Comparisons: classic modelling tools, AI-driven process tools, automation platforms, and where patchley fits

Three categories of process tools, and where patchley fits.

Process tools fall into three groups: classic tools that draw, store and govern models; AI-driven tools that produce a first diagram from a description, a document, a recording or screen activity; and platforms that run processes. patchley is a vendor in the second group and hands over files to the first and the third. These pages describe each category with the facts the vendors publish about themselves and end with a plain "when to use which". No ranking, no scores.

The map

Three categories, one file hand-over

The categories sit in a sequence rather than in competition: a process is captured, kept in a model repository, and run on a platform. patchley sits in the capture step. What leaves it is a file, BPMN 2.0 XML for the diagram and XLSX and PowerPoint for the rest, which the tools in the other two categories can take as far as they read the standard; there is no integration with any of them.

Category 1

Classic capture and modelling

Canvas, notation and repository: SAP Signavio, ARIS, ADONIS, GBTEC, Bizagi Modeler, Camunda Modeler, Visio, Lucidchart, Nintex Process Manager, iGrafx, Bizzdesign Hopex, Aeneis. patchley sits upstream and hands over BPMN 2.0 XML.

Read more → Category 2 · patchley's own

AI-driven process tools

Generators, document and recording tools, task mining, and the AI design steps of two platforms: fifteen vendors, with patchley described in the same terms as the others.

Automation platforms

Engines, flow builders, case platforms and agent builders: Camunda, Flowable, UiPath, Power Automate, Pega, Appian, Bizagi, Nintex, n8n, Zapier, Make and others. What a BPMN file from patchley is there, and what it is not.

Where patchley sits

A capture and analysis tool from the conversation with the people who run the process, in category 2; a file hand-over into categories 1 and 3; no integration, no running of processes, and itself a vendor whose statements on these pages are its own.

Two comparisons of single approaches

Two pages, one structure

Every page has the same shape: a side-by-side table, a "when to use which" section, the key point in one sentence, and next steps. Read the one that matches the decision in front of you.

Interview-based capture vs. task mining

Asking the people vs. observing screens, clicks or system logs: what each draws on, what you get, and when to use which.

BPMN with ChatGPT

A general chat assistant explains notation and writes BPMN XML as text; a tool built for process capture draws, versions, analyses and presents. Where each is useful.

How we compare

Facts on both sides, phrased as different approaches

How the process gets into patchleyLive audio in a workshop, typed text, one PDF or DOCX up to 50 MB with optional focus, audio files (MP3, WAV), a BPMN file, or patchley joins a Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Webex or Google Meet call as a visible participant.

What you getA BPMN 2.0 diagram with pools and lanes, systems, documents and control steps; a process landscape from several diagrams; analyses per step (SOP, pain points, compliance, figures, your own template); PowerPoint decks.

Exchange formatsThe diagram as BPMN 2.0 XML, which opens in standard BPMN tools such as Camunda Modeler, Signavio and ADONIS, or as SVG and PNG; the analyses as XLSX; the deck as PowerPoint.

HostingApp hosted in Germany, AI models from a European provider, hosted in the EU.

Facts about other products come from each vendor's own website and link to it. What a vendor does not publish is written as "not published on the pages read", never as a missing feature.

The useful question is rarely "which is better"; it is "which approach fits the process in front of you". A product that observes screens and a tool that listens to the people running the process answer different questions, and some organisations use both.

Vendor facts

Each category page carries the date of its vendor facts and links every source; the two single comparisons carry their own date. If a vendor changes its product, the page is updated, not argued with.