Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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

"Good at controlling the workflow and relevant key processes."
"The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are the centralized repository and the automatic rendering of diagrams."
"The most valuable feature in the latest versions is the connect portal, where you can do very simple modeling using the web-based portal."
"The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable."
"​The matrix model makes building relations easier.​"
"It has allowed us to model our enterprise process architecture."
"The solution has come up with a web portal that makes it easy to model and show to clients."
"​It is a well-featured, functional product."
"Provides the power to understand and automate processes."
"With the Process Center, I can go to one place and view what all the environments are doing."
"Overall, I'm satisfied with the product. If you compare it with other products, it's probably not as easygoing or as simple to implement as the rest. But after you get used to it, it works. It has a lot of capabilities and potential, but the people, who come from different technologies, have some difficulty getting used to the way of working with IBM products."
"Its dashboard is easy to use and very good. It allows us to customize."
"The process creation."
"There are a lot of things that you get out-of-the-box: Timers and so on, which took a lot of effort and code before."
"One of the reasons for adopting this solution ten years ago was its ease of use. It had a lot of off-the-shelf functionality, and it did not need to be developed specifically for the project that we were implementing. That was the main reason for adopting it in the beginning."
"It is easy to take a requirement, put it in the code, and deploy it."
"The default Workspace does not meet all our needs and sometimes you need to create your own custom Workspace."
"We have more than 800 distinct applications in our IT landscape. We had enough scalability and okay development cycles, and it has been enough to cover our backup operations and order management systems."
"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."
"We selected this solution not only for the BPM but for the entire package."
"The solution provides extensive functionalities."
"The Workspace is a full, rich application where most users can find what they want. It shows them a list of their work."
"Our company is based around Oracle processes. It provides a lot of flexibility in its processes."
"One of the most valuable features of Oracle BPM is the workflow itself. It is quite intuitive."
 

Cons

"The ​integration between ARIS, webMethods, and project versions needs improvement.​"
"Create simple data uploader."
"Sometimes, ARIS BPA breaks down, and its stability can be improved."
"Areas for improvement include sales, prospecting, shopping, customer service, after-sales (claims and advice for the client), and all processes pertaining to customer loyalty."
"Newer versions (9.x) are technically more difficult to maintain."
"The workflow approval process could be represented better in the overviews."
"One of the issues is, when you are defining databases, the way they use entities and relationship diagrams, the way we can define data, like data models, there is still a part they could improve."
"ARIS BPA’s usability could be improved."
"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."
"The configuration is not that easy, and the initial deployment took three months."
"It's a bit technical, related to the instance of migrations. It's a tough thing to handle, in every new release, in every upgrade, that we have to do things in the applications or in the product. I think IBM is working on it but I know there are a lot of requests coming in from different organizations on this."
"All our clients are changing to microservice and cloud service. However, BPM does not have a solution for microservice and cloud service."
"The major issue is the pricing, which is very high."
"I would like to see a lot more case studies."
"If the processing gets better, it would be more efficient."
"Performance on large scale requirements could also be improved."
"You have to maintain it manually."
"The default Workspace does not meet all our needs and sometimes you need to create your own custom Workspace."
"We have had some issues with version migration, from one version of processes to another. We would have to call Oracle Services but on a day to day, we didn't have any issues."
"The solution needs to offer better integration with third-party systems."
"Overall, the engine and the UI both have to be made lighter."
"Every time we roll out a new version of processes, we have to migrate to a new process. The process of this migration was not very smooth. We later decided that it would be easier for us to stop all processes, deploy a new version and then restart."
"Pricing is an area that could use improvement."
"There are delays in offering the latest technology, so there is a need to be more responsive to technological changes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing and licensing costs are available on their website. They will assign a relationship manager to assist if you show further interest in their products."
"ARIS is quite expensive."
"The solution has a fair price for the value it delivers."
"​It is on the higher side."
"Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay."
"From my point of view, no, it is not cheap, but it is not too expensive because you get this big organization behind it, technical support, and all those things. It's not so expensive to use. It's a Rolls Royce in this field, I know that. Even for small organizations, they can get so much effect from using this tool, in a very fast way, so the money will be back in the customer's pocket very fast."
"Usually, our company buys technical support from the Software AG site. We bought the technical support for the first year of usage for ARIS version 6 and 7. So, when we migrated to ARIS version 7, we bought support only for the first year. Then, we didn't use it the next year. Our experience was that we use it only one to three times during the first year. Therefore, there wasn't much value for us to buy this service because we have no problem with using ARIS after the first year."
"If you can afford it, it's the best so far."
"The cloud and license of the subscription model for IBM BPM can be complex. There are a lot of alternatives to choose from."
"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."
"It is pricey."
"IBM could improve the price. It is far too expensive."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a ten."
"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."
"The price of the solution is fair for an enterprise solution that has both cloud and on-premise deployments and when comparing to competitors. Recently IBM has introduced Cloud Pak which allows for more flexible licensing options for automation and other features."
"The pricing is very high."
"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."
"As with all Oracle products, the licensing over VMware is an issue."
"We received the product packaged into the Oracle database solution."
"The licensing model is good."
"The pricing is very expensive."
"I don't have information on the exact cost of Oracle BPM because a different team handles that, but it's pretty high. Oracle products are very costly. I would rate pricing for Oracle BPM three out of five. Though the pricing is high, the solution has a lot of features."
"Oracle is good, but they're still expensive compared to other vendors."
"It's pried high, this solution is expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Management (BPM) solutions are best for your needs.
855,156 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

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
7%
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.
855,156 professionals have used our research since 2012.