head to head · open source
moonshine vs WorkFlow-Engine
moonshine has 1,300 GitHub stars, 148 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. WorkFlow-Engine has 865 stars, 152 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. moonshine leads on adoption by 50% (1,300 vs 865 stars). moonshine is written in PHP under MIT; WorkFlow-Engine is written in Java under GPL-3.0. moonshine has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, WorkFlow-Engine 18%. moonshine was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (form-builder), 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
| moonshine | WorkFlow-Engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.3K | ★ 865 |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 148 | ⑂ 152 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick moonshine if
- You weight community size — 1.3K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick WorkFlow-Engine if
- You want the WorkFlow-Engine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and WorkFlow-Engine fits your workflow better
About moonshine
MoonShine is MIT licensed PHP project listed under Business Software / Forms & Surveys. It is Laravel admin panel and builder for dashboards, tables, forms, CMS, and CRM work. It uses Blade, Alpine.js, and Tailwind CSS. It lives in Laravel ecosystem, but README says CRUD module is separated from Laravel and Eloquent, so it can also work with Symfony, Yii, or other frameworks. Repo is 4 years old, has 1301 stars, 148 forks, 2 open issues, and last push 2026 09 11.
read the full moonshine overview →
About WorkFlow-Engine
WorkFlow Engine is a Java, GPL 3.0 licensed workflow engine built on Spring Boot and Vue that gives Chinese agencies and enterprises visual form design, graphical process design and item management, and is aimed at teams that must digitise internal approval flows and drive third party business interfaces on their own infrastructure.
read the full WorkFlow-Engine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is moonshine or WorkFlow-Engine more popular?
moonshine has 1,300 GitHub stars and WorkFlow-Engine has 865. moonshine has the larger community by that measure.
Are moonshine and WorkFlow-Engine free?
Both are open source. moonshine is licensed under MIT and WorkFlow-Engine under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between moonshine and WorkFlow-Engine?
moonshine is written in PHP and WorkFlow-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, moonshine or WorkFlow-Engine?
Choose moonshine if you want the larger community (1,300 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose WorkFlow-Engine if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.