ARIS BPA vs IBM Rational System Architect comparison

The compared Software AG and IBM solutions aren't in the same category. Software AG is ranked #6 in BPD , with an average rating of 8.1, and holds a 7.2% mindshare in the category. IBM is ranked #19 in AM , and holds a 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Software AG users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of IBM users who would recommend it.

ARIS BPA

Read 68 ARIS BPA reviews

5,697 Views
3,931 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

IBM Rational System Architect

Read 5 IBM Rational System Architect reviews

766 Views
728 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

ARIS BPA

IBM Rational System Architect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ARIS BPA and IBM Rational System Architect based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, Microsoft, SAP and others in Business Process Design.

To learn more, read our detailed Business Process Design Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

August 2025

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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

ARIS BPA

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (6th), Business Process Management (BPM) (8th)

IBM Rational System Architect

Average Rating

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (19th)

Mindshare comparison

ARIS BPA and IBM Rational System Architect aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ARIS BPA is designed for Business Process Design and holds a mindshare of 7.2%, down 8.9% compared to last year.
IBM Rational System Architect, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Architecture Management, holds 2.0% mindshare, up 2.0% since last year.

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ARIS BPA	7.2%
Visio	11.7%
Camunda	11.6%
Other	69.5%

Business Process Design

Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Rational System Architect	2.0%
LeanIX	13.4%
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect	11.5%
Other	73.1%

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Tamer Eldamanhouri

Software Engineering & Manager at Arab Infromation Management Services

Empowers teams with robust business process modeling capabilities

They should examine competitor solutions to identify differentiators. One issue related to ARIS BPA is its integration with AI; it has AI features for cloud solutions, yet many in the government sector in Kuwait do not view the cloud as viable. Software AG should focus on developing AI models for ARIS BPA on-premises, particularly in user interfaces, as well as creating predefined business processes for common areas such as HR and finance. This aspect is crucial for adapting to the market's needs and streamlining custom solutions. While they have been helpful regarding pricing, I cannot compare ARIS BPA to other business process modeling tools because I understand some competitors have significantly lower costs than ARIS BPA. To maintain market share, good discounts should be provided to customers.

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Guy Meyongo

IT/Business Architect at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Lots of valuable features, especially the metamodel customization

In terms of what could be improved, we did not take the whole package with all the modules, and I think that the integration with other platforms like Office could be better. The reverse engineering of the database is already there, but in the next release I would like to see some pilot supplied with the solution in order to address any database.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If you ever tried to draw a picture in a browser app or with a cloud service, it is normally a painful death. ARIS works perfectly on diagrams in the browser, so I was excited. I like it because there have been so many bad experiences in the past with drawing or doing something in a browser. Normally, it's always painful because it's coded badly. With ARIS, it is really well-implemented. It's simple."

"The solution provides integrations to ServiceNow and other systems, flexibility of connectivity, and reporting."

"ARIS BPA has a good directory option, which helps to keep track of all of your metadata, and that's very useful."

"The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting."

"Fully-reportable database over Visio."

"The ease of use is the most valuable. I have tried a number of BPMN packages, and I find the user interface of ARIS BPM easier and more intuitive than others. If your team is knowledgeable on BPMN, it is really pretty easy to figure out on your own because it adheres to the standards extremely well. I have tried Bizagi, BizFlow, and a variety of such solutions, and I just liked ARIS BPM better."

"Collaboration and governance over enterprise artifacts."

"The tool defines the processes. It's the documentation of everything."

More ARIS BPA pros

"The user interface is good. It's both clear and comprehensible. It's easy to work with."

"There are a lot of features I find valuable, but I think that the metamodel customization is one of the best features that the solution offers."

"We have seen ROI with this solution over the years that we have used it."

"The solution is pretty stable."

Cons

"While the dashboarding solution for integrating all kinds of process-related information from company sources other than ARIS is getting ever better, my personal wish would be to have a module that is more targeted to an Agile implementation of some modeled processes (model–to-execute)."

"ARIS has an internal fully customizable workflow system called APG, which is very good, but it’s targeted mostly at creating workflows related to ARIS content, and not general workflows to support other processes inside a company."

"Training is one of the important aspects for process awareness. As soon as a process is rolled out, process training is required. If ARIS could generate output in PowerPoint, it would be great for business users."

"There should be a more intuitive tool when creating reports."

"Some improvements have been done, after Software AG acquired ARIS, but I don't believe it's still integrated with the other tool WebMethods in a perfect way."

"The Risk and Compliance Management tool is rather complex and moreover, it needs to be customized if you want to use it."

"The model graphics can be exported in PDF, but the model is too small to read."

"The tool's installation and configuration part needs to improve."

More ARIS BPA cons

"The solution needs to better integrate with other products, like Microsoft."

"The reverse engineering of the database is already there, but in the next release I would like to see some pilot supplied with the solution in order to address any database."

"This solution can be more user-friendly and easier to use, with better dashboards."

"There needs to be more information at the outset about how to use the solution and how to deploy it. The deployment process needs improvement."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay."

"It is an expensive solution."

"It depends on different parameters."

"ARIS is quite expensive."

"Prices are high. However, they are worth it if the organization utilizes the tool to its full potential."

"Negotiate. Price is high so make sure you’re getting the best deal."

"This is absolutely not the cheapest solution in the market, but for large companies, the price is fine."

More ARIS BPA pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	47

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ARIS BPA?

The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?

ARIS BPA needs to be more accurate when generating documents. While it covers many blueprints and functions that I need, the document generation feature could be enhanced for better accuracy.

See all answers

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Comparisons

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs ARIS BPA

Compared 23% of the time

ADONIS vs ARIS BPA

Compared 9% of the time

Camunda vs ARIS BPA

Compared 8% of the time

Bizagi vs ARIS BPA

Compared 6% of the time

Visio vs ARIS BPA

Compared 6% of the time

More ARIS BPA Competitors

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs IBM Rational System Architect

Compared 69% of the time

MEGA HOPEX vs IBM Rational System Architect

Compared 16% of the time

LeanIX vs IBM Rational System Architect

Compared 14% of the time

More IBM Rational System Architect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA

September 2025

Download ARIS BPA product report

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

August 2025

Download IBM Rational System Architect product report

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM

Rational System Architect

Overview

ARIS is the market-leading solution for professional business process management and modeling. Whether you want to document the "as-is" state of your operations for quality or certification reasons or design the "to-be" in terms of continuous improvement in your transformation program, ARIS is the best choice for establishing a single source of truth regarding all process excellence topics in your organization. It is for any organization looking to digitally transform their business, increase operational excellence and customer experience and ensure compliance in execution. ARIS helps you to make the most out of your processes with Process Mining, Risk & Compliance Management, RPA and much more.

What makes the difference?

The most comprehensive platform for process excellence in the market
Easy to use
Covers business & IT architecture from all angles
Full flexibility and >100 diagram types
Customer-driven development based on best practices
Strong partner ecosystem

ARIS is the market-leading solution for any organization and ideally suited to digitally transform the organization, increase operational excellence and customer experience and ensure compliance in execution.

Software AG

IBM Rational System Architect is an enterprise architecture solution for visualizing, analyzing, and communicating enterprise architecture and business process analysis. This solution provides decision support, process optimization, and integration into solution delivery. Rational System Architect addresses all aspects of your organization's enterprise architecture, including modeling, publishing, analysis, and execution.

IBM

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.

Wuxi Lake Cloud, Nationwide, ETI, IDS Scheer

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

August 2025

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We monitor all Business Process Design reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.