head to head · open source
Archon vs flowable-engine
Archon has 23,807 GitHub stars, 3,518 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flowable-engine has 9,633 stars, 2,902 forks, 411 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. Archon leads on adoption by 147% (23,807 vs 9,633 stars). Archon is written in TypeScript under MIT; flowable-engine is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Archon has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, flowable-engine 30%. Archon was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (workflow-engine), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Archon | flowable-engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 9.6K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Archon if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick flowable-engine if
- You want the flowable-engine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and flowable-engine fits your workflow better
About Archon
Archon The first open source harness builder for AI coding. Make AI coding deterministic and repeatable. Archon is a workflow engine for AI coding agents. Define your development processes as YAML workflows planning, implementation, validation, code review, PR creation and run them reliably across all your projects. Like what Dockerfiles did for infrastructure and GitHub Actions did for CI/CD Archon does for AI coding workflows. Think n8n, but for software development. Why Archon? When you ask an AI agent to "fix this bug", what happens depends on the model's mood. It might skip planning. It might forget to run…
read the full Archon overview →
About flowable-engine
Flowable ======== Homepage: flowable / flowəb(ə)l / a compact and highly efficient workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) platform for developers, system admins and business users. a lightning fast, tried and tested BPMN process engine, CMMN case engine and DMN rule engine written in Java. It is Apache 2.0 licensed open source, with a committed community. can run embedded in a Java application, or as a service on a server, a cluster, and in the cloud. It integrates perfectly with Spring. With a rich Java and REST API, it is the ideal engine for orchestrating human or system activities. Introduction…
read the full flowable-engine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Archon or flowable-engine more popular?
Archon has 23,807 GitHub stars and flowable-engine has 9,633. Archon has the larger community by that measure.
Are Archon and flowable-engine free?
Both are open source. Archon is licensed under MIT and flowable-engine under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Archon and flowable-engine?
Archon is written in TypeScript and flowable-engine in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Archon or flowable-engine?
Choose Archon if you want the larger community (23,807 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose flowable-engine if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.