SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest comparison

erwin by Quest and SAP are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. erwin by Quest is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while SAP is ranked #24. erwin by Quest holds a 11.1% mindshare in AM, compared to SAP’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of erwin by Quest users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SAP users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler by Quest reviews

4,548 Views
2,477 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

SAP Enterprise Architecture...

Read 1 SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer review

291 Views
195 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

SAP Enterprise Architecture...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between erwin Data Modeler by Quest and SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about SAP LeanIX, Sparx Systems, erwin by Quest and others in Enterprise Architecture Management.

To learn more, read our detailed Enterprise Architecture Management Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

January 2025

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Helped 831,265 peers since 2012

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 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)

SAP Enterprise Architecture...

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

24th

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler by Quest is 11.1%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

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.

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Artur Chyziewicz

Co-Owner at Edusolution s.c.

Great training available with traceability a key feature

I use this solution to model enterprise software architecture. We are customers of SAP and an educational organization in Poland. Traceability is a fantastic feature. They should upgrade the algorithm. The solution currently has an old algorithm and there are now free tools on the market that…

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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

"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."

"The modeling portion of the tool is the most valuable. There are some notes, naming standards, and other functions that we use as well. There's a whole boatload of functionality in this thing and we use maybe 10% of it. It seems to be pretty common that not all the functionality is fully utilized. But it's just got gobs and gobs of stuff that you can implement if you so choose to."

"The most valuable feature is the physical or visual representation of the database, showing the tables, the columns, the foreign keys, and the ability to generate DDL, so you can physically implement databases."

"It is a scalable solution...The technical support team is fine."

"Drag-and-drop data modeling and reverse engineering out of databases are the most valuable features of erwin Data Modeler by Quest."

"The solution is good for organizing the data and the scripting part is very powerful. It's easy to create technical scripts for models."

"One of the best aspects of the tool is its reverse engineering capability."

"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."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pros

"Traceability is a fantastic feature."

Cons

"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."

"This is a very complex product."

"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."

"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 erwin Data Modeler is quite complex to use."

"I find the UI very clunky and very difficult to use. If I add columns to a table the whole workflow could be so much easier. I get frustrated using it. I've tried other tools. I've tried to get off of erwin a few times. I always come back to it because every tool has its own set of problems, and it seems like if I have to pick my poison, I stay with erwin. But so many things that are clunky with it."

"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."

"I would like to see improved reporting and, potentially, dashboards built on top of that. Right now, it's a little manual. More automated reporting and dashboard views would help because currently you have to push things out to a spreadsheet, or to HTML, and there aren't many other options that I know of. I would like to be able to produce graphs and additional things right in the tool, instead of having to export the data somewhere else."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest cons

"The algorithm is outdated and should be upgraded."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."

"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."

"erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution."

"Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money."

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

"An issue right now would be that erwin doesn't have a freely available browser (that I am aware of) for people who are not data modelers or data engineers that a consumer could use to look at the data models and play with it. This would not be to make any changes, but just to visually look at what exists. There are other products out there which do have end user browsers available and allow them to access data models via the data modeling tool."

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

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

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Educational Organization

14%

University

12%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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.

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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?

The solution's model mark could be better because it crashes sometimes.

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Comparisons

SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 29% 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 15% of the time

Visio vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 10% 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

SAP PowerDesigner vs SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer

Compared 59% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer

Compared 41% of the time

More SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

January 2025

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Enterprise Architecture Management

January 2025

SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer report

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Also Known As

erwin DM

SAP EA Designer

Learn More

erwin by Quest

SAP

Overview

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.

The SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer Web application is a user-friendly, collaborative tool for creating and maintaining a complete landscape architecture that is easy to capture and understand visually. People in a wide variety of roles can readily use it, so all necessary stake-holders can participate directly in the planning and design of the architecture. You can manage change by providing effective governance of your architecture changes and calculating their costs and benefits, so that you can keep implementation efficient and cost-effective. Through robust traceability in this multirole, intuitive, collaborative environment, you gain the insight to support compliance at the outset and throughout architecture change cycles.

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

January 2025

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