Free BPMN modelling tools – 2018 edition

Since 3 years passed since publishing of a post “Free tools for business (process) analysts – 2015 edition” I thought you may enjoy the update.

Many things changed during this time.

First of all – now there are many more tools supporting BPMN modelling.

Secondly – while in a previous post standalone tools dominated, now cloud tools are much stronger.

Now, let’s take a look at the available tools.

ADONIS:Community Edition

My favorite tool recently had a big update and is now available for free in a cloud. It still offers you BPMN modelling and many more additional model types, but extended with powerful graphical analysis mechanism.

There is also free academic edition with additional options such as simulation and DMN.

BeePMN

BeePMN is a cloud-based tool available in freemium model (BeePRO is available for free until 2019 however).
It allows you to create BPMN diagrams, collaborate with others and ESTECO (company behind BeePMN) is working on adding execution capabilities too.

Bizagi Modeler

Bizagi Modeler is a very popular tool among process modelers. It is mainly aimed at creating BPMN diagrams, which can be afterwards automated on Bizagi BPM platform, but it also offers process simulation and publishing. While this is a standalone tool, since some time they also offer (freemium) cloud Bizagi Modeler Services.

BPMN.io

BPMN.io is an interesting tool for several reasons. Firstly – it allows you to jump to modelling right away without any registration. Secondly – it allows you to create not only BPMN diagrams, but also supports other OMG standards such as DMN (for decision modeling) and CMMN (for case management).

It is one of several (free) tools offered by Camunda. While BPMN.io allows you to easily create diagrams in a browser, Camunda Modeler gives you additional attributes which are needed to automate the processes on Camunda engine. Cawemo is a freemium tool allowing you to collaborate on BPMN diagrams, while Zeebe is a BPMN-based workflow engine for microservices orchestration.

MID Innovator for Business Analysts (Personal Edition)

It is one of the few tools still available as a standalone tool. Allows you to document processes in BPMN and gives you several other model types.

Honorable mentions

Below you can find other tools, which may be interesting for you.

ARIS Express is a standalone application allowing you to create various model types (BPMN, EPC, Value Chains and many more). BPMN diagrams (and all other models too) are stored in a closed format and you cannot export them using XML based BPMN Diagram Interchange mechanism.

Elements.cloud is a cloud tool with a free account tier available. This is not a BPMN tool, since it uses UPN (Universal Process Notation), but allows you to nicely document your processes.

Yaoqiang BPMN Editor is a very nice tool allowing you to document processes in BPMN notation and share diagrams with others via BPMN DI XML. You need to read carefully licensing terms as they are not very clear.

Do you know other free BPMN modelling tools available in a cloud or as a standalone tools? Let me know in comments!