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ARIS BPA vs Visual Paradigm 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
ARIS BPA improves operational resilience, transparency, and stakeholder alignment, offering significant time savings and enhanced management understanding.
Sentiment score
6.5
Visual Paradigm improves efficiency and documentation, offering good ROI despite challenging free assessment, with benefits varying by usage duration.
The product did what it was supposed to do for the documentation development I was engaged in.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
ARIS BPA technical support is praised for responsiveness, though improvements in communication and complex issue handling are needed.
Sentiment score
7.8
Visual Paradigm excels with responsive technical support, helpful community resources, and ease of use, despite limited regional support.
The consultants are fine, however, reliance on single experts for modules can be risky.
The tool was easy enough to use.
We didn't use customer service extensively, but our questions were answered when needed.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
ARIS BPA is scalable and flexible, supporting cloud-based growth across industries despite its cost considerations, accommodating various deployments.
Sentiment score
7.7
Visual Paradigm is seen as scalable for enterprise use, though opinions vary, with some noting challenges and a steep learning curve.
For user scalability, it is a matter of licenses, while functional scalability is supported and easy to implement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
ARIS BPA is stable, with challenges in large environments; users appreciate performance improvements and responsive support.
Sentiment score
8.3
Visual Paradigm is stable with minor hardware needs, achieving high satisfaction and occasional specific bug issues reported by users.
The stability of ARIS BPM is quite strong, rated eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

ARIS BPA is criticized for high costs, complexity, and integration challenges, needing significant training and better user interface.
Visual Paradigm needs enhancements in integration, export features, UI design, performance, and pricing to meet user demands effectively.
Software AG could improve this by making the database more open.
The product can always get better as the industry changes.
 

Setup Cost

ARIS BPA's high cost is justified for large enterprises, offering flexible options and extensive features with negotiable terms.
Visual Paradigm provides flexible pricing from $6 to $197, offering affordable options for both community and enterprise users.
The free version of Visual Paradigm does not incur any setup costs and offers a set of usable features.
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced.
 

Valuable Features

ARIS BPA features a centralized repository, robust analytics, integration options, customizable methods, and supports notations like BPMN and EPC.
Visual Paradigm integrates diverse diagrams, supports enterprise architecture, and is favored for its intuitive interface and adaptability.
The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable.
In other drawing programs, if I moved a box, I had to move the arrow, but Visual Paradigm handled those tasks automatically.
It is user-friendly, and as you become more familiar with its deep features, you might consider upgrading to the paid version for more complex projects.
 

Categories and Ranking

ARIS BPA
Ranking in Business Process Design
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (8th)
Visual Paradigm
Ranking in Business Process Design
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 8.0%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visual Paradigm is 6.5%, up from 6.3% 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.
Angie Ibrahim Eissa - PeerSpot reviewer
A software application designed for software development teams to model business information systems and manage development processes
Setting up Visual Paradigm is easy. There's hardly any configuration needed, unlike some other tools. You just choose your method and diagram type, and you're good to go. As for improvements, integrating project management features with diagrams could be better. Viewing outputs could also be smoother, especially when working with multiple files.Deployment is quick and painless. It practically takes no time at all to set up. And because I also teach at the university, I use Visual Paradigm for my classes and case studies. It's easy to switch between products, and my students have no trouble using it on their own.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Educational Organization
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
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 Visual Paradigm?
The solution is the best application for data modeling. It helps to architect business processes. Its best features are pricing and functionality.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Paradigm?
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced, so I was fine with the pricing.
What needs improvement with Visual Paradigm?
The product can always get better as the industry changes, however, I didn't necessarily feel it was lacking for what I did with it.
 

Comparisons

 

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.
Adobe, Apple, at&t, Caterpillar, Intel, NASA, Nokia, Toyota
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS BPA vs. Visual Paradigm and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.