ARIS BPA vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

Software AG and Sparx Systems are both solutions in the Business Process Design category. Software AG is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while Sparx Systems is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.1. Software AG holds a 7.7% mindshare in BPD, compared to Sparx Systems’s 10.6% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Software AG users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Sparx Systems users who would recommend it.

ARIS BPA

Read 66 ARIS BPA reviews

4,824 Views
3,926 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Read 99 Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect reviews

7,402 Views
5,479 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

ARIS BPA

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

ARIS BPA and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect compete in the business process modeling and enterprise architecture domains, respectively. ARIS BPA seems to have an edge in process modeling and comprehensive analysis, whereas Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect offers more flexibility and support for multiple modeling standards, which could be advantageous depending on user requirements.

Features: ARIS BPA provides extensive business process modeling capabilities with tools for thorough process analysis and optimization. It includes a robust integration framework and advanced relational database management, allowing enterprises to effectively manage IT, processes, and organizational elements. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect supports diverse modeling standards, such as UML, BPMN, and ArchiMate. It enables detailed code engineering and project management and excels at managing and reverse-engineering intricate software models for enterprise architecture.

Room for Improvement: ARIS BPA lacks a built-in execution engine, limiting its potential in automation. Its integration with other tools can be challenging and costly, suggesting a need for streamlined integration. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect has a steep learning curve and an outdated user interface, which may deter new users. Enhancements are needed in its data modeling capabilities and support for documentation generation and diagram consistency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: ARIS BPA supports various deployment infrastructures, including Hybrid Cloud, Public Cloud, and On-premises, enhancing flexibility but sometimes complicating the setup. Customer service is generally good, although support inconsistencies are reported. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is mostly On-premises with cloud options, known for competitive pricing and ease of setup, though its support may be inconsistent, needing improvements in responsiveness and clarity.

Pricing and ROI: ARIS BPA is expensive, using complex licensing schemes suited for large enterprises, potentially limiting accessibility for smaller firms. While process optimization can lead to significant ROI, it requires time. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is valued for its cost-effectiveness and lower licensing expenses, offering significant functionality which can lead to a faster ROI. Its affordability makes it an appealing option for organizations with budget constraints.

To learn more, read our detailed ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 849,686 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:

Categories and Ranking

ARIS BPA

Ranking in Business Process Design

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Management (BPM) (9th)

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Ranking in Business Process Design

3rd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd)

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 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.

Read full review

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.

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

"The ease of use is the most valuable. I have tried a number of BPMN packages, and I find the user interface of ARIS BPM easier and more intuitive than others. If your team is knowledgeable on BPMN, it is really pretty easy to figure out on your own because it adheres to the standards extremely well. I have tried Bizagi, BizFlow, and a variety of such solutions, and I just liked ARIS BPM better."

"The tool defines the processes. It's the documentation of everything."

"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."

"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."

"It helps to maintain a single source of truth regarding the processes followed within an organization."

"This solution has helped us in terms of discovering business processes."

"Collaboration and governance over enterprise artifacts."

"It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

More ARIS BPA pros

"For the most part, we find that it is remarkable how inexpensive it is."

"Scalability is not a problem. You can always increase the footprint of what the thing can do because it's so powerful."

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

"Using Sparx Enterprise Architect allowed my customer to detail and make the company's IT strategy visible and accessible to all. The system provided clear roadmaps for IT development and helped to keep up-to-date documentation of systems and processes."

"It's like a repository. So far, we use it only for Information Modelling."

"The solution allows us to quickly present designs and concepts to customers and get their feedback, thereby moving the project forward step by step."

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

"There are a couple of things. Price is one thing, but we also like the scriptability of it. We got into scripting it and automating tasks with it, and it is super duper easy to do and helpful. The API has improved over the years. We automate everything, and I love the automation aspects of it."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pros

Cons

"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 workflow approval process could be represented better in the overviews."

"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."

"I use it strictly for developing the business process model. I don't use it for the actual automation. I do that with Vtenext. I have standardized on Vtenext, and I don't use ARIS BPM anymore. The Vtenext UI is just as good, and it is much more tightly coupled to the underlying object model. I can get more done in one session with Vtenext rather than first going to ARIS BPM, then importing, and having to edit it for tight coupling."

"With ARIS BPM, the script creation is quite cumbersome. With version ten, we needed our developers to do scripting."

"End-to-end visibility and real-time are areas that will need greater attention."

"The model graphics can be exported in PDF, but the model is too small to read."

"Its governance tool and integration with ESB and execution engine can be improved. Their partner support can also be improved."

More ARIS BPA cons

"It should be made Windows compatible."

"The reporting needs improvement."

"Greater OMG UML and XMI compliance"

"The database management area was not usable."

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

"Their technical support is not good in India. I wrote to them because I had a question, but I never got an answer. So, I just left it behind."

"When the model is large, it is a bit slow to render."

"The stability and performance of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect could still be improved. Setup for it is also slightly complicated and could be improved."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"It depends on different parameters."

"The product is expensive."

"ARIS is quite expensive."

"The tool is expensive."

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

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

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

More ARIS BPA pricing and cost advice

"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."

"It is cheaper than other solutions. Its cost is around $686 per year. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"It is very economical and low cost. You have to pay for a one-time license, and it is active forever."

"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."

"I use my own license. So, I just bought the professional version, which costs $800 or something like that. In the company where I am working, we have floating licenses. They are probably more expensive. Its licensing is affordable, but we are talking about a large organization, and there could be modelers or viewers of the models. We don't know how much that would cost us."

"Enterprise licensing is competitive. What would be helpful if they load the pricing for consultants, you know, people who are consultants for clients. So the license is fine for end-user organizations. Still, they should consider lowering the license to support this adoption, particularly for people who are consultants like myself."

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

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."

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.

See recommendations

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

Educational Organization

18%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing 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 specific knowledge. Software AG could improve this by making the database more open. ...

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-performance ratio. While it might be cumbersome to learn, it still delivers exc...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

See all answers

Comparisons

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs ARIS BPA

Compared 25% of the time

ADONIS vs ARIS BPA

Compared 10% of the time

Camunda vs ARIS BPA

Compared 7% 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

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

LeanIX 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

April 2025

Download ARIS BPA product report

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

April 2025

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect report

Download Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect product report

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM

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

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.

OmniLink

Buyer's Guide

ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

April 2025

Free Report: ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect report.

See our list of best Business Process Design vendors.

We monitor all Business Process Design reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.