erwin Data Modeler vs iServer comparison

Quest Software and Orbus Software are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Quest Software is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while Orbus Software is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. Quest Software holds a 8.3% mindshare in AM, compared to Orbus Software’s 4.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Orbus Software users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Modeler

Read 46 erwin Data Modeler reviews

5,210 Views
3,543 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

iServer

Read 18 iServer reviews

2,253 Views
1,577 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler

iServer

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

iServer and erwin Data Modeler are competitors in data modeling and enterprise architecture management. iServer leads in pricing and customer service, whereas erwin Data Modeler is favored for its extensive functionality.

Features: iServer supports integration and dashboard capabilities, handling multiple frameworks and facilitating collaboration. erwin Data Modeler offers robust data governance, metadata management, and reverse engineering features, essential for complex data environments.

Room for Improvement: iServer could enhance its data management capabilities and include more advanced modeling features. Improvements in template flexibility and analytics might also benefit iServer. erwin Data Modeler could improve its initial setup to be less technically demanding, include better customer training materials, and enhance integration with more databases.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: iServer is commended for its easy deployment process and reliable customer service. Its intuitive setup and responsive support provide a smoother user experience. erwin Data Modeler, while offering sufficient deployment support, may require more technical skills during initial setup.

Pricing and ROI: iServer offers a competitive pricing model with lower initial costs, making it appealing for budget-conscious organizations. erwin Data Modeler, although perceived as having higher costs, delivers significant ROI through its advanced features and enhanced data management capability.

To learn more, read our detailed erwin Data Modeler vs. iServer Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler vs. iServer

December 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

erwin Data Modeler

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

2nd

Ranking in Business Process Design

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Governance (15th)

iServer

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

8th

Ranking in Business Process Design

16th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 8.3%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of iServer is 4.3%, down from 4.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
erwin Data Modeler	8.3%
iServer	4.3%
Other	87.4%

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Sushree Panigrahi

Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.

Data modeling has transformed regulatory reporting and collaboration across cloud environments

In erwin Data Modeler, areas that have room for improvement include performance improvements. I see that large models sometimes cause it to be slow when opening. Impact analysis can lag as well. Version control is another aspect. If we have developed a current version, it is not integrated with Git where we can easily compare different versions. UI modernization is also something we cannot utilize as it is primarily for development. Additionally, cloud-specific optimizations are needed when it comes to Snowflake or Databricks. When it comes to AI aspects, auto-suggestions for normalization or identifying primary, foreign, or surrogate keys are areas that can be improved.

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Antonios Lazanakis

Senior IT Solution Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Flexible, easy to use, and easy to import data

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization iServer is a very flexible platform for defining your own enterprise architecture model. It is very easy to import data, and we also have good integration with Visual Drawing Tools and SharePoint. The solution is…

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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

"Another feature of erwin is that it can help you enforce your naming standards. It has little modules that you can set up and, as you're building the data model, it's ensuring that they conform to the naming standards that you've developed."

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

"We had some data integration projects, where we needed to integrate it for about 100 databases. Doing that manually is crazy; we can't do that. With erwin, it was much easier to identify which tables and columns could be used for the integration. That means a lot in terms of time and effort as well as my image to the customer, because they can see that we are providing value in a very short time."

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

"Any tool will do diagramming but I think the ability to put the stuff up in a graphical fashion, then think about it, and keep things consistent is what's valuable about it. It's too easy when you're using other methods to not have naming consistent standards and column consistent definitions, et cetera."

"What has been useful, I have been able to reverse engineer our existing data models to document explicitly referential integrity relationships, primary/foreign keys in the model, and create ERDs that are subject area-based which our clients can use when working with our databases. The reality is that our databases are not explicitly documented in the DDL with primary/foreign key relationships. You can't look at the DDL and explicitly understand the primary/foreign key relationships that exist between our tables, so the referential integrity is not easily understood. erwin has allowed me to explicitly document that and create ERDs. This has made it easier for our clients to consume our databases for their own purposes."

"It's important to create standard templates — Erwin is good at that — and you can customize them. You can create a standard template so that your models have the same look and feel. And then, anyone using the tool is using the same font and the same general layout. erwin's very good at helping enforce that."

"The logical model gives developers, as well as the data modelers, an understanding of exactly how each object interacts with the others, whether a one-to-many, many-to-many, many-to-one, etc."

More erwin Data Modeler pros

"iServer is a very flexible platform for defining your own enterprise architecture model."

"The most valuable feature is its reporting capability. It offers various packages for different types of reports, such as business and project management reporting packs."

"We like the governance."

"The solution is easily modified to suit your needs."

"The most valuable features of iServer are the integration with Microsoft Office and the interface is similar to Microsoft applications making them easy to use."

"iServer is a solution that helps catalog enterprise architect solutions and catalog information."

"Integrating the Microsoft documents to the product and visualization matrix where we can see the end-to-end relationship of the network is of great importance to our company."

"Tech support is very responsive. They solved issues within a prompt response time."

More iServer pros

Cons

"erwin generally fails to successfully reverse engineer our Oracle Databases into erwin data models. The way that they are engineered on our side, the syntax is correct from an Oracle perspective, but it seems to be very difficult for erwin to interpret. What I end up doing is using Oracle Data Modeler to reverse engineer into the Oracle data model, then forward engineer the DDL into an Oracle syntax, and importing that DDL into erwin in order to successfully bring in most of the information from our physical data models. That is a bit of a challenge."

"Sometimes when I want to open the attribute editor, it stops working and the whole application freezes."

"The solution's reporting side needs to be improved."

"It would be nice to have it on the Linux platform, not just Windows. If they can support Linux, there would be a huge market for it."

"I would like to see more support for working with the big-data world. There are so many new databases evolving and it's very hard for them to keep up with all of the new technologies. It would be good if they were able to dynamically support big-data platforms, other than Hive and Teradata."

"There is a lack of local support in the China region."

"The only real complaint I have is the time it takes to do a database comparison on a large model. If they could speed that up, that would be the only thing I can think of that needs improvement."

"I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory."

More erwin Data Modeler cons

"We could allocate permissions to use only specific components to the users rather than the entire instance."

"There are other solutions out there that have a better user interface."

"Enhancing integration options with ERP or ITSM-related solutions for triggering automated requests for process definitions, changes, and tracking them in the iServer."

"iServer should invest in enhancing the capabilities of the embedded drawing tool, draw.io."

"It runs relatively slowly."

"Cannot see which activities are control activities."

"The modelling needs improvement, specifically forecasting capabilities and scenarios."

"It definitely needs help to improve the visual aspect of the solution."

More iServer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."

"We've continued to use the product for many years and compared it with others on the market. The pricing is reasonable considering what the solution offers and what we pay. There are cheaper tools, but they may not be as robust and easy to use, so it's worth the money."

"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."

"Pricing is very high compared to any other product."

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

"The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."

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

"The solution is expensive."

More erwin Data Modeler pricing and cost advice

"Aim for the exact number of people who shall define/review approve and view the processes, as it will impact the cost."

"It's about 13K to set up and 9K for the license for three months. I think it's about 20K a year, but we haven't firmed up on pricing yet because the price depends on how long we commit to the solution."

"They offer annual subscriptions for developing countries, which are not affordable for small or medium businesses."

"The solution is cheaper than its competitors."

"The price of iServer is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"The product has a moderate pricing."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

20%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	34

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

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

Regarding pricing, I am unsure what the exact price is for erwin Data Modeler, but I believe it is not useful for an individual. It is more targeted toward an enterprise level since organizations l...

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What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I write code and I write code accessing erwin Data Modeler's API, the Application Programming Interface, so that I can use Excel to update erwin Data Modeler and then get those updates and put them...

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What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I work for CVS with a pretty big database as a data modeler on the PBMs, the Caremark PBM side, which is the Pharmacy Benefits Manager. There's a retail side too for all the stores, but our data wa...

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What needs improvement with iServer?

iServer should invest in enhancing the capabilities of the embedded drawing tool, draw.io. draw.io is a drawing tool used to draw architectural diagrams, flow diagrams, etc. It is an alternative to...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iServer?

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering iServer?

I would recommend the solution to other users. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 41% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 7% of the time

Visio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 5% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 4% of the time

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LeanIX vs iServer

Compared 13% of the time

BiZZdesign HoriZZon vs iServer

Compared 13% of the time

MEGA HOPEX vs iServer

Compared 12% of the time

OrbusInfinity vs iServer

Compared 9% of the time

Visio vs iServer

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler

January 2026

Download erwin Data Modeler product report

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

January 2026

Download iServer product report

Also Known As

erwin DM

No data available

Overview

Erwin Data Modeler provides an effective approach to visualizing and managing data models. It assists in creating, reversing, and synchronizing data models with ease, supporting logical and physical transitions while enhancing understanding across teams.

Erwin Data Modeler is a comprehensive tool designed for professional database management. It offers capabilities to organize and enforce standards, automating script generation with robust reverse engineering and DDL output. Users can manage complex data environments, capitalize on integration with data intelligence, and maintain large-scale databases smoothly. Despite its strengths, improvements in multi-language support, database integration, and reporting features are needed. Users benefit from extensive support for conceptual, logical, and physical database modeling, enhancing architectural design and data governance for platforms like SQL Server, Oracle, and Teradata.

What are the key features of Erwin Data Modeler?

Visual Representation: Facilitates clear visualization of data models, aiding comprehension.
Versioning and Editing: Enhance usability with versioning and bulk editing capabilities.
Reverse Engineering: Offers powerful tools for reverse engineering and DDL generation.
Integration: Aligns with data intelligence to streamline database management.
Naming Standards: Enforces consistency with automated script creation.

What benefits should users consider in Erwin Data Modeler reviews?

Collaboration: Promotes team understanding and collaboration through visual tools.
Automation: Reduces manual effort through automated processes and integration.
Scalability: Handles large database management efficiently, crucial for enterprise settings.
Data Governance: Facilitates effective data governance with structured modeling.

Erwin Data Modeler finds application in industries focused on robust data management, implementing it for enterprise data warehouses, business domain models, and operational systems. It supports architectural design and governance, aligning with business applications demanding precise data representation and visualization.

Quest Software

iServer is a unified software platform and enterprise modeling environment that extends and enhances the familiar, market leading Microsoft Visio and Office products. Core capabilities provided by iServer include an enhanced Microsoft Visio diagramming interface, a powerful central repository for all enterprise architecture or business process models and documentation, and a range of tools for visualization, analysis and decision making.

Orbus Software

Sample Customers

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

Barclays, Cathay Pacific, Deloitte, British Gas, MasterCard

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler vs. iServer

December 2025

Free Report: erwin Data Modeler vs. iServer

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