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SAP PowerDesigner vs Visio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.1
SAP PowerDesigner support is satisfactory but costly, with praised documentation, yet response times and communication need improvement.
No sentiment score available
Most users rely on documentation and forums, with satisfaction varying; Microsoft offers support packages to improve experience.
 

Room For Improvement

Sentiment score
4.9
SAP PowerDesigner needs improved user-friendliness, database connectivity, team collaboration, UI modernization, and enhanced technical support for better usability.
Sentiment score
4.9
Visio users seek improvements in layering, integration, templates, usability, pricing, collaboration, automation, and data visualization features.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
SAP PowerDesigner is praised for scalability, effectively handling large models and teams of varying sizes with high user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
7.2
Visio's scalability is mixed, with ease of scaling but limited by desktop nature, compatibility, and collaborative shortfalls.
 

Setup Cost

No sentiment score available
SAP PowerDesigner offers competitive pricing for enterprises but may be costly for small consultancies due to setup and support fees.
Sentiment score
8.5
Visio offers varied pricing with Professional higher, but subscriptions and enterprise bundles can reduce costs, especially for extensive use.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
SAP PowerDesigner is stable and reliable, with minor issues in complex models, achieving high ratings for performance.
Sentiment score
8.4
Visio is generally stable and reliable, though minor issues may require restarts, with ratings often between eight and ten.
 

Valuable Features

Sentiment score
8.2
SAP PowerDesigner offers user-friendly extensibility, robust data modeling, bi-directional traceability, and strong database connectivity for effective data governance.
Sentiment score
8.3
Visio offers seamless integration, user-friendliness, customization, collaboration, and automation for efficient diagram creation and business process management.
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP PowerDesigner
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (5th), Metadata Management (3rd)
Visio
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (1st), Mind Mapping Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

SAP PowerDesigner and Visio aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. SAP PowerDesigner is designed for Enterprise Architecture Management and holds a mindshare of 8.6%, up 8.0% compared to last year.
Visio, on the other hand, focuses on Business Process Design, holds 12.6% mindshare, down 13.5% since last year.
Enterprise Architecture Management
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

JorgeSanz - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective in terms of validating everything, but sometimes they don't allow us some flexibility and GUI could improve
I would recommend SAP PowerDesigner to others for data architecture management. It provides all the functionalities in terms of data modeling, so it's also a good tool for that. I see trends in terms of data classification, but I don't see this tool with the intelligence to do that automatically. So, like, with artificial intelligence. Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because there are too many validations. Also, I found some gaps in terms of relationships; they didn't appear when you do reverse engineering. Also, this tool lacks artificial intelligence that should be very good in terms of automatically identifying the classification of elements and maybe also to incorporate some artificial intelligence in providing descriptions for each data element included in the solution.
Enas Selim - PeerSpot reviewer
A software for drawing a variety of diagrams which include flowcharts, org charts, building plans, floor plans, data flow diagrams
Indeed, Visio should progress beyond its current stage of solely drawing diagrams and transition into a more advanced phase, possibly integrating with different packages or aligning with Microsoft's offerings. It could potentially evolve into a comprehensive business process management solution, comparable to tools like Addis or Signavio, thereby competing in the realm of process management tools. It might be advantageous to explore functionalities such as process simulations or benchmarking, introducing simulators to discern potential bottlenecks or errors within complex flow diagrams. This addition would prove valuable for business analysts seeking insights into the intricacies of their diagrams, aligning with the evolving trends observed over the past six years.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
24%
Government
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP PowerDesigner?
It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases.
What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature. Even if I have an ETL tool, I'd like the DMM options to directly connect to ETL tool repositories lik...
How easy is it to migrate process flow charts (modeled using tools like Visio) into Bizagi?
I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty straightforward to load in files that are BPMN 2.0 compliant. The option to load V...
What do you like most about Visio?
The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task and see the flow of the process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visio?
I purchased an older version of Visio and pay about twelve or thirteen dollars a month, but this subscription does not include Visio updates. For other solutions like project management or architec...
 

Also Known As

Sybase PowerDesigner
Microsoft Visio
 

Learn More

Video not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
Thomas College, Hamburg Port Authority, Portigon AG, Conseil G_n_ral du d_partement des Hautes-Alpes, AAA Auto a. s., Commonwealth Financial Network, ICA, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP LeanIX, Sparx Systems, erwin by Quest and others in Enterprise Architecture Management. Updated: November 2024.
816,660 professionals have used our research since 2012.