Avolution ABACUS vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest comparison

Avolution and erwin by Quest are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Avolution is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while erwin by Quest is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2. Avolution holds a 3.7% mindshare in AM, compared to erwin by Quest’s 11.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Avolution users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of erwin by Quest users who would recommend it.

Avolution ABACUS

Read 15 Avolution ABACUS reviews

2,048 Views
1,003 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler by Quest reviews

4,367 Views
2,377 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Avolution ABACUS

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Avolution ABACUS and erwin Data Modeler by Quest compete in the modeling and architecture domain. While Avolution ABACUS is noted for its flexible enterprise architecture capabilities, erwin Data Modeler stands out due to its robust data modeling features, earning an edge in data management.

Features: Avolution ABACUS offers flexibility with its Analytical and Simulation Engine, diverse frameworks, and extensive customization capabilities. The ability to customize the meta-model and catalogs adds to its versatility. erwin Data Modeler provides comprehensive visual data models, efficient reverse engineering, and intuitive migration of foreign keys, facilitating accurate and dynamic data synchronization.

Room for Improvement: Avolution ABACUS could enhance its integration with BI tools and improve its user-friendly interface for complex modeling tasks. Advanced customization may require additional simplification for broader accessibility. erwin Data Modeler may benefit from improved compatibility with cloud databases, better performance with large-scale models, and enhanced integration with other enterprise tools for more seamless workflows.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Avolution ABACUS deployment is straightforward, supported by extensive documentation, making implementation smoother. erwin Data Modeler's deployment is flexible but may require specialized support for custom setups, which is beneficial for organizations with specific data infrastructure needs.

Pricing and ROI: Avolution ABACUS offers competitive pricing with cost-effective ROI for comprehensive architecture management. erwin Data Modeler, despite higher initial costs, ensures substantial ROI with its precise data accuracy and compliance focus, making it suitable for data-centric enterprises.

To learn more, read our detailed Avolution ABACUS vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Avolution ABACUS vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

January 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

Avolution ABACUS

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (9th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of Avolution ABACUS is 3.7%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Modeler by Quest is 11.2%, up from 9.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

JoseCamacho

Freelancer at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Supports evaluating architecture through corporate objectives

I conducted an evaluation of enterprise architecture at the European Court in Luxembourg, reviewing and analyzing existing implementations to identify potential improvements and providing recommendations I conduct evaluations to identify potential improvements and make recommendations, forming a…

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JorgeSanz

Data Governance Senior Advisor at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Streamline data modeling and automate network changes for increased efficiency

The initial setup depends on the tool if you are using the data model environment. Stopping the server could be complex and require strong expertise. If you have everything set up and configured, Erwin is straightforward. You can deploy it in a few hours. In our case, it took a couple of months to address internal conditions, assign machines, and set up everything for the services. I rate the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The technical support is very good. They are responsive and the answers they provide are detailed."

"The most valuable feature is the traceability, you can trace any object to the other."

"There are a lot of different features, but the business/decision-maker feature, visibility, and dashboards are most valuable."

"The tool's implementation is straightforward as everything is readily available. For instance, setting up a portal is seamless, allowing easy publishing and access to data. However, integrating with other tools like BI, Power BI, or Grafana requires setting up pipelines between them."

"Avolution ABACUS allows for flexible enterprise architecture analysis."

"If you face new challenges or issues then you can dynamically customize according to the business needs."

"Scalable and stable tool for roadmapping and modeling, with a good dashboard, end-to-end impact analysis, and portfolio management."

"It's more than just an enterprise architecture tool as it has a lot of nice features, e.g. messaging, simulation, etc."

More Avolution ABACUS pros

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

"It has centralized storage so that a data model can be shared by different teams."

"Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution."

"It reduces monthly savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Think about a company like Costco and all of the points of sale systems in Costco, all of the systems, the applications, but if all the applications in Costco all had their own data model, trying to integrate those, upgrade them and manage their different versions of the same model throughout the store, is an absolute nightmare. It's phenomenally expensive. This helps reduce that cost significantly. I'm talking on the orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"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 fitting model is very intuitive."

"The ability to collaborate between different members across the organization is the most valuable feature. It gives us the ability to work on the same model, regardless of where we are physically."

"They have a lot of features and the most up-to-date technology integration, which I haven't seen in other products."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pros

Cons

"They should take more initiative to implement things that competing products have already come out with."

"Having more control over page size is lacking in this product. Print utilization also needs to be improved."

"The tool doesn't have any intelligence built in. We have to design the dashboards ourselves, which is a challenge because we have to depend on the vendor for customizations."

"It doesn't have the simulation capability, which would be helpful in doing some business process analysis and improvements."

"The most valuable features are the catalog and the diagram."

"If they want to expand in the European market then they are going to have to improve their technical support."

"Their local presence in the Middle East could be scaled more, particularly in customer service. It would be good if they'd also have mobile dashboards for executive management out of the box."

"Avolution ABACUS has the drawback of needing data filtering at the development level, unlike some tools that offer filtering at deployment. Two areas where Avolution ABACUS could be improved are regional support and flexibility in model selection. Sometimes, it's challenging to access support or updates in certain regions, which can slow down progress. Additionally, it would be beneficial if the tool allowed more flexibility in selecting multiple models within a single unit."

More Avolution ABACUS cons

"Complete Compare is set up only to compare properties that are of interest to us, but some of the differences cannot be brought over from one version of the model to another. This is despite the fact that we are clicking to bring objects from one place to another. Therefore, it's hard to tell at times if Complete Compare is working as intended without having to manually go into the details and check everything. If it could be redesigned to a degree where it is easier to use when we bring things over from one site to another and be sure that it's been done correctly, that would be nice to have. We would probably use the tool more often if the Complete Compare were easier to use."

"In terms of new features, it would be great to have a cloud base. We should be able to put it on the cloud for better collaboration and data models sharing."

"Although Quest Software has made tremendous strides in recent years, they need to evolve more in the big data arena; erwin Data Modeler could use a little more work when it comes to big database designs."

"The Bulk Editor needs improvement. If you had something that was a local model to your local machine, you could connect to the API, then it would write directly into the repository. However, when you have something that is on the centralized server, that functionality did not work. Then, you had to export out to a CSV and upload up to the repository. It would have been nice to be able to do the direct API without having that whole download and upload thing. Maybe I didn't figure it out, but I'm pretty sure that didn't work when it was a model that sat on a centralized repository."

"I would like to see the ability to support more NoSQL platforms more quickly. In addition, enhancing the graphics to render more quickly would be beneficial for any user."

"I love the product. I love the ability to get into the code, make it automated, and make it do what I want. I would like to see them put some kind of governance over the ability to make changes to the mart tables with the API, so that instead of just using the modeler's rights to a table -- it has a separate set of rights for API access. That would give us the ability to put governance around API applications. Right now a person with erwin and Excel/VBA has the ability to make changes to models with the API if they also have rights to make changes to the model from erwin. It's a risk."

"The interface must be improved."

"One of the things I've been talking to the erwin team about through the years is that every data model should have the ability to be multi-language... When I was working at Honda, it became very difficult to work with the Japanese teams using just one model. You can have two models, one in English and one in Japanese, but that means you have to keep the updates back and forth, and that always increases the risk of something not being updated."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is not an issue."

"It is competitive. It is not chump change. I am just using the studio version. I am not using the full enterprise version, which would probably cost me three times more for single-use, but it gives a lot more capability and analysis. It is server-based as well, and it is reasonably priced compared to a lot of the other tools. There are other tools that have other sorts of capabilities, but in order to use them, you'd really have to have like 50 users for the price to become justifiable."

"This solution is expensive for some people's budgets and they need to offer a Lite version at a cheaper price"

"The cost of Avolution ABACUS is reasonable, given the features they offer in comparison to other tools."

"The pricing is quite good compared to the competition and it is part of the reason we chose the product."

"There is a subscription for this solution. We are on an annual subscription because you sometimes receive special offers the longer you subscribe."

"I'm paying on a yearly basis. I don't know whether it's a highly expensive tool or not. I'm getting a single version of it, and I don't have the enterprise part on it because I don't need the server component, and I don't need a web browser component. My estimate would be that it's a very reasonably priced tool given that you don't need to have licenses with everyone in order to get the information and the decision support capabilities out of the tool. You use the enterprise edition on top of the studio, which is the heart of the tool. I am not aware of any additional costs."

"It is expensive."

More Avolution ABACUS pricing and cost advice

"This company had bought the license for three years, and it's not an individual license. While you can buy a license for each individual, that would be very expensive. There is something called concurrent licenses where you can purchase licenses in bulk and 15 to 20 people can access the license and model. Concurrent licenses are scalable to the number of users and are proportional to the cost."

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

"Price-wise, erwin Data Modeler is okay. You can purchase a single license and it is not very expensive."

"erwin has this option where you pay a one-time fee and you have the license for six years, which makes sense because I don't upgrade my database engine every other year. I have an application that depends on it. This is something weird about PowerDesigner. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."

"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 solution is expensive."

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

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

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Government

14%

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

19%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Avolution ABACUS?

The tool's implementation is straightforward as everything is readily available. For instance, setting up a portal is seamless, allowing easy publishing and access to data. However, integrating wit...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Avolution ABACUS?

It's pricey compared to Essential, Deltek, or Essential Cloud. However, its diagramming capabilities and metamodel design make it worth it. But it's not for large user bases. It has modules for app...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Avolution ABACUS?

While Avolution ABACUS is flexible, it can be complex to work with as it requires knowledge of specific configurations to customize the product. It would be beneficial to have seminars or other met...

See all answers

What do you like most about erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.

See all answers

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

The product is expensive. I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

As a documenting tool, it's solid, though its reporting could be more robust. The reporting mechanisms could be more intuitive regarding report creation. It can generate reports in CSV files, displ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 19% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

Visio vs Avolution ABACUS

Compared 10% of the time

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SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 28% of the time

IDERA ER/Studio vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 17% of the time

Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 16% of the time

Visio vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 9% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 8% of the time

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Avolution ABACUS

February 2025

Download Avolution ABACUS product report

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

February 2025

Download erwin Data Modeler by Quest product report

Also Known As

No data available

erwin DM

Overview

ABACUS is the enterprise architecture tool designed to have the quickest time-to-value. You can use it to build and maintain rich visual models from existing company data. ABACUS comes with standard industry frameworks as well as advanced analytic tools and best-in-class roadmapping and reporting functionality.

With Avolution ABACUS You Can:

Strategize and analyze your organizational architecture with ease using data-driven diagrams
Enjoy connected data, models, and metrics across your whole enterprise
Work directly and securely in your browser, which is ideal for global teams and remote working

Avolution ABACUS Features:

Modeling and roadmapping: ABACUS offers a fully provisioned modeling environment for enterprise and IT architecture, strategic planning, and digital business management.
Digital collaboration: Avolution ABACUS includes a feature that allows you to set up dashboards so you can tell data stories using business-friendly visualizations.
Portfolio management: Anyone can update their own data, which, in turn, reduces the workload of the enterprise architecture team.
Data-driven architecture: ABACUS’s data-driven architecture gives you the opportunity to design and automate key calculations using out-of-the-box or simple no-code algorithms.
Collaborative data management: Using this feature, you can save time with single sign-on (SSO) and AD Integrations; You can embed directly in MS Teams, Confluence, or other workplace social software.
Dynamic data visualizations: ABACUS’s graph view allows you to navigate through systems in a dynamic environment, as opposed to static diagram views.

Avolution ABACUS Benefits:

Time efficient: Models and roadmaps automatically stay up-to-date, saving your organization a lot of time so you can focus on other priorities instead.
Centralized location: With Avolution ABACUS, you can connect all data in one place, keeping everything both consistent and accurate.
Full flexibility: ABACUS gives you full flexibility to adapt and configure your own metamodels with ease.
Complete visibility: Your whole enterprise can have visibility of the architecture through the use of digital collaboration and visually clear dashboards.
Machine learning: With Avolution ABACUS, you can employ machine learning to speed data management and analysis.
Spot dependencies: ABACUS helps your organization spot dependencies and impacts that might trip up your projects.
Fully customizable: Avolution ABACUS is fully customizable; Select, configure, or adapt your repository and metamodel. You can also automate metrics and analytics specific to your business.

Reviews from Real Users:

Andre W., Enterprise Architect at Enterprise Architecture Perspectives, says, "The most valuable feature is that it has a customizable meta-model, which is key.”

The Lead Enterprise Domain Architects at a financial services firm feels that "The product is easy to use and well-structured for the integrations we need it to make.”

"There are plenty of features available, such as the ability to test applications for issues and a user-friendly dashboard,” says Suresh T., Enterprise Digital Solution Architect at a tech services company.

Avolution

erwin pioneered data modeling, and erwin Data Modeler (erwin DM) remains trusted, award-winning software for data modeling and database design, automating complex and time-consuming tasks. Use it to discover and document any data from anywhere for consistency, clarity and artifact reuse across large-scale data integration, master data management, metadata management, Big Data, business intelligence and analytics initiatives – all while supporting data governance and intelligence efforts.

erwin by Quest

Sample Customers

Barclays

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

Buyer's Guide

Avolution ABACUS vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

January 2025

Free Report: Avolution ABACUS vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Find out what your peers are saying about Avolution ABACUS vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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