head to head · open source
flowable-engine vs dbos-transact-ts
flowable-engine has 9,635 GitHub stars, 2,904 forks, 411 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. dbos-transact-ts has 1,428 stars, 104 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flowable-engine leads on adoption by 575% (9,635 vs 1,428 stars). flowable-engine is written in Java under Apache-2.0; dbos-transact-ts is written in TypeScript under MIT. flowable-engine has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, dbos-transact-ts 7%. dbos-transact-ts 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
| flowable-engine | dbos-transact-ts | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.6K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-18 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 104 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick flowable-engine if
- You weight community size — 9.6K 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-ts if
- You want the dbos-transact-ts feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and dbos-transact-ts fits your workflow better
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 →
About dbos-transact-ts
DBOS Transact: Lightweight Durable Workflows Documentation • Examples • GitHub • Discord What is DBOS? DBOS provides lightweight durable workflows built on top of Postgres. Instead of managing your own workflow orchestrator or task queue system, you can use DBOS to add durable workflows and queues to your program in just a few lines of code. To get started, follow the quickstart to install this open source library and connect it to a Postgres database. Then, annotate workflows and steps in your program to make it durable! That's all you need to do—DBOS is entirely contained in this open source library…
read the full dbos-transact-ts overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is flowable-engine or dbos-transact-ts more popular?
flowable-engine has 9,635 GitHub stars and dbos-transact-ts has 1,428. flowable-engine has the larger community by that measure.
Are flowable-engine and dbos-transact-ts free?
Both are open source. flowable-engine is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dbos-transact-ts under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between flowable-engine and dbos-transact-ts?
flowable-engine is written in Java and dbos-transact-ts in TypeScript. 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-ts?
Choose flowable-engine if you want the larger community (9,635 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dbos-transact-ts if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.