Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apache Airflow VS jBPM

Compare Apache Airflow VS jBPM and see what are their differences

Apache Airflow logo Apache Airflow

Airflow is a platform to programmaticaly author, schedule and monitor data pipelines.

jBPM logo jBPM

jBPM is a flexible Business Process Management (BPM) Suite.
  • Apache Airflow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-17
  • jBPM Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-14

Apache Airflow features and specs

  • Scalability
    Apache Airflow can scale horizontally, allowing it to handle large volumes of tasks and workflows by distributing the workload across multiple worker nodes.
  • Extensibility
    It supports custom plugins and operators, making it highly customizable to fit various use cases. Users can define their own tasks, sensors, and hooks.
  • Visualization
    Airflow provides an intuitive web interface for monitoring and managing workflows. The interface allows users to visualize DAGs, track task statuses, and debug failures.
  • Flexibility
    Workflows are defined using Python code, which offers a high degree of flexibility and programmatic control over the tasks and their dependencies.
  • Integrations
    Airflow has built-in integrations with a wide range of tools and services such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Apache Hadoop, making it easier to connect to external systems.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Airflow

  • Complexity
    Setting up and configuring Apache Airflow can be complex, particularly for new users. It requires careful management of infrastructure components like databases and web servers.
  • Resource Intensive
    Airflow can be resource-heavy in terms of both memory and CPU usage, especially when dealing with a large number of tasks and DAGs.
  • Learning Curve
    The learning curve can be steep for users who are not familiar with Python or the underlying concepts of workflow management.
  • Limited Real-Time Processing
    Airflow is better suited for batch processing and scheduled tasks rather than real-time event-based processing.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing task dependencies in complex DAGs can become cumbersome and may lead to configuration errors if not properly handled.

jBPM features and specs

  • Open Source
    jBPM is an open-source tool, which allows businesses to use and modify it without incurring significant licensing costs.
  • Flexible Integration
    jBPM can be integrated with a variety of other systems and software, providing flexibility to fit into various IT environments.
  • Rich Feature Set
    It offers a comprehensive set of features for business process management, including process modeling, execution, monitoring, and task management.
  • Community Support
    Being an open-source project, jBPM benefits from a large community which offers support, shares solutions, and contributes to the documentation.
  • Scalability
    jBPM is designed to handle large-scale processes and can be deployed in various environments, contributing to its scalability.

Possible disadvantages of jBPM

  • Complex Setup
    Setting up jBPM for the first time may require significant time and technical expertise, making it potentially challenging for non-technical users.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a steep learning curve associated with understanding and effectively utilizing jBPM, especially for those new to BPM tools.
  • Performance Overheads
    In certain scenarios, jBPM may introduce performance overheads, especially if not properly tuned or if used for overly complex processes.
  • Limited Out-of-the-Box Reporting
    jBPM’s out-of-the-box reporting and analytics capabilities are somewhat limited compared to some enterprise-grade BPM solutions.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies and configurations can be complex due to its integration capabilities and broad range of features.

Apache Airflow videos

Airflow Tutorial for Beginners - Full Course in 2 Hours 2022

jBPM videos

Building a cool dashboard super fast with jBPM business apps!

More videos:

  • Review - Approval of documents over email with jBPM
  • Review - App building using Forms, Reports and Inboxes with jBPM (4m short version)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Airflow and jBPM)
Workflow Automation
95 95%
5% 5
BPM
0 0%
100% 100
Automation
85 85%
15% 15
Web Service Automation
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Apache Airflow and jBPM. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Airflow and jBPM

Apache Airflow Reviews

5 Airflow Alternatives for Data Orchestration
While Apache Airflow continues to be a popular tool for data orchestration, the alternatives presented here offer a range of features and benefits that may better suit certain projects or team preferences. Whether you prioritize simplicity, code-centric design, or the integration of machine learning workflows, there is likely an alternative that meets your needs. By...
Top 8 Apache Airflow Alternatives in 2024
Apache Airflow is a workflow streamlining solution aiming at accelerating routine procedures. This article provides a detailed description of Apache Airflow as one of the most popular automation solutions. It also presents and compares alternatives to Airflow, their characteristic features, and recommended application areas. Based on that, each business could decide which...
Source: blog.skyvia.com
10 Best Airflow Alternatives for 2024
In a nutshell, you gained a basic understanding of Apache Airflow and its powerful features. On the other hand, you understood some of the limitations and disadvantages of Apache Airflow. Hence, this article helped you explore the best Apache Airflow Alternatives available in the market. So, you can try hands-on on these Airflow Alternatives and select the best according to...
Source: hevodata.com
A List of The 16 Best ETL Tools And Why To Choose Them
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows. The platform features a web-based user interface and a command-line interface for managing and triggering workflows.
15 Best ETL Tools in 2022 (A Complete Updated List)
Apache Airflow programmatically creates, schedules and monitors workflows. It can also modify the scheduler to run the jobs as and when required.

jBPM Reviews

12 of the Top-Rated Free and Open-Source BPM Software Solutions
Description: jBPM is a free, open-source BPM software and workflow engine that bridges the gap between business analysts and developers. The software can function as a standalone service or can be embedded in custom formats. With jBPM, users have access to a business application capable of modeling business goals, improving visibility, outlining complex business logic, and...
10 Best Open Source BPM Tools
jBPM has helped users to design their own business automation plans Reference of open source BPM for several years, jBPM has been integrated by many editors into their solutions.
20 Free Open Source BPM Software for Businesses in 2021
jBPM is a toolkit for building business applications to help automate business processes and decisions. jBPM provides various capabilities which simplifie business logic into reusable assets such as processes, cases, decision tables etc.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Airflow seems to be a lot more popular than jBPM. While we know about 71 links to Apache Airflow, we've tracked only 1 mention of jBPM. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Airflow mentions (71)

  • Data Engineering with DLT and REST
    This article demonstrates how to work with near real-time and historical data using the dlt package. Whether you need to scale data access across the enterprise or provide historical data for post-event analysis, you can use the same framework to provide customer data. In a future article, I'll demonstrate how to use dlt with a workflow orchestrator such as Apache Airflow or Dagster.``. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Data on Kubernetes: Part 3 - Managing Workflows with Job Schedulers and Batch-Oriented Workflow Orchestrators
    There are several tools available that can help manage these workflows. Apache Airflow is a platform designed to programmatically author, schedule, and monitor workflows. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Apache Doris Job Scheduler for Task Automation
    Job scheduling is an important part of data management as it enables regular data updates and cleanups. In a data platform, it is often undertaken by workflow orchestration tools like Apache Airflow and Apache Dolphinscheduler. However, adding another component to the data architecture also means investing extra resources for management and maintenance. That's why Apache Doris 2.1.0 introduces a built-in Job... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How I've implemented the Medallion architecture using Apache Spark and Apache Hdoop
    Instead of the custom orchestrator I used, a proper orchestration tool should replace it like Apache Airflow, Dagster, ..., etc. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • 10 Open Source Tools for Building MLOps Pipelines
    An integral part of an ML project is data acquisition and data transformation into the required format. This involves creating ETL (extract, transform, load) pipelines and running them periodically. Airflow is an open source platform that helps engineers create and manage complex data pipelines. Furthermore, the support for Python programming language makes it easy for ML teams to adopt Airflow. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
View more

jBPM mentions (1)

  • Process and service and orchestrators.
    Https://jbpm.org, https://kogito.kie.org, and the other projects under the https://kie.org umbrella are also worth looking into. Jbpm is the grandfather of several of the Java based BPMN solutions if I'm not mistaken. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Airflow and jBPM, you can also consider the following products

Make.com - Tool for workflow automation (Former Integromat)

Camunda - The Universal Process Orchestrator

ifttt - IFTTT puts the internet to work for you. Create simple connections between the products you use every day.

BonitaSoft - Bonita BPM is a BPM-based application platform that is designed to help users build highly...

Microsoft Power Automate - Microsoft Power Automate is an automation platform that integrates DPA, RPA, and process mining. It lets you automate your organization at scale using low-code and AI.

Activiti - Activiti is a light-weight workflow and Business Process Management (BPM) Platform targeted at...