Drools

5.7easy start · #16 of 17
in Business Rules Management Software

Free to practise onnot on record
Free trialnot on record
Well documentednot on record
Runs where you worknot on record

Runs on api, Linux, self-hosted.

Drools is ranked #16 of 17 in business rules management software on The Geeks Club. It runs on API, Linux, Self-hosted. There is a free plan.

Drools plans and pricing

All plans

Apache Drools (free) Free Apache software download and use at no cost · Java based apache.org · 5 Oct 2026

Compared on business rules management software

Decision tables: Yes
Visual rule authoring: Yes
Rule testing tools: Yes
DMN support: Yes
Natural-language rules: Yes
Execution access: both

Best Drools alternatives

See all 16

DecisionRules 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 17.5 GoRules BRMS 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 27.3 Nected 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 37.0 ACTICO Decision Management Platform 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 46.9 Progress Corticon 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 56.9 Higson 0 of 4 in the starter kit Lesson 66.8

The record

Purpose: Drools is a forward-chaining and backward-chaining inference-based rule engine used to build expert systems.
Decision modeling: Its DMN engine provides runtime support at Conformance level 3, covering every feature in the standard.
Event processing: Its Complex Event Processing engine reasons over event streams using temporal operators, sliding windows, and event expiration.
Rule language: DRL lets developers define rules in plain text files alongside Java code and under version control.
Rule authoring: Rules can also be expressed through Excel decision tables, rule templates, or a Java executable model API.
Rule units: Rule units organize rules with typed containers for their input data, and Kogito can generate REST endpoints from them.
Integrations: Drools rules can be called directly by a BPMN business rule task in jBPM within the same service.
DMN validation: The DMN engine statically analyzes decision tables to detect gaps and overlaps and check that table rules follow industry best practices.
DMN test results: The project states that as of Apache KIE 10.2.0, its DMN engine passes 99.9% of the DMN TCK tests.
Developer prerequisites: The getting started guide lists an IDE, JDK 21 or 17, and Maven 3.9 or later as prerequisites.
Support: The project lists a users mailing list and Zulip chat as community contact channels.
Security: The Apache Security Team coordinates handling of Apache project vulnerabilities and encourages private reports before public disclosure.
Project status: Apache KIE is undergoing incubation, and the site says incubation means it has yet to be fully endorsed by the ASF.
Founded: 2001
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on The Geeks Club

Best Business Rules Management Software in 2026#16 of 17

Is Drools yours?

Claim it for free: prove the domain, then correct facts, plans and screenshots. An editor reviews every change.

Claim it free Promote Drools

Sources

kie.apache.org/drools/· checked 5 Oct 2026
kie.apache.org/drools/drl/· checked 5 Oct 2026
kie.apache.org/drools/dmn/· checked 5 Oct 2026
kie.apache.org/drools/get-started/· checked 5 Oct 2026
apache.org/security/· checked 5 Oct 2026
apache.org/free/· checked 5 Oct 2026