The Best Solutions for Replacing SharePoint Designer Workflows On-Premise
SharePoint Designer workflows 2010/2013 are being retired – these solutions are suitable for replacing them in on-premise and private-cloud operation
Microsoft is retiring SharePoint Designer workflows – a real operational risk for on-premise environments. This comparison shows the best replacement solutions and what matters most for BPMN 2.0, integration and data sovereignty.
Microsoft has officially deprecated SharePoint Designer workflows in versions 2010 and 2013. Support for SharePoint 2013 workflows ends in SharePoint Server Subscription Edition on 14 July 2026; in SharePoint Online they were already fully retired on 2 April 2026. For companies with on-premise environments this is not a cosmetic update, but a real operational risk: critical approvals, sign-offs and notifications can fail, processes lose their technical foundation, and every later change becomes more complex and more expensive. This article shows the best solutions for the migration – and what really matters for workflow automation on-premise in the DACH region.
Competitor pages and their approach
The market is currently dominated above all by Microsoft-oriented migration guides, vendor pages and consulting articles. Microsoft describes the transition primarily as a migration of classic workflows to Power Automate and points to the SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT), which can migrate SharePoint Server 2010 OOTB workflows as well as SharePoint Server 2010 and 2013 Designer workflows to Power Automate. This path is obvious, but clearly points towards the cloud.
Nintex and other vendors focus in their articles more on a structured rebuild or a gradual parallel operation, while classic consulting articles emphasise the organisational side. What falls short in many of these accounts is the perspective of companies that deliberately have to run their processes on-premise or in a private cloud – for reasons of data sovereignty, network separation or regulatory requirements.
What SharePoint Designer was
SharePoint Designer was for a long time the tool with which business departments and IT could model simple to medium workflows directly in SharePoint. Typical were approval chains, notifications, list actions and rule-based process steps, often closely coupled to lists, libraries and permissions.
It is exactly this tight coupling that is the problem today. Microsoft has modernised the platform and shifted the focus to Power Automate and other supported solutions. For on-premise environments this means: the workflows do not simply keep running forever just because the farm is still online. As soon as support, platform compatibility and tooling fall away, every change becomes harder, more expensive and riskier. Anyone who does not migrate now manages not only legacy debt, but a growing operational risk.
Typical migration problems
The biggest hurdles rarely lie in the interface, but in the grown process reality. Many workflows were extended over years – without clean documentation, without clear owners and with dependencies on lists, forms, email logic, permissions and external systems. Added to this is the shortage of resources: IT teams have to handle platform operations, security, business requests and modernisation in parallel, which means migration projects often start too late.
Another risk factor is legacy integration. When processes are tied to legacy systems, approval chains or local data sources, a simple 1:1 move is not enough; the logic has to be understood, reviewed and cleanly remodelled. This is exactly where many projects fail, because they treat the migration as a technical export and not as a business-process transformation.
Requirements for the solution
A viable SharePoint Designer workflow replacement must be on-premise capable when data sovereignty, network separation or regulatory requirements demand it. It should offer a no-code or low-code approach so that business departments and IT can maintain processes together without tying up development resources for every adjustment.
A clean standards-based approach with BPMN 2.0 is also important, because only then can processes be modelled, documented and kept governance-ready in the long term in a readable way. For day-to-day work, integration into existing Microsoft infrastructure matters just as much as connectivity to third-party systems such as SharePoint, Microsoft 365, Teams, SAP or DocuSign. On top of this come migration support, audit trail, version control, scalability and GDPR compliance as minimum requirements.
Market overview
Microsoft Power Automate is the obvious standard answer for many companies, especially when they already rely heavily on Microsoft 365. The decisive disadvantage for on-premise scenarios, however, is the cloud orientation: the Microsoft migration paths clearly target Power Automate and not a classic on-premise BPM platform.
Nintex and K2 are relevant above all where existing Nintex or SharePoint installations are to be developed further; they emphasise migration paths, parallel operation and gradual transition, but remain strongly shaped by the respective product ecosystem. Camunda is technically very strong in modelling and process automation, but for typical business-department workflows it often feels more development-oriented and less low-threshold. FireStart positions itself precisely in the gap between them.
Comparison of the options
The following overview summarises the most important criteria for replacing SharePoint Designer workflows:
| Solution | On-Premise | No-Code/Low-Code | BPMN 2.0 | Microsoft Integration | Migration Support | GDPR/Data Residency |
|---|
| Microsoft Power Automate | Limited, cloud-centric | Yes | No | Very strong | Good via SPMT | Depends on cloud setup |
| Nintex | Yes, depending on product line | Yes | Partial | Strong | Good for Nintex environments | Depends on deployment |
| K2 / Nintex K2 | Yes | Yes | Strong | Good | Structured, product-bound | Good for on-premise |
| Camunda | Yes | More low-code/developer | Very strong | Via integrations | No typical SPD migration path | Good with own infrastructure |
| FireStart | Yes, incl. private cloud | Yes | Very strong | Very strong | Pronounced via onboarding | Very strong, EU data residency |
FireStart thus positions itself as a particularly suitable workflow automation on-premise solution for companies in the DACH region when governance, integrations and data sovereignty are required at the same time.
Why FireStart fits
FireStart is a BPMN 2.0-based intelligent process automation platform from Austria with hosting in Germany and EU data residency; this makes it particularly interesting for regulated organisations and DACH companies. The FireStart BPM Suite supports on-premise and private-cloud deployment, which is often the decisive difference in a SharePoint migration on-premise. The BPMN 2.0 process designer allows clear, standardised modelling without rigid development dependency.
For migration projects, the ability to deliver also counts: FireStart follows a clear model-to-automation approach, integrates people, systems and AI into executable workflows and supports operations with dashboards, measurability and governance. A complete audit trail, version control and GDPR compliance are not just compliance arguments, but practical advantages in audits, change requests and operational handovers.
How to succeed with the migration
The first step is an inventory of all SharePoint Designer workflows, including owners, criticality, runtime, dependencies and business significance. After that you should prioritise: which processes are business-critical, which can be modernised quickly, and which need to be rethought from a business perspective?
The third step is tool selection based on hard criteria such as on-premise capability, BPMN 2.0, integrations and compliance. After that, a pilot project with a representative but manageable process is recommended to validate modelling, operations and acceptance. Only once the pilot runs stably should you extend the rollout to further workflows and decommission the legacy environment in a controlled way.
Frequently asked questions
Can FireStart replace SharePoint Designer workflows 1:1?
Not in the sense of a technical clone, but functionally in many cases very much so. The better approach is usually to remodel the process from a business perspective and remove unnecessary complexity in the process.
How long does a typical migration take?
This depends heavily on the number, complexity and dependencies of the workflows. A pilot can be in place within a few weeks, while a company-wide rollout takes considerably more time depending on the landscape.
Does FireStart also work hybrid, i.e. on-premise plus cloud?
Yes, FireStart supports on-premise and private cloud and is therefore suitable for hybrid operating models.
What does the replacement cost?
The costs depend on licences, integrations, migration effort and scope of support. According to the platform information, FireStart is listed with an entry point from 390 USD per month; the actual project costs, however, depend on the scope of the migration.
How does FireStart differ from Power Automate for on-premise?
Power Automate is clearly cloud-centric, while FireStart covers on-premise and private cloud and supports BPMN 2.0 as a standard. For companies with strict data sovereignty or infrastructure requirements, this is often the decisive difference.
Conclusion
Anyone who still operates SharePoint Designer workflows today should treat the replacement as a priority project and not as a technical footnote. For the DACH market, FireStart is particularly interesting when on-premise operation, BPMN 2.0, GDPR and Microsoft integration are required together.
Find out how FireStart replaces your SharePoint Designer workflows — book a free demo now.
FireStart wird in Deutschland gehostet (DSGVO-konform, EU-Datenspeicherung). Website: www.firestart.com. Kontakt: sales@firestart.com.