DecisionRules vs Drools
DecisionRules
decisionrules.io
Drools
kie.apache.orgSide by side
| Figure | DecisionRules | Drools |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | €291/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 1 |
| Spec score · Business Rules Management Software | 9.2 (#1) | 8.0 (#6) |
| Founded | 2023 | 2001 |
| Integrations | Officially listed integrations include database systems, REST APIs, credit bureaus, AI models, business intelligence tools, Apache Kafka, CI/CD platforms and monitoring services. | Drools rules can be called directly by a BPMN business rule task in jBPM within the same service. |
| Purpose | DecisionRules is a business rules engine for dynamic pricing, credit scoring, claims processing, risk, fraud, and data validation. | Drools is a forward-chaining and backward-chaining inference-based rule engine used to build expert systems. |
| Security | The company states that it is ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 audited, and describes role-based access, audit logs, multifactor authentication, SSO, encryption in transit and at rest, and annual penetration tests. | The Apache Security Team coordinates handling of Apache project vulnerabilities and encourages private reports before public disclosure. |
| Support | GetApp lists email/help desk, chat, FAQs/forum, knowledge base and live representative support as support options. | The project lists a users mailing list and Zulip chat as community contact channels. |
Plans
In their own words
DecisionRules
DecisionRules is a business rules engine for decisions involving dynamic pricing, credit scoring, claims processing, risk, fraud, and data validation. It supports Decision Tables, Decision Trees, Decision Flows, Integration Flows, Scripting Rules, and Lookup Tables. Business analysts can author rules in a spreadsheet-like interface, while engineers use the same platform to integrate and deploy them. An AI Assistant can create rules from plain-language descriptions, generate test data, write function expressions, and summarize rules. Listed integrations include AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Apache Kafka, REST API, Salesforce, Power BI, Excel, Google Sheets, Zapier, and n8n. Deployment options are Public Cloud, Private Managed Cloud, and Self-Hosted; Docker images and a free 30-day license key are available for local evaluation. The Free plan includes 10 rules and flows, one user, one project, and 1,000 Solver API calls. Lite costs €291 a month, billed €3,500 annually. A 14-day trial is listed. The company is based in Prague.
Drools
Drools is a free, open-source rule engine for building expert systems with forward- and backward-chaining inference. Its DMN engine supports Conformance level 3, covering the features in that standard, and can statically analyze decision tables for gaps and overlaps. For event processing, it reasons over streams using temporal operators, sliding windows, and event expiration. Developers can define rules in DRL text files alongside Java code, or use Excel decision tables, rule templates, or a Java executable model API. Rule units organize rules with typed containers for input data, and Kogito can generate REST endpoints from them. Drools rules can also be called by a BPMN business rule task in jBPM within the same service. Apache KIE states that the DMN engine passes 99.9% of DMN TCK tests as of version 10.2.0. The project is available for API, Linux, and self-hosted use at free. Getting started requires an IDE, JDK 21 or 17, and Maven 3.9 or later. Apache KIE is undergoing incubation and has not yet been fully endorsed by the ASF.