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Flowable vs n8n comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 5, 2026

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

Automation Anywhere
Sponsored
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
640
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (2nd), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (2nd), Process Mining (1st), Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) (1st), Agentic Automation (1st), AI Legal & Compliance (1st), AI Finance & Accounting (1st), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
Flowable
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
28th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (23rd)
n8n
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Workload Automation (6th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (8th), AI Agent Builders (2nd), AI Scheduling & Coordination (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies category, the mindshare of Automation Anywhere is 6.6%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Flowable is 2.8%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of n8n is 3.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Automation Anywhere6.6%
n8n3.2%
Flowable2.8%
Other87.4%
Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
 

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Management Consultant at Accenture
Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions
Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.
Simon Greener - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at Cohga Pty Ltd
Helps to control the workflow and business process components of customers' operations but OSGi integration can be challenging
I'd rate my experience with the initial setup of Flowable at about a three out of ten, but for our developers, it's probably closer to a six. I found it challenging due to the complexity of the user and help documents and the fact that much of the Flowable documentation and tutorials are focused on cloud-based implementations. Since we're primarily interested in basic components like BPMN models and form design, which aren't included in the product, the learning process was more difficult for me. In contrast, our developers are more comfortable diving into the code and technology stack, which allows them to be more proactive in their approach. The deployment took three months to complete. We're still in the deployment process. Our main challenge is integrating the Flowable process engine into our product, which uses OSGi. This has led to complexity in managing the Java versions and dependencies, as the tool has around 150 Java files. We could have chosen to interact with Flowable via a Docker container and the REST API, which would have isolated the OSGi Java dependencies, but we decided to integrate it directly. This has required resolving Java version control issues and upgrades, leading to various development challenges that must be addressed. It is a learning process for all of us. As an integrated solutions architect, I would have probably opted for the Docker route rather than the direct OSGi integration chosen by the developers. However, since they went with the OSGi integration, it's taking us longer to complete the deployment. Currently, we have one full-time developer dedicated to deployment, along with one part-time developer, and my involvement at about a quarter of my time. So, we have about two people working on deployment. As for maintenance, we're not entirely sure yet. Given our direct OSGi integration choice instead of Docker and REST, maintenance may be more challenging. However, we'll have a clearer picture once deployment is complete.
NR
ERP recommendation specialist at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
Automation has transformed complex workflows and has empowered non‑technical teams to build flows
Regarding improvements for n8n, I would highlight two areas. First, while there is a growing community, the ecosystem of pre-built nodes for niche or proprietary systems still lags behind some commercial competitors. I often have to build custom HTTP request nodes or create my own node packages, which is doable but adds to project timelines. Second, features for team collaboration and lifecycle management are still evolving. Moving workflows from development to staging to production can be a manual export-import process, and native Git integration and more robust user roles for larger client teams would be a game-changer. Regarding needed improvements, I believe much of the existing documentation is not peer-reviewed. There is definitely a big community, but if the documentation or tutorials were approved or at least had a badge from n8n, customers would feel that this meets the standards of n8n editors themselves, which would give more confidence in the flows.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of use of the application is very smooth for us, and coming from a finance and business background, I did not have any challenges using the application."
"We were working on a system called AS 400. Automation Anywhere performed well on that old system. It handled complicated processes. I had to review different menus and screens and give resources, storage, and databases. That's complicated."
"Many of our tasks are automated using AA and due to ease in handling, it becomes the first choice in terms of RPA tool."
"With its user-friendly user interface, our developers are able to quickly pick it up."
"I found that the REST API commands are very useful and easy to use."
"The tech support for Automation Anywhere has been really good, so far. We haven't had to call them very much, but when we have, we have received a good response."
"The application replaced about three employees for the OFAC verification processes, thus eliminating the need to hire more people for those tasks."
"Pulling data from web pages using Object Cloning has been an absolute delight."
"The tool's most valuable feature is the process engine. It allows us to define BPM-based workflows, deploy them into our process engine, and interact with them within our product."
"The best features of n8n are its low-code capabilities with everything at your disposal."
"n8n is a really good automation platform where I can use it to automate my businesses and processes and also save money and time."
"For lead generation, I gave all the contacts to n8n and made it write the email and automated the email sending workflow for lead generation, and the conversion rate was around 70%."
"One positive impact that n8n has had on my customers' organizations is significantly less hassle over SEO or reaching out to clients and scheduling meetings."
"The low-code interface and the quick code writing within n8n that we can do and utilize is very helpful; it brings in efficiency, better time to market, and actually helps us."
"Our business is growing faster because we have created workflows that help us improve our business."
"The best features of n8n are reading documents like Google Sheets and Google Drive, and especially the AI agent functionality, the Agent Mode and AI agent nodes, which I find very amazing, along with webhooks and HTTP nodes."
"The capability of n8n to connect different applications and automate tasks while supporting over 200 pre-built integrations is pretty effective."
 

Cons

"Some NLP AI is required to work in combination with RPA, especially for reading unstructured emails."
"As a developer, I would like to have copy commands available from one bot to another."
"It is a bit wonky with HTML when I'm working with it. There are times when it's not able to detect the technology that we are using. I don't know whether it's an Automation Anywhere issue or an internal issue. I want it to work smoothly with more technologies."
"The technical support is critical for this product, but we have found them a challenge to work with."
"Anything that can be done to simplify the solution. I would love to see it where anybody who can run Excel will be able to create bots. Right now, I am watching everyone around me struggle with the tool."
"We have a lot of use cases that depend on certain Java applets, and currently we're not able to leverage the Object Cloning that would speed up our automation designing. So we have to revert to more image recognition-type of designing, and it just takes a long time to get that bot built."
"They have incorporated many latest technologies, such as AI, and there is always scope to improve the processes and have more stability."
"The UI could be made better because the UI in Version 11 was better and easier as compared to a2019."
"In my opinion, areas of improvement for Flowable include the management and creation of forms within the open-source components and the documentation and examples provided. While the cloud-based Flowable implementation with no-code features is attractive, we prefer more control over integration, especially since we deploy our product onto AWS. We also want to avoid additional licensing fees for Flowable runtime user components on top of our software development and implementation charges."
"What I would like for them to improve is to include more nodes and different service provider integrations, just the way Zapier does."
"Currently, most products nowadays include walkthrough or guide videos, short videos of 20 to 30 seconds that inform about any particular button or action, which n8n product does not have."
"I feel that n8n is more coding-oriented, as it presents everything in a JSON format. n8n needs to update some features and ensure that everything is user-friendly."
"I don't think it is highly scalable, but it is scalable at a moderate level for companies which have 200 to 500 clients daily; the daily throughput is of 200 to 500 clients."
"The setup of n8n is sometimes very complicated, especially with the HTTP node, which is complex to set up."
"The localized implementation is a bit complex and we definitely need some developers involved within this process."
"Because of that constraint, I used the way n8n itself flows and works to create an autonomous system that I designed for the marketing domain, making sure that the guardrails are executing at the commit boundary."
"In my experience, n8n is not very stable, but it has the potential to be more stable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Time-wise: We have saved hundreds of thousands of hours."
"The pricing and licensing are definitely moderate to costly but easily recoverable by achieving ROI quickly."
"It is affordable for us."
"Our company is investing a lot of money in Automation Anywhere. They have saved money wherever humans are working. They invest a lot of money in FTEs and other logistics, so the money saving is very pretty good with Automation Anywhere. While I don't know the exact figure, the tool is saving us millions of dollars as well as saving about 40,000 hours in the last year."
"I advise others that even as of right now, the setup cost and licensing cost to automate bots on Automation Anywhere is steep but it is worth the investment!"
"It's very good in terms of cost and pricing."
"Pricing is too high for small-scale groups. The Control Room yearly fee is high, making it difficult to break even."
"I do not know the price, but I am told that it is cheaper than UiPath."
"Since the tool is open-source, we don't have to pay anything for it. It's free to download and use, which is great for us. If Flowable hadn't been available as open source and required a license fee for us to integrate it into our product, we might not have chosen it."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
5%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business154
Midsize Enterprise82
Large Enterprise536
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...
How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?
It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for n8n?
Since we self-hosted, we avoided n8n's SaaS pricing entirely. Our costs are primarily on the Hostinger VPS subscripti...
What needs improvement with n8n?
Overall, n8n is a powerful tool, but there are a few areas where it could be improved. One key area is the user exper...
What is your primary use case for n8n?
I have been working in my current field for 1.5 years, and I have gained hands-on experience in automation, APIs, int...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)
No data available
n8n.io n8n
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics
1. Adobe 2. BMW 3. Cisco 4. Dell 5. Ericsson 6. Ford 7. General Electric 8. Honda 9. IBM 10. Johnson & Johnson 11. Kia Motors 12. LG Electronics 13. Microsoft 14. Nike 15. Oracle 16. PepsiCo 17. Qualcomm 18. Red Bull 19. Samsung 20. Toyota 21. Uber 22. Visa 23. Walmart 24. Xerox 25. Yahoo 26. Zara 27. Accenture 28. Bank of America 29. Citigroup 30. Deutsche Bank 31. ExxonMobil 32. Facebook
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Find out what your peers are saying about Automation Anywhere, UiPath, Microsoft and others in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.