Temporal vs Windmill: what their users struggle with

Not a verdict and not a star rating: the problems users of Temporal and Windmill describe in public, side by side, each one linked to its source (as of 2026-10-15).

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Every count in this table is of open reports in the recent window (Temporal since 2022-10, Windmill since 2023-10); older and fixed reports are not counted. The counts measure how much public discussion exists for each product, not which is better: a popular tool collects more reports.

Problems mostly raised about Temporal

• Stale internode gRPC connections to terminated pods on Kubernetes · Reliability & bugs · Annoyance
• Stuck workflows show In Progress with errors only buried in event log · Reliability & bugs · Blocks work
• Workflow platforms demand large cognitive investment, worse when self-hosted · API & developer experience · Annoyance
• Workflows poorly suited to request-response because of execution latency · Performance · Annoyance
• Workflow interceptors cannot tell replay from first execution · API & developer experience · Annoyance

Problems mostly raised about Windmill

• Python Azure script installs the wrong package and then fails · Reliability & bugs · Blocks work
• Sync resource types with Hub fails with an authentication error · Integrations · Blocks work
• AGPL commercial-license wording makes API-only use look like it triggers copyleft · Pricing & plans · Annoyance
• Initial setup screen fails and admin password cannot be changed on CE · Setup & onboarding · Blocks work
• wmill CLI cannot connect to a workspace served with a self-signed certificate · API & developer experience · Blocks work

Go further

Open Temporal and Windmill in the compare tool to filter by area and severity, Temporal alternatives, Windmill alternatives, or the state of workflow automation.

How the data is built. A theme is a group of reports about the same problem; unique means not matched to a theme on the other product.