head to head · open source
flowable-engine vs workflow-core
flowable-engine has 9,542 GitHub stars, 2,890 forks, 411 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. workflow-core has 5,926 stars, 1,262 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. flowable-engine leads on adoption by 61% (9,542 vs 5,926 stars). flowable-engine is written in Java under Apache-2.0; workflow-core is written in C# under MIT. flowable-engine has attracted 30% as many forks as stars, workflow-core 21%. 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 | workflow-core | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.5K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 workflow-core if
- You want the workflow-core feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and workflow-core 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 workflow-core
Workflow Core is a lightweight, embeddable workflow engine targeting .NET Standard, written in C and released under the MIT license. It lives in the .NET ecosystem, distributed as NuGet packages, and is built around the idea of long running processes that contain multiple tasks and must track their state between steps. Rather than running as a separate server, it is a library that is hosted inside an application, and it exposes a fluent C API for defining workflows. Workflows are expressed as a starting step followed by chained steps, and the same class can declare inputs and outputs that move data from one step …
read the full workflow-core overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is flowable-engine or workflow-core more popular?
flowable-engine has 9,542 GitHub stars and workflow-core has 5,926. flowable-engine has the larger community by that measure.
Are flowable-engine and workflow-core free?
Both are open source. flowable-engine is licensed under Apache-2.0 and workflow-core under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between flowable-engine and workflow-core?
flowable-engine is written in Java and workflow-core in C#. 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 workflow-core?
Choose flowable-engine if you want the larger community (9,542 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose workflow-core if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.