SharePoint Designer Replacement: Your 2026 Migration Options

SharePoint Designer workflows built on the SharePoint 2010 or 2013 workflow engines were fully retired from Microsoft 365 tenants on 2 April 2026, so any organization still running them needs a replacement.

The three main replacement paths are Microsoft Power Automate (Microsoft's own recommended migration target), staying inside the Nintex family (Nintex Automation Cloud or the K2 line, both now under Nintex ownership), or moving to a dedicated no-code process platform like FlowForma.

The choice depends on how complex your existing SharePoint Designer workflows were and how much you want to modernize versus preserve the existing pattern.

Below is a quick recap of why the replacement is needed, an objective comparison of the three main options, a buyer's checklist for evaluating replacement tools, and detail on how FlowForma specifically handles the migration.

Why SharePoint Designer workflows need replacing

Microsoft retired the legacy SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 workflow engines from Microsoft 365 tenants. SharePoint 2010 workflows were removed in November 2020, and SharePoint 2013 workflows were fully retired on 2 April 2026, with no extension option.

SharePoint Designer as a product had already been discontinued years earlier, but the workflows built with it continued running on the underlying engines until those engines were retired.

The practical result is that any workflow originally created in SharePoint Designer against the 2010 or 2013 engines has stopped running inside SharePoint Online.

For on-premises deployments, extended support for SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 also ended on 14 July 2026, so on-prem SharePoint Designer workflows are now on unsupported infrastructure even where the workflow engines themselves technically still function.

For the full retirement timeline and the on-premises picture in more depth, see our SharePoint workflow retirement page.

Your replacement options

For most organizations replacing SharePoint Designer workflows, three replacement paths dominate real shortlists.

Microsoft Power Automate

• Microsoft's own recommended migration target and the natural fit for teams already committed to the Power Platform.

• Handles simple flows well and connects natively to SharePoint, Teams, and Outlook. Complex multi-step business processes typically need to be paired with Power Apps (for forms) and Dataverse (for structured data), which adds licensing, developer resource, and product complexity.

• Our Power Automate pricing guide covers the full cost picture in more depth.

Nintex Automation Cloud or the K2 family

• For organizations already using Nintex or K2 alongside SharePoint Designer, moving to Nintex Automation Cloud (Nintex's modern SaaS platform) or upgrading K2 blackpearl to K2 Five (now being rebranded as Nintex Automation On-Prem) preserves your existing vendor relationship and tooling knowledge. Nintex acquired K2 in 2020, so both product lines now share ownership.

• This route works well for teams whose priority is minimum vendor disruption, though it doesn't necessarily give you a fundamentally different platform architecture than SharePoint Designer's era.

Dedicated no-code process platform

• For teams looking to modernize as part of the migration, a dedicated no-code platform built for Microsoft 365 (such as FlowForma) typically fits better than either a Power Automate build stack or a Nintex continuity move.

• FlowForma runs natively inside your SharePoint tenant, uses SharePoint lists as the data layer (as SharePoint Designer workflows did), and is designed for business users to own and maintain their own workflows rather than requiring developer involvement.

• The migration is a rebuild rather than a data port, but the rebuild is accelerated by AI Copilot that reads existing process documentation directly.

Which of the three fits best depends primarily on how complex your SharePoint Designer workflows are, how much you want to modernize during the migration, and whether your organization already has significant investment in either Power Platform or Nintex.

What to look for in a replacement tool

When evaluating SharePoint Designer replacement tools, four considerations typically drive the decision.

1. Native SharePoint deployment

SharePoint Designer workflows ran inside SharePoint. A replacement that also runs natively inside SharePoint (rather than as a separate platform connecting via connectors) preserves the architectural pattern your admins already know, keeps data in SharePoint lists as SharePoint Designer workflows did, and eliminates the need to secure a separate vendor tenant. This is the biggest single point of contrast between the replacement options.

2. No-code rebuild

Your SharePoint Designer workflows were built by SharePoint admins and business users, not developers. A replacement should let the same people rebuild and maintain those workflows without requiring specialist developer resource. If it doesn't, the migration delivers a lateral move rather than modernization.

Migration and onboarding support. Some SharePoint Designer workflows have been running for a decade or more, with accumulated logic that isn't fully documented anywhere.

A credible replacement should include structured migration support:

• workflow inventory

• prioritization by criticality

• rebuild guidance

• parallel testing before cutover

AI Copilot capabilities that can read existing process documentation accelerate this stage considerably.

Total cost of ownership

SharePoint Designer workflows were essentially free once you had SharePoint, so any replacement introduces a new licensing line. The range across the three replacement options is wide once you factor in premium connectors, developer resource, and product-layering costs. A dedicated platform with flat per-user pricing typically presents a more predictable TCO than a multi-product Power Platform build.

How FlowForma replaces SharePoint Designer workflows

For teams migrating from SharePoint Designer workflows to a modern platform, FlowForma is designed to sit in the architectural position SharePoint Designer used to occupy: inside SharePoint, using SharePoint lists as the data store, and owned by the same business users who built the original workflows.

The migration path involves rebuilding SharePoint Designer workflow logic as no-code FlowForma processes rather than porting the workflow XML. There's no automated conversion tool from SharePoint Designer to FlowForma (or to any other modern platform), but three features specific to FlowForma reduce the manual effort involved.

Native SharePoint deployment

FlowForma installs into your existing Microsoft 365 tenant and uses SharePoint lists as its data layer, the same way SharePoint Designer workflows did. The architectural pattern your SharePoint admins already know applies directly, and there's no new tenant or database to secure.

AI Copilot for accelerated rebuild

FlowForma Copilot reads existing process documentation (Visio flowcharts, written specs, or even legacy SharePoint Designer workflow documentation) and generates a working draft of the equivalent FlowForma workflow. For teams with reasonable documentation of their existing workflows, this cuts the manual rebuild time significantly.

No-code for the same audience

SharePoint Designer's original audience was SharePoint-savvy business users and admins, not developers. FlowForma preserves that ownership model. The same people who built and maintained the SharePoint Designer workflows can rebuild and maintain the FlowForma equivalents, without needing to bring in Power Platform developer resource.

For SharePoint-committed teams evaluating replacements, this combination (native SharePoint architecture, AI-accelerated rebuild, and continuity of process ownership) tends to be the closest structural fit to what SharePoint Designer workflows delivered originally. For a broader view of how SharePoint workflow automation works today, our SharePoint workflow automation guide covers the topic in more depth.

Replacement options compared

Here's how the three main replacement paths compare across the criteria most teams weigh during a migration decision.

Plan your SharePoint Designer migration

If you're planning a SharePoint Designer migration and want to see what a FlowForma rebuild would look like on your specific workflows, book a demo. We'll walk through a live migration scenario, using one of your actual SharePoint Designer workflows as the reference if you have one, and show you how the same logic rebuilds in FlowForma with AI Copilot support.