head to head · open source
xxl-job vs flowable-engine
xxl-job has 30,566 GitHub stars, 11,490 forks, 79 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. flowable-engine has 9,542 stars, 2,890 forks, 411 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. xxl-job leads on adoption by 220% (30,566 vs 9,542 stars). xxl-job is written in Java under GPL-3.0; flowable-engine is written in Java under Apache-2.0. xxl-job has attracted 38% as many forks as stars, flowable-engine 30%. flowable-engine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (java), 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
| xxl-job | flowable-engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 9.5K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-07-21 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick xxl-job if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- 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 xxl-job
XXL JOB is a distributed task scheduling framework written in Java and released under the GPL 3.0 licence, built for teams that need scheduled jobs to run reliably across a cluster of machines rather than inside a single application process.
read the full xxl-job overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is xxl-job or flowable-engine more popular?
xxl-job has 30,566 GitHub stars and flowable-engine has 9,542. xxl-job has the larger community by that measure.
Are xxl-job and flowable-engine free?
Both are open source. xxl-job is licensed under GPL-3.0 and flowable-engine under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between xxl-job and flowable-engine?
xxl-job is written in Java 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, xxl-job or flowable-engine?
Choose xxl-job if you want the larger community (30,566 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose flowable-engine if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.