head to head · open source
flowable-engine vs dbos-transact-golang
flowable-engine has 9,542 GitHub stars, 2,890 forks, 411 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. dbos-transact-golang has 836 stars, 73 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. flowable-engine leads on adoption by 1,041% (9,542 vs 836 stars). flowable-engine is written in Java under Apache-2.0; dbos-transact-golang is written in Go under MIT. flowable-engine has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, dbos-transact-golang 9%. flowable-engine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (workflow, 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
| flowable-engine | dbos-transact-golang | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.5K | ★ 836 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 73 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick flowable-engine if
- You weight community size — 9.5K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dbos-transact-golang if
- You want the dbos-transact-golang feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dbos-transact-golang fits your workflow better
About flowable-engine
Flowable is an open source workflow and Business Process Management platform written in Java and distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. It bundles three engines in one project: a BPMN process engine, a CMMN case engine, and a DMN rule engine. The project lives in the Java ecosystem, integrates with Spring, and exposes both a Java API and a REST API for orchestrating human or system activities.
read the full flowable-engine overview →
About dbos-transact-golang
DBOS Transact for Go is an MIT licensed Go library that adds durable, Postgres backed workflow orchestration to ordinary Go programs, aimed at developers who need reliable failure recovery without operating a separate orchestrator or task queue.
read the full dbos-transact-golang overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is flowable-engine or dbos-transact-golang more popular?
flowable-engine has 9,542 GitHub stars and dbos-transact-golang has 836. flowable-engine has the larger community by that measure.
Are flowable-engine and dbos-transact-golang free?
Both are open source. flowable-engine is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dbos-transact-golang under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between flowable-engine and dbos-transact-golang?
flowable-engine is written in Java and dbos-transact-golang in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, flowable-engine or dbos-transact-golang?
Choose flowable-engine if you want the larger community (9,542 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dbos-transact-golang if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.