Drools vs SAS Business Rules Manager

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.

SAS Business Rules Manager is paid, on-premises software for creating and working with business rules. It provides visual rule authoring for defining logic and decision tables for organizing rule-based decisions. Rule testing tools are included, allowing teams to test rules as part of the workflow. The product supports both listed execution access modes, so its rules can be reached through either of those modes. Deployment is on-premises, placing the software within the organization’s own environment rather than a listed cloud deployment. SAS, the maker, was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, USA. Pricing is available on request, and no free plan is listed. The stated capabilities are concentrated on business-rule authoring, decision-table organization, testing, execution, and on-premises operation. Teams evaluating it can focus on whether those rule-development and deployment characteristics match their environment, then request commercial details from SAS.