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 #7 in BPD , with an average rating of 7.7, and holds a 6.8% mindshare in the category. Lucid Software is ranked #2 in MMS , with an average rating of 7.9, and holds a 22.0% 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 69 ARIS BPA reviews

5,701 Views
3,706 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Lucidchart

Read 63 Lucidchart reviews

4,939 Views
790 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Visio

Read 109 Visio reviews

7,166 Views
5,876 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

ARIS BPA

Lucidchart

Visio

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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 Camunda, Microsoft, Bizagi and others in Business Process Design.

To learn more, read our detailed Business Process Design Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

March 2026

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Helped 885,444 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 Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
ARIS BPA	6.8%
Visio	9.9%
Bizagi	9.4%
Other	73.9%

Business Process Design

Mind Mapping Software Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Lucidchart	22.0%
Visio	23.4%
draw.io	13.6%
Other	41.0%

Mind Mapping Software

Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Visio	9.9%
Bizagi	9.4%
Camunda	8.7%
Other	72.0%

Business Process Design

Featured Reviews

BeenishMustafa

Consultant at KAFD DMC

Has improved process modeling and analysis while supporting integration with organizational data

The process design in ARIS BPA does help with our operational efficiency. What we are doing is object library management for various kinds of objects that we are using in ARIS BPA during our process modeling. We are using that to do a lot of analysis on how many times a system is being used in how many processes, who are the major stakeholders, and if we enhance one system, how is it going to impact other processes and integrated processes. This is helping us a lot. Everything related to ARIS BPA is helping us with regards to enhanced processes, strengthened controls, identifying risks, assessing process capabilities, and identifying where the gaps are and what kinds of activities within the processes are automated and manual. We are doing a lot of things with regards to the processes as it is at our heart. Processes are one thing and then we have different kinds of things which are related to it, such as SLAs, guidelines, and policy. We are identifying areas of improvement in other documents as well.

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AlexMartin1

Senior Software Engineer at Nestlé

Visual collaboration has improved remote workflows and supports faster shared decisions

The best features Lucidchart offers are that it diagrams processes very well. It allows for project management to help with client timelines. It is also easy to use and create diagrams, especially mermaid diagrams. Collaborating is easy. Out of all those features, collaboration stands out to me the most because it is easy to share with team members to do joint design work. Lucidchart has positively impacted my organization by improving productivity and collaboration. In terms of specifics, collaboration helps us come to conclusions. I notice better throughput as it is easy to use. Improved productivity allows us to express ourselves more quickly.

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NitinSharma

Senior Network Specialist at a computer software company with 51-200 employees

Created detailed rack and network diagrams that streamline documentation and collaboration

For creating diagrams, I definitely use Visio for HLD, LLD, and traffic flow diagrams. Apart from Visio, I use Jira only if the customer specifically requests it; otherwise, I do not use an in-house version of Jira in my organization. One of the good features of using the Microsoft umbrella product is that if I create a big diagram and then work on the HLD or LLD in Word, I can select everything from Visio and paste it as an image without needing to resize it, which streamlines the process of creating documentation for customers. The main benefits Visio provides me include simplifying processes, saving time on manual work with diagram creation, and delivering a clean architecture, whether it is network architecture or application flow. I have created diagrams for AWS, Azure, GCP, and on-premises data centers, including rack elevation diagrams and organization charts. Modifications can be made easily and reflected immediately, and I can create PNG images to share with the executive team.

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

"Competition has increased in the last few years and there are now clones of ARIS on the market but they don't go as deep as ARIS, so the ARIS product is still far ahead."

"ARIS BPA covers many or all blueprints and functions that I need."

"ARIS is an important tool for my organization."

"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."

"It has the ability to scale up, as well as integrate with other systems within the organization to get real-time information from dashboards and reports."

"Aris BPA has a lot of tools that are more professional than Bizagi."

"Everything related to ARIS BPA is helping us with regards to enhanced processes, strengthened controls, identifying risks, assessing process capabilities, and identifying where the gaps are and what kinds of activities within the processes are automated and manual."

"ARIS has a good collaboration function. You create a portal where any authorized users can work on the models. There are simple flows for making and approving changes."

More ARIS BPA pros

"Out of all the choices that I saw come across my desk, Lucidchart was the best and easiest choice."

"Lucidchart is fairly intuitive, has a low learning curve, and makes it easy to get immediate output, so you can get results very quickly without a lot of direct effort."

"Visually it is the best application that I've used."

"Feature and functionality-wise, it is fantastic."

"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 can see that using LucidChart is going to save us time in project development, collaboration, and brainstorming."

"There is no alternative to Lucidchart if you want to describe a five-step process with bullet points. I believe every person who ever worked with PowerPoint on any type of documentation and then thought about which tool would actually help to describe what they're trying to do but without the words, would come up with Lucidchart."

"Some of the valuable features are drag and drop and connection through arrows, which makes work go by a lot faster without having to create each shape from scratch."

More Lucidchart pros

"The thing I like most about Visio is the stencils, and as the product has matured over time, it comes with more stencils and objects that you can just pick out of the menu and go with."

"I like to use Visio because it gives me a quick view of the things I have to put in a model for a company."

"I like the solution's ease of use and its the integration with different templates from a variety of manufacturers."

"This is great software for designing workflows for the HLD and DLD phases of the project."

"It is a standard and easy-to-use solution from Microsoft, and you benefit from the general functions of Microsoft solutions. It integrates easily with SharePoint, which is a useful tool from Microsoft."

"Without this product, I would struggle to do my work."

"Scalability is good, and at the project level, we have supposedly 1,000 users that interact with Visio, and it is used extensively."

"I like the solution's ease of use and its the integration with different templates from a variety of manufacturers."

More Visio pros

Cons

"Also, ARIS can be very hard and costly to integrate with other tools, as there is no programming API or web services exposed, except from the integrated report API which is targeted to be used for creating reports from the ARIS database."

"There are reports available in ARIS and you can modify them a bit if you want something more specific, but it's not that easy to adjust them and make modifications."

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

"Areas for improvement include sales, prospecting, shopping, customer service, after-sales (claims and advice for the client), and all processes pertaining to customer loyalty."

"The reporting capabilities and the ability to create custom reports need to be simplified and made easy so that people even with a good functional understanding of the tool can leverage it to create their own custom report."

"The user experience's usability (in general) should be improved as the tool is updated."

"Customer service is poor to acceptable depending on issue, but mostly poor."

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

More ARIS BPA cons

"The flowcharting feature would be improved if it had some kind of prediction capability that helped to create the diagrams, such as the ability to automatically join components with my database."

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

"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."

"The layering is something that can be improved because sometimes, it is confusing for me when I'm trying to get to the layer that I want to edit."

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

"One way Lucidchart can be improved is that finding a document that has been shared with me without having the link is tricky, or the amount of diagrams can become overwhelming and bury the document I actually need."

"There is a premium for the use of certain elements in Lucidchart... It becomes very annoying, especially if you are a first-time user of Lucidchart and you don't have a premium plan. It feels a little too restrictive, in terms of using very basic shapes and icons. It asks you to sign-up for the premium account, which I think shouldn't be the case."

"I think Lucidchart can be improved by reducing the pricing, as it is a bit high."

More Lucidchart cons

"The price could be lower because it is too expensive in South America when paying in dollars or euros."

"It thinks that it knows what you want to do, but it doesn't; it has a way of behaving that can be very frustrating from time to time."

"If you look at ARIS, for example, or Signavio, the flowchart combines all the details and with the click of a button I can create a process manager. That would be something that Visio could add. It would cut my workload in half."

"There are a lot of patches that sometimes change how one version will interact compared to another."

"The solution could include better modeling and an interface with workflow capability, better integration would make the Visio to Power Automate connection a lot better."

"I would like to see the project planning element improved, although it won't happen because Microsoft deliberately made it worse."

"My advice to people who would like to try Visio is that it may not be the best solution in the market for architecture modeling, or for other modeling purposes, but it is effective in facilitating communication with others."

"The database modeling has deteriorated significantly in the more current versions."

More Visio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It depends on different parameters."

"The tool is expensive."

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

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

"ARIS enables you to start small and grow the use of the solution over time, although it's quite expensive. So if you want to start small, it's quite an investment for a small company."

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

"It is well worth the investment in the enterprise."

"I would recommend the product to only enterprise companies because of the pricing."

More ARIS BPA pricing and cost advice

"There is a nominal charge for the paid version of the product. They have a free version available and from what I could see, there was not much difference between it and the pro version."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"I had a quick glimpse of it. It was about 100 Canadian Dollars a year for just me. I don't know if there are any additional costs."

"The licensing is pretty cost-effective but I haven't considered it on an enterprise level."

"I have only used the trial version and have not yet paid for it, or explored the pricing options."

More Lucidchart pricing and cost advice

"We have about 10 to 15 people with Visio licenses in my company, but I wasn't involved in the direct negotiation of the prices since this was taken care of by my administrative office."

"My company does pay toward the licensing costs of Visio. It is a cheap product based on my experience, and since I purchased Visio for my own use."

"It's not the cheapest product, but it's extremely valuable."

"We probably have an M-365 E3 license."

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

"Visio is included with our Microsoft enterprise license."

"The pricing is reasonable and I would rate it 6 out of 10."

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

More Visio pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	32
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	47

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	27

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	36
Midsize Enterprise	19
Large Enterprise	61

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?

It is a bit expensive regarding ARIS BPA. However, ARIS BPA does save a lot of effort because this is one tool which ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?

We are not using any what-if scenario features in ARIS BPA. Currently, we are not using the performance monitoring an...

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What is your primary use case for ARIS BPA?

ARIS BPA is being used for process modeling, and we are planning to upgrade and enhance it for process mining and oth...

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that we do not have to use the setup because we are using pu...

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 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

What needs improvement with Visio?

Licensing cost is one of the major points for improvement since it is quite high for personal use. People often turn ...

See all answers

Comparisons

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs ARIS BPA

Compared 12% of the time

Camunda vs ARIS BPA

Compared 7% of the time

Bizagi vs ARIS BPA

Compared 6% of the time

ADONIS vs ARIS BPA

Compared 5% of the time

BIC Platform vs ARIS BPA

Compared 3% of the time

More ARIS BPA Competitors

Figma vs Lucidchart

Compared 14% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Lucidchart

Compared 10% of the time

Bizagi vs Lucidchart

Compared 7% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Lucidchart

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Blueworks Live vs Lucidchart

Compared 3% of the time

More Lucidchart Competitors

Bizagi vs Visio

Compared 28% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Visio

Compared 8% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Visio

Compared 6% of the time

Visual Paradigm vs Visio

Compared 5% of the time

Xmind vs Visio

Compared 3% of the time

More Visio Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA

March 2026

Download ARIS BPA product report

Buyer's Guide

Lucidchart

March 2026

Download Lucidchart product report

Buyer's Guide

Visio

March 2026

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

March 2026

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