data (beta)
- 25d agoDepotDepot CI now supports Tailscale
- 26d agoDepotDepot Code is now available in private beta ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Depot and Windmill?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Windmill is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 7.5), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 2. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Depot better than Windmill?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Windmill is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 7.5), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 2. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Depot?
Top Depot alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Depot alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/depot for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Windmill?
Top Windmill alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Windmill alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/windmill for the full list with editorial commentary on each.