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ARIS BPA vs Apache Airflow vs Camunda comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
6.5
Apache Airflow offers positive returns for many users with its versatility, despite some concerns about comparable alternatives.
Sentiment score
6.8
ARIS BPA varies in ROI timelines, enhancing process understanding and control but with hard-to-quantify financial impacts.
Sentiment score
7.8
Camunda optimizes processes, boosting productivity and reducing costs, though substantial returns require careful planning and time.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Apache Airflow users favor community resources and documentation for support, often preferring self-reliance over commercial help.
Sentiment score
6.6
ARIS BPA's support is praised for technical assistance and flexibility but could improve in responsiveness and communication.
Sentiment score
6.2
Camunda's support is generally helpful, though some users seek improved integration assistance and a better knowledge center.
There is enough documentation available, and the community support is good.
Forums and community resources like Stack Overflow are helpful.
The consultants are fine, however, reliance on single experts for modules can be risky.
AWS provides the best support, followed by Microsoft, and then Google.
They provide better support for the enterprise edition.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Apache Airflow excels in scalability across nodes, though struggles with complex workloads and dynamic cloud adjustments.
Sentiment score
7.6
ARIS BPA is scalable for small to large enterprises, offering flexibility, modular features, and easy licensing for process management expansion.
Sentiment score
6.9
Camunda excels in scalability with modern tools like Docker and Kubernetes, though some face database dependency challenges.
The solution is very scalable.
Apache Airflow scales well, especially when deployed in Kubernetes environments.
For user scalability, it is a matter of licenses, while functional scalability is supported and easy to implement.
ARIS BPA has high scalability and wide scalability for any enterprise or organization.
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.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Apache Airflow is stable but may face minor issues and requires support, aligning with the ETL as code philosophy.
Sentiment score
7.3
ARIS BPA is generally stable, with minor issues primarily in large environments, but responsive support enhances stability perception.
Sentiment score
7.8
Camunda is praised for stability and reliability, performing well under load with minimal bugs, earning high ratings.
I would rate the stability of the solution as ten out of ten.
Apache Airflow is stable and I have not experienced significant issues.
I would rate its stability at nine out of ten.
The stability of ARIS BPM is quite strong, rated eight out of ten.
There haven't been any significant outages in my experience with Camunda.
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Airflow struggles with workflow complexity, real-time tasks, UI intuitiveness, integration, scalability, documentation, stability, and automation improvements.
ARIS BPA needs better integration, user interface, scripting, documentation, training, pricing, and simplicity for wider accessibility.
Camunda needs UI enhancements, improved integration, scalability, security, better support, flexible deployment, and a revised pricing model.
It is not suitable for real-time ETL tasks.
There is no dashboard for us to check all the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs); a dashboard would help us analyze the work better.
If we desire to add custom messengers or a rest API, those options are unavailable.
Software AG should focus on developing AI models for ARIS BPA on-premises, particularly in user interfaces, as well as creating predefined business processes for common areas such as HR and finance.
Software AG could improve this by making the database more open.
ARIS BPA needs to be more accurate when generating documents.
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.
 

Setup Cost

Apache Airflow is free and open-source, but cloud deployment may incur infrastructure and commercial support costs.
ARIS BPA pricing is high but valued by large enterprises; smaller firms may find costs prohibitive due to complex licensing.
Camunda provides free open-source and costly enterprise versions, offering enhanced features and support, with enterprise fees escalating by usage.
I prefer using the open-source version rather than the enterprise version, which helps manage costs.
It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
Apache Airflow is a community-based platform and is not a licensed product.
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.
 

Valuable Features

Apache Airflow simplifies ETL processes with a Python-friendly UI, offering flexibility, scalability, and broad cloud integration for teams.
ARIS BPA offers powerful modeling, customization, and collaboration tools, integrating SAP and databases, ensuring strategic alignment and governance.
Camunda excels in scalable, flexible process automation with wide standards coverage, integration options, and user-friendly graphical interface.
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform that allows easy integration with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Reliability is good, and when integrated with Kubernetes, it performs better compared to on-premises environments.
We can create notifications for successful or failed tasks, providing a practical way to monitor our workflows.
ARIS BPA is a tool to build models and frameworks for organizations or reengineer business processes from both functional and business perspectives.
The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable.
The most important aspect of business analysis is simplification.
EC2 makes scaling horizontally incredibly easy, especially when working under the ECS service.
The biggest difference between Camunda and Bonita might be that Camunda is simpler and more flexible for setting.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Apache Airflow is 6.1%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ARIS BPA is 4.8%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Camunda is 19.8%, down from 21.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Madhan Potluri - PeerSpot reviewer
We efficiently manage and monitor production pipelines through job resumption and error log integration
We utilize Apache Airflow for managing machine learning production pipelines. The deployment of our machine learning models takes place through Apache Airflow. We configure pipelines, decide on the frequency of recalibration, deployment, and dataset training Apache Airflow allows us to resume…
Tamer Eldamanhouri - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowers teams with robust business process modeling capabilities
They should examine competitor solutions to identify differentiators. One issue related to ARIS BPA is its integration with AI; it has AI features for cloud solutions, yet many in the government sector in Kuwait do not view the cloud as viable. Software AG should focus on developing AI models for ARIS BPA on-premises, particularly in user interfaces, as well as creating predefined business processes for common areas such as HR and finance. This aspect is crucial for adapting to the market's needs and streamlining custom solutions. While they have been helpful regarding pricing, I cannot compare ARIS BPA to other business process modeling tools because I understand some competitors have significantly lower costs than ARIS BPA. To maintain market share, good discounts should be provided to customers.
FABIO NAGAO - PeerSpot reviewer
Reduces costs with hardware abstraction and simplifies scaling
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. I have to choose between monitoring CPU or memory to scale my solution. Not every software is built for deployment as a container service, although the current architecture trend is changing this.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
13%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What do you like most about Apache Airflow?
Apache Airflow is easy to use and can monitor task execution easily. For instance, when performing setup tasks, you c...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Airflow?
We don't experience issues with pricing as Apache Airflow is part of a larger platform. It is a sub-feature and not a...
What do you like most about ARIS BPA?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?
Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay.
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
ARIS BPA needs to be more accurate when generating documents. While it covers many blueprints and functions that I ne...
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 B...
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...
What do you like most about Camunda Platform?
The solution is useful for small projects.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Airflow
ARIS, ARIS BPM
Camunda BPM
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Agari, WePay, Astronomer
Tesco, Weifu, Airbus, Siemens, Proximus, Alicorp, Sekerbank, Bancor, Philips,Sky, Emirates NBD, Dubai Municipality, Suva, U.S. Army, Australia Post, Westfalen Weser Energie - ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as the market leader for process excellence with more than 30 years of experience in the market, 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, Automation Anywhere, Apache and others in Business Process Management (BPM). Updated: June 2025.
862,077 professionals have used our research since 2012.