Argo Workflows vs Workflow Engine
Argo Workflows
argoproj.github.ioWorkflow Engine
workflowengine.ioSide by side
| Figure | Argo Workflows | Workflow Engine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $666.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 7 |
| Spec score · Workflow Orchestration Software | 8.6 (#9) | 7.8 (#25) |
| Deployment | Argo Workflows is cloud agnostic and can run on any Kubernetes cluster. | Workflow Engine NEO adds an HTTP API and multitenancy, while Workflow Server is a standalone Docker service called over HTTP. |
| Integrations | The project lists Argo Events, Hera, Katib, Kedro, Kubeflow Pipelines, Netflix Metaflow, Piper, Seldon, and SQLFlow among projects that use or rely on Argo Workflows. | The maker lists plugins including Approval, Loops, File, Active Directory and Entra ID, Real-Time Tracking, and support for custom plugins. |
| Support | The project directs users with questions to GitHub Discussions and Slack and describes monthly community meetings. | The maker directs existing customers to technical support under their support plan and offers public GitHub Discussions for questions. |
Plans
Workflow Engine
- Workflow Engine FreeFree
- Workflow Engine Team$2,000, paid once
- Workflow Engine Complete$5,000, paid once
- Workflow Engine NEO Subscription$8,000 a year
- Workflow Engine NEO Business$10,000, paid once
- Workflow Engine NEO SaaS$15,000, paid once
- Workflow Engine NEO EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Argo Workflows
Argo Workflows is a free, open-source engine for orchestrating container-based jobs on Kubernetes. Workflows can be arranged as sequential steps or as tasks linked in a directed acyclic graph, with each step running in a container. The project lists machine learning pipelines, data and batch processing, infrastructure automation, and CI/CD as use cases. Controls include loops, conditionals, retries, timeouts, suspension and resumption, cancellation, and limits on parallel work. Cron scheduling, workflow archiving, a UI for viewing and managing runs, and Prometheus metrics are included. Artifact support covers S3, Artifactory, Alibaba Cloud OSS, Azure Blob Storage, HTTP, Git, GCS, raw artifacts, and plugins. The server provides REST API support over HTTP and gRPC, with client libraries for Java, Go, Python, and TypeScript. Argo Workflows is self-hosted and can run on any Kubernetes cluster. Its listed plan costs nothing, and the official pages list no paid plans or usage limits. Administrators should configure transport security, authentication, roles, and permissions; workflow pods run as root by default unless their security context is set.
Workflow Engine
Workflow Engine is an embeddable.NET library for managing business processes while saving their state in your database. It supports timers, audit history, and process versioning, and includes an HTML5 visual designer that can be embedded in an application. Designer packages are available for React, Angular, and vanilla JavaScript, with a documented Blazor integration. The core package supports.NET Framework 4.6.2 through.NET 10 and is deployed on-premises or in a customer's cloud. Supported databases include SQL Server, Azure SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, MySQL, Oracle, and SQLite. It imports BPMN 2.0 diagrams as native schemes, but does not export diagrams back to BPMN. Workflow Engine Free is licensed for personal, non-commercial use and costs nothing; it is limited to 10 schemas and 4 execution threads. Paid options include one-time licenses and subscriptions. NEO adds an HTTP API and multitenancy, while Workflow Server is a standalone Docker service called over HTTP. The core engine has no user store; authentication is the host application's responsibility.