Bonita

Against what buyers need

Workflow management: covers 67% of the checklist. Bonita (now published by Ofelia) runs BPMN processes with task contracts, actors and forms built in Bonita Studio, and its portal lists cases and tasks. Each workflow is a development project, and monitoring and SLA dashboards are part of the commercial offer. Missing: set up and changed by the team itself and approve and update from a phone. Paid edition only: reports on volume and delays.

Judgement

What it is

Framework or platform

What it does

The engine of Bonita BPM, which runs BPMN processes with task contracts, actors and forms built in Bonita Studio. The publisher is now called Ofelia.

Adopt it when

Developers are building process applications on BPMN and want a mature Java engine with a design studio.

Watch out

Each workflow is a development project, and monitoring and SLA dashboards are in the commercial editions.

Ready for

Production-ready

Runs as

Self-hosted server and library

Built with

Java

How established

Established: started 13 years ago, no tagged release yet.

What the license allows

You can use it inside a product you sell; changes you make to its own files must be shared.

Judged on 2026-11-06 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Built from

Follow it down: Bonita → JDK → LLVM project → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

Open-source alternatives to Bonita

1. 1
   JeecgBoot jeecgboot

   【低代码v2.0，一句话即可生成整个系统】企业级AI低代码平台，一键生成前后端代码甚至整个系统。 AI Skills 一句话画流程、设计表单、生成报表、大屏。内置 AI应用平台涵盖：AI聊天、知识库、流程编排、MCP插件等，兼容主流大模型。引领AI低代码「Skills 生成 → 在线配置 → 代码生成 → 手工合并->AI修改」开发模式，解决 Java 项目 90% 重复工作，提高效率又不失灵活。

   Framework or platform Production-ready A Chinese enterprise Java team wants to cut repetitive CRUD and workflow work.

   ★ 48k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed 4 days ago
   
2. 2
   Frappe frappe

   Low code web framework for real world applications, in Python and Javascript

   Framework or platform Production-ready You are building or extending a database-heavy business application, particularly anything in the ERPNext ecosystem.

   ★ 11k MIT Python Active, pushed today
   
3. 3
   Activiti Activiti

   Activiti is a light-weight workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) Platform targeted at business people, developers and system admins. Its core is a super-fast and rock-solid BPMN 2 process engine for Java. It's open-source and distributed under the Apache license. Activiti runs in any Java application, on a server, on a cluster or in the cloud. It integrates perfectly with Spring, it is extremely lightweight and based on simple concepts.

   Building block Production-ready You maintain an Activiti-based system or need an Apache-licensed BPMN engine embedded in Spring.

   ★ 11k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed 3 days ago
   
4. 4
   Flowable-engine flowable

   A compact and highly efficient workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) platform for developers, system admins and business users.

   Building block Production-ready A Java team needs standards-based process automation with human tasks inside its own application.

   ★ 9.6k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed 19 days ago
   
5. 5
   Corteza cortezaproject

   Low-code platform

   Framework or platform Production-ready You want an Apache-licensed alternative to Salesforce-style app builders that you can host yourself.

   ★ 2.2k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed 16 days ago
   
6. 6
   ProcessMaker ProcessMaker

   ProcessMaker BPM Core

   Complete system Usable You want an open-source workflow and approval system on your own server and can model processes in BPMN.

   ★ 538 AGPL-3.0 PHP Active, pushed today
7. 7
   Operaton operaton

   BPMN-Process automation for everyone

   Building block Usable You run Camunda 7 and want an open-source path forward instead of moving to Camunda 8's commercial license.

   ★ 515 Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed 2 days ago

Commercial workflow management tools

1. 1
   Smartsheet Smartsheet Inc.

   Smartsheet is the Execution Hub where people and AI get work done together, with the governance and visibility enterprises need.

   Complete system Production-ready A project office or operations team that thinks in spreadsheets needs structured tracking and reporting across many projects.

   860 readers a month Since 2006 Commercial
   
2. 2
   Jotform Jotform

   Create forms and surveys easily with Jotform

   Complete system Production-ready A small business needs many operational forms, such as orders, bookings or HIPAA-friendly intake, with payments and PDFs.

   316 readers a month Since 2006 Commercial
3. 3
   monday work management monday.com

   Get more work done with AI agents that work side by side with your people. Execute, manage, and operate together on one AI Workspace to drive business results.

   Complete system Production-ready A business team wants colourful, configurable boards that can model many kinds of work.

   Commercial
   
4. 4
   Creatio Creatio

   Bring people and AI agents together on one AI CRM and workflow platform — with no limits on users, agents, workflows, or scale.

   Framework or platform Production-ready A midsize or larger firm wants CRM plus custom process apps built by business analysts rather than developers.

   Commercial
5. 5
   Kissflow Kissflow Inc.

   Kissflow’s AI-powered low-code platform for IT and no-code platform for business leaders enables users build custom enterprise apps, automate workflows, and enhance enterprise efficiency. Try it today!

   Complete system Production-ready A company wants to standardise many internal request and approval processes on one platform.

   Commercial
6. 6
   Nintex Nintex

   Discover what makes Nintex the leader in end-to-end process & workflow automation. Power your team with custom app dev for integrated workflow automation.

   Complete system Production-ready A larger organisation on Microsoft 365 or with on-premises requirements wants IT-built workflows with formal approvals.

   Commercial