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Bonita vs IBM BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 17, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Bonita
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
31st
Ranking in Process Automation
31st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (16th)
IBM BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
6th
Ranking in Process Automation
8th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Bonita is 2.0%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 4.3%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM BPM4.3%
Bonita2.0%
Other93.7%
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Paparao Nadipineni - PeerSpot reviewer
Architect at Evoke
A simple and lightweight college course automation system with third-party integrations
The initial setup is straightforward and can be completed with the environment within an hour. First, take the latest from the git repository and check the git code to the monitor studio and a bar file, a deployable Bonita archive file. Then, take that process to the Bonita server, running at runtime on another server. Finally, deploy and enable it by selecting the proper organization.
Ateeq Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
Unit Head System Implementor at Allied Bank Limited
Automation platforms streamline processes and offer flexibility, but AI integration and version upgrades pose challenges
In the technology world, there is always room for improvement. Technologies evolve day by day, especially with the emergence of artificial intelligence and generative AI models. Although IBM BPM is a substantial product, adopting and integrating new technologies quickly is not easy due to the migration and upgrade paths involved. Every time new versions are released, we face business and production challenges that make rapid adoption challenging. The main concern bothering me today regarding IBM BPM is the integration of AI components.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Its user-friendliness, along with the availability of comprehensive and clear documentation on the website is the most valuable."
"The solution is stable. Even the older versions are stable."
"Compared to other products on the market, Bonita presents a pretty acceptable level of robustness."
"The solution is easy to use."
"The user interface is better than all of the open-source BPMs that I have tried."
"One of the most valuable features is you can create without coding, it is a low code platform."
"The most valuable features of Bonita are the connectors, detailed documentation, and web applications. The documentation was useful because it is how I learned how to use it."
"This product is very easy-to-use and user-friendly."
"The performance is fine."
"It has improved my organization quite a bit. It brought awareness to what the business processes are, even to the business side, who did not necessarily know what they are."
"By automating several tasks, we have already reduced a lot of work for the business."
"We have automated processes with IBM BPM and DocuSign. Its valuable features include low-code, timer, etc. It makes it simple to implement the products. We generate reports using the solution."
"It is easy to take a requirement, put it in the code, and deploy it."
"Good user interface and good add option."
"It helps maintain, and in many instances, lower costs, as well as to maintain those costs, keeping them stable."
"Some of the features that I like the most are team management and process performance. They are both very useful and very powerful with regard to the workflow."
 

Cons

"The interface is advanced and quite good, but it could improve."
"There could be an improvement in IoT connectivity."
"The dashboard has limited features."
"The community edition has limited module functionality. If they could release some of the functionality that's available in the enterprise edition that would be helpful to those learning to use the solution."
"Automation in vacation of a human resources replacement would be a good improvement in the product."
"Bonita must add a rule engine. We are a 360-degree partner of Bonita. We can integrate with any kind of rule engine. We have a dashboard related to engine performance, but getting a configurable dashboard for the Buildium or transactional data will add value."
"The main issue with Bonita is that the workspace crashes sometimes."
"There is a considerable learning curve."
"We had hoped that the product would provide us with plug-ins like Salesforce. Its development environment needs to improve. We expect to see elastic features like containerization. We don't just need an on-prem virtual machine."
"I see room for improvement in terms of the overall experience."
"I suggest establishing a developer forum for better communication and issue resolution. Also, the administration panel could be improved for task management."
"There is room for improvement in the stability."
"The pricing is a little bit high. It's gone up in cost."
"New users will need at least six months to get comfortable with IBM BPM, at least initially. So, there's a learning curve."
"They could provide case studies to investigate and understand the functionality of business processes before development."
"The major issue is the pricing, which is very high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing cost for the Enterprise edition comes out to be around 40,000 a year. There is also a Community edition, which is free. Some customers can go for the Community edition, but some of them require the Enterprise edition. Big companies go for the Enterprise edition, which comes with a lot of additional features such as a mobile app."
"The Community Edition comes free of charge."
"The Enterprise edition is very expensive."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Price to service ratio with Bonita BPM is good."
"We are using the Community Version, which can be used free of charge."
"The product is not cheaper, not costlier; it is reasonable. Bonita’s license is very flexible, with options to meet the needs of different customers and clients. Previously, it was less flexible, but now, many different licensing options are available."
"I believe this is a very good financial choice."
"It should provide more flexibility to connect with external systems, and there should be in-built services that can be used to integrate with other systems quickly."
"I already compared some solutions related to business process management, and I saw that the cost of IBM BPM is more expensive compared with that of Camunda, for example."
"Due to its extensive features and capabilities, the product pricing is more aligned with medium—to large enterprises."
"The solution is expensive since it is an enterprise application."
"It has a low cost to implement. You'll get your money back in the same year that you complete the project."
"I wish it was less expensive. I don't know why their pricing model is so high for a piece of software that could benefit so many. It just seems to me that they could have a lower cost, maybe with fewer features or whatever, but it should be possible to do a lower cost workflow software that uses the same interface and underlying engine but does not cost so much that you have to be a Fortune 50 company to buy it. It is annoying to me. There are a lot of solutions that IBM has that are really powerful but nobody can afford them. They know their business, but I still feel that there are a lot of customers who would benefit from this sort of thing. I don't know what this elitism is all about. I am sure they have people doing the money numbers, but it seems like you can make a lot more money by selling it to way more people for a little bit less."
"​We have definitely seen ROI. When we first kicked it off, we said it had to pay for itself within three years, and it did."
"We have a yearly licensing model. It is not expensive. There are no addition costs to the standard license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise72
 

Questions from the Community

How does Bonita compare with Camunda Platform?
One of the things we like best about Bonita is that you can create without coding - it is a low-code platform. With Bonita, you can build the entire mechanism using the GUI, it’s that simple. You c...
Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?
Once it is installed, maintaining it is not a big issue.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Bonita BPM
WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

With more than 1000 customers in 75 countries, and its ecosystem of more than 120,000 members, Bonitasoft is the largest provider of open-source Business Process Management, Low-code and Digital Transformation software worldwide.
Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
Find out what your peers are saying about Bonita vs. IBM BPM and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
883,692 professionals have used our research since 2012.