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ARIS BPA vs Apache Airflow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.5
Apache Airflow offers positive returns for many users with its versatility, despite some concerns about comparable alternatives.
Sentiment score
6.8
ARIS BPA improves operational resilience, transparency, and stakeholder alignment, offering significant time savings and enhanced management understanding.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
Apache Airflow users favor community resources and documentation for support, often preferring self-reliance over commercial help.
Sentiment score
6.6
ARIS BPA technical support is praised for responsiveness, though improvements in communication and complex issue handling are needed.
Forums and community resources like Stack Overflow are helpful.
There is enough documentation available, and the community support is good.
The consultants are fine, however, reliance on single experts for modules can be risky.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Apache Airflow excels in scalability across nodes, though struggles with complex workloads and dynamic cloud adjustments.
Sentiment score
7.6
ARIS BPA is scalable and flexible, supporting cloud-based growth across industries despite its cost considerations, accommodating various deployments.
The solution is very scalable.
Apache Airflow scales well, especially when deployed in Kubernetes environments.
For user scalability, it is a matter of licenses, while functional scalability is supported and easy to implement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Apache Airflow is stable but may face minor issues and requires support, aligning with the ETL as code philosophy.
Sentiment score
7.2
ARIS BPA is stable, with challenges in large environments; users appreciate performance improvements and responsive support.
Apache Airflow is stable and I have not experienced significant issues.
I would rate the stability of the solution as ten out of ten.
I would rate its stability at nine out of ten.
The stability of ARIS BPM is quite strong, rated eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

Apache Airflow struggles with workflow complexity, real-time tasks, UI intuitiveness, integration, scalability, documentation, stability, and automation improvements.
ARIS BPA is criticized for high costs, complexity, and integration challenges, needing significant training and better user interface.
It is not suitable for real-time ETL tasks.
There is no dashboard for us to check all the Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs); a dashboard would help us analyze the work better.
If we desire to add custom messengers or a rest API, those options are unavailable.
Software AG could improve this by making the database more open.
 

Setup Cost

Apache Airflow is free and open-source, but cloud deployment may incur infrastructure and commercial support costs.
ARIS BPA's high cost is justified for large enterprises, offering flexible options and extensive features with negotiable terms.
I prefer using the open-source version rather than the enterprise version, which helps manage costs.
It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
Apache Airflow is a community-based platform and is not a licensed product.
 

Valuable Features

Apache Airflow simplifies ETL processes with a Python-friendly UI, offering flexibility, scalability, and broad cloud integration for teams.
ARIS BPA features a centralized repository, robust analytics, integration options, customizable methods, and supports notations like BPMN and EPC.
Apache Airflow is an open-source platform that allows easy integration with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
Reliability is good, and when integrated with Kubernetes, it performs better compared to on-premises environments.
We can create notifications for successful or failed tasks, providing a practical way to monitor our workflows.
The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable.
 

Categories and Ranking

Apache Airflow
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ARIS BPA
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Apache Airflow is 6.3%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ARIS BPA is 5.0%, down from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Madhan Potluri - PeerSpot reviewer
We efficiently manage and monitor production pipelines through job resumption and error log integration
We utilize Apache Airflow for managing machine learning production pipelines. The deployment of our machine learning models takes place through Apache Airflow. We configure pipelines, decide on the frequency of recalibration, deployment, and dataset training Apache Airflow allows us to resume…
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which would you choose - Camunda Platform or Apache Airflow?
Camunda Platform allows for visual demonstration and presentation of business process flows. The flexible Java-based option was a big win for us and allows for the integration of microservices very...
What do you like most about Apache Airflow?
Apache Airflow is easy to use and can monitor task execution easily. For instance, when performing setup tasks, you can conveniently view the logs without delving into the job details.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Airflow?
We don't experience issues with pricing as Apache Airflow is part of a larger platform. It is a sub-feature and not an individual purchase.
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 specific knowledge. Software AG could improve this by making the database more open. ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Airflow
ARIS, ARIS BPM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Agari, WePay, Astronomer
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.
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS BPA vs. Apache Airflow and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.