Bonita vs IBM Blueworks Live comparison

Bonitasoft and IBM are both solutions in the Business Process Design category. Bonitasoft is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.2, while IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.6. Bonitasoft holds a 4.5% mindshare in BPD, compared to IBM’s 3.6% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Bonitasoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Bonita

Read 27 Bonita reviews

2,533 Views
1,867 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

IBM Blueworks Live

Read 20 IBM Blueworks Live reviews

2,383 Views
1,543 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Bonita

IBM Blueworks Live

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Bonita and IBM Blueworks Live are prominent contenders in the process management software category. Bonita is favored for its cost-effectiveness and service quality, while IBM Blueworks Live appeals to users seeking comprehensive features and advanced functionality.

Features: Bonita provides customization capabilities for flexible process modeling, integration, and a user-friendly interface. It supports mobile portal access and includes numerous connectors for different systems. IBM Blueworks Live offers robust process design with intuitive visual tools and extensive collaboration features, focusing on cloud-based accessibility.

Room for Improvement: Bonita could enhance its ease of use and reduce setup time. More comprehensive built-in error handling and support for non-programming implementations would be beneficial. IBM Blueworks Live could improve its cost-effectiveness and service flexibility. Enhancements in customization options and further advancements in process modeling tools are also areas for growth.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Bonita supports on-premise deployment with extensive resources for smooth integration and flexible deployment options. IBM Blueworks Live, as a cloud-based service, offers straightforward deployment with continuous updates. It provides reliable support, with some noted constraints in flexibility.

Pricing and ROI: Bonita is known for competitive pricing, lower setup costs, and strong return on investment due to reduced operational expenses. IBM Blueworks Live involves higher initial costs but offers potential long-term ROI through advanced process optimization. Its pricing is seen as valuable for organizations prioritizing feature-rich enhancements.

To learn more, read our detailed Bonita vs. IBM Blueworks Live Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Bonita vs. IBM Blueworks Live

April 2025

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Helped 850,028 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Bonita

Ranking in Business Process Design

10th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (14th), Process Automation (12th)

IBM Blueworks Live

Ranking in Business Process Design

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of Bonita is 4.5%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Blueworks Live is 3.6%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Design

Featured Reviews

Paparao Nadipineni

Architect at Evoke

A simple and lightweight college course automation system with third-party integrations

The initial setup is straightforward and can be completed with the environment within an hour. First, take the latest from the git repository and check the git code to the monitor studio and a bar file, a deployable Bonita archive file. Then, take that process to the Bonita server, running at runtime on another server. Finally, deploy and enable it by selecting the proper organization.

Read full review

AjarMathur

Global Innovation Director at Ernst & Young

An easily scalable and affordable solution that enables users to document and digitize processes with ease

IBM Blueworks is BPMN 2.0 compliant, but it does not adapt to the overarching BPMN 2.0 concepts. There is only one kind of BPMN 2.0 diagram. It is a process diagram. It doesn't have the concept of separate tools, which other products offer. If I had to do a hardcore BPMN 2.0 modeling, the product would have its own reservations. There were features we could not explore from a BPMN 2.0 perspective. Most of the time, people who are shifting from Microsoft Office tools to a digitized way of working still want the reporting capabilities to be strong. Some tools, like ARIS or Signavio, offer customized solutions from the reporting perspective. If I have documented my whole finance process and want to fetch out a complete SOP report in a very customized manner, IBM Blueworks cannot provide it. We have to rely on some other services. So that's one area in which we always struggled, how to really customize the reporting aspects. I understand that we need to keep the tool a little more asset-light. It's very difficult to keep adding many options, but at least a few BPMN 2.0 options were needed. We have been suggesting to IBM that we should have some way of customizing the reporting. At least we should get a custom way of reporting it into different formats like Excel or putting up a logo for one of the clients so that their SAP can be printed that way.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"One of the most valuable features is you can create without coding, it is a low code platform."

"Development of forms and flows."

"I find process management and user interface designing the most valuable features."

"Compared to other products on the market, Bonita presents a pretty acceptable level of robustness."

"The most valuable features of Bonita are the connectors, detailed documentation, and web applications. The documentation was useful because it is how I learned how to use it."

"It is a great product that is powerful in developing applications."

"Process automation with Bonita BPM is really easy."

"This product is very easy-to-use and user-friendly."

More Bonita pros

"The business process discovery is excellent. The diagram or blueprinting functionality of the solution are very good. It's quite easy. You can link the sub-processes and get a big overview of the whole process then."

"This solution is good at utilizing standards rules for connectivity."

"The ease of documenting and digitizing the processes was valuable to us."

"The reporting that we can generate from IBM Blueworks Live has been interesting. We found the KPIs, risks, process modeling, format, and colors, to be very good. We use the EY template and it is interesting to generate reporting in this format."

"It enables decisions based upon processes that we do model, and ultimately move forward with."

"You can use if from your mobile device or you can be on the desktop. It doesn't matter. You are always connected. It is cloud-based, so you don't have to install anything."

"IBM Blueworks Live is cloud-based and provides easy access to all your processes in one place."

"The stability is pretty good. It is highly available, which is key. You don't lose your work and can autosave."

More IBM Blueworks Live pros

Cons

"I should be able to park the tasks that are within a process in a kind of container, and dynamically, a super admin should be able to connect these processes. This kind of feature might be helpful."

"Installation could be made easier."

"I have run into a lot of problems because there is not enough documentation."

"Bonita must add a rule engine. We are a 360-degree partner of Bonita. We can integrate with any kind of rule engine. We have a dashboard related to engine performance, but getting a configurable dashboard for the Buildium or transactional data will add value."

"I would like to improve the product's load balancing."

"It would be nice to have a wizard to help walk through the development process and create a backbone."

"The interface is advanced and quite good, but it could improve."

"Bonita can improve by offering more flexibility. The developer does not receive the code of the application to modify it. Most of the other solutions I have used allow the developers to change or improve the code that is generated."

More Bonita cons

"Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively."

"The user interface is quite easy at first but process analysts soon run into roadblocks of limited functionality, which is disappointing."

"We'd also like to see it be Six Sigma or Lean compatible, a lot of people have asked about that."

"The objects that the solution creates are not unique."

"We haven't yet been able to dabble in case management with Blueworks Live, as it is not yet offered with the product."

"The font size is really, really small and it's really not useful to print out process models because you cannot read what's written in different boxes. This makes it necessary for people to have access to the tool. We view licenses to see how the printing or output is. It's not very good."

"The solution is a very basic discovery product so it doesn't have that much modeling capability. This can be improved."

"Some of the import functionality was a bit restrictive, in terms of loading data in from other data sources. Something as simple as Excel, loading data tables from Excel, wasn't great. And vice-versa. Some of the export and import functionality with something like Visio - which, I know it's a slightly different tool - but being able to work seamlessly with those other tool sets would've been quite useful. I know it was something that was in the pipeline to be looked at. So that would be useful."

More IBM Blueworks Live cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The Enterprise edition is very expensive."

"We are using the Community Version, which can be used free of charge."

"have installed the image of Bonita BPM on Amazon AWS and there is just one option to use and pay for."

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"The product's pricing is acceptable. Pricing is yearly."

"The product is not cheaper, not costlier; it is reasonable. Bonita’s license is very flexible, with options to meet the needs of different customers and clients. Previously, it was less flexible, but now, many different licensing options are available."

"I believe this is a very good financial choice."

"Licensing cost for the Enterprise edition comes out to be around 40,000 a year. There is also a Community edition, which is free. Some customers can go for the Community edition, but some of them require the Enterprise edition. Big companies go for the Enterprise edition, which comes with a lot of additional features such as a mobile app."

More Bonita pricing and cost advice

"There are editor licenses that are around 50 euros per month, and contributor licenses that are around 30 euros per month."

"They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users."

"Making it less expensive would be good."

"Based on the licenses purchased, from a footprint perspective, you can have as many people as you want. You have multiple different categories of licenses to keep the cost low."

"Price wise, IBM Blueworks Live is in the middle range, and I would give it a five out of ten."

"We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time."

"The solution is very, very cost-effective."

"The solution is not very expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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 Bonita, you can build the entire mechanism using the GUI, it’s that simple. You c...

See all answers

What do you like most about Bonita?

The user interface is easy to use.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bonita?

The Enterprise edition is very expensive.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Blueworks Live?

The solution is easy to operate. Also, there is an automatic mode to make the business flow. You don't have to put any lines or arrows in a decision point in IBM Blueworks Live; it's very automatic.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Blueworks Live?

The solution costs around 600-700 dollars/year, which is quite affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Blueworks Live?

Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively.

See all answers

Comparisons

Camunda vs Bonita

Compared 57% of the time

Bizagi vs Bonita

Compared 17% of the time

Flowable vs Bonita

Compared 8% of the time

IBM BPM vs Bonita

Compared 4% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Bonita

Compared 3% of the time

More Bonita Competitors

Visio vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 31% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 19% of the time

Lucidchart vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 15% of the time

ARIS Cloud vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 11% of the time

ARIS BPA vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Blueworks Live Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Bonita

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

IBM Blueworks Live

April 2025

Download IBM Blueworks Live product report

Also Known As

Bonita BPM

IBM Lombardi Blueprint

Overview

Bonitasoft helps innovative companies worldwide deliver better digital user experiences for customers and employees. The extensible and open Bonita application platform unleashes the full potential of multidisciplinary development teams to create Living Apps: applications that allow continuous and incremental improvement, connecting tailored user interfaces with reliable back-office operations.

Bonitasoft

IBM Blueworks Live is a cloud-based business process modeling tool that helps you discover, map and document your processes. It is easy to use, allowing you to learn and perform business process modeling in minutes.

With Blueworks Live you can:

Simplify business process modeling
Quickly build business processes in a straightforward, cloud-based interface designed for both IT and business users.

Improve process efficiency and accuracy
A central process repository eliminates version control and consistency issues by providing users real-time access to process workflows.

Enhance cross-team collaboration
A shared team workspace engages all business process owners, encouraging cross-team participation and continuous process improvement.

IBM

Sample Customers

With more than 1000 customers in 75 countries, and its ecosystem of more than 120,000 members, Bonitasoft is the largest provider of open-source Business Process Management, Low-code and Digital Transformation software worldwide.

Cloudsoft Corp. Ltd., Bayer, S¾SS, Essex County Council

Buyer's Guide

Bonita vs. IBM Blueworks Live

April 2025

Free Report: Bonita vs. IBM Blueworks Live

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