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ARIS BPA vs IBM BPM vs Oracle BPM 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:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 5.0%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 7.2%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle BPM is 1.9%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Cirvesh-Daga - PeerSpot reviewer
Capable of handling a wide range of business processes but presents users complexity with two interfaces (Java application and web interface)
ARIS needs to make a better user interface. The user interface sucks. The problem with ARIS is that they have two interfaces for the same product. You can use either a Java application or a web interface. The web interface doesn't give you access to the same features as the Java application. You have to switch between the two interfaces to get some things done. The web interface is more intuitive, but it lacks the functionality of the Java interface. So I'd give it a six for that reason. The Java interface has more functionality, but it tends to run out of memory and has its own set of problems. So, I'd also give it a six out of ten because of the technology choice. It was really frustrating having two UIs for the same product, with some functionality in one and not in the other. They've got to do something about that.
Prince Mathew - PeerSpot reviewer
More customizable than IBM FileNet and useful for automation
One suggestion for IBM BPM is to provide better integration between their products, such as DataCap, which we use for scanning. Although the new CP4BA offers offline capabilities, not everyone is on CP4BA, so enhanced integration for those on older versions would be beneficial. Another major suggestion is to offer a migration path when a product reaches its end of life. For example, there was no migration path when we moved, so we had to redo everything we had developed over ten years completely.
SumitKumar17 - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows users to customize the user interface and retrieve data, but licensing cost is very high
Currently, Oracle BPM is integrated with different applications, and the workflow decides which part it has to take. The solution is on the Oracle Fusion platform. It has integration with other services, which are essentially normal Java-based applications. Oracle BPM also provides a task query service that allows you to customize your user interface, retrieve the data, and display it as per user convenience. I would recommend the solution to other users. Overall, I rate Oracle BPM a seven out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool defines the processes. It's the documentation of everything."
"​The BPMN notation and the share flow through users. It is nice to see all flows in a common, shared space for all the stakeholders to view the same thing and the same language.​"
"I am an advanced user. ARIS BPM is intuitive for me because I know the UML, BPMN, and EPC methodologies implemented in this tool. It is very easy to create processes for restructuring a company with some descriptions."
"​The matrix model makes building relations easier.​"
"The technical support is good."
"There is a module designer, that one is very powerful and it creates very good reports."
"Process Modeling or Process Mapping/Documentation. This is the most comprehensive tool for capturing the process details. Any organization who wants to embark on a BPM journey, process mapping/documentation, lays the foundation for the BPM led implementation."
"We also have relationships specified with our IT systems and our organizational chart. That makes it possible to analyze things from the systems point of view and regarding the organizational part of the company. It all comes together in one tool and that is what gives us the most value at the moment."
"Previously, our company's business automation process was slow. IBM BPM's schedule and response functionalities are excellent...There are countless use cases in which IBM BPM proves to be a valuable tool for my clients."
"We like that it does not require a lot of hours to train our people."
"Agility is the key. It gives our customers a faster way to be able to implement processes, get ownership of task, visibility into a process. The ability to modify that process, optimize that process over time, is probably the biggest benefit that they get from the software."
"Setting it up is fairly easy. If somebody has knowledge of the system, he or she will be able to do it fairly quickly."
"Our customers use the solution as a workflow platform to manage their processes."
"Technical support is good. They are very responsive. It is usually me who takes more time to get back to them than they take to get back to me, which is good."
"With the tester coach wherein you can interact with the interface while you're designing the process."
"It excels at analytics. It provides visibility across all activities of a company's processes and performance."
"The solution provides extensive functionalities."
"It is quite scalable and can be applied to enterprise-level organizations effectively."
"This solution has given us a quick time to market, the ability to integrate with the rest of the corporate applications, and the ability to hire talent in low-cost locations."
"The support is good."
"One of the most valuable features is its user-friendly API, which simplifies the implementation of workflows, such as managing inbox tasks for specific users within BPM profiles."
"Currently, we define the tasks, and based on certain decision rules, the tool decides the task priorities and the time frame of the task."
"The benefit from the tool is we can develop it quickly and easily use it for middleware services. We can publish the services so other applications can consume them. This is providing us some reusability and a type of security."
"It has developmental accelerators, which allow for virtually any customization needs which you may require."
 

Cons

"The reporting capabilities and the ability to create custom reports need to be simplified and made easy so that people even with a good functional understanding of the tool can leverage it to create their own custom report."
"Since ARIS 9.X was released, the product has not been as robust and responsive as the previous versions​."
"I had this decentralization mission where I had some friendly fights with the consultants of Software AG. My opinion was the business department should be able to publish their processes and do all their evaluation stuff in ARCM themselves. It has to be a one stop shop. I want a one stop shop to go from ARIS BPM to ARIS ARCM, because having everything go through that would be an improvement due to the inputs that we made with Software AG. They will make it possible that the trigger sent from BPM to ARCM will start their object generation."
"I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying."
"Integration with third-party tools should be improved (e.g. based on APIs)."
"User interface (UI)."
"There is a lot of room for improvement. They need to increase the performance of the system flow. They need to support it more. ARIS Process Governance is still quite basic, and they are using an old BPM and process automation module."
"I use it strictly for developing the business process model. I don't use it for the actual automation. I do that with Vtenext. I have standardized on Vtenext, and I don't use ARIS BPM anymore. The Vtenext UI is just as good, and it is much more tightly coupled to the underlying object model. I can get more done in one session with Vtenext rather than first going to ARIS BPM, then importing, and having to edit it for tight coupling."
"The stability varies because it involves a lot of other components like databases, so sometimes if something goes wrong there, it can't recover from the fatal errors."
"Our developers are complaining that it's too complex to maintain."
"From the testing perspective and minor enhancements perspective, customization is something that is a little tedious as compared to new tools. In addition, various open-source tools that are available are not working with IBM BPM."
"Integration with web services, especially in the standard version of the product."
"The engine itself tends to accumulate a lot of data that needs to be cleaned up, and that's the kind of thing that keeps it from, in some scenarios, scaling as much as it needs to. And then, when you're building solutions, if you're not careful to keep the screens from being associated with too much data, if you're going to just do things the way that a lot of people would just assume that they can do, without having experience of having made those mistakes before, it will accumulate a lot of data, and that will cause it to perform very badly."
"The analysis reports could be much better."
"The solution has scalability issues; on a scale, I would rate it at eight out of ten."
"If the processing gets better, it would be more efficient."
"There are delays in offering the latest technology, so there is a need to be more responsive to technological changes."
"Oracle BPM could probably be improved with respect to the cost. When you are using this product, it'll be a bit costlier for the ROA. I think they should do some discounts on these products, especially for the licenses."
"The solution needs to offer better integration with third-party systems."
"The product must reduce its cost."
"You have to maintain it manually."
"It could have easier administration. It takes time to configure and deploy."
"Their Case Management set of features is severely lacking and should be a target for immediate improvement dealing with unpredictable processes inside of organizations."
"From my knowledge of this solution, I don't see that the Oracle BPM includes features such as the growth of discovery and process mining."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Prices are high. However, they are worth it if the organization utilizes the tool to its full potential."
"ARIS is quite expensive."
"ARIS has different licensing mechanisms for different modules, but they are perpetual licenses. So you pay once."
"Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay."
"It depends on different parameters."
"The setup cost and pricing depend on the license (Modeler, Viewer, Administrator)."
"Pricing is a bit on the higher side."
"ARIS Express​ is free."
"I give the pricing an eight out of ten."
"The solution might be expensive, but I can't give you a precise number. In the market here, I've seen two main products for BPM: IBM BPM and Camunda. Camunda is very popular and open-source, so there's no direct comparison."
"We chose to purchase IBM BPM because it was bundled with the actual RPA program/solution that we decided to purchase. We decided to use Automation Anywhere tool (RPA), and it is was bundled with IBM BPM."
"I rate the tool's pricing a seven out of ten."
"The pricing is very high."
"The solution is expensive since it is an enterprise application."
"It's expensive. All software is always extremely high. The manufacturing cost that we have compared to the selling cost, it's not like you're building a house or building a car. But putting that aside, considering that it's expensive, it's a lot of money. If you compare it with some of the other alternatives in the market, it's a similar price. For instance, if you compare it with Pegasystems, it's a similar price."
"Our customers do see ROI. They'll identify some particularly painful or uncoordinated processes to start with, then build out from there, picking off low hanging fruit."
"This solution is very expensive. You are charged per license and an additional 20% for support."
"We received the product packaged into the Oracle database solution."
"As with all Oracle products, the licensing over VMware is an issue."
"The pricing is significantly high, particularly for Brazil where fluctuations in the exchange rate between the dollar and the real can further increase the cost of Oracle licenses."
"The licensing for this product is very costly. We pay for a yearly license to use Oracle BPM."
"Oracle is good, but they're still expensive compared to other vendors."
"The licensing model is good."
"The pricing is very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
7%
Wireless Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ARIS BPA?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?
Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay.
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying. I must write scripts, which requires speci...
Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user inter...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?
Once it is installed, maintaining it is not a big issue.
What do you like most about Oracle BPM?
The solution provides extensive functionalities.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle BPM?
The licensing is expensive. It needs to be more affordable, especially in the Kenyan market.
What needs improvement with Oracle BPM?
Oracle BPM should ensure its product is aligned with current technology by keeping up with advancements like AI. Ther...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
Oracle Business Process Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tesco, Weifu, Airbus, Siemens, Proximus, Alicorp, Sekerbank, Bancor, Philips,Sky, Emirates NBD, Dubai Municipality, Suva, U.S. Army, Australia Post, Westfalen Weser Energie - ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as the market leader for process excellence with more than 30 years of experience in the market, 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
State Revenue Office Victoria, New South Wales Health, REDISA, Panduit, Total E&P Indonesie
Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, Automation Anywhere, Apache and others in Business Process Management (BPM). Updated: May 2025.
855,080 professionals have used our research since 2012.