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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

"Be it a Windows application, a web application, or a legacy tool, Automation Anywhere is able to achieve automation on these technologies seamlessly."
"The best features in Automation Anywhere that I really appreciate are found in the basic module for pure RPA, such as the recorder function, which helps in making automation even easier; no coding is required, you are just doing things, and the recorder records your movements and actions, creating the code out of that."
"When we compare other projects on other platforms versus Automation Anywhere, the technical support we are receiving in terms of efficiency, and even that they are giving us good price, this is what we are looking for."
"From an organizational perspective, it has improved how we work and determine, "Is there a better way to do things?" and, "How can we challenge the status quo?" This builds a continuous improvement mindset throughout our organization."
"This solution has decreased the time that our employees spend on manual processes."
"It is easy to learn and easy to deploy. That is the best part compared to the other RPA solutions available in the market. Automation Anywhere is easier than UiPath and Blue Prism."
"The most valuable feature is the conversion of PDF Invoices to CSV and to PDF Boxes."
"With Automation Anywhere bots, we are able to cut down the manual efforts by 80% in generating Excel and Power BI reports, extracting and uploading files to various sites, and many other web-based administrative tasks."
"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."
"Our customers do see a return on investment with this solution; it absolutely offers value for money."
"The user-friendly interface positively impacted the team's workflow efficiency."
"I appreciated how n8n can be integrated with other services such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and the automation tasks it performs."
"We see roughly a 70% reduction in manual processing time on the document pipeline side, which means our clients can focus on higher-value audit and compliance work rather than data entry."
"The best features of n8n are its low-code capabilities with everything at your disposal."
"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."
"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."
"n8n is a really good automation platform where I can use it to automate my businesses and processes and also save money and time."
 

Cons

"I could not say it's a stable product, because when you move in the market, there are many companies are there."
"I have found that Automation Anywhere is prone to bugs in handling Excel. It breaks and gives vague error messages. I have had a lot of experience with that and learned that it is better to write a Python script instead of using Automation Anywhere's package when dealing with Excel because it is buggy and tends to break, unfortunately."
"The solution should have a more robust forum to help users navigate the solution, learn about it, and get help when they need it."
"I feel the cost of licensing is very high for the A2019 version."
"The accuracy in Web Recorder needs to be improved, defective outputs found most of the time (not sure if is a website side issue)."
"IQ Bot is bad and needs a lot of tweaking."
"The only thing I would advocate for is making Automation Anywhere's developer environment Mac-enabled because many of our graduate students are coming out of school with Macs. Everything else in the Automation Anywhere world is built for Windows."
"They could improve the learning curve."
"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."
"In my experience, n8n is not very stable, but it has the potential to be more stable."
"n8n has a bit of a learning curve to it; you have to learn a lot."
"Overall, n8n is a powerful tool, but there are a few areas where it could be improved."
"They haven't fully helped tailor solutions for our needs."
"However, I feel that for very complex production environments, it still requires considerable fine-tuning and knowledge, and sometimes it might not be fully ready to support large-scale implementations in production."
"There are limitations in scalability."
"From my experience, n8n is stable, though the part that can be less stable is that you must stay connected to many APIs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive. I would rate Automation Anywhere an eight out of ten in terms of pricing."
"AA comes at a more affordable price than the other tools."
"In terms of pricing, it's not at all cheap, and that's a concern. The licensing cost is very high. While I don't know the exact prices of other tools, Microsoft offers the lowest pricing for its RPA platform compared to UiPath and Automation Anywhere."
"If it is saving FTE and Generating a good ROI then it is Worth Investing."
"The licensing fees are approximately $10,000 USD for between five and ten users."
"The product’s pricing is reasonable."
"The control room access gives the ability to create different roles, which helps when purchasing additional licensing."
"We're paying a monthly subscription fee for the bot and for services. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"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.