head to head · open source
Temporal vs flowable-engine
Temporal has 23,133 GitHub stars, 1,905 forks, 956 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flowable-engine has 9,540 stars, 2,890 forks, 411 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Temporal leads on adoption by 142% (23,133 vs 9,540 stars). Temporal is written in Go under MIT; flowable-engine is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Temporal has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, flowable-engine 30%. Temporal was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| Temporal | flowable-engine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 9.5K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Temporal if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 Temporal
Temporal is a durable execution platform for building resilient applications with workflows. It lives in the infrastructure and operations ecosystem, specifically within orchestration and scheduling. The server executes units of application logic called Workflows and automatically handles intermittent failures by retrying failed operations. Temporal originated as a fork of Uber's Cadence and is developed by Temporal Technologies, a startup formed by the creators of Cadence.
read the full Temporal 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 Temporal or flowable-engine more popular?
Temporal has 23,133 GitHub stars and flowable-engine has 9,540. Temporal has the larger community by that measure.
Are Temporal and flowable-engine free?
Both are open source. Temporal is licensed under MIT and flowable-engine under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Temporal and flowable-engine?
Temporal is written in Go 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, Temporal or flowable-engine?
Choose Temporal if you want the larger community (23,133 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose flowable-engine if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.