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 initial setup was straightforward. It takes two to three days to set up the environment. One person was able to handle the implementation."
"The most valuable features of this solution are its customizability, and flexibility in the configuration."
"We use it to develop and maintain the Enterprise Conceptual Model, migrated from erwin a couple of years ago."
"The installation was very easy."
"Its ease of use and the breadth of the toolkit are most valuable. It has an incredible repository of artifacts to work with, and they're all cross-referenced. It works with a whole bunch of different standards. It works with BPMN, which is Business Process Modeling Notation, and it also works with something called TOGAF, which is the Open Group Architecture Foundation. There are different layers when you're dealing with architecture. There is the user interface, application, data, data servers, and all that kind of stuff. You have the infrastructure, hardware, and software layers, and then you have the application and business capability layers. You can model a business process and decompose it into all of the applications, data, and hardware to support it."
"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect was easy to set up and it took just twenty minutes."
"Sparx technical support is good."
"The profiles allow me to customize the tool to the corporate environment instead of the other way around saving huge amounts of time and energy on trying to turn dozens of individuals into TOGAF, ArchiMate or Zachman experts, or even Sparx EA experts."
"It's a very practical solution. You don't need to do an advanced course to start using this tool."
"Simplified our task at maintaining architecture information and traceability with requirements."
 

Cons

"The product is not great at implementing security frameworks across an end-to-end supply chain."
"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 integration could be improved."
"The UI is a little bit outdated. It should be more fresh and clean."
"There should be a MATLAB-specific toolbox added to the solution with better compatibility. The connections currently are good but in the future, it needs a huge improvement."
"In general, we now have a problem with Sparx Enterprise Architect because many analysts think it's too complicated to use in a giant environment."
"I have found the solution is lacking options. The general usability needs improvement and more compliance to CML definitions."
"It would be great if we could decrease the use of different parts of the Toolbox."
"The documentation could be better. Where I work, we speak French and we don't speak English, so we don't have anything in French. It's perfect in English, but we need something in French."
"The solution's interface could be more straightforward."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."
"We have an annual license, and it's very affordable."
"I think our license costs roughly $1,000 a year, but I could be wrong."
"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is priced well. The price we pay is approximately $20 per month. Other solutions I have found to be much more expensive."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
"Pricing and licensing are suitable even for small companies."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Architecture Management solutions are best for your needs.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
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: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.