Grocy
Grocy opened a plugin seam for barcode lookups, then went quiet for a year.
Comparison · PM
NocoBase vs Flowable
A side-by-side editorial comparison of NocoBase and Flowable — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
NocoBase vs Flowable: at a glance
What is NocoBase?
A no-code platform rebuilding itself around AI employees and Portals at once
NocoBase is running two release trains in parallel and tagging both several times a week: a v2.2.0 alpha/beta line and a v3.0.0 alpha line that started in late July. Several v3 alphas are bare version bumps with no notes, while the substance clusters in a handful of tags. Three efforts are underway simultaneously — an AI employees layer, a Portal manager introduced in v3, and a long client v1 to v2 migration.
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.
NocoBase vs Flowable: editorial side-by-side
NocoBase
6.3PM
A no-code platform rebuilding itself around AI employees and Portals at once
◆ Current state
NocoBase is running two release trains in parallel and tagging both several times a week: a v2.2.0 alpha/beta line and a v3.0.0 alpha line that started in late July. Several v3 alphas are bare version bumps with no notes, while the substance clusters in a handful of tags. Three efforts are underway simultaneously — an AI employees layer, a Portal manager introduced in v3, and a long client v1 to v2 migration.
◆ Where it's heading
The AI work is the clearest direction: an embeddable chat block that can be dropped into a built application, RunJS and frontend AI tool APIs so JS blocks can trigger agent tasks, knowledge bases backed by configurable vector databases, and a published guide for defining AI employee Tools and Skills as plugins. That last piece matters most — it turns AI employees from a bundled feature into an extension point third parties build against. Portals, meanwhile, are becoming a first-class deployable unit in v3, with fixed layouts, an application-wide default, CLI build and deployment paths, and their own backup and restore.
◆ Prediction
The v3 line should keep absorbing the AI-employee and Portal work while v2.2.0 stabilizes for release, given every AI feature so far has appeared on the v2 train first and then surfaced in v3 alphas. How long both trains run concurrently is not visible from these entries.
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 NocoBase 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 NocoBase or Flowable.
Everhour
A comparison-content engine where the changelog should be — Everhour ranks itself against rivals.
RescueTime
RescueTime publishes essays, not releases — the feed shows no product movement at all.
Workamajig
Workamajig's changelog is a content-marketing blog — buyer-guide listicles, zero product news.
Process Street
Process Street's blog buries the actual news: it has an MCP server
Notion
Notion is turning Custom Agents into event-driven workers with their own runtime and billing.
See all NocoBase alternatives → · See all Flowable alternatives →
Recent activity from NocoBase and Flowable
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoNocoBaseBackup and restore for AI mode portals
- 3d agoNocoBaseDefault Portal routing and AI service CLI navigation
- 3d agoNocoBaseEmbeddable AI chat block with scoped conversations ⚡
- 4d agoNocoBaseNocoBase 3.0.0 alpha 3
- 4d agoNocoBaseNocoBase 3.0.0 alpha 2
- 4d agoNocoBaseClient V2 settings page and portal gallery
- 5mo agoFlowableSpring Boot 4 and Jackson 3 required; JUnit 4 support removed ⚡
- 11mo agoFlowableAsync variables, skip expressions and broader query filters
- 1y 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
- 2y agoFlowableJava 17 rebase; UI apps, content and form engines removed ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between NocoBase and Flowable?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. NocoBase 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 NocoBase better than Flowable?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. NocoBase 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 NocoBase?
Top NocoBase alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "NocoBase alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nocobase 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.