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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP PowerDesigner
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (5th), Metadata Management (4th)
Visio
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (2nd), 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 8.8%, up 8.2% compared to last year.
Visio, on the other hand, focuses on Business Process Design, holds 12.4% mindshare, down 13.7% 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.
Tugrul TASCI - PeerSpot reviewer
We have seen return on investment in the form of time savings but should have more design tools
I am generally using Visio to create some diagrams Visio should implement more complex tools or graphics to facilitate processing and use flexible templates. It should allow users to easily drag and drop some previously created diagrams. The tools supplied or provided are very basic, and there…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has helped me to develop the as-is state, design its to-be state, and track the capital investment according to gap analysis."
"The most useful feature has been the detailed possibility to model almost anything regarding physical databases."
"In terms of operational efficiency and cause savings or return on investment, I can say that with SAP PowerDesigner, our company saves a lot of time."
"It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases."
"The feature I found valuable in SAP PowerDesigner is extraction. I also like that my company hasn't faced any issues because of the clear documentation about SAP PowerDesigner."
"I like the property sheet capability and the user-defined attributes that you can set up."
"This solution has good tools for big data, where you can manage large and complex databases."
"I've used the reverse engineering feature a lot. I can take a look at the structure of the database and what relationships it has."
"Visio has allowed us to create good diagrams for our technical employees to consume. The solution provides templates, is straightforward, and has tools for the easy creation of diagrams."
"The product provides a lot of flexibility in writing graphs and customizing them."
"The tools tab within Visio has been amazingly useful, and it is updated quite frequently. Along with how Visio handles components and everything else, I would call it an easy-to-use tool."
"Overall, Visio is stable for my needs."
"The product's initial setup is really simple."
"Just the fact that a majority of the industry uses it, and you've got third-party templates that were created."
"I enjoy the fact that I can go into detail with Visio. In shared communications, I can inspect for any fault in my processes."
"It's very agile and user friendly with a lot of templates."
 

Cons

"The solution is very, very expensive. It would be ideal if it was a more affordable product."
"Pricing for small consultancies needs improvement. They sustain prices to competing tools. The competing tools tend to do special offers. PowerDesigner SAP doesn't pay much attention to the pricing of it and there are no special offers."
"SAP PowerDesigner could improve by making the repository easier to understand. It is difficult to understand how the repository works because when I used logical models as part of the team, we wanted to use them together and update the older versions of the data model version but it was confusing. The repository needs to be explained."
"In the future, I would like to see data manipulation capability where you can actually write SQL queries and manipulate data from directly within the tool."
"SAP PowerDesigner can improve the ease of use. It is not the best tool on the market because it is tough to navigate and use. A beginner would not be able to use it well, it requires some experience. If the solution was more user-friendly it would be able to be used by more audiences. I do not think many people are aware of this solution and they should use it."
"Checking-in models to the repository, especially when working remotely, is a slow process than can sometimes have problems with models being corrupted."
"There should be a better usage of current hardware including multicore CPUs, higher resolutions, and multiple displays."
"It would be helpful if there were glossary, catalog and governance tools. It would help make it a true end-to-end product."
"Its support team could be well-equipped with the required information."
"There are a lot of patches that sometimes change how one version will interact compared to another."
"The solution could improve by having more integration."
"Lacks the ability to analyze the different relations between activities, positions and roles."
"It can be complex. If you don't know a little bit about it, it can get really confusing."
"The export and import functionality from Visio to other tools and the import and export functionality from other tools to Visio are areas with shortcomings."
"One thing that I always felt was missing was the ability to integrate with other Microsoft products, particularly with things like SharePoint or other Excel Office tools. It may be available, but it is not as good as it could be."
"Some of the improvements that have been made in Visio have not been beneficial, at least to me, personally. Too many things have been added to it, and it makes it kind of clunky sometimes. There is an overwhelming desire or competition to continue to improve it when the product is and has been pretty good, and some of what is done tends to clutter it. In some cases, the updates make it more difficult to use. It is already pretty feature-heavy and continuing to add stuff is not productive from my perspective."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."
"Regarding costs, SAP PowerDesigner is pricey, as I've heard from my team manager, which is why the company has been thinking of bringing another solution on board."
"The pricing varies based on functionality and users."
"PowerDesigner is not the cheapest solution on the market, so make sure that you are using it to its full potential."
"SAP PowerDesigner is cheaper than eriwin."
"The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable."
"The ROI has been 43%."
"I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited."
"The price is reasonable for individual use but for an organization, the costs is high."
"I give the cost of Visio a five out of ten."
"The product is expensive, but it is cheaper if you buy it as a part of a bundle or an enterprise-level agreement."
"Visio is about a $180 dollars to purchase. It is a one-time licensing fee."
"We have about 10 to 15 people with Visio licenses in my company, but I wasn't involved in the direct negotiation of the prices since this was taken care of by my administrative office."
"Personally, I think the price of this solution is too high."
"The price of Visio is reasonable."
"Visio is the cheapest solution because it has the basics. Everyone starts with Visio for designing processes because doing it in PowerPoint is a mess. I'm still a student, so I don't pay for licensing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Government
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

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?
One of the main problems with Visio is its licensing options and associated issues, which lead to discussions about the price with a Microsoft representative. If asked to rate the price, I would gi...
 

Also Known As

Sybase PowerDesigner
Microsoft Visio
 

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: February 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.