Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Alfabet Enterprise Architecture Management vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Alfabet Enterprise Architec...
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
13th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of Alfabet Enterprise Architecture Management is 2.5%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 13.9%, down from 18.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

AlanJackson - PeerSpot reviewer
Great taxonomy support but raw business processing should be upgraded
Alfabet is not just a technology tool, it's also a business tool. And if a decision's made without the business involved, then Alfabet will not be in a position to deliver anything more than support for enterprise architect drawings and solutions drawings. It has to be the business. If you do that, it works well. If you don't and I've had the experience where they haven't evolved a business, then it just becomes a tech tool that the business doesn't care about. The stigma of having an environment that was so delayed in the maintenance caused lots of finger-pointing within the organization of who was right and who was wrong. It took a considerable period of time to move people past that point to actually look at it as a business tool supported by the technology team. I rate the solution seven out of 10.
Milan Sterba - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient documentation generation through organized model structure with a good price-performance ratio
Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not easy for even experienced users to find their way without guidance. This is not the most user-friendly solution.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The taxonomy support across all the phases is the most advantageous feature."
"The most valuable features of this solution are its customizability, and flexibility in the configuration."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It takes two to three days to set up the environment. One person was able to handle the implementation."
"Using Sparx Enterprise Architect allowed my customer to detail and make the company's IT strategy visible and accessible to all. The system provided clear roadmaps for IT development and helped to keep up-to-date documentation of systems and processes."
"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect supports multiple modeling languages like ArchiMate for database design, software lifecycle visualization, and team management."
"It is a handy tool for visual modeling that provides opportunities for analysis, design, and support of models using ArchiMate, UML."
"The solution is easy to use, supports SysML and UML, and is able to connect to MATLAB. This is very important for us."
"It provides good utilization and it's a convenient tool for building exact architectural work."
"It is a very flexible product. It can do a lot. It is also a reliable product."
"The system provides powerful tools for obtaining reports and documentation."
"Artifact templates are most valuable."
 

Cons

"We would like to see the visualization of assets, as well as artificial intelligence techniques to assist us in making our decisions."
"The user experience, the layout and the different technologies behind the presentations are a bit old. These need to be updated. They should focus on web development. It's simply not supporting the current user experience guidelines."
"The product is not great at implementing security frameworks across an end-to-end supply chain."
"The templates for documentation should be enhanced to include complex documents such as template RFP, or Non functional requirements template."
"It should be made Windows compatible."
"The solution's interface could be more straightforward."
"Greater OMG UML and XMI compliance"
"It could be more user-friendly. The tools could be more simple to use. It's a very complex solution. Because I am a business analyst, I use these tools to manage requirements, and I make models in UML, BPMN, and ArchiMate, and it's complex. In the next release, I would like to see more integrations."
"This solution is quite complex to use. It would be nice if the learning curve wasn't so steep."
"It took me a while to figure out how to use the report generation features effectively. So, it would be really nice if they had a way to make that a little bit more interactive and a little bit more straightforward."
"There used to be that feature in ArchiMate Modeling of Enterprise Architect called inherited relationships. Now it's gone."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access. You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
"I think our license costs roughly $1,000 a year, but I could be wrong."
"It is cheaper than other solutions. Its cost is around $686 per year. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"In terms of cost, Sparx EA is probably one of the cheapest tools I have ever used."
"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
"I use my own license. So, I just bought the professional version, which costs $800 or something like that. In the company where I am working, we have floating licenses. They are probably more expensive. Its licensing is affordable, but we are talking about a large organization, and there could be modelers or viewers of the models. We don't know how much that would cost us."
"There is a license for this solution. When comparing this solution to others it is priced well."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Architecture Management solutions are best for your needs.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
8%
Educational Organization
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alfabet Enterprise Architecture Management?
The taxonomy support across all the phases is the most advantageous feature.
What needs improvement with Alfabet Enterprise Architecture Management?
The ability for Alfabet to acknowledge use cases that are specifically business-based and not technology-based and better integrate those process designs across the spectrum could be improved. The ...
What is your primary use case for Alfabet Enterprise Architecture Management?
I work for a systems integrator and we are end users. Organizations using this product are enterprise-size, our largest customer has 30,000 users. One customer had use cases built on sourcing raw m...
What do you like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
One of the reasons many public sector institutions in the Czech Republic use it is that it provides a very good price-performance ratio. While it might be cumbersome to learn, it still delivers exc...
What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Metro Bank, Credit Suisse
OmniLink
Find out what your peers are saying about Alfabet Enterprise Architecture Management vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.