Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 September 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.2%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Signavio Process Manager is 9.3%, up from 8.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 9.5%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP Signavio Process Manager9.3%
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect9.5%
ARIS BPA7.2%
Other74.0%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Tamer Eldamanhouri - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Enas Selim - PeerSpot reviewer
Transforming banking process documentation with effective collaboration tools
The free trial needs to have more options for end users, such as including Process Intelligence as a trial version. Although mentioned on the website, the governance feature is not available in the free trial. More guidance from support is also needed, as users can get lost on the website when looking for specific features.
Milan Sterba - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I am an advanced user. ARIS BPM is intuitive for me because I know the UML, BPMN, and EPC methodologies implemented in this tool. It is very easy to create processes for restructuring a company with some descriptions."
"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."
"I reviewed ARIS BPA, and I noticed it was recommended by Gartner in 2024."
"We chose ARIS because of its good reputation and familiarity with Software AG Tools."
"Visualizes processes which helps the business see pain points."
"ARIS BPA is customizable as per specific business requirements."
"Collaboration and governance over enterprise artifacts."
"The solution's basic features are easy to use, overall designed well, and it has good process mining analysis."
"The solution provides data mining and AI features."
"It's way of handling is really an advantage. It's quite easy to use, without too much training . That's the main point for me."
"A complete business project management suite which seems to open endless possibility."
"The Collaboration Hub is especially useful for collaborative tasks and ensuring transparency across teams."
"I have done a lot of modeling over quite a number of years, and I think that the modeling capabilities in Signavio are state of the art."
"The drag-and-drop functionality in Signavio is impressive and user-friendly, allowing easy connection to other elements without the need for excessive back-and-forth."
"It is possible to do the whole drafting process at the same time in Sagnavio so you don't have a double effort of writing it once, arranging it and entering it again."
"Process management/Process governance is what we think Signavio is very good at."
"Provides a single repository for all architecture work."
"It's a stable and scalable solution. I like that it's similar to Rational Rose."
"Its ease of use and the breadth of the toolkit are most valuable. It has an incredible repository of artifacts to work with, and they're all cross-referenced. It works with a whole bunch of different standards. It works with BPMN, which is Business Process Modeling Notation, and it also works with something called TOGAF, which is the Open Group Architecture Foundation. There are different layers when you're dealing with architecture. There is the user interface, application, data, data servers, and all that kind of stuff. You have the infrastructure, hardware, and software layers, and then you have the application and business capability layers. You can model a business process and decompose it into all of the applications, data, and hardware to support it."
"Large variety of profiles and frameworks available out-of-the-box without the need for customization."
"Ability to model and create view under same roof."
"The solution is easy to use, supports SysML and UML, and is able to connect to MATLAB. This is very important for us."
"It's like a repository. So far, we use it only for Information Modelling."
"Ability to keep inventory of reusable blocks, and use in different diagrams with views of various templates."
 

Cons

"Create simple data uploader."
"They should make improvements as per customer requirements."
"With ARIS BPM, the script creation is quite cumbersome. With version ten, we needed our developers to do scripting."
"One of the issues is, when you are defining databases, the way they use entities and relationship diagrams, the way we can define data, like data models, there is still a part they could improve."
"The pricing of the solution can be improved and the initial setup should be made easy."
"The areas of ARIS where we see room for improvement are actually related to the background services that support it. Over the last number of years, Software AG has moved from an on-premises solution into deploying a SaaS solution to their enterprise base. That has been really successful from my point of view, as I have been a customer of ARIS, managing the relationship, for a couple years. Certain support functions around the knowledge base, customer service, and the cross and upselling of modules within the core ARIS component are lagging behind the SaaS movement."
"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."
"I could use more icons and other graphical elements.​"
"Its reporting feature could have customization options."
"The user management functionality in Process Manager is not as user friendly as the one in the Collaboration Hub."
"The reporting is too slow and there is a limit of 250 processes."
"There is always room for improvement is the capability of integration with other solutions."
"If you're going to use the tool the way I'm using it, which is to work with businesses and capture what they're thinking, it would be helpful to be able to insert other objects onto a diagram."
"Signavio already offers a wonderful range of functions. If variant management and customer journeys are optimized, Signavio can definitely bask in the glory of BPM tools. We also see optimization potential in the management of licenses, e.g. no named users but rather floating licenses and integration into the company's active directory."
"The collaboration and commenting are great. However, I think it would be more useful for people to get notifications of comments straight-away so we can react even quicker to them than we already can."
"I find it difficult to figure out how I can better align this solution with my KPIs."
"Greater OMG UML and XMI compliance"
"From a practical point of view, we need speed and reliability for creating a model and doing some really meaningful tasks such as application landscape, refactoring, etc. These are two primary criteria. Sometimes, when you import something, it creates the object duplicates, or it allows you to do something that you're not supposed to do. For example, validation is missing. This could be frustrating because when you work at a high speed, you need to come back and start fixing things that the tool allowed you to go with, which is not quite good. So, there should probably be some internal mechanisms to advise you about what you're doing and what is probably not the best idea."
"The areas of improvement should be focused on utility service such as producing better graphics, perhaps having a wider image library set and producing better models for working directly with customers."
"The user interface is not so good. It's not easy for someone to use it at first. The product takes some getting used to."
"It can be improved in the area of shared documentation. The idea is that the architecture tool can call back to an enterprise asset, pull that information, and link that as a sub-artifact."
"This solution should have better ease of use for the uninitiated."
"I would like to see integration with Confluence or any other TRM, and the capability to integrate with the data storage, such as a repository similar to GitHub."
"Even if there are web-based tools in the Enterprise Architecture tool ecosystem (like Prolaborate), the main modeling application is still a fat client application."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a concurrent license system."
"From my point of view, no, it is not cheap, but it is not too expensive because you get this big organization behind it, technical support, and all those things. It's not so expensive to use. It's a Rolls Royce in this field, I know that. Even for small organizations, they can get so much effect from using this tool, in a very fast way, so the money will be back in the customer's pocket very fast."
"I would recommend the product to only enterprise companies because of the pricing."
"ARIS is quite expensive."
"It is an expensive solution."
"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."
"The tool is expensive."
"Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay."
"It is expensive. The license is monthly."
"This solution provides really great value for the money."
"I rate the product price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"Lower than the competition with highly flexible licensing plans."
"The customer Journey Modeler is more than twice the price of Process Manager, which is a lot."
"The product is expensive."
"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."
"SAP Signavio charges a lot of money."
"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."
"There is no license required for this solution."
"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
"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."
"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access. You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less."
"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."
"It is cheap."
"In terms of cost, Sparx EA is probably one of the cheapest tools I have ever used."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Design solutions are best for your needs.
866,561 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
9%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ARIS BPA?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.
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.
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...
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 ...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Signavio Process Manager?
The price of SAP Signavio Process Manager was quite high but could be afforded by an organization with a sensitive da...
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.
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
Signavio Process Editor
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
OmniLink
Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, Microsoft, SAP and others in Business Process Design. Updated: August 2025.
866,561 professionals have used our research since 2012.