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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
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of LeanIX is 15.9%, up from 12.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 14.9%, down from 19.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

NickGenoese - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Milan Sterba - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient documentation generation through organized model structure with a good price-performance ratio
Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not easy for even experienced users to find their way without guidance. This is not the most user-friendly solution.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like the tool’s integration and maps."
"LeanIX has good usability and stability. This SaaS is intuitive, easy to use, and comes with a nice reporting feature."
"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."
"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."
"The usability is very high. It almost looks like a Facebook for Enterprise architecture, it's pretty nice. It's HTML5 based. The repository is very easy. It has 10 different ways of sorting the objects you have in your architecture repository. Maintaining new data or to add data to your repository is very easy."
"The solution provides a single window view of business, application, data, and technology views of the IT ecosystem."
"It offers neat visualization and referencing functionality while enabling the creation of landscape maps and showing the relationship between different applications."
"Ability to model and create view under same roof."
"This is a useful tool for IT people who need to design their solution architecture."
"I have found the Meta Model tuning feature useful as it provides me with an overview of all my work needs."
"It's a very practical solution. You don't need to do an advanced course to start using this tool."
"It's easy to search within the solution."
"Customizable and tailored to the environment. Several template frameworks are provided."
"The advantages of Enterprise are that it's cheaper and much more practical than MagicDraw."
"The platform is stable and reliable."
 

Cons

"What would make LeanIX better is more variety in terms of reporting, and more flexibility with its data importing feature."
"The solution’s API integration needs to improve. I would like to see a digital screen watch feature also in the solution."
"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."
"They're probably positioned pretty well. I hope that they would not focus that much on the business architecture, and they would focus more on the overall cloud strategy and how we can leverage multi-cloud and transition back and forth from other cloud providers. With a lot of current vendors, you get locked in with one cloud, and then you try to migrate to someone else, and it becomes very problematic. What they need to do is to look at the overall data strategy, and they probably need to amplify their data strategy, especially around multi-cloud."
"Report generation could be more detailed. There are some shortcomings when creating reports. We can't create tag-based reports or go beyond basic technical reports."
"Does a poor job of being able to allocate detailed costings to components within the network."
"They could include a combination of LeanIX and some modeling extensions."
"The initial setup has room for improvement."
"They should make the Save button easier to find. A simplified user interface for a lighter user would probably be useful. I am not sure if such an interface is already there."
"The areas of improvement should be focused on utility service such as producing better graphics, perhaps having a wider image library set and producing better models for working directly with customers."
"Inconsistent UI elements must be tidied up with the toolbox gaps removed."
"Greater OMG UML and XMI compliance"
"The Portfolio Management features can be added in the next release. As it helps you to manage more portfolio of projects and architectures of cost projects on a portfolio level. This would be an important feature in the next release."
"It took me a while to figure out how to use the report generation features effectively. So, it would be really nice if they had a way to make that a little bit more interactive and a little bit more straightforward."
"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."
"Insufficient control of metadata and standards."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It cost me $91,000 a year for 300 applications. For any enterprise, 300 applications are minimal, as many have well over 1,000 applications."
"The pricing is very good. We definitely get good value for the money."
"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."
"As the tool is cloud-based, its cost is more affordable."
"The solution's pricing is based on a licensing model that is competitive and in line with other products."
"LeanIX uses application-based account licensing, where the cost is multiplied by the number of applications in the software implementation."
"I would rate the pricing a one out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"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."
"It’s the best deal in town, by far."
"It is cheaper than other solutions. Its cost is around $686 per year. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"In terms of cost, Sparx EA is probably one of the cheapest tools I have ever used."
"Use floating licenses strategically."
"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."
"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access. You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less."
"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is priced well. The price we pay is approximately $20 per month. Other solutions I have found to be much more expensive."
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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
17%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
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 is associated with high costs. It cost me $91,000 a year for 300 applications. For any enterprise, 300 applications are minimal, as many have well over 1,000 applications. The first pricing ...
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?
One of the reasons many public sector institutions in the Czech Republic use it is that it provides a very good price-performance ratio. While it might be cumbersome to learn, it still delivers exc...
What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not ...
 

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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: December 2024.
824,053 professionals have used our research since 2012.