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 8.2, and holds a 7.5% mindshare in the category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 in MMS , with an average rating of 10.0, and holds a 23.1% 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

5,843 Views
4,032 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Read 55 Lucidchart reviews

5,664 Views
736 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Visio

Read 107 Visio reviews

7,581 Views
6,216 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, 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

Download the complete report

Helped 866,286 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	7.5%
Visio	12.5%
Camunda	12.3%
Other	67.7%

Business Process Design

Mind Mapping Software Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Lucidchart	23.1%
Visio	27.6%
draw.io	18.7%
Other	30.599999999999994%

Mind Mapping Software

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Visio	12.5%
Camunda	12.3%
Bizagi	10.6%
Other	64.6%

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

Tugrul TASCI

IT Professor at Sakarya University

We have seen return on investment in the form of time savings but should have more design tools

I am generally using Visio to create some diagrams Visio should implement more complex tools or graphics to facilitate processing and use flexible templates. It should allow users to easily drag and drop some previously created diagrams. The tools supplied or provided are very basic, and there…

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

"Also, the UML parts have been improved very much in the last two years. And it's very powerful now to combine the BPMN and UML parts in the product, because you can make a connection between them, so that you have the right interoperability between them. So if you're doing data modeling, you can use your class diagram and bind that to the BPMN part."

"The solution's basic features are easy to use, overall designed well, and it has good process mining analysis."

"I like everything about ARIS BPA. I've used it for a long time and it's a fantastic tool. There is a list of things ARIS has that other solutions do not have."

"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 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."

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

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

"There is a really powerful reporting API that allows you to create almost any kind of report you want out of your process and document repository."

More ARIS BPA pros

"The interface is very user-friendly and it is not a hassle to use the site at all. They did a really good job in that regard."

"We are using Lucidchart a lot for documenting things, such as processes, systems, new teams, etc. Its ability to document processes is great. Some of the major pluses are the sheer number of templates and the flexibility in the types of things that you can document. This is a benefit because we are able to structure it in whatever format we want. So, we can take a template that maybe was designed for something different and not have to create it from scratch. We just modify it for our purposes."

"I love the simplicity and how clean all the different boxes, arrows, and charts can be. Especially with something complicated like our sales flow, it could be really easy to be all cluttered and everything like that, but my favorite feature is how clean it is, how straightforward it makes our flow look, and how easy it is to understand. Lucidchart accommodates both Mac and PC users which is important to us because at my company right now, our sales floor and then every other computer we have as a company is a Mac, but a lot of our employees actually have PCs and Android as well. So it's really beneficial because if we're ever on the go or we need to make a change, it's versatile and is open for both Mac and PC."

"The sticky notes are among the most valuable features. Also, the fact that it has templates so that I don't have to do things myself, starting from scratch, is very helpful. In addition, it's really easy to use. You can add stuff by clicking, without having to go to the options. You just click on something and the options you can use appear."

"One of the features that I really like is the collaboration aspect of it. During the pandemic, it's very important that we're able to collaborate virtually."

"Lucidchart is very visual in nature, and it is something that we do use extensively for stakeholder mapping, for example. If you want to build graphs for things like who the decision-makers are in a particular organization, Lucidchart can be used for that."

"Ease of use is especially critical because if I am conducting brainstorming sessions with my team, I have to be able to quickly put things on the monitor so that I don't lose their attention and focus. Ease of use is definitely helpful when I do that... The fact that I don't get lost within the software and am able to quickly generate visuals onscreen, so that it doesn't break the momentum, is a huge win."

"Its ease of use is most valuable. As compared to draw.io, connecting the lines and doing things like that are much easier in Lucidchart. It has been great for some of the process flow diagrams and data flow diagrams. I can export these diagrams as PDFs and share them with team members."

More Lucidchart pros

"Process modeling is a good feature."

"If you are a knowledgeable individual, the initial setup isn't too difficult."

"Drawing flowcharts is the most valuable feature of Visio."

"The solution is finely stable."

"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."

"We can easily add templates to SharePoint for collaboration."

"The solution makes it very easy to make exciting pictures and designs. Everything is very intuitive and simple to figure out."

"What I like the most is the simplicity and ease of usage."

More Visio pros

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)."

"Displaying role allocation matrix models in ARIS Connect needs improvement."

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

"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."

"Regarding stability, when there are any customized settings being done at customer end - post upgrade to newer versions - it makes the customer environment unstable for a short duration."

"Needs flexibility in automation of the modeling processes and real-time analysis of data, not just a static view."

"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."

"ARIS BPA is not really a platform that offers you the opportunity to execute processes that you model."

More ARIS BPA cons

"When my colleague initially tried to edit the file that I shared with him, he had some trouble. This is something that should be improved."

"This might already be a feature, but I remember sometimes when we're just all viewing, if you accidentally click, then there's an arrow that pops up, and you have to go back and delete it. A lot of times there are accidental arrows being drawn when really we're just trying to present to each other."

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

"It would be helpful if there were different options available for organizing the folders, such as having a high-level display with pictures."

"The main improvement I would like to see is for them to improve the help section on the flow charts or on the formatting."

"Wireframing can be improved. For mock-ups and wireframing, only 10% of what is required is there. If they can develop this feature, it would be much better because it will then provide everything. Currently, we can design network diagrams, processes, etc., but we should also be able to do wireframing."

"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."

"One of the issues has been that, as far as I understand, even to view it, the other person needs a Lucidchart account unless you send them a PDF. That's been a bit of an issue because some people in our organization don't have Lucidchart accounts, only certain people have logins. If we just want to collect comments from people, that's been a bit complicated."

More Lucidchart cons

"Visio should implement more complex tools or graphics to facilitate processing and use flexible templates."

"Occasionally, the automation feature that helps you easily add the "next step" goes crazy and it will move a bunch of stuff."

"I can't speak to any missing features. It's been fine so far."

"Visio requires a lot of memory, and it is not good for a small design."

"The solution's initial setup was a bit complex for me."

"Transferring data was one of the issues that I expected Visio to have resolved. I use the older version."

"We need the place and route capability for the lines when we have a database. I use it for architectures, and between the boxes, there are lines or interfaces from one tool to another. I wish those lines could be easily drawn without having to place them mechanically. I wish that there was some kind of place and route capability, so I just press a button, and all the lines get drawn."

"The only downside to Visio is the learning curve."

More Visio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ARIS BPA is too costly from a licensing perspective."

"It is an expensive solution."

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

"Pricing is a bit on the higher side."

"The tool is expensive."

"The setup cost and pricing depend on the license (Modeler, Viewer, Administrator)."

"It is on the higher side."

"We have a concurrent license system."

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."

"At €167 per user per year, the pricing is slightly higher than Visio, but it's worth it."

"One of the reasons we were able to get approval within two hours from our management was that it was cheap enough. We have a 3% or 10% collaboration package, which comes out to be 70 bucks a year. It was very cheap, and we had no issues actually getting the full version. It was very affordable for a business."

"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."

"I have a subscription as an individual user for one year, and it is not expensive."

"I was using the paid version, but at $12 USD per month, I canceled the plan because it was a little bit too expensive for me."

"The pricing and licensing are fine, though I wish they didn't require you to buy the licenses in batches of five."

"Pricing-wise, it is pretty fair. I don't really know what group pricing looks like, but right now, I pay $10 a month for my Lucid subscription. One thing I would say is that I do worry about my bosses being okay with paying $10 a month for every single employee because we would have around 20 people. It makes me a little nervous about whether they are going to pay $200 a month for people to be able to use this software. At the same time, from where I'm sitting, it's totally worth it. We save a thousand dollars from using this software. It's still a no-brainer."

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

"Visio is a pricey tool. It's a five out of ten, cost-wise. It would be great if it had a pay-per-use licensing model because my company uses it sparingly."

"I think costs are on a per user basis."

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

"It's cheaper than other solutions."

"I rate the price of Visio a six out of ten."

"We have an enterprise license. I'm not sure what the cost is."

"There is a licensing fee, but it is fairly priced."

"You can purchase a corporate license for more users to use the solution. We have purchased a stand-alone license and which could be cheaper."

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

866,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

15%

Government

Manufacturing Company

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	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
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

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 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

iGrafx Process360 Live Platform vs ARIS BPA

Compared 3% of the time

More ARIS BPA Competitors

Figma vs Lucidchart

Compared 16% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Lucidchart

Compared 10% of the time

Bizagi vs Lucidchart

Compared 8% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Lucidchart

Compared 8% of the time

MURAL vs Lucidchart

Compared 3% of the time

More Lucidchart Competitors

Bizagi vs Visio

Compared 21% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Visio

Compared 10% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Visio

Compared 10% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Visio

Compared 8% of the time

erwin Data Modeler vs Visio

Compared 3% of the time

More Visio Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA

August 2025

Download ARIS BPA product report

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

August 2025

Download Lucidchart product report

Buyer's Guide

Visio

August 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

August 2025

Download Free Report

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

DOWNLOAD NOW

866,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.