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ARIS BPA vs Visual Paradigm comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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
6.2
ARIS BPA varies in ROI timelines, enhancing process understanding and control but with hard-to-quantify financial impacts.
Sentiment score
6.5
Visual Paradigm improves efficiency and documentation, offering good ROI despite challenging free assessment, with benefits varying by usage duration.
The product did what it was supposed to do for the documentation development I was engaged in.
Software Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
ARIS BPA's support is praised for technical assistance and flexibility but could improve in responsiveness and communication.
Sentiment score
7.8
Visual Paradigm excels with responsive technical support, helpful community resources, and ease of use, despite limited regional support.
I would give ten points to the technical support from Software AG for ARIS BPA product, from zero to ten, with ten being the best.
Consultant at KAFD DMC
The consultants are fine, however, reliance on single experts for modules can be risky.
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
The tool was easy enough to use.
Software Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
We didn't use customer service extensively, but our questions were answered when needed.
Operational Analyst and Architect at Hobu Online
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
ARIS BPA is scalable for small to large enterprises, offering flexibility, modular features, and easy licensing for process management expansion.
Sentiment score
7.7
Visual Paradigm is seen as scalable for enterprise use, though opinions vary, with some noting challenges and a steep learning curve.
For user scalability, it is a matter of licenses, while functional scalability is supported and easy to implement.
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
ARIS BPA has high scalability and wide scalability for any enterprise or organization.
Enterprise Architect at Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Egypt
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
ARIS BPA is generally stable, with minor issues primarily in large environments, but responsive support enhances stability perception.
Sentiment score
8.3
Visual Paradigm is stable with minor hardware needs, achieving high satisfaction and occasional specific bug issues reported by users.
The stability of ARIS BPM is quite strong, rated eight out of ten.
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
We do experience a lot of glitches with ARIS BPA.
Consultant at KAFD DMC
 

Room For Improvement

ARIS BPA needs better integration, user interface, scripting, documentation, training, pricing, and simplicity for wider accessibility.
Visual Paradigm needs enhancements in integration, export features, UI design, performance, and pricing to meet user demands effectively.
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.
Software Engineering & Manager at Arab Infromation Management Services
Software AG could improve this by making the database more open.
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
ARIS BPA needs to be more accurate when generating documents.
Enterprise Architect at Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), Egypt
The product can always get better as the industry changes.
Software Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

ARIS BPA pricing is high but valued by large enterprises; smaller firms may find costs prohibitive due to complex licensing.
Visual Paradigm provides flexible pricing from $6 to $197, offering affordable options for both community and enterprise users.
ARIS BPA does save a lot of effort because this is one tool which can be used for multiple purposes and the viewers have the capability to perform different kinds of analysis, extract reports, and see processes.
Consultant at KAFD DMC
The free version of Visual Paradigm does not incur any setup costs and offers a set of usable features.
Operational Analyst and Architect at Hobu Online
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced.
Software Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

ARIS BPA offers powerful modeling, customization, and collaboration tools, integrating SAP and databases, ensuring strategic alignment and governance.
Visual Paradigm integrates diverse diagrams, supports enterprise architecture, and is favored for its intuitive interface and adaptability.
ARIS BPA is a tool to build models and frameworks for organizations or reengineer business processes from both functional and business perspectives.
Software Engineering & Manager at Arab Infromation Management Services
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.
Consultant at KAFD DMC
The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable.
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
It is user-friendly, and as you become more familiar with its deep features, you might consider upgrading to the paid version for more complex projects.
Operational Analyst and Architect at Hobu Online
In other drawing programs, if I moved a box, I had to move the arrow, but Visual Paradigm handled those tasks automatically.
Software Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

ARIS BPA
Ranking in Business Process Design
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (8th)
Visual Paradigm
Ranking in Business Process Design
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 6.6%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visual Paradigm is 4.9%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ARIS BPA6.6%
Visual Paradigm4.9%
Other88.5%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

BM
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.
reviewer2097357 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a aerospace/defense firm with 10,001+ employees
Innovation in diagramming has streamlined complex UML tasks
Visual Paradigm allowed me to create UML diagrams efficiently. The tool was smarter than other tools in terms of remembering the connections between components on the screen. For example, in other drawing programs, if I moved a box, I had to move the arrow, but Visual Paradigm handled those tasks automatically. This made it much quicker than using other tools like Visio or MagicDoor.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise7
 

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?
It is a bit expensive regarding ARIS BPA. However, ARIS BPA does save a lot of effort because this is one tool which can be used for multiple purposes and the viewers have the capability to perform...
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 and compliance checks features in ARIS BPA. We have plans to use them, but current...
What do you like most about Visual Paradigm?
The solution is the best application for data modeling. It helps to architect business processes. Its best features are pricing and functionality.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Paradigm?
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced, so I was fine with the pricing.
What needs improvement with Visual Paradigm?
The product can always get better as the industry changes, however, I didn't necessarily feel it was lacking for what I did with it.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
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.
Adobe, Apple, at&t, Caterpillar, Intel, NASA, Nokia, Toyota
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS BPA vs. Visual Paradigm and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.