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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
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (11th)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Business Process Design
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.0%, down from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 7.4%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect7.4%
ARIS BPA7.0%
Other85.6%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

BM
Consultant at KAFD DMC
Has improved process modeling and analysis while supporting integration with organizational data
The process design in ARIS BPA does help with our operational efficiency. What we are doing is object library management for various kinds of objects that we are using in ARIS BPA during our process modeling. We are using that to do a lot of analysis on how many times a system is being used in how many processes, who are the major stakeholders, and if we enhance one system, how is it going to impact other processes and integrated processes. This is helping us a lot. Everything related to ARIS BPA is helping us with regards to enhanced processes, strengthened controls, identifying risks, assessing process capabilities, and identifying where the gaps are and what kinds of activities within the processes are automated and manual. We are doing a lot of things with regards to the processes as it is at our heart. Processes are one thing and then we have different kinds of things which are related to it, such as SLAs, guidelines, and policy. We are identifying areas of improvement in other documents as well.
Milan Sterba - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Enterprise Architect at Deepview S.r.o.
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

"Everything related to ARIS BPA is helping us with regards to enhanced processes, strengthened controls, identifying risks, assessing process capabilities, and identifying where the gaps are and what kinds of activities within the processes are automated and manual."
"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 tool has good navigation."
"Object oriented modeling allows us to trace what's going on with the specified object."
"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."
"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."
"ARIS is probably the most mature product in terms of modeling an enterprise architecture so that it has context."
"The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable."
"Ability to keep inventory of reusable blocks, and use in different diagrams with views of various templates."
"The solution allows us to quickly present designs and concepts to customers and get their feedback, thereby moving the project forward step by step."
"The most valuable feature is the integrated data model, so if I change the name of an item, all models using that object are automatically updated."
"Sparx offers good flexibility."
"The system provides powerful tools for obtaining reports and documentation."
"Its most valuable feature is the Zachman Framework."
"It is a handy tool for visual modeling that provides opportunities for analysis, design, and support of models using ArchiMate, UML."
"It is simple to build the first model for the solution."
 

Cons

"The user experience's usability (in general) should be improved as the tool is updated."
"We do experience a lot of glitches with ARIS BPA. In the past one year we have seen issues and the ARIS administrator has raised tickets with Software AG regarding these issues."
"There should be a more intuitive tool when creating reports."
"We do experience a lot of glitches with ARIS BPA. In the past one year we have seen issues and the ARIS administrator has raised tickets with Software AG regarding these issues."
"We should have the ability to download ARIS EPCs to Visio."
"Its governance tool and integration with ESB and execution engine can be improved. Their partner support can also be improved."
"The Risk and Compliance Management tool is rather complex and moreover, it needs to be customized if you want to use it."
"The standard out-of-the-box solutions for modeling are not so good. You have to do some configuration to make it easier and more user-friendly."
"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."
"They should make the Save button easier to find. A simplified user interface for a lighter user would probably be useful. I am not sure if such an interface is already there."
"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."
"The UI is a little bit outdated. It should be more fresh and clean."
"It can be improved in the area of shared documentation. The idea is that the architecture tool can call back to an enterprise asset, pull that information, and link that as a sub-artifact."
"When collaborating with other people, it needs to be more user-friendly."
"This solution has some limitations from a business perspective."
"It really did not work for logical modeling. The look is very old-fashioned. You can't make the diagrams easy on the eye, so we ended up drawing them again in Visio anyhow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"ARIS Express​ is free."
"It is well worth the investment in the enterprise."
"ARIS enables you to start small and grow the use of the solution over time, although it's quite expensive. So if you want to start small, it's quite an investment for a small company."
"If you can afford it, it's the best so far."
"ARIS has different licensing mechanisms for different modules, but they are perpetual licenses. So you pay once."
"Pricing is a bit on the higher side."
"Prices are high. However, they are worth it if the organization utilizes the tool to its full potential."
"The license I use is on-premise. We haven't gone to the cloud where we have to pay monthly or something like that. Sparx is cheaper than most similar tools."
"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."
"I think our license costs roughly $1,000 a year, but I could be wrong."
"We had a yearly license."
"Pricing and licensing is very attractive, simple, and straightforward."
"It’s the best deal in town, by far."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
 

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?
It is a bit expensive regarding ARIS BPA. However, ARIS BPA does save a lot of effort because this is one tool which can be used for multiple purposes and the viewers have the capability to perform...
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
We are not using any what-if scenario features in ARIS BPA. Currently, we are not using the performance monitoring and compliance checks features in ARIS BPA. We have plans to use them, but current...
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: February 2026.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.