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Bonita vs IBM BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Bonita
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
31st
Ranking in Process Automation
31st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (16th)
IBM BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
6th
Ranking in Process Automation
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Bonita is 2.0%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 4.3%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM BPM4.3%
Bonita2.0%
Other93.7%
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Paparao Nadipineni - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at Evoke
A simple and lightweight college course automation system with third-party integrations
The initial setup is straightforward and can be completed with the environment within an hour. First, take the latest from the git repository and check the git code to the monitor studio and a bar file, a deployable Bonita archive file. Then, take that process to the Bonita server, running at runtime on another server. Finally, deploy and enable it by selecting the proper organization.
Ateeq Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
Unit Head System Implementor at Allied Bank Limited
Automation platforms streamline processes and offer flexibility, but AI integration and version upgrades pose challenges
In the technology world, there is always room for improvement. Technologies evolve day by day, especially with the emergence of artificial intelligence and generative AI models. Although IBM BPM is a substantial product, adopting and integrating new technologies quickly is not easy due to the migration and upgrade paths involved. Every time new versions are released, we face business and production challenges that make rapid adoption challenging. The main concern bothering me today regarding IBM BPM is the integration of AI components.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Studio provides an opportunity to get early feedback from real users and quickly change the process and forms."
"The solution is easy to use."
"Its user-friendliness, along with the availability of comprehensive and clear documentation on the website is the most valuable."
"We use the tool to validate and give access to the users. It is for access management."
"The user interface is easy to use."
"It is a great product that is powerful in developing applications."
"The user interface is better than all of the open-source BPMs that I have tried."
"This product is very easy-to-use and user-friendly."
"This product does the job in terms of executing the workflow."
"When compared to other BPMs, it's very efficient for the developers to develop and deliver on time with an effective process."
"There is a lot of visibility now, as it used to be a black box, but with BPM the business has more visibility into where the process is."
"Our clients were previously using Excel sheets for processes, and it has changed their whole life as now the processes are all automated."
"The integration aspects of IBM BPM are quite good, coordination across data silos is effective, and IBM BPM can be used for that purpose."
"The designer feature, compared to other solutions is easy to use."
"It is transparent to business users because it is mostly picture based modelling."
"Compliance with the BPMN 2.0 standard."
 

Cons

"There could be an improvement in IoT connectivity."
"There is a need for more components in the library and additional customization options for these components."
"I have run into a lot of problems because there is not enough documentation."
"The community edition has limited module functionality. If they could release some of the functionality that's available in the enterprise edition that would be helpful to those learning to use the solution."
"Installation could be made easier."
"The price is good, but I do not like the process instance annual quantity pricing base used today."
"BPMN 2.0 notations are not all supported, would love to see them all coming in (e.g. complex gateway)."
"At times Bonita BPM Studio crashes, intermittently."
"It might not be suitable for entry level clients because it comes with a huge number of modules for processing that at times might not be necessary for upcoming clients."
"Though I am quite satisfied with the product, and especially the introduction of responsive UI, I still believe that the overall development environment must be desktop based rather web based."
"I would like IBM to consider including AI-enabled process mining, robotic process automation, and very good OCR capabilities from the computer vision side."
"There are a few areas, like triggering mechanisms, externally exposed variables, and changing its values."
"We need to make changes quickly, and sometimes the IBM team is very slow with the product evolution or changes to the tool."
"The solution has scalability issues; on a scale, I would rate it at eight out of ten."
"The initial setup was complex."
"I would like it more documentation during the design phase."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The Enterprise edition is very expensive."
"The Community Edition comes free of charge."
"You pay an annual fee and can have an unlimited number of processes and users."
"We are using the Community Version, which can be used free of charge."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Price to service ratio with Bonita BPM is good."
"The product's pricing is acceptable. Pricing is yearly."
"The product is not cheaper, not costlier; it is reasonable. Bonita’s license is very flexible, with options to meet the needs of different customers and clients. Previously, it was less flexible, but now, many different licensing options are available."
"The pricing is quite high, I would rate it two out of five."
"It gives us a good return on investment."
"The solution is highly-priced."
"I wish it was less expensive. I don't know why their pricing model is so high for a piece of software that could benefit so many. It just seems to me that they could have a lower cost, maybe with fewer features or whatever, but it should be possible to do a lower cost workflow software that uses the same interface and underlying engine but does not cost so much that you have to be a Fortune 50 company to buy it. It is annoying to me. There are a lot of solutions that IBM has that are really powerful but nobody can afford them. They know their business, but I still feel that there are a lot of customers who would benefit from this sort of thing. I don't know what this elitism is all about. I am sure they have people doing the money numbers, but it seems like you can make a lot more money by selling it to way more people for a little bit less."
"IBM could improve the price. It is far too expensive."
"Licensing is managed by the client, but we know it is yearly. Camunda is relatively cheaper. There is not much difference in pricing of IBM and PEGA. For large licensing, there are discounts as well."
"The price of the solution is fair for an enterprise solution that has both cloud and on-premise deployments and when comparing to competitors. Recently IBM has introduced Cloud Pak which allows for more flexible licensing options for automation and other features."
"It should provide more flexibility to connect with external systems, and there should be in-built services that can be used to integrate with other systems quickly."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Insurance Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise72
 

Questions from the Community

How does Bonita compare with Camunda Platform?
One of the things we like best about Bonita is that you can create without coding - it is a low-code platform. With Bonita, you can build the entire mechanism using the GUI, it’s that simple. You c...
Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?
Once it is installed, maintaining it is not a big issue.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Bonita BPM
WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

With more than 1000 customers in 75 countries, and its ecosystem of more than 120,000 members, Bonitasoft is the largest provider of open-source Business Process Management, Low-code and Digital Transformation software worldwide.
Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
Find out what your peers are saying about Bonita vs. IBM BPM and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.