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ARIS BPA 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

ARIS BPA
Ranking in Business Process Design
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (9th)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Business Process Design
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.8%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 10.9%, down from 12.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Libor Černý - PeerSpot reviewer
I can usually find an answer to my issue on ARIS Community
From the start, there were some difficulties on how to create outputs since there wasn't a repository tool in version 6. However, in version 7, there has been a tool for creating standards for a company, and that tool has been very intuitive. While I have been using this tool for several years, other people just starting to use it find the learning curve steep. This tool is very robust and accommodates many roles, where people can participate from compliance, IT designers, etc. This can create problems for users who have no experience with similar tools. It took me a year before I felt comfortable with this tool, because when I came from university it was the first or second tool that I worked on. It took me a year to run every feature or use it for every possibility since this tool is very robust. We sometimes have to create the link to the server and the repository twice because it is deleted once for some unknown reason. Though, this is not a big problem. There should be a more intuitive tool when creating reports.
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

"BPA, the modeling tool, is the main module used because of our need for documentation."
"ARIS Reporting – Helps download valuable content from the tool in multiple formats."
"This solution has helped us in terms of discovering business processes."
"It provides the discovery functionality, and you can have a simulation on top of it to get your design corrected to ensure that it is within the right state of parameters. It is a complete package that you can use from strategy to execution because you have the design layer, and within the design, you can also do analytics."
"The most valuable feature is the process documentation. For us, ARIS is a lifestyle more than a tool. It helps us learn how to think and how to plan for our system."
"It has allowed us to model our enterprise process architecture."
"If you ever tried to draw a picture in a browser app or with a cloud service, it is normally a painful death. ARIS works perfectly on diagrams in the browser, so I was excited. I like it because there have been so many bad experiences in the past with drawing or doing something in a browser. Normally, it's always painful because it's coded badly. With ARIS, it is really well-implemented. It's simple."
"It has the ability to scale up, as well as integrate with other systems within the organization to get real-time information from dashboards and reports."
"There are a lot of features in Enterprise Architect. It allows us to take on a lot of tasks."
"This is a useful tool for IT people who need to design their solution architecture."
"Some of the business processes are very easy to compare when you have the diagrams."
"The platform is stable and reliable."
"The system provides powerful tools for obtaining reports and documentation."
"The solution is easy to use, supports SysML and UML, and is able to connect to MATLAB. This is very important for us."
"The Business Process Modeling or BPM part is the most valuable. Its ability to simulate scenarios is also very useful. It can also create descriptions of the workflows. It has a feature in which if you create some BPMN process, a workflow diagram, and the description inside, you can actually simulate the whole scenario, and you get the description. That's very handy."
"The solution saved a lot of time, about 30%."
 

Cons

"Improvement should be made as per customer requirements."
"Create simple data uploader."
"We should have the ability to download ARIS EPCs to Visio."
"The reporting and the information query features could do with some improvement."
"While the dashboarding solution for integrating all kinds of process-related information from company sources other than ARIS is getting ever better, my personal wish would be to have a module that is more targeted to an Agile implementation of some modeled processes (model–to-execute)."
"ARIS BPA’s usability could be improved."
"The tool needs to improve its support since they take long to respond."
"Integration with third-party tools should be improved (e.g. based on APIs)."
"The product could be improved in terms of its ease of use and documentation. While it offers a lot of functionality, it can be difficult to grasp how to utilize these features effectively."
"It would be nice to have it supported on the Linux operating system."
"For data modeling, it is not very mature when comparing with other data modeling tools."
"This solution is quite complex to use. It would be nice if the learning curve wasn't so steep."
"The UI is a little bit outdated. It should be more fresh and clean."
"Its usability needs to be improved. For non-technical users, it is a little difficult to understand how Enterprise Architect works. Users who are not engineers find it difficult to understand how this tool works. This is something they need to work on. They can develop a BPM model to simulate processes."
"It should be made Windows compatible."
"When many users are accessing the system at the same time, Sparx slows down. It can't easily support a large team."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay."
"Their license model is really difficult to understand, and licenses are quite expensive."
"The product is expensive."
"ARIS BPA is too costly from a licensing perspective."
"The product is inexpensive."
"Prices are high. However, they are worth it if the organization utilizes the tool to its full potential."
"The solution has a fair price for the value it delivers."
"The pricing and licensing costs are available on their website. They will assign a relationship manager to assist if you show further interest in their products."
"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access. You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less."
"Enterprise licensing is competitive. What would be helpful if they load the pricing for consultants, you know, people who are consultants for clients. So the license is fine for end-user organizations. Still, they should consider lowering the license to support this adoption, particularly for people who are consultants like myself."
"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
"It's affordable. The only additional cost that we haven't yet figured out is the floating license. If you buy a floating license, you have to have a license management server, which comes at an additional cost that's not discussed. So, we haven't yet used the floating license. That’s because I haven't had a chance to figure that out."
"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."
"It's reasonably priced for large organizations."
"In terms of cost, Sparx EA is probably one of the cheapest tools I have ever used."
"It is very economical and low cost. You have to pay for a one-time license, and it is active forever."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
18%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ARIS BPA?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.
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.
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying. I must write scripts, which requires specific knowledge. Software AG could improve this by making the database more open. ...
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 ...
 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
No data available
 

Overview

 

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.
OmniLink
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.