Open-source workflow management tools in 2026

All open-source workflow management tools, ranked

Complete systems you can adopt 1

1. 1
   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

Frameworks and platforms to build on 4

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
   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
   
4. 4
   Bonita bonitasoft

   Deploy, execute, manage process-based applications made with Bonita studio or through Engine APIs

   Framework or platform Production-ready Developers are building process applications on BPMN and want a mature Java engine with a design studio.

   ★ 178 LGPL-2.1 Java Active, pushed today

Building blocks for your own system 3

1. 1
   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
   
2. 2
   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
   
3. 3
   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

Compared head to head

Looking for an alternative to

Open-source licenses

• Permissive: 6. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
• Network copyleft: 1. Like GPL, and running a changed version as a web service counts as distributing it, so its users get the source too.
• Weak copyleft: 1. Changes to the licensed files must be shared, but you can link them into a closed program.

Languages

Java 5, Python 1, Go 1 and PHP 1.