ARIS BPA vs SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

Software AG and SAP are both solutions in the Business Process Design category. Software AG is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3, while SAP is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.8. Software AG holds a 7.7% mindshare in BPD, compared to SAP’s 9.2% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Software AG users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 89% of SAP users who would recommend it.

ARIS BPA

Read 66 ARIS BPA reviews

4,623 Views
3,766 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

SAP Signavio Process Manager

Read 60 SAP Signavio Process Manager reviews

6,051 Views
4,036 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Read 99 Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect reviews

7,138 Views
5,273 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

ARIS BPA

SAP Signavio Process Manager

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ARIS BPA, SAP Signavio Process Manager, and Sparx Systems Enterprise 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: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

May 2025

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Helped 853,271 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

As of May 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.7%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Signavio Process Manager is 9.2%, up from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 10.6%, down from 12.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Design

Featured Reviews

Libor Černý

Process manager at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees

I can usually find an answer to my issue on ARIS Community

From the start, there were some difficulties on how to create outputs since there wasn't a repository tool in version 6. However, in version 7, there has been a tool for creating standards for a company, and that tool has been very intuitive. While I have been using this tool for several years, other people just starting to use it find the learning curve steep. This tool is very robust and accommodates many roles, where people can participate from compliance, IT designers, etc. This can create problems for users who have no experience with similar tools. It took me a year before I felt comfortable with this tool, because when I came from university it was the first or second tool that I worked on. It took me a year to run every feature or use it for every possibility since this tool is very robust. We sometimes have to create the link to the server and the repository twice because it is deleted once for some unknown reason. Though, this is not a big problem. There should be a more intuitive tool when creating reports.

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Cirvesh-Daga

Director at T-Systems International GmbH

Good visual representation for modelling and business process mapping but room for improvement in reporting functionalities

There is room for improvement in analytics. People don't realize it, but the world has changed in the last six to eight months. Customers want to see AI like ChatGPT and ML capabilities in all aspects of business processes and reporting. That would be my recommendation for any OEM in this value chain. Reporting could definitely be improved. I would like to see new features in analytics. I like that they analyze the process and give it to me visually, but I'd like the option to use DPMM instead of just DPC. I'd also like the option to have the process map laid out top to bottom instead of horizontally. Especially a choice between DPMN and EPC as a format. Because there are some people who are very comfortable with the EPC notation. The process is very clearly event-driven. There's an event, there's an action. It's very simple to understand. BPMN, which is the most popular business process notation, generally tends to have multiple frames. Actually, in multiple swimlanes rather. And those frames could each represent a particular kind of entity. Maybe it's an action, maybe it's an actor, maybe it's an event. So there are two different ways of notation. I just like Signavio to give us the ability to choose that notation. Because some companies use BPMN and some use the EPC. And then, if the minute you make that change, I'd like them to give us the flexibility of having an already plotted or vertically plotted option. Moreover, I would like to see improvement in the visual part. It's the piece that needs improvement. Currently, you can plot the diagram horizontally or vertically. However, I'd like the option to change the way the diagram is created, like switching between different notations.

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Milan Sterba

Senior Enterprise Architect at Deepview S.r.o.

Efficient documentation generation through organized model structure with a good price-performance ratio

Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not easy for even experienced users to find their way without guidance. This is not the most user-friendly solution.

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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

"The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are the centralized repository and the automatic rendering of diagrams."

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

"The matrix model makes building relations easier."

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

"In addition to our applications, we have also stored, in ARIS, the footprint of where those applications have been implemented. That means we know in which country a given application has been implemented. With embedded geolocation, we have a very visual world map, where we can see the footprint of each application."

"Collaboration and governance over enterprise artifacts."

"It helps the business make an informed decision."

"The capability to integrate all information of the business and to generate simulations of processes. It can analyze the model of operations quickly."

More ARIS BPA pros

"The reason we chose Signavio is it's a very robust industrial-grade business process modeling data tool, with data capture behind it, as well as a collaborative nature. A lot of it comes out of the box and requires less technology involvement. It can be run well by the business users. That's what we really like about it."

"The collaboration function in the project views is valuable because people can comment on the processes and we can respond."

"A complete business project management suite which seems to open endless possibility."

"This product has helped us to work within standards for process planning."

"The collaboration hub, which helps us in terms of being able to communicate with our customers, brings everybody into the tool and close to the process, allowing them to comment and to implement their own processes."

"I use SAP Signavio Process Manager to model processes to the former operating model."

"Process Manager supports end-to-end transformation. Students can better understand end-to-end activity and processes as well as how they are run. For teaching, it's process discovery, then modeling, and finally optimization and simulation, partly. Typically, we showcase some simulation of the processes, and this is where we finish. That is why we validate that it's properly designed, but also what are the outcomes of modeled processes. There are also options for discussion on process optimization."

"This is one of the best solutions and it is easy to implement."

More SAP Signavio Process Manager pros

"It is a useful tool for modeling and testing automated processes."

"The advantages of Enterprise are that it's cheaper and much more practical than MagicDraw."

"Some of the business processes are very easy to compare when you have the diagrams."

"The solution is easy to use, supports SysML and UML, and is able to connect to MATLAB. This is very important for us."

"It is an EA tool that is approved by Open Group. It is in the tool register of Open Group."

"Provides a single repository for all architecture work."

"Scalable solution for modeling, project sharing, and collaboration. Support for it is good."

"It provides good utilization and it's a convenient tool for building exact architectural work."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pros

Cons

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

"The solution's processes are huge and it is not easy to get an overview of how things work. It needs to improve the interface. I would like to see the product include a better overview of processes and improve search."

"We should have the ability to download ARIS EPCs to Visio."

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

"The tool must provide more documents."

"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 tool needs to improve its support since they take long to respond."

"The product is difficult to use for someone without prior knowledge of working with it. It requires a certain level of administration training."

More ARIS BPA cons

"It is difficult to quickly digest the vast power of the suite and make use of those capabilities fully."

"I would like to see more predictive analytics. The tool already has all the process maps, but it could offer a more proactive improvement offering. For example, they could put a little bit more machine learning behind it."

"There is a lot of room for improvement. We've submitted a lot of OSS requests for special inputs we need, like glossary or dictionary entries in Quick Model. Currently, that's not functional."

"It could use a better user interface, one that is more efficient."

"The tool's navigation could be improved."

"There could be something more on the reporting side of it for the processes you have captured or processes that might be work in progress to see where to target your effort because you don't always have lots of resources to spare"

"The licensing model could be better."

"From what I have experienced when I worked with a process team, we would like to work with dummy process diagrams. Right now, I don't know if I would set up a process as a dummy, since it very often gets mixed up with diagrams in production. There are many process diagrams linked to the production environment. I would like to have some kind of sandbox to work with. That would be very good. I don't even know if they already have it, but I would certainly like that."

More SAP Signavio Process Manager cons

"It really did not work for logical modeling. The look is very old-fashioned. You can't make the diagrams easy on the eye, so we ended up drawing them again in Visio anyhow."

"The UI is a little bit outdated. It should be more fresh and clean."

"The modeling tool is targeted toward a sophisticated user."

"It would be great if we could decrease the use of different parts of the Toolbox."

"In general, we now have a problem with Sparx Enterprise Architect because many analysts think it's too complicated to use in a giant environment."

"For data modeling, it is not very mature when comparing with other data modeling tools."

"Its usability needs to be improved. For non-technical users, it is a little difficult to understand how Enterprise Architect works. Users who are not engineers find it difficult to understand how this tool works. This is something they need to work on. They can develop a BPM model to simulate processes."

"This solution has some limitations from a business perspective."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution has a fair price for the value it delivers."

"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."

"The product is inexpensive."

"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."

"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."

"We have a concurrent license system."

"The product is a bit pricey."

"The product is expensive."

More ARIS BPA pricing and cost advice

"I rate the tool's pricing a nine out of ten."

"We are only able to use the free academic licenses because we have a financial constraint. We are not able to pay for commercial licenses to use this kind of tool."

"I think we're spending about $150,000 a year on licensing costs."

"Although Signavio is a feature-rich solution, it is expensive for companies who haven’t reached a certain maturity level in their process management initiatives."

"I think that the price of the licenses is between $2,000 USD and $3,000 USD per license per year, plus the hub usage. I cannot remember the exact cost, but it is affordable."

"SAP Signavio charges a lot of money."

"Lower than the competition with highly flexible licensing plans."

"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

More SAP Signavio Process Manager pricing and cost advice

"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."

"Pricing and licensing is very attractive, simple, and straightforward."

"It’s the best deal in town, by far."

"In terms of cost, Sparx EA is probably one of the cheapest tools I have ever used."

"It's affordable. The only additional cost that we haven't yet figured out is the floating license. If you buy a floating license, you have to have a license management server, which comes at an additional cost that's not discussed. So, we haven't yet used the floating license. That’s because I haven't had a chance to figure that out."

"There is no license required for this solution."

"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access. You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less."

"It's reasonably priced for large organizations."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect 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.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Manufacturing Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Energy/Utilities Company

Educational Organization

18%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

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.

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?

I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying. I must write scripts, which requires speci...

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Which is better - Signavio Process Manager or Celonis?

SAP Signavio Process Manager is a very robust industrial-grade business process modeling tool. It is easy to use and ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Signavio Process Manager?

The visual representation is extremely powerful and easy to use in process modeling and analysis. I can show it to ...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Signavio Process Manager?

After SAP acquired Signavio, the prices increased significantly, making it too expensive for our small company to aff...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

One of the reasons many public sector institutions in the Czech Republic use it is that it provides a very good price...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not stra...

See all answers

Comparisons

ADONIS vs ARIS BPA

Compared 10% of the time

Camunda vs ARIS BPA

Compared 7% of the time

Bizagi vs ARIS BPA

Compared 6% of the time

Visio vs ARIS BPA

Compared 6% of the time

Lucidchart vs ARIS BPA

Compared 4% of the time

More ARIS BPA Competitors

Celonis vs SAP Signavio Process Manager

Compared 31% of the time

Camunda vs SAP Signavio Process Manager

Compared 8% of the time

Visio vs SAP Signavio Process Manager

Compared 5% of the time

ADONIS vs SAP Signavio Process Manager

Compared 5% of the time

Lucidchart vs SAP Signavio Process Manager

Compared 4% of the time

More SAP Signavio Process Manager Competitors

Visual Paradigm vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 16% of the time

Visio vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 11% of the time

No Magic MagicDraw vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 10% of the time

Lucidchart vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 8% of the time

Avolution ABACUS vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Compared 3% of the time

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA

May 2025

Download ARIS BPA product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Signavio Process Manager

May 2025

Download SAP Signavio Process Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

May 2025

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect report

Download Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect product report

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM

Signavio Process Editor

No data available

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

The Signavio portfolio of web-based business transformation solutions helps companies to understand and optimize all of their business processes quickly and at scale, providing instant insights for informed decision-making. Signavio’s intuitive analysis, change management and execution solutions around process excellence include use cases like digital transformation, operational excellence and customer-centricity, placing them at the heart of global organizations.

Over 1 million users in more than 1,500 organizations worldwide rely on Signavio products to make processes part of their company’s DNA. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Signavio was founded in 2009 to address the need for a collaborative approach to process management.

Signavio was acquired by SAP in the first quarter of 2021. For more information, visit www.signavio.com

SAP

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is an enterprise solution that helps streamline, accelerate, and integrate software, system, and business development. With this intuitive modeling and design solution, enterprises can stay in control of their workplaces, enable collaboration, support their teams and colleagues, and manage complex projects. Software architects, business analysts, project managers, developers, support staff, and testers can unite under a single repository. Through numerous view points and potential sub-systems, users are offered a unified view in a complex environment.

With Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, users are also offered a shared model option which can be accessed quickly and securely by in-office and remote team members through the Enterprise Architect’s Pro Cloud Server. Building a coherent, verifiable model can be done by connecting and integrating a variety of behavioral and structural information in visual form. As a result, Enterprise Architect offers high performance, flexibility, and the ability to model, manage, and trace every stage of the business development and modeling process.

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Features

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect assists in creating a unified and accessible vision in business development by offering a flexible platform with a unique set of rich features. These features include:

Test and debug - Streamline software development and visualize software with the simulation process. Users can test and confirm correct behavior, set and oversee test points, and debug and examine software.

Track tasks - Track, prioritize, and assign individual and group tasks to assist in the model’s development. Users can visually monitor their progress through the Gantt chart.

Open standards - Users can visualize and analyze running software with integrated custom tools. They can also run advanced simulations, team-based repositories, testing tools, and version control. In addition, the solution supports enterprise architecture frameworks such as UPDM and TOGAF.

Simulation - Create and debug embedded solutions by simulating behaviors and state models. Users can specify events, triggers, constraints, and more. Users can also specify extensive and complex structural systems and create custom domain-specific solutions.

Reviews from Real Users

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect merges high-end tools, online availability, a dedication to open standards, and accessible pricing so enterprises can stay in control of their workplaces, whether remote or in-office. Users particularly like the architectural frameworks and the scalability.

Marc L., a principal architecture enterprise solution adviser at Cronomagic Canada, notes, "The product offers very good support for all mainstream modeling notations and architectural frameworks."

An enterprise architect at a manufacturing company writes, "Scalable solution for modeling, project sharing, and collaboration. Support for it is good."

Sparx Systems

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.

DHL, Coca Cola EP, Prudential, Zalando, T-Systems, Jabil, Endress+Hauser, Rakuten

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Buyer's Guide

Business Process Design

May 2025

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