We gather here today to pay homage and celebrate the lives of two of our longest friends in the Salesforce automation space: Workflow Rules and Process Builder. For the better part of the last two decades, they stood faithfully by our side and helped bring order to the chaos of enterprise business dealings.
December 31st, 2025, will mark the official end-of-life for these two tools that have served and empowered us for a majority of our lives on Salesforce, and with any end-of-life, we should take a moment to remember and pay our respects to those we’ve lost.
While they leave their successor, Salesforce Flow, to continue in their footsteps, we take the time to mourn their passing and reflect on the value that they’ve added to our lives while they served us diligently. Join me one last time in saluting Workflow Rules and Process Builder as they fly off into the sunset.
An Ode to Workflow Rules
Workflow Rules have been serving the Salesforce community for two decades since they were released in Winter ‘04. In their first iteration, they empowered businesses to create Tasks and send Email Alerts when certain criteria were met.
They did gain more functionality over the years (notably the ability to update fields and send outbound messages), but kept their signature two-dimensional if-this-then-that shape.
Whenever we needed to quickly automate basic processes like sending an email when an Opportunity was marked as closed, or creating a follow-up Task when a Case was opened, Workflow Rules were there to support our business needs.
We thank you, Workflow Rules, for your life of servitude and all the time you saved us in performing basic tasks on our behalf. Enjoy your retirement.
A Tribute to Process Builder
Where Workflow Rule walked, Process Builder ran. No longer restricted to the simple if-this-then-that shape, Process Builder could assess multiple different sets of criteria in succession, which enabled more powerful processing of complex automation on the Salesforce platform; if-this-then-that-else-if-this-then-that, etc.
Since its release in Spring ‘15, Process Builder has been empowering businesses to achieve more complex and streamlined process automation than Workflow Rules did. It had a cleaner, more modern UI, additional functionality (Post to Chatter, Submit for Approval, creating new or editing existing records, or even calling Autolaunched Flows), and was able to follow a programming best practice that Workflow Rules couldn’t: a single Process per object, rather than multiple.
Process Builder was a strong, reliable companion for us all. Whenever we wanted to give a large amount of time back to our teams, Process Builder was standing by and awaiting our direction. No matter the task, as long as there were no custom user interface requirements, Process Builder was there to help us.
We value your dedication and service, Process Builder, and we will never forget you. Vale, old friend.
The Heir to the Automation Empire: Salesforce Flow
The retirement and end-of-life of Workflow Rules and Process Builder leaves Flow as the go-to for a vast majority of declarative automation on the Salesforce platform. The Flow Builder has been built using modern internet technologies, which makes it snappier and more accessible than the two older tools.
There are also Screen Flows, which are extremely flexible and can be used to create custom Screens for users to interact directly with the Flow as required. Process Builder and Workflow Rules were only able to run when triggered by criteria, and did not offer the ability to create custom interfaces.
Flow is even surviving the Agentforce takeover! Many speculated that agents and other AI tools would fully replace the need for Flow at all, but this is simply not the case. We humans will continue building Flows for many years to come, with agents taking advantage of these Flows and using them to take action on requests.
Next on the Block: Approval Processes
Since the introduction of the Flow Orchestrator Beta in Winter ‘22, there has been plenty of speculation about whether Flow would be consuming the space that legacy Approval Processes took up. Flow Orchestrator was different from other Flow types in that it wasn’t made up of regular elements directly, but rather Stages and Steps, which allowed multiple Flows to be strung together and assigned to different users (hence the name, Orchestrator).
This function sounds awfully similar to an Approval Process: actions assigned to specified users and orchestrated into different steps to be run in parallel or series. The writing has been on the wall for Approval Processes since 2022, and recent enhancements in Spring ‘25 have further cemented the demise of Approval Processes.
Flow Approvals are simply Flows that operate like Approval Processes have in the past – the ability to orchestrate a series or group of steps to various users and acquire approval for certain actions. This scope of functionality parallels legacy Approval Processes exactly. I believe it’s only a matter of time before we discover an end-of-life date for legacy Approval Processes, and go through the process of migration all over again.
Flow’s Time Will Come
As Robert Frost says in his infamous poem, “Nothing gold can stay”. It’s no secret that Flow is my favorite feature in Salesforce’s entire offering. It holds a special place in my heart. It’s the tool that really got me addicted to learning more about Salesforce and how to leverage it to save businesses money and give teams their time back. Flow continues to be heavily invested in by Salesforce, and the community holds the tool in the highest esteem (except Pablo).
That being said, nothing lasts forever; nothing gold can stay. The beauty of a sunset is that it is here for a moment before disappearing forever. Living out in the cooler country climate over the last year, I’ve learned to appreciate the morning frost for the same reason – it’s here as I wake up, I slow my mornings down a little bit to admire it, and then as quickly as it comes, it disappears. The same fate will one day befall Salesforce Flow.
I need to be clear: there is no immediate reason to plan for the obsolescence of Salesforce Flow, and there are no signs that point to this happening in the short term. My point is that we need to be realistic about it; the day will come when Flow sees its last sunrise. A new tool or technology will rise, become far more powerful and useful to us, take its place, and force Flow into retirement. When this day comes, you can bet that I’ll be right here paying my respects and remembering all the value that Flow has brought to my life and the Salesforce orgs that I’ve worked on, and shedding multiple tears as I do.
Final Thoughts
And with that, the era of Workflow Rules and Process Builder comes to an end. Thank you, our fallen heroes, for every second of time you gave us back in our days. Thank you for the resources you freed up that empowered our businesses to be more productive. We are grateful for the headaches saved and actions taken. We sincerely hope you enjoy your new life over the rainbow, in your eternal retirement.
Writing this article has hit me harder emotionally than I was expecting, so if you’ve stuck with me this far, I’d love to hear your stories and experiences with Workflow Rules and Process Builder. What were you able to achieve with these tools? What change did they inspire in your org?
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