ProcessMaker vs WorkFlow-Engine
ProcessMaker and WorkFlow-Engine are both BPM and BPMN engine software. ProcessMaker is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 538 GitHub stars. WorkFlow-Engine is open source under GPL-3.0, with 865 GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick ProcessMaker when
- You want an open-source workflow and approval system on your own server and can model processes in BPMN.
- Pick WorkFlow-Engine when
- You are building office automation for Chinese public-sector organisations that need domestic software compliance.
Side by side
A self-hosted workflow suite with a BPMN modeler, a screen builder for forms, assignment and routing rules, task due dates and request history.
A Flowable-based workflow platform from Risesoft for government and enterprise approval processes, built on Spring Cloud, Kafka and Elasticsearch.
Several packages, saved searches among them, are not in the open-source edition, and there is no stage board.
GPL license, no releases, Chinese-only documentation and a heavy microservice stack.
Usable (both)
Self-hosted server (both)
PHP, Laravel, Vue and MySQL
Java, Spring Cloud, Flowable, Vue, Kafka and Elasticsearch
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Open source, GPL-3.0 (strong copyleft)
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
Use inside your business is unrestricted, but anything you distribute that includes it must be released under the same license.
538 GitHub stars
865 GitHub stars
Established: started 8 years ago, latest release v4.14.0.
Established: started 2 years ago, no tagged release yet.
Other comparisons
More BPM suites and BPMN workflow engines
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-06 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.