head to head · open source
workflow-core vs viewflow
workflow-core has 5,926 GitHub stars, 1,262 forks, 133 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. viewflow has 2,875 stars, 413 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. workflow-core leads on adoption by 106% (5,926 vs 2,875 stars). workflow-core is written in C# under MIT; viewflow is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. workflow-core has attracted 21% as many forks as stars, viewflow 14%. viewflow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (workflow, 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 | viewflow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.9K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.3K | ⑂ 413 |
| 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 viewflow if
- You want the viewflow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and viewflow 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 viewflow
Viewflow is reusable workflow library for Django. It lives in Python and Django ecosystem, category Infrastructure & Operations / Orchestration & Scheduling. It targets low code business application building. It gives ready made components for user management, workflows, and reporting. It ships as one package. Each part works on its own, but parts also work together. Project homepage is viewflow.io. Concrete problem: business applications need process state, form handling, reporting, and integration with existing systems. Custom Django code often repeats this plumbing. Viewflow provides base classes, BPMN process…
read the full viewflow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is workflow-core or viewflow more popular?
workflow-core has 5,926 GitHub stars and viewflow has 2,875. workflow-core has the larger community by that measure.
Are workflow-core and viewflow free?
Both are open source. workflow-core is licensed under MIT and viewflow under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between workflow-core and viewflow?
workflow-core is written in C# and viewflow in Python. 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 viewflow?
Choose workflow-core if you want the larger community (5,926 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose viewflow if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.