IDERA ER/Studio Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

David Nemec

Oracle developer at OKsystem a.s.

May 17, 2023

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A stable and simple solution with straightforward setup

Pros and Cons

"The tool is simple to use."

"It isn't easy to compare the thousands of tables in the model against the database. The tool should improve the synchronization within the large organization"

What needs improvement?

It isn't easy to compare the thousands of tables in the model against the database. The tool should improve the synchronization within the large organization

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for one month.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the tool's stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the product's scalability a five out of ten.

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How are customer service and support?

The tech support team is helpful.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used PowerDesigner before. The tool is not as specialized as Edera.

How was the initial setup?

The solution's setup is easy and straightforward. It took a couple of minutes to deploy the tool.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I use the product's trial version.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the product a nine out of ten. The tool is simple to use.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user277956

Senior SQL Server Developer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees

Jul 26, 2015

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We're able to control check-in's of our onshore and offshore developers while maintaining schema views, but the current version does not properly generate SQL Server-computed columns.

What is most valuable?

Reverse engineering physical database
Compare and Merge utility

How has it helped my organization?

We have offshore developers/DBA who actively request/implement DDL changes vs. a development database. The changes are reversed-engineered into both logical and physical schemas with generated DDL for source control check-in/check-out and other environment synchronization. With both onshore and offshore development teams working 18x5 days, it is an easy way to control check-in's while also maintaining schema views.

What needs improvement?

This version does not properly generate SQL Server computed columns; future versions do this.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It was pretty good once the licensing phase was completed.

Technical Support:

It's good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I am relatively new to this company, but in previous companies I used CA ErWin and SAP PowerDesigner. ErWin is very easy to use, as is PowerDesigner. The latter also provides a free developer viewer tool. At this point, all three products seem pretty equal: I would look at the conceptual model (business process rule) capture/conversion/maintenance with dynamic links to logical/physical ER with data dictionary/MDM capabilities to possibly separate them.

What was our ROI?

Since we are just reverse-engineering existing databases, and not using it for primary design/deployment/communication, relatively low.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Review the total number of architects/DBAs who need full access and developers who need to view the model/data dictionary to determine number/types, and whether a stand-alone vs. repository version is needed.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide

IDERA ER/Studio

October 2024

Free Report: IDERA ER/Studio Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about IDERA ER/Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.

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814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.

it_user92238

Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Mar 5, 2014

Great product however their delivery & licensing mechanisms are abysmal

I have been using it for the last eight years, after previously having used PowerDesigner and ERWin. It is a great product, no doubt.

Embarcadero's delivery & licensing mechanisms, however, are abysmal. Licensing servers, app distribution servers, sluggish Java apps to launch the actual tools and poor documentation of how to configure and use these requiring repeated CS calls.

This is not to mention that there are no slimline versions (read: cheaper) that could be used by smaller companies to do physical/logical modeling for a single platform. I bet this discourages many companies from adopting a design-first approach in favor of only creating data models as after-the-fact documentation on occasion with lesser tools.

Perhaps Embarcadero is not interested in anything smaller than the full enterprise market?

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user341061

Business Intelligence Analyst DBA at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Nov 16, 2015

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I think ER/Studio Data Architect is priced high, but it comes with user-friendly features.

What is most valuable?

Being able to to perform reverse engineering is valuable to us.

How has it helped my organization?

I used the tool for data modeling, so I cannot say much.

What needs improvement?

It did everything that I needed, and I didn't think about enhancements while using the product.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for six months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

9/10.

Technical Support:

9/10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I did use different solutions that were available with the companies I worked for. I evaluated a couple of modeling tools, as I personally wanted to purchase a product.

How was the initial setup?

Initial set-up is straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think ER/Studio Data Architect is priced high, but it comes with user-friendly features.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I personally compared it with SAP PowerDesigner when I started using ER/Studio Data Architect, and I think they both are equally good tools.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user91548

Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 26, 2015

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It's our primary means of publishing data models, but it needs to use more modern standard dialogs.

Valuable Features

Flexible and complete compare/merge facility
Exposure of its automation object model which allows custom programming outside of the product

Improvements to My Organization

It has been our primary means of publishing data models for years. It also houses our product data dictionary, and generates all the DDLs for database modifications.

Room for Improvement

Easier licensing
It would be nice if we could use more modern standard dialogs, such as file selection

Use of Solution

I've used it for 10 years.

Deployment Issues

It is not easy to deploy in VDI, but that is a VDI problem.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Good, although they don’t always contact you with a solution to problems if they think it’s your problem.

Initial Setup

Setup was not complex for an ordinary desktop installation. Server installation, however, is a good deal more complex. Their portal solution is more complex still.

Implementation Team

It was done in-house.

Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

It is expensive! Licensing requires a subscription to their support site.

Other Advice

It is a very robust, industrial strength data modeling product, intended Ideally for very large development projects where a good ROI can be obtained.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user91548

Infrastructure Expert at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Feb 23, 2014

Huge advantage is that it gives you full access to its automation model.

What has proven to be a HUGE advantage of ER/Studio that was not really evaluated at the time we chose it is that it gives you full access to its automation model. This allows it to be controlled through code (VBA) in programs like MS Access. One reason this is helpful is that we work with huge models of around 1500 entities, 1500 tables, and 25,000 attributes and columns. We often find ourselves needing to make mass updates, and this is easily done with code in a tiny fraction of the time needed to do it manually. Another use is we can extract metadata in code and load it directly to an Oracle database (using MS Access) to publish for developers on the other side of the planet.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user275646

Senior Consultant with 51-200 employees

Jul 26, 2015

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You can compare your models against the database, but the repository can be slow with big data sets.

What is most valuable?

Ease of use
It looks good enough
Ability to create HTML reports
Ability to compare the model against the database

What needs improvement?

Repository causes continuous problems, as it's slow and sometimes crashes.
Integration with Active Directory does not function perfectly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for five years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If you use repository, it can get slow with big data models.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have received answers to issues within a week from a report.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Nope, and I hear that this is the best data modelling tool for data warehouse scenarios.

How was the initial setup?

It's straightforward without the repository.

What about the implementation team?

I did everything, from the installation to using it.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are partners with Embarcadero.

Database9ac8

Database Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 9, 2018

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Our developers can now see the relationships

Pros and Cons

"The reverse engineering is the most important feature."

"When building the relationships there should be a little more flexibility."

What is our primary use case?

Data modeling.

How has it helped my organization?

The developers can see the relationships now.

What is most valuable?

The reverse engineering is the most important feature. The relationships are also important.

What needs improvement?

When building the relationships there should be a little more flexibility.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not encountered any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not encountered any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Tech support is pretty good. They resolve issues right away, I usually don't have to wait too long.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used a little bit of SQL Server. It has a data modeling tool. I also used some ERwin before that, a couple years ago.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I feel the product's pricing is a good value.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I looked at ERwin.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.