Containerized workflow engines executing metadata for user-defined applications are described. A system utilizes user selections for configuring a user-defined application to identify application definition metadata. The system stores the application definition metadata for the user-defined application into a persistent storage. A workflow engine executes in a software container in response to receiving user context details and an invocation of the user-defined application. The workflow engine retrieves the application definition metadata from the persistent storage. The workflow engine inputs the user context details and executes the application definition metadata. The workflow engine outputs a result based on executing the application definition metadata.