Difference Between Plug-in & Workflow !!!!

1.Workflow solution requires zero code maintenance and a normal user or administrator can create the Workflow.

Whereas for Plug-in , needs a Professional to develop it or the individual who as some programming knowledge.

2. Workflow includes a limited set of Events. For Example Create,Update & Delete.

Plug-in includes a number of Events like Create, Update, Delete,Retrieve,Retrieve Multiple,Send,Set-state,Assign,Route & Merge.

3.Workflow can only work as Asynchronous.

Whereas Plug-in can work both way Synchronous & Asynchronous.

4.Workflow can work on only Asynchronous Operations mean after the event occur.For example On creation of Lead an E-mail needs to be generated to the Owner of that Lead. In this example the E-mail will be send to the Owner of that Lead when the Lead get created.

Where's Plug-in can be implemented as Pre-Event and Post-Event.

5. Plug-in feature's include  Pre-Image & Post-Image.

Whereas Workflow include only Post-Image.

6. Workflow can run Automatically & Manually.

Whereas Plug-ins cannot be run manually; they only run on the steps for which they are registered.

NOTE:-

The biggest difference between the two techniques is in the timing of the actual update. Plugins can be executed either Synchronously or Asynchronously. Workflows function in an asynchronous manner.

The Synchronous operation will modify the data stream as it is being saved to the database, which can introduce a delay in the user's experience, but will provide results back to the user in a quicker fashion.

Asynchronous operations will happen shortly after the data has been saved which will not impact the user, but which may result in a slight delay between the time the user saved the record and when the value will be updated.