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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
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
661
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 (2nd), AI Procurement & Supply Chain (1st)
Flowable
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
27th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (25th)
n8n
Ranking in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Workload Automation (7th), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (8th), AI Agent Builders (2nd), AI Scheduling & Coordination (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies category, the mindshare of Automation Anywhere is 6.1%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Flowable is 2.3%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of n8n is 3.7%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Automation Anywhere6.1%
n8n3.7%
Flowable2.3%
Other87.9%
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

"One of the most valuable features is the error handler, as this command has helped me design bots that can handle multiple errors and exceptions."
"This solution has been great for our company in almost every way possible."
"Be it a Windows application, a web application, or a legacy tool, Automation Anywhere is able to achieve automation on these technologies seamlessly."
"It is very user-friendly. The AI capability that nowadays I am seeing in Automation Anywhere is very good. They have plug-and-play AI solutions."
"By using its AI & ML capabilities, we have solved many problems for our clients."
"AA helped us to reduce the processing time of requests almost instantly."
"Courses on Automation Anywhere University are very easy to learn."
"We have multiple bots running. It saves time. If manual invoice processing in SAP takes two to three hours on a daily basis, a bot can do the same job in half an hour. We are saving more than 70% of the time."
"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 capability of n8n to connect different applications and automate tasks while supporting over 200 pre-built integrations is pretty effective."
"The solution is absolutely efficient in terms of usage and is user-friendly."
"Our business is growing faster because we have created workflows that help us improve our business."
"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%."
"The user-friendly interface positively impacted the team's workflow efficiency."
"Our customers do see a return on investment with this solution; it absolutely offers value for money."
"n8n is pretty flexible when it comes to pricing, setup cost, and licensing when compared to other platforms such as Make and Zapier."
"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

"In order to score nine or ten, they still need to provide more flexibility and integration with other tools and options."
"Automation Anywhere should add a couple of commands which will help most developers not to always use a script, a good example is in String operations."
"With the PDF command, you can only read structured data. If your data is in an unstructured format, there is no command for it in Automation Anywhere. Then, people need to use Python coding if their data is in unstructured format. Therefore, Automation Anywhere needs to improve in the PDF area."
"Commands in Excel, Outlook, and Word automation are very limited and hence facing difficulties automating complex requirements for the above applications with V11 version."
"The error handling command on this solution still needs improvement, especially when compared to other platforms that are doing very well."
"They should do more on the cognitive side."
"It could be improved in terms of the global analysis of all the issues caused by the dependency components. For example, if bots are running on virtual machines on Microsoft Windows 2019, sometimes an issue might come from the virtual machine. Automation Anywhere should work closely with Microsoft or any other editor with which there are some issues occurring and stopping the bots from running properly."
"We had a major issue when it came to single sign-on. We couldn't get it working."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"The setup of n8n is sometimes very complicated, especially with the HTTP node, which is complex to set up."
"Overall, n8n is a powerful tool, but there are a few areas where it could be improved."
"From my experience, n8n is stable, though the part that can be less stable is that you must stay connected to many APIs."
"n8n has a bit of a learning curve to it; you have to learn a lot."
"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 debug experience could be stronger; when a workflow fails partway through a complex multi-step process, it is sometimes hard to pinpoint exactly where and why, requiring manual stepping through each node."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are a partner of Automation Anywhere and find the pricing to be reasonable."
"Automation Anywhere is thought to be quite expensive, especially for smaller organizations."
"It's cheapest among the competition, although bargaining is a must."
"Time and monetary savings can range from 20 to 90 percent."
"We're on a license package with Automation Anywhere (AA), paid yearly. What would be better is for them to have different packages for different types of organization."
"The cloud-based version comes at an increased cost, although our clients are happy with the new features and have not complained about the pricing."
"This is a value for the money product."
"UiPath is exceptionally more expensive than Automation Anywhere. UiPath is far ahead of its competition, but in terms of finances, Automation Anywhere offers better value and is more effective for organizations seeking cost-effective solutions."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business161
Midsize Enterprise82
Large Enterprise558
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
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?
n8n could improve the onboarding and debugging experience for users who are not deeply technical. The platform is pow...
What is your primary use case for n8n?
My main use case for n8n is in the area of HubSpot marketing CRM AI agent project. I built and implemented CRM market...
 

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

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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 UiPath, Automation Anywhere, n8n.io and others in Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies. Updated: August 2026.
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