head to head · open source
workflow-core vs operaton
workflow-core has 5,935 GitHub stars, 1,261 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. operaton has 501 stars, 134 forks, 68 open issues and last shipped yesterday. workflow-core leads on adoption by 1,085% (5,935 vs 501 stars). workflow-core is written in C# under MIT; operaton is written in Java under Apache-2.0. workflow-core has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, operaton 27%. operaton 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
| workflow-core | operaton | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.9K | ★ 501 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C# | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-25 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 134 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick workflow-core if
- You weight community size — 5.9K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick operaton if
- You want the operaton 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 operaton fits your workflow better
About workflow-core
Workflow Core Workflow Core is a light weight embeddable workflow engine targeting .NET Standard. Think: long running processes with multiple tasks that need to track state. It supports pluggable persistence and concurrency providers to allow for multi node clusters. Announcements New related project: Conductor Conductor is a stand alone workflow server as opposed to a library that uses Workflow Core internally. It exposes an API that allows you to store workflow definitions, track running workflows, manage events and define custom steps and scripts for usage in your workflows. Documentation See Tutorial here…
read the full workflow-core overview →
About operaton
The open source BPMN platform for mission critical process automation Forum · Documentation · Roadmap Operaton is a native BPMN 2.0 process engine that runs inside the Java Virtual Machine. Born from the Camunda 7 community edition, Operaton continues to evolve and modernize the platform as a truly community driven project. Proven — Evolved from the Camunda 7 codebase, with over a decade of production use by thousands of companies worldwide. Embeddable — Runs inside any Java application. Integrates with Spring Boot, Quarkus, and Jakarta EE. Full Stack — Process engine, REST API, and web apps (Cockpit, Tasklist…
read the full operaton overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is workflow-core or operaton more popular?
workflow-core has 5,935 GitHub stars and operaton has 501. workflow-core has the larger community by that measure.
Are workflow-core and operaton free?
Both are open source. workflow-core is licensed under MIT and operaton under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between workflow-core and operaton?
workflow-core is written in C# and operaton 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, workflow-core or operaton?
Choose workflow-core if you want the larger community (5,935 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose operaton if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.