ARIS BPA vs erwin Evolve comparison

Software AG and Quest Software are both solutions in the Business Process Design category. Software AG is ranked #6 with an average rating of 7.9, while Quest Software is ranked #19 with an average rating of 9.0. Software AG holds a 7.0% mindshare in BPD, compared to Quest Software’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Software AG users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

ARIS BPA

Read 68 ARIS BPA reviews

5,397 Views
3,724 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

erwin Evolve

Read 19 erwin Evolve reviews

1,227 Views
589 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

ARIS BPA

erwin Evolve

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 19, 2025

ARIS BPA and erwin Evolve are key players in business process analysis. ARIS BPA is noted for its comprehensive modeling abilities geared towards business users, whereas erwin Evolve stands out with strong system integration and publishing features.

Features: ARIS BPA offers a robust modeling environment with flexibility, integration capabilities, and features like ARIS Reporting and Query that assist in maintaining enterprise blueprints. It excels in offering a comprehensive tool for process modeling. erwin Evolve is known for its multi-perspective process views, intuitive configuration, and publishing capabilities via Evolve Designer, allowing integration with systems such as Workday to enhance process documentation.

Room for Improvement: ARIS BPA could benefit from a more robust workflow engine. The user interface requires enhancement for improved usability, and integration with third-party tools needs improvement. erwin Evolve could improve in user interface clarity, better support for real-time calculations and integrations, and streamline navigation for more intuitive use.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ARIS BPA supports hybrid, on-premises, and cloud deployment, though improvements in technical support responsiveness and clearer documentation are necessary. erwin Evolve is praised for its reliable technical support and offers both cloud and on-premises deployment, with users noting significant improvements in support over time.

Pricing and ROI: ARIS BPA is often viewed as costly due to its complex licensing model, yet it delivers substantial ROI through enhanced operational efficiency and process visibility. erwin Evolve’s pricing is also considered high but potentially cost-efficient with concurrent licensing models for larger teams. Both solutions yield significant long-term returns when effectively integrated.

To learn more, read our detailed ARIS BPA vs. erwin Evolve Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA vs. erwin Evolve

September 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

ARIS BPA

Ranking in Business Process Design

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (8th)

erwin Evolve

Ranking in Business Process Design

19th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (11th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.0%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Evolve is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ARIS BPA	7.0%
erwin Evolve	1.2%
Other	91.8%

Business Process Design

Featured Reviews

Tamer Eldamanhouri

Software Engineering & Manager at Arab Infromation Management Services

Empowers teams with robust business process modeling capabilities

They should examine competitor solutions to identify differentiators. One issue related to ARIS BPA is its integration with AI; it has AI features for cloud solutions, yet many in the government sector in Kuwait do not view the cloud as viable. Software AG should focus on developing AI models for ARIS BPA on-premises, particularly in user interfaces, as well as creating predefined business processes for common areas such as HR and finance. This aspect is crucial for adapting to the market's needs and streamlining custom solutions. While they have been helpful regarding pricing, I cannot compare ARIS BPA to other business process modeling tools because I understand some competitors have significantly lower costs than ARIS BPA. To maintain market share, good discounts should be provided to customers.

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Asish Sahu

SPM at Infosys

The reverse engineering capabilities are quite useful.

Evolve is primarily focused on the entity's licenses diagrams, but it would be nice if erwin could integrate case development, so that it shows the ER diagram plus certain inputs on the use cases and how the data is used. That deviates somewhat from the overall scope, so maybe they could call it a different product.

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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

"It helps the business make an informed decision."

"One of the many advantages of ARIS is that it is supported by a very strong BPM community, which is critical for us. Although it has been in business for many years, it is still at an early stage of evolution. There are so many instances where your specific use case or requirement for using ARIS hasn't necessarily been matured across the sector. So, you need access to a very active community to help you explore possible solutions and ways in which ARIS can be used to achieve those use cases."

"ARIS BPA provides very good visibility and control of processes because we have a concurrent license system. As a result, every person in our company and group is able to look at the published processes."

"ARIS has a good collaboration function. You create a portal where any authorized users can work on the models. There are simple flows for making and approving changes."

"The whole ARIS BPM solution is a bit special, because from the very beginning it was targeted more to Business users and the Management."

"ARIS process modeling and analysis allows integration of end-to-end business processes with the organization's vision, strategies, and business objectives, through visual management."

"The solution has come up with a web portal that makes it easy to model and show to clients."

"From an architectural point of view, when you're looking at the business area, you can find all the information you have to use as an architect."

More ARIS BPA pros

"The initial setup was really straightforward and the deployment was done within one day."

"We use erwin Evolve to publish to the website. This allows us to enable publishing our website using parameterisation features. In a very fast, quick way, we can publish a table or chart onto a website."

"The most valuable features for us are impact analysis, where I can easily visualize the impact of change."

"By placing the data and the metadata into a model, which is what the tool does, you gain the abilities for linkages between different objects in the model, linkages that you cannot get on paper or with Visio or PowerPoint. That is a huge discriminator."

"There is a model behind it. It's really nice that the Evolve front-end, as it builds a website, keeps those relationships in mind. You can even go to a procedure and see all the applications that are related to it. Then you can go into that application and see all the standard operating procedures that that application is a part of. It's just very connected."

"Forward and reverse engineering were valuable features."

"Workgroup Repository collection of data models allows research across models without worry about platform incompatibilities and provides easy KPIs about corporate data assets."

"Support for a broad range of data sources from relational to big data to the Cloud."

More erwin Evolve pros

Cons

"The interface is a little archaic."

"Since this is a design tool, seamless interface to make the process flows executable."

"The reporting and the information query features could do with some improvement."

"ARIS BPA’s usability could be improved."

"Integration with third-party tools should be improved (e.g. based on APIs)."

"ARIS BPA is not really a platform that offers you the opportunity to execute processes that you model."

"I believe the solutions BPM tools are not very good and need improvements."

"I use it strictly for developing the business process model. I don't use it for the actual automation. I do that with Vtenext. I have standardized on Vtenext, and I don't use ARIS BPM anymore. The Vtenext UI is just as good, and it is much more tightly coupled to the underlying object model. I can get more done in one session with Vtenext rather than first going to ARIS BPM, then importing, and having to edit it for tight coupling."

More ARIS BPA cons

"With the Excel importing, the "up to date" part is the challenge. If we had a real-time integration, we could keep things up to date for whatever kinds of change points we had. With Excel, it is more that you have to export from one system then import it to another, so it's better for data that doesn't change that often."

"They have improved the search engine a little bit but it can always be improved more. The more data you put inside it, the more you want to use it."

"They need to develop Evolve's user experience. For example, MEGA has a useful client view that helps with impact analysis. MEGA provides information about the processes, services, infrastructure, and portfolio of applications in one central view. It lets you see the periphery and relationships among components. This view is impressive, and Evolve doesn't have it."

"Add some ability to do conditional Visualization on the models and in reports (some ideas) – maybe as a specialized Theme or Diagram or Display."

"Business process modelling could be improved."

"If it had fewer features to model all kinds of architecture, it would be less complicated."

"The solution needs to focus on allowing for more integrations."

"Evolve is primarily focused on the entity's licenses diagrams, but it would be nice if erwin could integrate case development, so that it shows the ER diagram plus certain inputs on the use cases and how the data is used. That deviates somewhat from the overall scope, so maybe they could call it a different product."

More erwin Evolve cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You will never get a fixed price for this product because they will go in and ask you what kind of environment would you like to set up? How many people will you work with? How big is your organization? Today, they have a fixed price to say, "Okay, just to start the business area, buy two licenses for modeling and eight people that can look into the product." They have this kind of fixed price. It's 50,000 Danish Krone. If you divided that by about six, then you get the pricing in dollars. Still, when you are going out, negotiate and find the right price. You will never get a fixed price: "It costs this and, if you take ten of these, seven of these and eight of these, and then it costs this." No, you negotiate every time."

"In terms of pricing, it would be nice if it were more affordable."

"Pricing is a bit on the higher side."

"If you can afford it, it's the best so far."

"It is well worth the investment in the enterprise."

"This is absolutely not the cheapest solution in the market, but for large companies, the price is fine."

"I would recommend the product to only enterprise companies because of the pricing."

"ARIS is quite expensive."

More ARIS BPA pricing and cost advice

"I think erwin is quite expensive. I have difficulty selling the portal, in fact."

"The cost is something like $15,000, per license. But I haven't looked at those numbers in three years. It was over $100,000 to initially set everything up and get it all configured."

"Yearly, our cost is €100,000."

"I estimate that we pay between $40,000 and $50,000 a year for the solution, not including the upfront costs to buy things the first time."

"The licensing enables you to differentiate between people who edit the content and the people who consume it. We are able to keep the licensing costs down by keeping the "contributor" licenses to a minimum, and we then just roll out the content in a read-only version for the rest of our users."

"On a yearly basis, our licensing costs are 50,000 euro. There are no additional costs because we are on a SaaS model."

"Unless you are a one person shop – always go with the Workgroup edition and Concurrent licensing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Computer Software Company

21%

Performing Arts

Government

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	47

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	12

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ARIS BPA?

The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?

Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?

ARIS BPA needs to be more accurate when generating documents. While it covers many blueprints and functions that I need, the document generation feature could be enhanced for better accuracy.

See all answers

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 5% of the time

Visio vs ARIS BPA

Compared 5% of the time

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Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Evolve

Compared 19% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

IDERA ER/Studio vs erwin Evolve

Compared 10% of the time

SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Evolve

Compared 10% of the time

erwin Data Modeler vs erwin Evolve

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA

October 2025

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Buyer's Guide

erwin Evolve

October 2025

Download erwin Evolve product report

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM

erwin EA, erwin Business Process, erwin Enterprise Architecture

Overview

ARIS is the market-leading solution for professional business process management and modeling. Whether you want to document the "as-is" state of your operations for quality or certification reasons or design the "to-be" in terms of continuous improvement in your transformation program, ARIS is the best choice for establishing a single source of truth regarding all process excellence topics in your organization. It is for any organization looking to digitally transform their business, increase operational excellence and customer experience and ensure compliance in execution. ARIS helps you to make the most out of your processes with Process Mining, Risk & Compliance Management, RPA and much more.

What makes the difference?

The most comprehensive platform for process excellence in the market
Easy to use
Covers business & IT architecture from all angles
Full flexibility and >100 diagram types
Customer-driven development based on best practices
Strong partner ecosystem

ARIS is the market-leading solution for any organization and ideally suited to digitally transform the organization, increase operational excellence and customer experience and ensure compliance in execution.

Software AG

erwin Evolve provides comprehensive graphical support for handling large data models. It offers features such as metadata access, version control, and model comparison, enhancing operational reports and system analytics through its collaborative web-driven design.

erwin Evolve facilitates reverse engineering and database integration, fostering collaboration and process exploration through its web interface. Customizable and easy to configure, it supports workflow configuration and architectural modeling. Users can utilize its capabilities for developing industry models, managing transformation programs, and presenting standard operating procedures. Despite its strengths, there are demands for improved integration, enhanced UML support, and a more modern user experience. Users also express challenges with legacy system updates and call for better connectors and collaborative features.

What are the key features of erwin Evolve?

Graphical Support for Large Data Models: Provides visualization capabilities for complex data structures.
Metadata Access via API: Allows integration and management of metadata across platforms.
Version Control and Model Comparison: Enhances tracking and analysis of model changes.
Collaborative Web Interface: Facilitates teamwork and process exploration remotely.
Architectural Modeling: Supports the design and configuration of enterprise architecture.

What are the benefits and ROI of using erwin Evolve?

Customization and Ease of Configuration: Reduces setup time and adapts to specific organizational workflows.
Enhanced Accessibility and Mobile Usability: Offers access to critical information on the go.
Operational Reports Creation: Generates insights and facilitates informed decision-making.
System Analytics Handling: Provides robust tools for analyzing system performance and integration.

Data-driven organizations in sectors like finance and healthcare implement erwin Evolve for data warehousing, enterprise architecture, and business process modeling. They leverage its capabilities for cataloging architectural elements, linking to CMDBs, analyzing system interfaces, and describing business processes. Utilization extends to IT solution registration, business capability planning, and strategic modeling, with frequent deployments on cloud platforms to support transformation initiatives.

Quest Software

Sample Customers

Tesco, Weifu, Airbus, Siemens, Proximus, Alicorp, Sekerbank, Bancor, Philips,Sky, Emirates NBD, Dubai Municipality, Suva, U.S. Army, Australia Post, Westfalen Weser Energie - ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as the market leader for process excellence with more than 30 years of experience in the market, 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.

AT&T, Bank of America, Chevron, Duke University, ESPN, Fidelity, GE, JP Morgan Chase, KPMG, McGraw Hill, NASA, Pfizer, Royal Bank of Scotland, Teradata, Union Pacific, Vodafone, Wells Fargo.

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA vs. erwin Evolve

September 2025

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