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Comparison · PM
Asana vs Flowable
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Asana and Flowable — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Asana vs Flowable: at a glance
What is Asana?
Asana Tables puts vendor and asset records next to tasks, and AI Teammates can read them.
Asana has added a new object type. Tables, live on Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise+, stores reference data such as vendors and assets as records with custom fields, linked to tasks, projects and other tables. It follows a fall of structural and control work: subtask types set by the parent, Subtask Date Rollups, automation rules running on their owner's current permissions, and a reorganized Admin Console.
What is Flowable?
Flowable ships once a year and spends it on the Java platform, not on the process engine.
Flowable's release history is a slow major-version cadence — 7.0.0 in 2023, 7.1.0 in 2024, 7.2.0 in 2025, 8.0.0 in February 2026 — and each major is anchored to a Java-ecosystem jump rather than to process modelling itself. Flowable 8 moves to Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4, makes Jackson 3 the default, and removes JUnit 3 and JUnit 4 support outright. The engine-level additions that do arrive, like lambda expressions in expressions, are incremental extensions to BPMN and CMMN semantics.
Asana vs Flowable: editorial side-by-side
Asana
6.3PMCOLLAB
Asana Tables puts vendor and asset records next to tasks, and AI Teammates can read them.
◆ Current state
Asana has added a new object type. Tables, live on Advanced, Enterprise and Enterprise+, stores reference data such as vendors and assets as records with custom fields, linked to tasks, projects and other tables. It follows a fall of structural and control work: subtask types set by the parent, Subtask Date Rollups, automation rules running on their owner's current permissions, and a reorganized Admin Console.
◆ Where it's heading
The fall's hierarchy cleanup now reads as groundwork for a broader data model: Asana is moving from tracking work to also holding the records work refers to. Tables feed AI Teammates and Asana Dash directly, so structured data becomes context for the agents launched over the summer. Asana is drawing the limit itself, saying Tables won't replace a CRM or a formula-heavy spreadsheet.
◆ Prediction
Expect Tables to gain richer lookups between records and more ways for rules and AI Teammates to act on them. The entries don't show whether Tables will reach lower plans.
Flowable
0.0PM
Flowable ships once a year and spends it on the Java platform, not on the process engine.
◆ Current state
Flowable's release history is a slow major-version cadence — 7.0.0 in 2023, 7.1.0 in 2024, 7.2.0 in 2025, 8.0.0 in February 2026 — and each major is anchored to a Java-ecosystem jump rather than to process modelling itself. Flowable 8 moves to Spring Framework 7 and Spring Boot 4, makes Jackson 3 the default, and removes JUnit 3 and JUnit 4 support outright. The engine-level additions that do arrive, like lambda expressions in expressions, are incremental extensions to BPMN and CMMN semantics.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a project whose roadmap is largely set by the platform underneath it. Each major forces a coordinated upgrade on adopters — Java 17 and Jakarta 9 at 7.0.0, Spring Boot 4 and Jackson 3 at 8.0.0 — and in exchange delivers query, variable and migration refinements aimed at large existing deployments. The 7.0.0 decision to drop the UI applications and the content, form and Mule modules set the pattern: narrow to the engines and the REST APIs, and let everything else go.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next major to track the following Spring and Java LTS jump on roughly the same annual rhythm. Nothing in these entries points to an AI or agent-facing direction, so any such move would be a genuine departure rather than a continuation.
Alternatives to Asana and Flowable
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Asana or Flowable.
NocoBase
NocoBase puts Redis realtime behind a commercial plugin as app-server tags reach 4.0 beta.
My Hours
My Hours 10.2 adds lifetime project profitability, including flat-fee work.
Fibery
Fibery moves AI Connectors to free beta two weeks after preview, with MCP creation on the way.
Camunda
Camunda opens the 8.11 cycle with job-worker fixes and variable metadata across gRPC, REST and MCP.
SmartSuite
SmartSuite gives integrations their own identities and lets its AI run behind corporate gateways.
See all Asana alternatives → · See all Flowable alternatives →
Recent activity from Asana and Flowable
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoAsanaIntroducing: Tables ⚡
- 17d agoAsana:puzzle_piece: Subtask types now follow their parent, across projects
- 24d agoAsana🗓️ Subtask Date Rollups: bring your parent dates up to date
- 27d agoAsanaA clearer way to find your Admin settings 🧭
- 1mo agoAsana🔐 Automation rules now use their owner’s current permissions
- 1mo agoAsana🗂️ Bulk-add from Portfolio now works for editors and admins!
- 8mo agoFlowableSpring Boot 4 and Jackson 3 required; JUnit 4 support removed ⚡
- 1y agoFlowableAsync variables, skip expressions and broader query filters
- 2y agoFlowableLiquibase dropped from App, CMMN, DMN and event registry engines
- 2y agoFlowableBug-fix release adding async leave and LocalDate timers
- 2y agoFlowableSpring Boot 3.1.6 support and dynamic event subscriptions
- 3y agoFlowableJava 17 rebase; UI apps, content and form engines removed ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Asana and Flowable?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Asana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Asana better than Flowable?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Asana is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Asana?
Top Asana alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Asana alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/asana for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Flowable?
Top Flowable alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Flowable alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/flowable for the full list with editorial commentary on each.