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ARIS BPA vs SAP Signavio Process Manager vs Visio 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
ARIS BPA improves operational resilience, transparency, and stakeholder alignment, offering significant time savings and enhanced management understanding.
Sentiment score
6.3
SAP Signavio Process Manager boost efficiency with cost savings, improved collaboration, streamlined processes, and future planning, though exact metrics vary.
Sentiment score
2.0
Visio enhances efficiency by saving time and improving document quality, offering significant ROI and better project delivery experience.
We can draw and document our processes, then analyze data within SAP Signavio Process Manager.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
ARIS BPA technical support is praised for responsiveness, though improvements in communication and complex issue handling are needed.
Sentiment score
7.0
SAP Signavio support is generally effective with rapid responses, but some users desire more consistency and cloud transition focus.
Sentiment score
5.5
Many users find Visio easy to use, often seeking support through internal resources, with mixed experiences when contacting Microsoft directly.
The consultants are fine, however, reliance on single experts for modules can be risky.
I would rate their technical support a ten.
While I like Microsoft products in general, the main issue is with the licensing options and the problems associated with them.
We generally resolve issues internally within our IT department rather than contacting Microsoft's technical support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
ARIS BPA is scalable and flexible, supporting cloud-based growth across industries despite its cost considerations, accommodating various deployments.
Sentiment score
7.5
SAP Signavio Process Manager is scalable and adaptable, supporting diverse projects efficiently with seamless deployment and easy user management.
Sentiment score
7.6
Visio's scalability varies; ease of use and integration work well for some, but limitations exist for larger expansions.
For user scalability, it is a matter of licenses, while functional scalability is supported and easy to implement.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
ARIS BPA is stable, with challenges in large environments; users appreciate performance improvements and responsive support.
Sentiment score
7.6
SAP Signavio Process Manager is praised for stability, high ratings, and quick bug fixes, ensuring reliable performance and user satisfaction.
Sentiment score
8.3
Visio's enhanced stability and performance make it a reliable tool for companies, despite occasional RAM needs for large models.
The stability of ARIS BPM is quite strong, rated eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

ARIS BPA is criticized for high costs, complexity, and integration challenges, needing significant training and better user interface.
SAP Signavio Process Manager needs UI updates, more ERP integration, enhanced features, and improved stability, documentation, and multilingual support.
Visio users seek enhanced templates, integration, pen support, intuitive layering, collaboration, data updates, export options, and a user-friendly interface.
Software AG could improve this by making the database more open.
Visio should implement more complex tools or graphics to facilitate processing and use flexible templates.
The visual icons and shapes for different vendors like Cisco network could be improved.
 

Setup Cost

ARIS BPA's high cost is justified for large enterprises, offering flexible options and extensive features with negotiable terms.
SAP Signavio Process Manager offers competitive pricing, flexible licensing, and comprehensive services despite increased costs post-SAP acquisition.
Visio pricing varies by version and licensing options, with discounts available for educational use and volume purchases.
After SAP acquired Signavio, the prices increased significantly, making it too expensive for our small company to afford.
If asked to rate the price, I would give it around nine points out of ten, indicating it is somewhat expensive.
 

Valuable Features

ARIS BPA features a centralized repository, robust analytics, integration options, customizable methods, and supports notations like BPMN and EPC.
SAP Signavio Process Manager optimizes workflows with intuitive features, collaboration tools, and seamless integration, supporting efficient process mapping.
Visio provides intuitive diagramming, seamless Office integration, collaboration tools, and customization, making it ideal for complex designs and automation.
The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable.
The ability to perform queries is a feature unique to SAP Signavio Process Manager, and it proves to be very useful for our needs.
Visio allows me to create detailed diagrams that provide value to customers by giving them a clear view of their network and devices.
Visio was quite useful in Word and PowerPoint, which I miss in draw.io.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.6%, down from 9.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Signavio Process Manager is 9.5%, up from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visio is 12.5%, down from 13.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Cirvesh-Daga - PeerSpot reviewer
Capable of handling a wide range of business processes but presents users complexity with two interfaces (Java application and web interface)
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. You can use either a Java application or a web interface. The web interface doesn't give you access to the same features as the Java application. You have to switch between the two interfaces to get some things done. The web interface is more intuitive, but it lacks the functionality of the Java interface. So I'd give it a six for that reason. The Java interface has more functionality, but it tends to run out of memory and has its own set of problems. So, I'd also give it a six out of ten because of the technology choice. It was really frustrating having two UIs for the same product, with some functionality in one and not in the other. They've got to do something about that.
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.
Tugrul TASCI - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

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.
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?
I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying. I must write scripts, which requires speci...
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?
After SAP acquired Signavio, the prices increased significantly, making it too expensive for our small company to aff...
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...
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...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
Signavio Process Editor
Microsoft Visio
 

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
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
Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, Microsoft, SAP and others in Business Process Design. Updated: May 2025.
855,080 professionals have used our research since 2012.