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Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Visual Paradigm comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

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

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Business Process Design
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd)
Visual Paradigm
Ranking in Business Process Design
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 9.1%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visual Paradigm is 5.1%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect9.1%
Visual Paradigm5.1%
Other85.8%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Angie Ibrahim Eissa - PeerSpot reviewer
A software application designed for software development teams to model business information systems and manage development processes
Setting up Visual Paradigm is easy. There's hardly any configuration needed, unlike some other tools. You just choose your method and diagram type, and you're good to go. As for improvements, integrating project management features with diagrams could be better. Viewing outputs could also be smoother, especially when working with multiple files.Deployment is quick and painless. It practically takes no time at all to set up. And because I also teach at the university, I use Visual Paradigm for my classes and case studies. It's easy to switch between products, and my students have no trouble using it on their own.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Customizable and tailored to the environment. Several template frameworks are provided."
"For the most part, we find that it is remarkable how inexpensive it is."
"It is a very rich tool in terms of the functionality, and the types of diagrams, that you can create in this tool."
"We use it to develop and maintain the Enterprise Conceptual Model, migrated from erwin a couple of years ago."
"Sparx technical support is good."
"The solution is easy to use, supports SysML and UML, and is able to connect to MATLAB. This is very important for us."
"Its most valuable feature is the Zachman Framework."
"Ability to keep inventory of reusable blocks, and use in different diagrams with views of various templates."
"It is easy-to-use and it helps understand its data modeling structure through the intuitive user interface."
"The solution is stable. It hasn't crashed, stopped or caused any issues in any way."
"It is a scalable solution...The initial setup was straightforward."
"It is easy and intuitive to use, not excessively rigid, and quite flexible."
"Stable design software with multiple functions and features. It's simple to install and easy to use."
"The Visual Paradigm business process forms for designing we good. There was not a lot of configuration for the process diagram."
"I find it very user-friendly for my purposes, which is creating business process models that I can publish as HTML pages. It has worked flawlessly for my project, and my clients are able to utilize it as an internal web portal for their process documentation and other needs."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
 

Cons

"The presentation graphics need to be improved in future builds."
"No way to implement data integrity and referential integrity constraints."
"When collaborating with other people, it needs to be more user-friendly."
"The Business Process Modeling or BPM feature can be improved to make it more interactive and user friendly because it is a tool for technical people. My current use is only for business process modeling notation and putting in the icons etc. You need to take them in as a class, which makes things very complex. Because of this complexity, it is not an easy-to-handle solution. Enterprise Architect is not very good for mockups. We cannot create user screens and other similar kinds of stuff, which is bad. For these things, we prefer to use Axure RP and other similar solutions. They should either remove this feature from this product or provide some kind of connectivity with Axure RP so that people can do better mockups of screens and import them. They need to augment and strengthen the BPM feature, which is the main feature. They need to put in some elements like artificial intelligence and augmented reality. They should look into such features because these things are coming up."
"Insufficient control of metadata and standards."
"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."
"The documentation needs a bit of improvement. What I find is that when I'm trying to do something specific for some part of a project, in terms of documentation, it's kind of hard to get at figuring out if you don't use it all the time."
"Inconsistent UI elements must be tidied up with the toolbox gaps removed."
"The user interface is not easy to navigate, so it should be made easier."
"There is room for improvement in the licensing model. I would suggest implementing country-specific pricing, as many other products in India do. This would make Visual Paradigm more affordable and accessible."
"The solution could be more compatible with other products in the future."
"For me, what needs improvement in Visual Paradigm is the limited features included in the $99 license, which is the cheapest option. If more features could be included in the cheapest licensing package, Visual Paradigm would be better, especially for businesses that have a limited budget for buying software."
"More flexibility when choosing the type of diagram would be nice."
"There are some connectivity issues that crop up rarely when used with SQL Server."
"Visual Paradigm's initial deployment was difficult since we did it for the first time. It is challenging to learn to use the product."
"It's still early for me to comment since I've only been using it for two months, but the responsiveness when diagramming needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."
"It’s the best deal in town, by far."
"Pricing and licensing is very attractive, simple, and straightforward."
"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."
"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."
"They have the price on their site for the enterprise version, and we do receive a small discount."
"It is cheaper than other solutions. Its cost is around $686 per year. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"The license I use is on-premise. We haven't gone to the cloud where we have to pay monthly or something like that. Sparx is cheaper than most similar tools."
"Visual Paradigm's pricing is not expensive."
"I rate the pricing a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"Pricing for Visual Paradigm is a four out of five for me. I'm happy with its pricing."
"You can use Paradigm on a subscription basis and you can choose from different tiers of subscription."
"You can move between the tiers from month to month so you are not restricted to one pricing model."
"I rate Visual Paradigm's pricing a five out of ten."
"Visual Paradigm costs $99 per license. I chose the cheapest option from the pricing list."
"Visual Paradigm has two models available. One of them is the educational edition, and another is the business edition. For my personal usage, I use the educational version mostly. In a project, my customers have to purchase a license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What do you like most about Visual Paradigm?
The solution is the best application for data modeling. It helps to architect business processes. Its best features are pricing and functionality.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Paradigm?
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced, so I was fine with the pricing.
What needs improvement with Visual Paradigm?
The product can always get better as the industry changes, however, I didn't necessarily feel it was lacking for what I did with it.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

OmniLink
Adobe, Apple, at&t, Caterpillar, Intel, NASA, Nokia, Toyota
Find out what your peers are saying about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. Visual Paradigm and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
869,089 professionals have used our research since 2012.