head to head · open source
workflow-core vs Slickflow
workflow-core has 5,926 GitHub stars, 1,262 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Slickflow has 920 stars, 264 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. workflow-core leads on adoption by 544% (5,926 vs 920 stars). workflow-core is written in C# under MIT; Slickflow is written in C# under MIT. workflow-core has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, Slickflow 29%. workflow-core 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 | Slickflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.9K | ★ 920 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C# | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-06-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 264 |
| 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 Slickflow if
- You want the Slickflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Slickflow fits your workflow better
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 →
About Slickflow
Slickflow is an MIT licensed, .NET 8 open source workflow engine that treats large language model nodes, business rules, and multi agent orchestration as first class steps inside BPMN process diagrams, aimed at .NET developers and teams building AI driven business process automation.
read the full Slickflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is workflow-core or Slickflow more popular?
workflow-core has 5,926 GitHub stars and Slickflow has 920. workflow-core has the larger community by that measure.
Are workflow-core and Slickflow free?
Both are open source. workflow-core is licensed under MIT and Slickflow under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between workflow-core and Slickflow?
workflow-core is written in C# and Slickflow 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, workflow-core or Slickflow?
Choose workflow-core if you want the larger community (5,926 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Slickflow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.