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3SL Cradle vs IBM DOORS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 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

3SL Cradle
Ranking in Application Requirements Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
9.2
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM DOORS
Ranking in Application Requirements Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Application Requirements Management category, the mindshare of 3SL Cradle is 1.6%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM DOORS is 32.5%, down from 35.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Requirements Management
 

Featured Reviews

Siegmar-Schuenke - PeerSpot reviewer
Flexible solution that manages all your needs
I mainly use 3SL Cradle to manage the requirements from service projects 3SL Cradle's most valuable feature is its flexibility in managing all your needs immediately.  3SL Cradle could be improved with better support for SysML functionalities. In the next release, I would like 3SL Cradle to be…
UweSeufert - PeerSpot reviewer
Old but capable of storing, organizing, and exchanging requirements
I use IBM DOORS because my customer wants it for managing their requirements IBM DOORS is a tool from the 20th century. It is very old but capable of storing, organizing, and exchanging requirements. It helps to manage requirements efficiently, which significantly improves the way requirements…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"3SL Cradle's most valuable feature is its flexibility in managing all your needs immediately."
"It has the features of: traceability, configuration management, and user access."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is traceability. We can track every requirement, including what the stakeholder must do and component-level requirements."
"It helps to manage requirements efficiently, which significantly improves the way requirements are managed."
"Starting to use the solution is pretty straightforward. There isn't too much of a learning curve."
"We have different generations of all products. It lets us select and see unique attributes for each release or generation. You can use attributes to define a selection area to see which equipments are for the old versions and which ones are for the new versions. This inbuilt view is what I like in IBM Rational DOORS. So, for a database and a set of requirements, it will select and show unique attributes for a release or a generation."
"I like the way we can simply link requirements with one another and with test descriptions and then automatically produce reports that are required to show compliance to our customers. It is a combination of requirements management and reporting that I like, but I really have very little to do with the reporting part of it. I don't know how easy or hard it is to create those reports."
"I would say that the best feature of the solution is that since everything is in one place, and if you make any changes, then they are recorded or tracked."
 

Cons

"3SL Cradle could be improved with better support for SysML functionalities."
"I would like to see them improve in agile management the Scrum/Kanban Board to work with overseas team members."
"IBM DOORS should cover all engineering functions seamlessly, not just requirement engineering."
"The interface is not very user-friendly and has not evolved in a long time."
"Overall, the user experience should be enhanced."
"The kind of dashboard is not very convenient."
"The images are not clear. We have to use them as OLE objects. And in the testing part, I'm not sure how to link it with it. This is my main concern."
"It could be more user-friendly. It's not a beautiful tool. The user interface is gray. It has only lists inside, and it's horrible when you want to add tables. It's tough to add tables and manage them. It also becomes difficult when you want to add images."
"The low performance of the solution is probably because it is quite an old tool."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Licensing fees are billed annually and there is no support included with what I pay."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten, with one being very affordable and ten being quite expensive."
"The licensing costs for the product are quite high."
"IBM Rational DOORS is highly expensive."
"IBM DOORS is available at a reasonable price"
"I am not sure why it is so expensive, but one license will cost approximately $15,000 in US dollars."
"The licensing cost is too high."
"I think it's expensive because you have to pay for the licenses to IBM and all that and maintain them."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Aerospace/Defense Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
20%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Educational Organization
6%
Manufacturing Company
26%
Aerospace/Defense Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with 3SL Cradle?
The support is consistent globally. However, heavier support is provided in certain locations. Improvement in support is necessary. Assistance is available to acquire information and utilize userna...
What advice do you have for others considering 3SL Cradle?
If you have time to take some courses about 3SL Cradle, it will give you more time in the project to familiarize yourself with Cradle. I recommend it, but you need to do it within a very short time...
What do you like most about IBM Rational DOORS?
The traceability matrix in DOORS improved our project outcomes. It helps ensure coverage of requirements at different levels, from user requirements to software requirements to test requirements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Rational DOORS?
Over the years, the first version cost something around 5800 euros.
What needs improvement with IBM Rational DOORS?
Compared to today, DOORS' competitors also excel in this discipline. Yet the price is too high. It's often not as generic as it used to be. IBM promised to find a way for a generic format that allo...
 

Also Known As

Cradle
Rational DOORS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NASA, In-Depth Engineering Corporation, Avibras
Infosys, Chevrolet Volt
Find out what your peers are saying about 3SL Cradle vs. IBM DOORS and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
863,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.