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ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager vs MetricStream vs RSA Archer 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 April 2026, in the GRC category, the mindshare of ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MetricStream is 3.1%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of RSA Archer is 5.6%, down from 16.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
GRC Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
RSA Archer5.6%
MetricStream3.1%
ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager1.4%
Other89.9%
GRC
 

Featured Reviews

BPMexp67 - PeerSpot reviewer
BPM Expert at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Covers the entire risk management cycle, from identification and evaluation to control, mitigation, and monitoring
The most effective features are the basic ones to evaluate and control risk. We have many specific small models inside of ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager, like issue management. These are smaller add-ons depending on the needs. You are including specific models as well. The basic ones do exactly what is required for risk management: identification, evaluation, control, mitigation, and modification. And, we have dashboards with the possibility to configure compliance policies and risk limits based on which we can create alarms. If there are maximum limits, we create alarms attached to the responsible people. Normally, there is someone that identifies the risk, and then you have the risk owner. These people [normal users] can send notifications to the risk owner, who will evaluate the risk and decide whether it's important to control it or not. I remember a project where the customer wanted to control all risks and assigned many people to identify them. They started identifying risks everywhere. After a few years, the customer realized that it didn't make sense to control all of them. So, they created limits—levels of risk the company was willing to accept because it was more expensive to implement controls than to manage the risk. So, regarding ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager, you can implement all the risks and policies you can imagine because it's very customizable. You can customize a lot of things.
JQ
Owner at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Centralized risk libraries have streamlined audits and now highlight clunky workflows and upgrades
MetricStream can be improved in several areas. Sometimes the overall flow of the application can seem a bit clunky, based on feedback from clients. From my understanding and what I have heard from developers within MetricStream during my deeper use of the application, the application seems to have been developed within silos, and the interaction of certain applications internally could definitely be improved in terms of the overall coding that exists between applications within the solution. The only improvement I suggest for MetricStream is to gather a collaborative think tank from several of the largest clients and compile feedback to prioritize suggested enhancements from multiple organizations.
CJ
Information Security Specialist at Dubai Health Authority
Centralized management strengthens compliance with good look and feel
From my perspective as a customer and end user, Archer has an impressive look and feel, but the most adaptive feature is its ease of configuration which helps to enhance our process according to our maturity. It's more about our organization getting centralized with an integrated approach that focuses on risk governance and compliance. When can provide a detailed dashboards to management with the details of risks from top-down or bottom-up prioritizing actions based on its criticality or necessity. This allows us to show end users and management where the issues lie and effectively demonstrate accountability and visibility in compliance.

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 feature is the risk testing, where you can attach your processes to the risk, and automatically generate all of the tests."
"The most valuable feature is the risk testing, where you can attach your processes to the risk, and automatically generate all of the tests."
"We can set it so that for a specific risk, or for all risks if we want, people will receive automatic notifications to do the evaluation and implement or test the control at a set interval, like every six months or every year."
"Key features are usability and ease of configuration. It allows us to have all the information in a single place and provide real-time indicators and information for our executives."
"Key features are usability and ease of configuration, and it allows us to have all the information in a single place and provide real-time indicators and information for our executives."
"It has good features and good functionality, and our customers feel there is a lot of merit in that."
"Since implementing MetricStream, audit teams have shaved about two weeks off of annual planning across various teams, allowing audit departments of about 140 auditors across maybe 10 teams to squeeze in 10 extra audits, one audit per each team, if not additional testing."
"The interface is mobile-friendly and it is getting a good response from our customers."
"It is enterprise-wide accessible, so it is very helpful for all the employees in our bank, with inbuilt modules for issue management, risk identification, risk assessment, and policy exception management, plus intuitive workflows and a self-explanatory user interface that can be customized to meet our requirements."
"RSA Archer's best features are advanced workflow, reports, dashboards, and notifications."
"RSA Archer's best features are advanced workflow, reports, dashboards, and notifications."
"Among the most valuable features of this solution is the easy implementation and the degree of automation that it offers."
"With this tool, once it was built and designed, we were able to use our own internal resources, we don't need to go outside, all of the questions are already there, the policies and procedures are already built-in and you just need to tweak them a bit, so it helps us just in understanding what's there on the ground and overall it saves us a lot of money to be spent if we are taking care of these services individually."
"Archer has simplified our security audits. It's made it easier to raise and trigger questionnaires to customers."
"The helpful features of RSA Archer include providing an integrated overview of the landscape in the company, which leads the user to use the same inventory and other components, sharing the same set of references and objects we are working on."
"Community content in the Archer Exchange is very valuable."
 

Cons

"In future releases, I would like to see more features around AI (artificial intelligence)."
"I would like to see the modeling less strict so that connectors can be more flexible."
"I would like to see the modeling less strict so that connectors can be more flexible."
"MetricStream's scalability is adaptable, though the biggest issue I have encountered with clients has been around upgrades that require re-implementing customizations to the out-of-box solutions after significant upgrades."
"I would like to see out-of-the-box integration with more security, it would be helpful."
"We would like to have more dashboards and reports, such as geographical and trend reports in the next version."
"We would like to have more dashboards and reports, such as geographical and trend reports in the next version. Also, an improvement in the mobile version would be helpful."
"I would like to see out-of-the-box integration with more security, it would be helpful."
"I would like to see real-time data, from vulnerabilities, and threats."
"It's resource-hungry, that's the best way of putting it."
"The technology's a little outdated."
"I find the tech support to be inadequately knowledgeable."
"The solution can be a little slow due to the Silverlight feature."
"We evaluated Archer but at the time its poor support for Basel (e.g. cap allocation) was a deal stopper for us."
"I find the tech support to be inadequately knowledgeable."
"Because I have not upgraded, the graphical user interface is not the current one. It is not very modern and as user-friendly as it could be."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"They are flexible in terms of customers' needs."
"As I am a developer and responsible for providing production support, I do not have personal knowledge of the pricing. However, my colleagues claim that it is very expensive in comparison with other tools."
"Fairly highly-priced, especially for smaller companies."
"I am not sure about other companies, but it's quite expensive."
"At the higher end of the price scale, but provides better, more accessible functionality and customization than cheaper products."
"The solution is not at all a cheap product."
"The price of the solution is very affordable."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"I am not 100% familiar with that, especially with their new model. I just know that the way they've licensed per user to scale is good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
21%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Insurance Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

What is your primary use case for ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager?
I recommend it to my customers. Sometimes, we follow the normal cycle: risk identification, then evaluation, then mit...
What advice do you have for others considering ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager?
At this moment, I would recommend this tool. This is the tool I know more than the others. I know a little bit about ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS Risk and Compliance Manager?
We have some nominated licenses, which are per user, and concurrent licenses. The concurrent licenses are more expens...
What are the main differences between RSA Archer, MetricStream and IBM OpenPages?
RSA Archer, IBM OpenPages and MetricStream are the top GRC software solutions in the market today. Out of the 3, IBM ...
What needs improvement with RSA Archer?
While it provides benefits in terms of security, the pricing is a bit higher than customers typically expect. It woul...
What is your primary use case for RSA Archer?
Regarding the compliance, risk, and governance tools, I am comfortable discussing the tools in the GRC category. The ...
What advice do you have for others considering RSA Archer?
I have been in touch with about three companies who use RSA Archer actively in the compliance area. These companies u...
 

Also Known As

No data available
No data available
Archer
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Alicorp, Tesco, Dubai Municipality, Emirates NBD, Suva - ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as being in the market of business process management for more than 30 years, serving users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, ACCO Brands Corporation, AgFirst Farm Credit Bank, AIB International, Associated Banc-Corp, BAE Systems, Barclaycard, Dell Inc, DIRECTV, Energizer, Fresenius Kabi, Hasbro, Goodyear, HudsonCity Savings Bank, Infigen Energy, Kaydon, Leroy Merlin, Mountry Financial Corp., Nicholas Piramal, Pepco, Pfizer, Societe Generale, Whitney Bank
T-Systems, Bridge Point, Equifax, First Data, Global Imaging Company, Manulife Financial
Find out what your peers are saying about RSA, OneTrust, Diligent and others in GRC. Updated: March 2026.
885,728 professionals have used our research since 2012.