Given our extensive experience developing on both BPM platforms, we will make a comparison from a technical point of view to see the differences between the two environments at the development level (In this comparison we use versions BOS-5.9.1 and Bizagi GO .NET v.10.0.0.1042).

Both applications are powerful and useful, but they are completely different at the development level, only coinciding in the use of the BPMN 2.0 standard.

It is worth noting that no BPM application fully complies with the BPMN 2.0 standard. Bizagi is slightly more compliant, being able to use diagrams modeled with BPMN 2.0 almost 90% of the time, while Bonita uses approximately 80% of the standard.

However, both meet the standard sufficiently to be able to carry out almost any proposed development.

Some of the differences are:

Bonita Open Solution is fully developed in Java and is Open Source, so we can use the tool to carry out our own developments without needing to make separate contracts with the company BonitaSoft.
Bonitasoft also offers a paid version called the Subscription Pack (SP), which includes additional features for developers that streamline production and allow for more comprehensive process control. (Form duplication, collaborative development, integrated AJAX functions, BAM management, front-end control, etc.)

Bizagi is a paid product, so to develop and implement it on a client's site, you need to purchase a license. Licenses can be "Perpetual" or "Annual." Free licenses are available but subject to conditions, such as academic implementation with a limit of 10 users, or becoming a Bizagi reseller, which is only for demonstration purposes.

Bonita provides its own form creation structure, which is fully configurable from within the development environment and can be adjusted to any client's needs. However, form generation is often the most time-consuming part of developments using this tool, as it requires adapting the forms to each client's specific requirements (CSS, JS, AJAX, etc.). The default structure it generates is overly simplistic.

Bizagi provides a stable and user-friendly structure by default. While it's possible to modify the styles and structure of forms using "user fields," this is a bit more complex to customize. Bizagi's default forms are stable and have a user-friendly appearance.

Bizagi has a development wizard that suggests a more organized development process by following established steps (Model Processes – Model Data – Define Forms – Business Rules and Validations – Define Participants – Integrate – Execute). However, when developing a process, it's more convenient to exit the wizard and use the built-in manager, which allows you to control the entire tool. Collaborative development is possible within a single environment.

With Bonita, developing a process is intuitive thanks to the environment's simplicity. Development can be done locally, and for collaborative work, external tools like SVN can be used. The SP version allows for native collaborative work, meaning it's integrated within the IDE.

The learning curve for training new developers is slightly steeper in Bizagi than in Bonita. This may be due to Bizagi's focus on minimizing potential scenarios, so developers have to use code or the API as little as possible. On the one hand, this prevents the reproduction of errors in third-party code, but on the other hand, it can restrict the necessary API usage.

Perhaps this is one of Bonita's strongest strengths. It has a large community dedicated to creating connectors for Bonita to communicate with other applications via Web Services (WS). Furthermore, we can create our own connectors to make WS calls, create documents, Jasper reports, database connections, and more.

Bizagi, for its part, also has integration capabilities by incorporating components (libraries .dll) and allowing communication via WS.

Bonita allows independent process exports for greater convenience when transferring them from one system to another, or even as mere backups, with each process being independent of the platform until its incorporation.

Bizagi only allows exporting flowcharts so they can be incorporated into its own platform for development. This means that the flowchart can be separated from the business logic, but an independent process cannot be exported. They use a collaborative development environment, so development takes place in a single environment, and transferring processes from one environment to another requires a complete or partial migration of the database data, making it impossible to isolate processes.

Bonita comes with the Bonita User Experience module by default, which is developed in GWT and can serve as the workspace for both users and administrators. At the user level, Bonita User Experience functions similarly to a webmail service, allowing users to view and categorize pending tasks. It includes a history log that displays all the tasks a process has gone through, showing the corresponding form for each step and its current status.

Bizagi also features a webmail-style front end for managing tasks and processes. Its design is more sophisticated than Bonita User Experience and includes advanced features for more comprehensive administrative control (extensive user management, process parameter management, etc.). It also offers a tool for visualizing the process flow diagram and tracking the tasks a process has gone through to determine its current status.

Both applications allow you to view a summary form of the process, which will be filled in as the states progress.

* Bonita, for its part, allows the use of developed processes as an engine for external applications, so we can make use of the complete API through REST services, which can allow us to completely decouple the FrontEnd and create our own.

Finally, a comparison table:

They are completely different tools with the purpose of streamlining business process management.

Both solutions can be adapted to any customer need to implement both simple and complex processes.

They have a great capacity for interconnection with external applications such as document managers, ERP, external databases, etc.

SOLTEL Software Engineering Division.