Is Activiti or Windmill better?

Neither clearly leads. Activiti starts at Free and Windmill at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Activiti or Windmill?

Activiti starts at Free and Windmill at Free.

Does Activiti or Windmill run on more platforms?

Activiti runs on Linux, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes. Windmill runs on web, api, linux, windows, mac.

Can I use Activiti for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Activiti best used for?

Activiti is most often used for an alfresco or hyland content services deployment where activiti is already the embedded workflow engine, a java application that needs to embed a bpmn engine as a library under a permissive licence, an organisation that has ruled out camunda 8 on licence grounds and needs an apache 2.0 alternative, document-centric approval workflows where the process engine sits inside the content management stack rather than beside it. Of those, an alfresco or hyland content services deployment where activiti is already the embedded workflow engine and a java application that needs to embed a bpmn engine as a library under a permissive licence are not what Windmill is typically brought in for.

What can Activiti do that Windmill cannot?

Activiti covers BPMN 2.0 engine, Activiti Cloud, Modeler, Java and REST APIs. Windmill covers Script-to-workflow engine, Auto-generated UIs, Self-hosted deployment, Git sync.

Automation Integration · head to head

Activiti vs Windmill

Activiti

Automation Integration

Apache 2.0 BPMN engine under Hyland, from which Flowable and Camunda were forked

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Windmill

Automation Integration

Open-source developer platform for building scripts, workflows, and internal apps

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Activiti the last stable release was 8.2.0 in January 2024, and while release candidate builds continue, a two-year gap between stable versions is a real risk signal for a production dependency.; Windmill free self-hosted tier caps SSO users at 10 and workspaces at 3, requiring Enterprise for larger teams.
They diverge on capability: Activiti covers BPMN 2.0 engine, Windmill covers Script-to-workflow engine.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Activiti and Windmill actually diverge.

Attributes where Activiti and Windmill differ
Attribute	Activiti	Windmill
Pricing model	Open source, no licence fee	open-source
Platforms	Linux, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes	web, api, linux, windows, mac

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Automation Integration).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Activiti

BPMN 2.0 engine
Activiti Cloud
Modeler
Java and REST APIs
Pluggable persistence
Identity integration

Only in Windmill

Script-to-workflow engine
Auto-generated UIs
Self-hosted deployment
Git sync
SSO support
Audit logs

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Activiti

An Alfresco or Hyland content services deployment where Activiti is already the embedded workflow enginenot Windmill
A Java application that needs to embed a BPMN engine as a library under a permissive licencenot Windmill
An organisation that has ruled out Camunda 8 on licence grounds and needs an Apache 2.0 alternativenot Windmill
Document-centric approval workflows where the process engine sits inside the content management stack rather than beside itnot Windmill

Windmill

Turning ad-hoc scripts into scheduled jobs and APIsnot Activiti
Building internal tools from existing Python/TypeScript codenot Activiti
Self-hosted automation for engineering teamsnot Activiti
Orchestrating multi-language workflowsnot Activiti

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Activiti

The last stable release was 8.2.0 in January 2024, and while release candidate builds continue, a two-year gap between stable versions is a real risk signal for a production dependency.
Both Camunda and Flowable forked away and took large parts of the contributor base with them, so the community, tutorials and third-party tooling around Activiti are much thinner than around either fork.
Commercial support is only realistically available by buying Hyland Alfresco subscriptions, so there is no way to pay for Activiti support on its own.
Activiti Cloud imposes a distributed architecture of several Spring Boot services plus Keycloak, which is heavy for teams who simply wanted an embeddable engine.
Documentation is dated and partly split between old Alfresco sites and Hyland Connect, and the transition between Activiti 6, 7 and 8 architectures makes much of the older material actively misleading.

Windmill

Free self-hosted tier caps SSO users at 10 and workspaces at 3, requiring Enterprise for larger teams.
Compute unit and seat-based pricing (developer vs. operator seats, worker compute units) adds pricing complexity beyond a flat monthly fee.
Email triggers are capped at 100/day on the free tier, limiting event-driven use cases without upgrading.
Smaller ecosystem of pre-built integrations compared to more established automation tools like n8n.

Pricing, plan by plan

Activiti

Free

ActivitiFree
- Apache 2.0 licence
- Embeddable Java library or Activiti Cloud services
- No usage limits

Windmill

Free

Free / Open-sourceFree
- Unlimited executions
- Self-hosted deployment
- Max 10 users with SSO
Enterprise$120/month
- Unlimited executions and workspaces
- Uncapped SSO seats
- 24/7 priority support (3-hour response)

Which should you pick?

Choose Activiti if

You need bpmn 2.0 engine.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Linux, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes.
You also want activiti cloud.

Activiti review

Choose Windmill if

You need script-to-workflow engine.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api, linux, windows, mac.
You also want auto-generated uis.

Windmill review

Questions people ask

Is Activiti or Windmill better?: Neither clearly leads. Activiti starts at Free and Windmill at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Activiti or Windmill?: Activiti starts at Free and Windmill at Free.
Does Activiti or Windmill run on more platforms?: Activiti runs on Linux, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes. Windmill runs on web, api, linux, windows, mac.
Can I use Activiti for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Activiti best used for?: Activiti is most often used for an alfresco or hyland content services deployment where activiti is already the embedded workflow engine, a java application that needs to embed a bpmn engine as a library under a permissive licence, an organisation that has ruled out camunda 8 on licence grounds and needs an apache 2.0 alternative, document-centric approval workflows where the process engine sits inside the content management stack rather than beside it. Of those, an alfresco or hyland content services deployment where activiti is already the embedded workflow engine and a java application that needs to embed a bpmn engine as a library under a permissive licence are not what Windmill is typically brought in for.
What can Activiti do that Windmill cannot?: Activiti covers BPMN 2.0 engine, Activiti Cloud, Modeler, Java and REST APIs. Windmill covers Script-to-workflow engine, Auto-generated UIs, Self-hosted deployment, Git sync.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Activiti: Is Activiti still maintained?

Yes, Hyland continues to publish builds, but the last stable release was 8.2.0 in January 2024.

Windmill: What does Windmill cost?

Windmill's Free and Open-source edition is $0/month for self-hosted use with unlimited executions, while Enterprise starts at $120/month with unlimited workspaces and uncapped SSO seats, priced further by developer/operator seats and compute units.

Source

Activiti: What is its relationship to Camunda and Flowable?

Both are forks of Activiti: Camunda in 2013 and Flowable in 2016, when core developers left Alfresco.

Windmill: Is there a free plan and what are its limits?

The free self-hosted plan supports unlimited executions but caps SSO at 10 users, workspaces at 3, groups/permissions at 4, and email triggers at 100 per day.

Source

Activiti: What licence is it?

Apache 2.0, which distinguishes it from Camunda 8’s source-available licence.

Windmill: How is usage metered on Windmill Enterprise?

Enterprise usage is metered through seats (developer seats at $20/month, operator seats at $10/month) and compute units, e.g. $100/month for 2 standard-worker compute units.

Source

Activiti: Should I choose Activiti for a new project?

Only if the Apache licence or an existing Alfresco deployment is decisive. Flowable and Camunda have far larger ecosystems.

Windmill: What happens to a self-hosted Windmill deployment if the company shuts down?

The pricing page addresses this directly as an FAQ topic, noting that self-hosted applications built on the open-source edition can continue running independently of Windmill the company.

Source

Activiti vs Windmill

Activiti

Windmill

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Activiti

Only in Windmill

What people use each for

Activiti

Windmill

Where each one falls short

Activiti

Windmill

Pricing, plan by plan

Activiti

Windmill

Which should you pick?

Choose Activiti if

Choose Windmill if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Activiti

More on Windmill

Keep looking

Other head to heads