Ardoq vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

Ardoq and Quest Software are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Ardoq is ranked #13, while Quest Software is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. Ardoq holds a 3.0% mindshare in AM, compared to Quest Software’s 8.3% mindshare. Additionally, 50% of Ardoq users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

Ardoq

Read 2 Ardoq reviews

1,042 Views
1,042 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler

Read 44 erwin Data Modeler reviews

5,210 Views
3,543 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Ardoq

erwin Data Modeler

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

Erwin Data Modeler and Ardoq operate in the data management space. Ardoq tends to lead due to its superior features and integration capabilities, considered valuable despite higher costs.

Features: Erwin Data Modeler supports enterprise projects with data modeling, metadata management, and robust visualization tools. Ardoq offers dynamic architectural exploration, real-time collaboration, and integration insights, aiding in bridging IT and business gaps. Its flexibility and interconnection are particularly attractive for digital transformation efforts.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Erwin Data Modeler uses a traditional deployment model, requiring more initial time and resources for a stable environment in extensive data models. Ardoq's agile deployment fits dynamic IT landscapes, enabling quick adaptations. Ardoq's proactive support and educational resources enhance user experience, offering an edge in customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Erwin Data Modeler often incurs higher setup costs but offers substantial ROI through its performance in structured data environments. Ardoq, though at a premium price, delivers significant ROI by promoting operational agility and strategic alignment in rapidly changing digital ecosystems.

To learn more, read our detailed Ardoq vs. erwin Data Modeler Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Ardoq vs. erwin Data Modeler

December 2025

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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

Ardoq

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

13th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

erwin Data Modeler

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (8th), Data Governance (15th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of Ardoq is 3.0%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 8.3%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
erwin Data Modeler	8.3%
Ardoq	3.0%
Other	88.7%

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Anthony Houghton

Data Architect at UK Research and Innovatio

Provides stable performance and scalability but not intuitive for data modeling

Overall, I would rate it around six out of ten. The training environment wasn't very intuitive, but maybe with more use, it will get better. We need to learn to navigate it. So, there is a potential learning curve in this tool. I use it once in a blue moon, and not very frequently because I have not found it very intuitive.

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Alton Thibodeaux

Data Warehouse Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Data modeling has supported secure migration from legacy platforms to cloud analytics

I write code and I write code accessing erwin Data Modeler's API, the Application Programming Interface, so that I can use Excel to update erwin Data Modeler and then get those updates and put them back into spreadsheets. The only thing I wish is that their API documentation was a little bit clearer and that it had better examples of successful code. To me, examples are worth a hundred pages of reference documentation. Just give me an example of how you use it, and that really helps. I know that's a nitpicking thing, but I wish their API documentation had a lot more examples of code that actually worked to do the things that they're talking about. As far as erwin Data Modeler itself goes, when we have a lot of tables, I have some erwin Data Modeler files that have thousands of tables in them, up to 3,000 or 4,000 tables. When erwin Data Modeler files start getting that big, it takes a really long time, I'd say a minute or more, to open the file. Whenever I'm working in it, sometimes there are operations that also take a long time, so as erwin Data Modeler files get larger, the response time really slows down. An irritation is that every now and then, when I'm working and usually when I have multiple erwin Data Modeler files open at the same time, I get a glitch where a lot of the text fields get solid black, the first eight characters of column names might be blacked out with a rectangle. All I have to do is close erwin Data Modeler, shut it down, and bring it back up, and then everything is fine. It doesn't happen all the time, only occasionally, maybe once or twice a week, and those are the only two things I can say. The previous version of erwin Data Modeler used to crash unaccountably, but this one hasn't ever crashed on me, so it's been a lot more stable than the previous version that we had.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Snapshots are the most valuable feature."

"It is a stable solution."

"It provides flexibility with the code. You can change the code as you want. Basically, you can change SQL based on what's best for your project."

"It's a safeguard for me because I'm always concerned that somebody is free handing it and will forget a key coming from the parent. The migrating keys are a great feature. Identifying relationships, non-identifying relationships, and being visually right there to understand the differences are great features. erwin is key to being able to visually understand whatever the customer is requesting. They'll give you words on a paper, but once they can actually view it as a picture, it really comes to life. The data comes to life to where they understand exactly what they're asking for."

"We can create mappings in erwin and possibly data dictionaries."

"Drag-and-drop data modeling and reverse engineering out of databases are the most valuable features of erwin Data Modeler by Quest."

"The solution’s code generation ensures accurate engineering of data sources, as there is no development time. Code doesn't even have to be reviewed. We have been using this solution for so long and all the code which has been generated is accurate with the requirements. Once we generate the DDLs out of the erwin tools, the development team does a quick review of the script line by line. They will just be running the script on the database and looking into other requirements, such as the index. So, there is less effort from development side to create tables or build a database."

"What has been useful, I have been able to reverse engineer our existing data models to document explicitly referential integrity relationships, primary/foreign keys in the model, and create ERDs that are subject area-based which our clients can use when working with our databases. The reality is that our databases are not explicitly documented in the DDL with primary/foreign key relationships. You can't look at the DDL and explicitly understand the primary/foreign key relationships that exist between our tables, so the referential integrity is not easily understood. erwin has allowed me to explicitly document that and create ERDs. This has made it easier for our clients to consume our databases for their own purposes."

"It supports a wide variety of databases, including the latest ones. We have chosen to go for a cloud-based database, and it supports that, which is very useful."

"The most valuable features are the ability to reverse engineer and do model comparison. With the reverse engineering, I can understand the databases from third-party products. With the model comparison, I can track the differences between two versions of the same database."

More erwin Data Modeler pros

Cons

"Scalability as a standalone system is good, given the information that has been described inside Ardoq. But not the scalability as a third-party system or with integration with other systems. Because in this direction, the scalability is about zero for Ardoq."

"The training environment wasn't very intuitive, but maybe with more use, it will get better."

"I would like to see the reporting capabilities be more dynamic and more inclusive of information. The API is very sparsely understood by people across the user community."

"I find the UI very clunky and very difficult to use. If I add columns to a table the whole workflow could be so much easier. I get frustrated using it. I've tried other tools. I've tried to get off of erwin a few times. I always come back to it because every tool has its own set of problems, and it seems like if I have to pick my poison, I stay with erwin. But so many things that are clunky with it."

"Erwin Data Modeler is a good product, but I recently experienced a problem where I was not able to open an erwin Data Modeler file because its version had automatically changed."

"I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory."

"We can only get licenses through partners."

"The solution's reporting side needs to be improved."

"The erwin Data Modeler is quite complex to use."

"The interface must be improved."

More erwin Data Modeler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for extended support."

"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"There is either a one-year or three-year license. It is not a pay-as-you-go license like a SaaS solution. It’s more of a traditional licensing. They are a little bit on the pricier side."

"The primary reasons that erwin was selected were that it was much more affordable for us [than Embarcadero] and it was easily maintainable."

"I wish it wasn't so expensive. I would love to personally buy a copy of my own and have it at home, because the next job that I'm looking at is probably project management and I might not have access to the tool. I would like to keep my ability to use the tool. Therefore, they should probably have a pricing for people like me who want to just use the solution as an independent consultant, trying to get started. $3,000 is a big hit."

"The tool is expensive."

"We've continued to use the product for many years and compared it with others on the market. The pricing is reasonable considering what the solution offers and what we pay. There are cheaper tools, but they may not be as robust and easy to use, so it's worth the money."

"erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution."

"There are two license options and the pricing is reasonable."

More erwin Data Modeler pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

University

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

17%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	33

Questions from the Community

Any experience with Strategic Project Portfolio Management Solutions?

Hi @Cheryl Joseph Looking at the crossover between Project and Portfolio management with EA, then Planview could be a good choice. If looking at Portfolio Management from an EA perspective then Le...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

Regarding pricing, I am unsure what the exact price is for erwin Data Modeler, but I believe it is not useful for an individual. It is more targeted toward an enterprise level since organizations l...

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What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

For the review, I would assign an eight because it has its own limitations. It has a very steep learning curve, limited support for NoSQL or streaming systems, and potentially a high licensing cost...

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What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I used erwin Data Modeler for approximately two to three years on a project. I used erwin Data Modeler for multi-level data modeling, conducting conceptual, logical, and physical data modeling with...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

January 2026

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Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler

January 2026

Download erwin Data Modeler product report

Also Known As

No data available

erwin DM

Overview

A Dynamic and Data-Driven Approach to Enterprise Architecture
Engage and connect stakeholders across the organization with business-friendly visualizations understandable to all.

Ardoq

Erwin Data Modeler provides an effective approach to visualizing and managing data models. It assists in creating, reversing, and synchronizing data models with ease, supporting logical and physical transitions while enhancing understanding across teams.

Erwin Data Modeler is a comprehensive tool designed for professional database management. It offers capabilities to organize and enforce standards, automating script generation with robust reverse engineering and DDL output. Users can manage complex data environments, capitalize on integration with data intelligence, and maintain large-scale databases smoothly. Despite its strengths, improvements in multi-language support, database integration, and reporting features are needed. Users benefit from extensive support for conceptual, logical, and physical database modeling, enhancing architectural design and data governance for platforms like SQL Server, Oracle, and Teradata.

What are the key features of Erwin Data Modeler?

Visual Representation: Facilitates clear visualization of data models, aiding comprehension.
Versioning and Editing: Enhance usability with versioning and bulk editing capabilities.
Reverse Engineering: Offers powerful tools for reverse engineering and DDL generation.
Integration: Aligns with data intelligence to streamline database management.
Naming Standards: Enforces consistency with automated script creation.

What benefits should users consider in Erwin Data Modeler reviews?

Collaboration: Promotes team understanding and collaboration through visual tools.
Automation: Reduces manual effort through automated processes and integration.
Scalability: Handles large database management efficiently, crucial for enterprise settings.
Data Governance: Facilitates effective data governance with structured modeling.

Erwin Data Modeler finds application in industries focused on robust data management, implementing it for enterprise data warehouses, business domain models, and operational systems. It supports architectural design and governance, aligning with business applications demanding precise data representation and visualization.

Quest Software

Sample Customers

Schibsted, Government of Malmo, Torvald

Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples

Buyer's Guide

Ardoq vs. erwin Data Modeler

December 2025

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