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LeanIX vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

LeanIX
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of LeanIX is 15.9%, up from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 15.2%, down from 19.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

NickGenoese - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 3, 2024
Streamlines the process of identifying apps nearing end-of-life or requiring retirement and facilitates informed decisions about app retention
When we input our inventory and components, it tells us which ones are nearing end-of-life, deprecated, or obsolete. It also categorizes them. We've added flags, essentially tags, to mark certain things as non-strategic technologies. Using LeanIX, we made conscious decisions about which technologies are strategic and which aren't. This allows us to generate reports highlighting applications written in non-strategic technologies, giving us a better picture of our inventory size and what needs to migrate to the cloud or our target technology. So, it's about understanding what we have, seeing how it aligns with our strategic direction, and then driving the movement towards that direction.
Anthony Houghton - PeerSpot reviewer
May 15, 2022
Easy to set up and had no issues with stability, but it's not a very friendly tool, and its database modeling and entity-relationship modeling functions need improvement
I didn't find any valuable features in Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect because you cannot use it for re-engineering. I wanted to re-engineer the database, and it was almost impossible. I couldn't find a way. One room for improvement in Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is that it's not very friendly. Another room for improvement in the tool is that it doesn't enable you to import the metadata from a database very easily, so reverse engineering of a database was very difficult. Its database modeling and entity-relationship modeling functions need improvement. An additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is the re-engineering of databases into logical models, if that feature's not yet there, because I haven't checked.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature would be application portfolio management, which is where they came from, but over time, they have got artificial intelligence. They built up a very good repository. If I identify a system by name, from historical information, oftentimes, they can tell me that this is deployed with this number of CPUs and they can give me a really good profile of the application for me to put it into a change management database with very little effort."
"The most valuable features include the reporting capabilities and the LeanIX Academy's educational resources."
"For the reporting capabilities, LeanIX provides dashboards for different levels, including CXO dashboards. There are plenty of dashboards for reporting."
"I can develop a report and then do a presentation, or develop a report and some other diagrams and then put them all in one presentation, and from there, I can present things directly, so there is no need to move images."
"LeanIX has a great application information architecture."
"Interfaces well with downstream systems of data."
"The solution has a very useful assessment tool that automatically populates from input data to produce a detailed analysis of customer's environments."
"It offers neat visualization and referencing functionality while enabling the creation of landscape maps and showing the relationship between different applications."
"For the most part, we find that it is remarkable how inexpensive it is."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and adaptability of Sparx Enterprise Architect."
"It has led some teams to do better code reviews - to be less focussed on coding conventions (syntax) and more focussed on the semantics because of the abstraction level clear design affords."
"Its ability to reference and link to components from any diagram."
"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is very flexible and it is simple to define the metamodel. Additionally, it is lightweight on resources."
"The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."
"It provides good utilization and it's a convenient tool for building exact architectural work."
"Ability to model and create view under same roof."
 

Cons

"The solution needs to incorporate a data patch tool that moves within and irons data."
"Does a poor job of being able to allocate detailed costings to components within the network."
"The whole integration architecture view of interfaces/data exchange could be improved."
"Another area for improvement is that when you're starting to look into more advanced information, using the solution's APIs and its customizations, documentation for that specific aspect is not very good. There is not too much support built into the offering for that aspect, for a developer."
"They could include a combination of LeanIX and some modeling extensions."
"What would make LeanIX better is more variety in terms of reporting, and more flexibility with its data importing feature."
"It's hard to predict the pricing of the system."
"It would be beneficial to have additional features and capabilities to enhance mapping between applications, especially across domains where the relationships may not be direct."
"The user interface is not so good. It's not easy for someone to use it at first. The product takes some getting used to."
"For data modeling, it is not very mature when comparing with other data modeling tools."
"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 fact that you can do a lot yourself is a plus point, but it also becomes a challenge because you need an understanding of the programming languages to get things to work. It becomes challenging for those who are not very good at programming. You have standard reports, but if you want to make your own reports, you have to program it. Similarly, if you want validations rules, you have to take care of them yourself."
"This solution should have better ease of use for the uninitiated."
"I think that collaboration can be better."
"I struggled with most of the features for this tool, as did the rest of our architecture team."
"The database management area was not usable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is based on a licensing model that is competitive and in line with other products."
"I would rate the pricing a one out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"As the tool is cloud-based, its cost is more affordable."
"The tool needs to include more flexible licensing options. We do not use the tool all the time. So pricing should be considered only when we use the tool."
"The pricing is very good. We definitely get good value for the money."
"LeanIX uses application-based account licensing, where the cost is multiplied by the number of applications in the software implementation."
"There is a sweet spot of where they need to be on pricing right now. They could go up a little bit in pricing, but it has to do with the cost savings, and it has to do with the practitioners using it. I use it where I get cost savings and I can justify it, but they probably have the ability to flex a 10% up channel on their sales on that. So, they could increase their settle price, not their offering price, when they sell. They can probably hold that up a little bit higher than it is because there are cost savings that we can drive from it."
"The license for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is paid yearly, but I don't handle that area. It's good for its price, so I'm rating it a five out of five, but I'm not using it much. I also don't have information regarding additional costs apart from the standard licensing fees."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
"Its price is very good for the value that you get with it."
"I think our license costs roughly $1,000 a year, but I could be wrong."
"I use my own license. So, I just bought the professional version, which costs $800 or something like that. In the company where I am working, we have floating licenses. They are probably more expensive. Its licensing is affordable, but we are talking about a large organization, and there could be modelers or viewers of the models. We don't know how much that would cost us."
"Pricing and licensing are suitable even for small companies."
"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."
"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Insurance Company
6%
Educational Organization
16%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Any experience with Strategic Project Portfolio Management Solutions?
Hi @Cheryl Joseph ​Looking at the crossover between Project and Portfolio management with EA, then Planview could be a good choice. If looking at Portfolio Management from an EA perspective then Le...
What do you like most about LeanIX?
The ability to import data and generate reports from it. That's where its power lies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LeanIX?
LeanIX uses application-based account licensing, where the cost is multiplied by the number of applications in the software implementation. Essential Docker offers unlimited users and limited appli...
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?
The pricing is reasonable, with the ultimate version costing around 290 Euros for renewal and the initial purchase around 600 Euros. There are no additional costs for maintenance or support, as the...
What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
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.
 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

adidas, Bosch, Chico's, Haworth, Helvetia, KuKa, Osram, Telekom, TUI, Santander, Swarovski, Vaillant, 7Eleven, and Zalando.
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Find out what your peers are saying about LeanIX vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.