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Comparison · PM
Flowable vs Smartsheet
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Flowable and Smartsheet — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Flowable vs Smartsheet: at a glance
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.
What is Smartsheet?
Smartsheet retires card view for Enterprise and moves AI into three named views.
An October batch ends a stretch of mostly navigation pages in this feed with real product changes. Card view is retired for Enterprise customers in favor of board view, and AI capabilities are now reached only from Table, Board and Timeline views. Around that sit a Workday sync through the Integrations panel, SharePoint file import, bulk attachment handling and new keyboard shortcuts in table view.
Flowable vs Smartsheet: editorial side-by-side
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.
Smartsheet
5.0COLLABPM
Smartsheet retires card view for Enterprise and moves AI into three named views.
◆ Current state
An October batch ends a stretch of mostly navigation pages in this feed with real product changes. Card view is retired for Enterprise customers in favor of board view, and AI capabilities are now reached only from Table, Board and Timeline views. Around that sit a Workday sync through the Integrations panel, SharePoint file import, bulk attachment handling and new keyboard shortcuts in table view.
◆ Where it's heading
Table view is being built into the primary work surface, with attachment management and shortcuts arriving there and AI access narrowed to a defined set of views. The Workday and SharePoint additions pull enterprise data in rather than leaving it to be re-keyed. The April Contributor seat was packaging; this batch is product consolidation.
◆ Prediction
Card view's retirement starts with Enterprise, so wider retirement is the logical next step, though the entries give no date. More table view parity work looks likely given how much of this batch landed there.
Flowable alternatives
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Flowable.
Tracecat
Tracecat 1.3 goes stable: agents run for hours, take steering and reach private networks.
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.
Smartsheet alternatives
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Smartsheet.
Zoho WorkDrive
WorkDrive is moving from file collaboration to AI-driven content management.
Telegram
Telegram's agent platform adds AI group admins, Communities and a rich text editor.
Dropbox
Dropbox cuts staff while its project context spreads through everyone else's AI.
GitLab
GitLab Orbit goes GA, betting that agent quality depends on lifecycle context, not on the model.
WhatsApp is defining who owns a business conversation when several partners share one account.
SiYuan
SiYuan opens 3.8.10 with long-term AI memory and database sub-items.
Recent activity from Flowable and Smartsheet
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 6d agoSmartsheetManage your sheet and row attachments in table view
- 6d agoSmartsheetWork faster with keyboard shortcuts in table view
- 6d agoSmartsheetCard view has been retired for Enterprise plan customers
- 6d agoSmartsheetImport files from SharePoint
- 6d agoSmartsheetSync Workday data into Smartsheet
- 6d agoSmartsheetUse AI tools in Table, Board, and Timeline views
- 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 Flowable and Smartsheet?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Smartsheet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 Flowable better than Smartsheet?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Smartsheet is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 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 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.
What are the best alternatives to Smartsheet?
Top Smartsheet alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Smartsheet alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/smartsheet for the full list with editorial commentary on each.