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Automation Integration · head to head

Activiti vs Cyclr

Activiti logo

Activiti

Automation Integration

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Cyclr logo

Cyclr

Automation Integration

Embedded integration platform that SaaS vendors ship inside their own product

From
$1595/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Activiti has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • 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.; Cyclr entry pricing of 1,595 US dollars a month for one connector and 100,000 API calls means small vendors will find building two or three integrations in-house genuinely cheaper, and Cyclr only pays off past a certain integration count.
  • They diverge on capability: Activiti covers BPMN 2.0 engine, Cyclr covers White-label integration UI.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Activiti and Cyclr actually diverge.

Attributes where Activiti and Cyclr differ
AttributeActivitiCyclr
Starting priceFree$1595/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer month by API call volume
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinux, Windows, Docker, KubernetesWeb, API

Identical on both: 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 Cyclr

  • White-label integration UI
  • Connector library
  • Workflow builder
  • Custom connectors
  • Regional hosting
  • MCP server offering
  • Usage metering
  • Templates

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 Cyclr
  • A Java application that needs to embed a BPMN engine as a library under a permissive licencenot Cyclr
  • An organisation that has ruled out Camunda 8 on licence grounds and needs an Apache 2.0 alternativenot Cyclr
  • Document-centric approval workflows where the process engine sits inside the content management stack rather than beside itnot Cyclr

Cyclr

  • A mid-market SaaS vendor losing deals because prospects ask for a CRM integration it has not builtnot Activiti
  • A product team that would rather ship an integration marketplace this quarter than hire two engineers to maintain connectorsnot Activiti
  • A European software company that needs its customers' integration data processed inside the EU for procurement reasonsnot Activiti
  • A vendor whose customers each want a slightly different variation of the same integration and cannot be served by one hard-coded connectornot 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.

Cyclr

  • Entry pricing of 1,595 US dollars a month for one connector and 100,000 API calls means small vendors will find building two or three integrations in-house genuinely cheaper, and Cyclr only pays off past a certain integration count.
  • Connectors and API calls are metered separately, so a successful integration marketplace pushes you up tiers as your customers adopt it, meaning the cost rises with usage rather than with the revenue that usage generates.
  • Custom connectors to APIs outside the library are your work to build and maintain, so the promise of not building integrations only holds for applications Cyclr already covers.
  • Debugging is harder when the integration runs in a third-party runtime, because your support team sees a failed workflow rather than an HTTP response and has to escalate to Cyclr for anything non-obvious.
  • Deep embedding creates real switching cost: your customers' live integrations run on Cyclr, so migrating later means recreating every customer workflow, which in practice means you rarely leave.

Pricing, plan by plan

Activiti

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

Cyclr

$1595/month
  • PAYG$1595/month
    • 100,000 API calls included
    • 1 connector included
    • Unlimited integrations and users
  • Growth$2595/month
    • 1,000,000 API calls included
    • 10 connectors included
    • Everything in PAYG
  • Scale$7195/month
    • 5,000,000 API calls included
    • Unlimited connectors
    • Everything in Growth
  • Private Cloud$undefined/month
    • Dedicated hosting in US, UK or EU
    • Configurable processing and runtime
    • Quoted pricing

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 Cyclr if

  • You need white-label integration ui.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want connector library.
Cyclr review

Questions people ask

Is Activiti or Cyclr better?
Neither clearly leads. Activiti starts at Free and Cyclr at $1595/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Activiti or Cyclr?
Activiti has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Activiti and $1595/month for Cyclr.
Does Activiti or Cyclr run on more platforms?
Activiti runs on Linux, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes. Cyclr runs on Web, API.
Can I use Activiti for free?
Yes. Activiti has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Cyclr starts at $1595/month.
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 Cyclr is typically brought in for.
What can Activiti do that Cyclr cannot?
Activiti covers BPMN 2.0 engine, Activiti Cloud, Modeler, Java and REST APIs. Cyclr covers White-label integration UI, Connector library, Workflow builder, Custom connectors.

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.

Cyclr: What does Cyclr actually cost?

Published tiers start at 1,595 US dollars per month for 100,000 API calls and one connector, rising to 7,195 for unlimited connectors and five million calls.

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.

Cyclr: Do my customers know they are using Cyclr?

No. The interface is white-labelled to appear as part of your product.

Activiti: What licence is it?

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

Cyclr: Can I host it in the EU or UK?

Yes, on the private cloud tiers, which matters for European procurement requirements.

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.

Cyclr: What if the connector I need does not exist?

You build a custom connector using Cyclr tooling, which is work you own rather than work the platform removes.

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