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Camunda vs IBM BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
Camunda delivers cost-effective, stable solutions enhancing productivity, reducing operational expenses, and offering comprehensive process coverage for large enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.1
IBM BPM offers quick ROI by enhancing process efficiency and transparency, outweighing high costs through accelerated operations and reduced errors.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Camunda's customer service is praised for helpfulness and expertise, though some mention challenges with complexity and regional support.
Sentiment score
6.7
IBM BPM support is responsive and helpful but could improve response speed; high-priority issues receive swift attention.
AWS provides the best support, followed by Microsoft, and then Google.
They really understand deeply and in detailed fashion the solution.
They provide better support for the enterprise edition.
The customer service is outstanding.
We had a contract that provided on-site support, which was very satisfactory.
On a scale from 1 to 10, support deserves a rating of 7 to 8.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
Camunda excels in scalability using modern tools but faces database challenges; improvements are noted in documentation and setup.
Sentiment score
6.8
IBM BPM excels in scalable performance on WebSphere, offering customization and flexibility, with expertise crucial for optimal setup.
Camunda offers a high level of scalability, especially when using its SaaS model, which manages and scales implementations automatically.
ECS and Fargate make horizontal scalability very easy.
They have that REST layer, REST APIs layer that makes it easy to integrate and make it part of a microservices ecosystem and APIs.
The solution has scalability issues; on a scale, I would rate it at eight out of ten.
The architecture of the solution offers scalability; we can scale both vertically and horizontally.
I found IBM BPM to be scalable to a certain level but it struggled with large volumes of concurrent transactions.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Camunda is highly rated for stability, with minimal bugs, and performs efficiently in various production environments even under load.
Sentiment score
7.1
IBM BPM stability varies, with recent versions showing improvements; issues exist under heavy loads and weak network conditions.
There haven't been any significant outages in my experience with Camunda.
We were not really concerned about the performance on the process itself because it was super simple, super straightforward, and it did not present itself as a bottleneck, nor did we feel it was adding additional time in the execution.
 

Room For Improvement

Camunda needs better customization, programming language integration, scalability, and AWS support, with enhanced documentation and performance improvements.
IBM BPM needs UI enhancements, better integrations, improved performance, simplified installation, advanced reports, AI features, and security updates.
More open documentation would be beneficial to understand the deployment process better and facilitate easier setup.
There is an issue where, in some situations, I need to scale up by observing both CPU and memory usage of containers, yet under the current options available at Amazon, this is not possible.
Since they made the move to cloud deployment in a more SaaS-oriented way, they do not invest too much in the community version.
IBM BPM also lacks smaller solutions, so I must purchase multiple solutions to start with workflows and applications.
Technologies evolve day by day, especially with the emergence of artificial intelligence and generative AI models.
 

Setup Cost

Camunda's pricing is competitive, but costly for small businesses; enterprise edition offers advanced features and support options.
IBM BPM is a costly solution suited for large enterprises, with licensing options often pricier than competitors like Camunda.
AWS pricing is very competitive compared to Azure and cheap compared to Google.
There is a licensing cost for using the SaaS model and Enterprise edition of Camunda.
SAP is more expensive, but IBM BPM is very expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Camunda is valued for its flexibility, open-source customization, user-friendly interface, and effective management of complex processes.
IBM BPM offers robust SOA, easy process modulation, responsive UI, and seamless integration for effective business process management.
EC2 makes scaling horizontally incredibly easy, especially when working under the ECS service.
Camunda's support for BPMN 2.0 is a great advantage because it allows us to have a common language to discuss technology and business in the same perspective.
The biggest difference between Camunda and Bonita might be that Camunda is simpler and more flexible for setting.
The integration capabilities of IBM BPM are excellent.
 

Categories and Ranking

Camunda
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
1st
Ranking in Process Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
78
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (2nd)
IBM BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
7th
Ranking in Process Automation
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
112
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Camunda is 16.0%, down from 21.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 5.9%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Camunda16.0%
IBM BPM5.9%
Other78.1%
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Q&A Highlights

 

Featured Reviews

CristianoGomes - PeerSpot reviewer
Supports long-running asynchronous processes effectively but has not evolved much in recent years
I think Camunda is focusing too much on the SaaS offering right now and not much on improving and developing the product itself. I did not see any innovations on that aspect, especially for the open-source version. I was making some tests recently and the tool seemed pretty much the same as it was three or four years ago. Since they made the move to cloud deployment in a more SaaS-oriented way, they do not invest too much in the community version. To be honest, it did not change much from the Activiti initial version. Activiti was pretty much what Camunda is today. They invested a lot on Zeebe and made it the engine for their SaaS cloud version. Camunda itself, the embedded engine, did not evolve too much. They could invest more on that.
Ateeq Rehman - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Answers from the Community

LC
Aug 24, 2021
Aug 24, 2021
Hi Leandro, those two BPM's shouldn't be compared on the functional level. They are different type of solutions. Camunda offers the workflow engine and decission engine, where you can create process models according to BPMN and DMM standards. This gives you the flexibility and agility in the process management. It also gives you the tools to monitor, manage and optimize those processes. Camund...
2 out of 3 answers
BA
Feb 13, 2021
PM
Feb 15, 2021
Hi Leandro, those two BPM's shouldn't be compared on the functional level. They are different type of solutions.  Camunda offers the workflow engine and decission engine, where you can create process models according to BPMN and DMM standards. This gives you the flexibility and agility in the process management. It also gives you the tools to monitor, manage and optimize those processes. Camunda provides very limited functionalities, if it comes to end user interfaces. Usually they are built as custom applications or existing application are used. With Camunda projects you always focus on automation, that requires system integration and custom development and usually concerns core business processes. Camunda is an openAPI solution, which makes the integration fast and easy. It is a common situation in financial industry, that you have many systems, that need to be integrated in one process, that is why Camunda is so popular in this sector.Before you decide on the switch, you have to consider the processes you want to use it for. If this is for standard processes like holiday requests, invoice approvals etc. Camunda is not the best option. But if you want to automate sales or after sales processes, client/partner onboarding, claims management, debt collection you should definitely consider Camunda. I found once in Camunda documents an interesting comparison between Camunda and BPM suites: "On a blank canvas, an artist can paint a picture in exactly the way he imagines. Alternatively, there is the principle of “painting by numbers”, where even the artistic layman can create stunning images by coloring in predetermined areas. However, they can only create what was already pre-designed." And finally, Camunda is available as open source solution and there is no vendor lock. I hope it helped ;-) There is always an option to have a talk... Cheers, Piotr
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
6%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business42
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise71
 

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 do you prefer - Appian or Camunda Platform?
Appian is fast when building simple to medium solutions. This solution offers simple drag-and-drop functionality with easy plug-and-play options. The initial setup was seamless and very easy to imp...
Which would you choose - Camunda Platform or Apache Airflow?
Camunda Platform allows for visual demonstration and presentation of business process flows. The flexible Java-based option was a big win for us and allows for the integration of microservices very...
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

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

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

24 Hour Fitness, Accruent, AT&T Inc., Atlassian, CSS Insurance, Deutsche Telekom, Generali, Provinzial NordWest Insurance Services, Swisscom AG, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VHV Group, Zalando
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 Camunda vs. IBM BPM and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,655 professionals have used our research since 2012.