ARIS BPA vs Lucidchart vs Visio comparison

The compared Software AG and Lucid Software solutions aren't in the same category. Software AG is ranked #6 in BPD , with an average rating of 7.9, and holds a 7.0% mindshare in the category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 in MMS , with an average rating of 8.7, and holds a 24.8% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Software AG users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Lucid Software users who would recommend it.

ARIS BPA

Read 68 ARIS BPA reviews

5,397 Views
3,724 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Read 56 Lucidchart reviews

5,234 Views
733 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Visio

Read 108 Visio reviews

7,159 Views
5,870 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

ARIS BPA

Lucidchart

Visio

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ARIS BPA, Lucidchart, and Visio based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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

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

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

October 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 872,706 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ARIS BPA	7.0%
Visio	12.5%
Camunda	11.3%
Other	69.2%

Business Process Design

Mind Mapping Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Lucidchart	24.8%
Visio	29.6%
draw.io	16.0%
Other	29.599999999999994%

Mind Mapping Software

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Visio	12.5%
Camunda	11.3%
Bizagi	10.8%
Other	65.4%

Business Process Design

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.

Read full review

Michael Verruto

Managing Director, Project Design+Development at a government with 10,001+ employees

Visual approach facilitates clarity and process efficiency in complex real estate tasks

I haven't done much with Lucidchart's integration with other popular apps such as Teams, though one of my colleagues mentioned it can be added. This has sparked my interest to look into integration with Excel and Word, though we haven't implemented these features yet in our less than a year of operation. I access Lucidchart from multiple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and PC desktop. Our PCs are all laptops, so we can work remotely. I've collaborated with people from home on my iPad while they were on their laptop, though this isn't our routine behavior. I would recommend Lucidchart to others, but I'd also recommend exploring other options. It depends on what your fit and feel is for what you're trying to accomplish. For heavy users or technical users, Lucidchart might be very appealing. It has more capabilities than I'm currently using. The Highway Bridge Maintenance group, who are familiar with Agile processes, speak positively about it. For average users, they might find similar functionality in Miro or other less expensive alternatives. Overall Rating: 9 out of 10

Read full review

Osama Nabih

Chief Executive Officer at Easy Touch

Has helped me communicate business processes clearly and improve documentation efficiency

The customer service experience rates a seven. It's very difficult to find the right person. When you have an issue and open a ticket, sometimes the wrong persons answer and don't know the solution. They shift you from one person to another and sometimes it takes weeks to find a solution for a problem. It happened with me more than one time. Sometimes the answer is misleading. For example, we had an issue in Enterprise Group in KSA, and we raised a ticket with Microsoft. They sent us a document of 170 pages with possible root causes and solutions. The cost to deploy this 170-page solution was too high and the needed time was months. It was almost not an answer. If they don't give me a specific reason, they haven't replied to my question. We neglected the document from Microsoft and started deep diving and finally found the solution ourselves.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Collaboration and governance over enterprise artifacts."

"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."

"The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable."

"The whole ARIS BPM solution is a bit special, because from the very beginning it was targeted more to Business users and the Management."

"Features like SAP SolMan sync, Alfabet EA integration (another Software AG product)."

"It has helped me get some ideas across more clearly to my colleagues."

"The solution has come up with a web portal that makes it easy to model and show to clients."

"The shared repository allows for cross-functional cooperation instead of doing things in a silo. You can operate cross-functionally and really work end-to-end, instead of dividing everything up on a functional basis."

More ARIS BPA pros

"I really like the drag and drop feature because it makes the work easier. It is very easy to use. All the pieces are very good. All the icons and all the fields are available in the left panel. So, I just click, drag, and then edit a piece. When I showed it to my managing director, he was very inspired, and he also got a premium account for himself."

"The interface is easy for a layperson to use and adapt to."

"The interface is very good and easy to use. We don't need documentation on how to use it. It is self-explanatory, which is very convenient for a new user."

"Lucidchart is a lovely tool for creating visual representations of any process or organization."

"Lucidchart's capabilities for visualizing and understanding process flows or workflows is excellent. The way that you put together the parts of charts and edit the chart are all very intuitive and easy to use."

"I like the panel on the left of the screen that has all of the shapes that are available to use in the charts. It's easy to use because you can just drag and drop."

"It is a very effective tool for documenting processes and using it has improved our efficiency significantly."

"It is important that Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC users because if you support Mac, that means you also support the mobile applications on the iPad... Some of the other employees have access to an iPad, but not all of them do. When we're trying to talk through a process with them on-the-fly, or at the point of occurrence, it's so much nicer if we can both have it up on the iPad. That's why I would say the Mac support is essential."

More Lucidchart pros

"It has a lot of great features."

"A lot of built-in templates are really phenomenal. They cut down the time when you're trying to get something out. They reduce the complexity that technical folks like to put into things that have to be given to technical folks."

"Putting details into the process flow and being able to link other objects into the diagrams are very helpful features."

"The main reason I choose Visio is that it is easy to use. The user interface is familiar and straightforward. Additionally, it offers a variety of templates, such as those for Cisco solutions, which make it easy to create diagrams for specific use cases. For example, we use a Cisco Meraki switch and we can find the exact template for it, then we can easily drop in the components and connect the cables to create the diagram."

"The interface is the most valuable aspect of this solution."

"The product's initial setup is really simple."

"The most valuable feature is the set of diagramming tools."

"I haven't needed to reach out to technical support the entire time I've used the product. It's very basic and very simple, and therefore I've never run into any issues I haven't been able to deal with personally."

More Visio pros

Cons

"The reporting and the information query features could do with some improvement."

"The interface is a little archaic."

"The tool must provide more documents."

"Since ARIS 9.X was released, the product has not been as robust and responsive as the previous versions."

"Since this is a design tool, seamless interface to make the process flows executable."

"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."

"The workflow approval process could be represented better in the overviews."

"I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying."

More ARIS BPA cons

"I would like to have access to more colorful and more vibrant icons."

"One of the major drawbacks is that we have to extract the work in Lucidchart as an image when we want to create a presentation."

"It would be really helpful if we could create a process flow based on a Word Document or a PPT file."

"If you're trying to expand a comments box that is sitting on top of the chart, it automatically defaults to assuming you're trying to connect it to the next step in the process, when all you're trying to do is make the box bigger. It automatically goes to the arrow, but I just want to resize the box. That gets a little cumbersome because it does it every single time. It's not just a bug."

"One downside is that you can only modify things online, but when you download work, you download it as an image. It would be useful to have an option to modify it locally."

"They should make it more user-friendly. The only option is either to use the existing template with already existing colors and gradients. If you want to do custom colors and gradients, then it's too complicated to use and should be simplified."

"I've had an issue is when you create, let's say, a rectangle box. You can write some text in it and give it a name, and, depending on how you shape the size of the box, the text will rearrange itself to fit. That is, except if your box is very, very narrow, but very long, like a long, narrow rectangle in a vertical position. In this case, the text will always go out of the rectangle."

"When you log in the first time, they ask you a lot of questions, such as what are you going to use it for. Half of the things weren't applicable to me. I couldn't see the skip button, so I picked random things because none of the given options was applicable to me. It is a tech startup, and I am in a consultant role. I use it for a variety of things, but the questions were tailored for HR professionals who are creating org structures or IT professionals who are doing data flow diagrams. What if I do both of them depending on the project I'm working on? I just felt that I am wasting time with those questions and just wanted them to stop asking me these questions and get into charting."

More Lucidchart cons

"One issue I've noticed is that when working on a shared video link with a friend for Visio, there can be a delay in changes reflecting on their screen after I've made them. This also occurs when we're working on the same document. It would be beneficial if changes could be reflected in real-time. Additionally, I've experienced some text size issues with the flow task feature. Sometimes when I enter text, it appears very small, and increasing the size causes it to extend beyond the diagram, creating formatting issues. It would be helpful if these text and formatting issues could be addressed."

"Something that needs to improve, is the interface interaction with other tools."

"There are some issues in Visio with the connectors, and it gets tricky when you want to connect objects with each other."

"In terms of enterprise architecture, Visio is limited."

"The design and the look and feel, need to be improved."

"To be able to extract a report for business project management notations would be ideal."

"I would like to see better integration with external data sources."

"It does not integrate well with other solutions."

More Visio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"You will never get a fixed price for this product because they will go in and ask you what kind of environment would you like to set up? How many people will you work with? How big is your organization? Today, they have a fixed price to say, "Okay, just to start the business area, buy two licenses for modeling and eight people that can look into the product." They have this kind of fixed price. It's 50,000 Danish Krone. If you divided that by about six, then you get the pricing in dollars. Still, when you are going out, negotiate and find the right price. You will never get a fixed price: "It costs this and, if you take ten of these, seven of these and eight of these, and then it costs this." No, you negotiate every time."

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

"ARIS is quite expensive."

"In terms of pricing, it would be nice if it were more affordable."

"The product is a bit pricey."

"ARIS Express is free."

"If you can afford it, it's the best so far."

More ARIS BPA pricing and cost advice

"I'm happy with the pricing of Lucidchart but I can't say I'm completely happy with it. It could be cheaper for what it offers, about $5 cheaper, or Lucid could charge $5 more and add more features, like automation. Right now, it's $15 per user per month... On the other hand, they have made their billing super-easy for users, such as for people who have to do expense reports. It is probably the easiest platform I'm using when it comes to billing for software as a service."

"Lucidchart's pricing model is not excessive, as compared to similar products. It is pretty much in line with everyone else."

"Its pricing is very affordable and reasonable for the features that it provides. I am using its basic plan, and for my usage, it is perfectly reasonable. It suits perfectly."

"The pricing and licensing are fine. It has a lot of features that I prefer over some of the other programs, which is good. Being that it is web-based, I feel that it is acceptable that it's on a monthly pay basis. However, I think I pay on an annual basis, which is fine with me."

"We chose Lucid based on the price comparison between it and draw.io... Lucidchart was about 15 percent cheaper per user... I was surprised to learn that it came with a separate subscription model and was not included in my existing Lucidchart subscription."

"The price and licensing are good."

"The price was low enough to make me think that it was fine, I'll go for it. I think it's $80 or so. It's not too expensive."

"Pricing comes in at about $100 for a year's subscription, which is very reasonable if this is a tool that you will use more than once."

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

"The solution could be less expensive."

"Visio is about a $180 dollars to purchase. It is a one-time licensing fee."

"I believe Visio to be priced pretty reasonably."

"While I don't recall the exact price I do recall that it was quite high."

"My organization has paid for the solution. However, I have used it personally without payment. There is a free option available."

"The product is inexpensive if you already have Microsoft products in your environment. The license encompasses all the required services."

"We're in a Visio plan that is like $15 a month per user. At the moment, it is just the standard licensing fees that I'm aware of."

"The price of Visio is reasonable."

More Visio pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Design solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

872,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Government

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	35
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	61

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 ne...

See all answers

LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom

Hi @Krista Thompson - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. ...

See all answers

Do you recommend Lucidchart?

I definitely recommend Lucidchart. I feel it is one of the top visual collaboration platforms that’s available on the...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Lucidchart?

The system is a bit clumsy when it comes to stylizing to match corporate imaging styles. In real estate, we need ever...

See all answers

How easy is it to migrate process flow charts (modeled using tools like Visio) into Bizagi?

I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty st...

See all answers

What do you like most about Visio?

The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task a...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visio?

One of the main problems with Visio is its licensing options and associated issues, which lead to discussions about t...

See all answers

Comparisons

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs ARIS BPA

Compared 22% of the time

ADONIS vs ARIS BPA

Compared 9% of the time

Camunda vs ARIS BPA

Compared 7% of the time

Bizagi vs ARIS BPA

Compared 5% of the time

Pega Platform vs ARIS BPA

Compared 4% of the time

More ARIS BPA Competitors

Figma vs Lucidchart

Compared 15% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Lucidchart

Compared 10% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Lucidchart

Compared 8% of the time

Bizagi vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

No Magic MagicDraw vs Lucidchart

Compared 3% of the time

More Lucidchart Competitors

Bizagi vs Visio

Compared 30% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Visio

Compared 9% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Visio

Compared 8% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Visio

Compared 7% of the time

Xmind vs Visio

Compared 3% of the time

More Visio Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA

October 2025

Download ARIS BPA product report

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

October 2025

Download Lucidchart product report

Buyer's Guide

Visio

October 2025

Download Visio product report

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM

No data available

Microsoft Visio

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

Our online diagram application makes it easy to sketch and share professional flowchart diagrams. From brainstorming to project management, we support all of your communication needs. That’s why millions of users choose Lucidchart.

Lucid Software

Visio is an innovative collaborative solution that enables users to quickly visualize data-connected business process flows with a host of integrated intuitive features that bring the power of Microsoft 365 to Visio. Visio allows users to easily create professional diagrams, graphs, and other visual data, easily anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. Users are able to confidently and easily transform data into creative powerful visuals. Visio provides dozens of easy-to-use templates along with thousands of customizable colorful shapes that bring a user's best ideas to life. Visio is available for all Microsoft 365 commercial users and is available on desktop and Web applications.

Visio Features

Visio can easily create visual data for today’s business needs. Some of its most useful visual data include:

Flowcharts: Users can easily bring business concepts to fruition with Visio’s robust flowchart features. Visio provides a huge library of shapes, stencils, and templates to transform numbers and data into impactful, easy-to-understand business stories.
Organizational charts: Visio makes it easy to design articulate org charts to better visualize team, reporting, and hierarchy structures. Users are then able to seamlessly share the charts with stakeholders, teams, and employees.
Network diagrams: Users are able to creatively display how a system design processes function and visually illustrate how devices and networks interact with each other using a variety of network shapes, templates, and connector tools.
Brainstorming: Visio makes brainstorming simple and actionable with a wide range of templates designed specifically for interpreting problems and mapping out solutions, including fishbone and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) diagrams.
Floor plans: Users can design ergonomic workspaces, retail store layouts, new homes, and more with accurate, scalable templates and tools to help them better visualize function, flow, and overall aesthetic appeal.
Accessible: Visio is able to integrate with a wide variety of accessibility tools, such as Narrator, Accessibility Checker, and high-contrast support, to ensure Visio diagrams are available to your entire team.

Reviews from Real Users

“Visio has improved my workflow by making it easy to create charts, diagrams, and essential illustrations to use in my client reports and proposals. It has saved me a lot of time I would otherwise spend creating visuals for clients manually.” - Michael B., Principal Consultant at Lexington Consulting

“I use it for diagramming networks, racks, data centers, data flow applications, etc. It is a useful tool to map data flows, network objects, and computer science technology and to show to clients. It does what I need it to do. It's a tool I've used the longest, so I know it the best, and that's probably the claim to fame.” - Greg S., Director of Solution Architecture at Winslow Technology Group

“We use Visio for architecture modeling. We also use it to facilitate communication with other people. The feature I like most about Visio is that it acts as a facilitator of communication, as it displays information in a way that's easier to understand.” - Guy M., IT/Business Architect at a financial services firm

Microsoft

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.

Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Whirlpool, Uber, Wal Mart, Pearson, Twitch, Riot Games, Western Union, Trimble, Starbucks

Thomas College, Hamburg Port Authority, Portigon AG, Conseil G_n_ral du d_partement des Hautes-Alpes, AAA Auto a. s., Commonwealth Financial Network, ICA, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

October 2025

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Camunda, Bizagi and others in Business Process Design. Updated: October 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

872,706 professionals have used our research since 2012.