Atlan vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

Atlan and Quest Software are both solutions in the Data Governance category. Atlan is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.1, while Quest Software is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.4. Atlan holds a 2.1% mindshare in DG, compared to Quest Software’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Atlan users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

Atlan

Read 8 Atlan reviews

1,456 Views
1,427 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler

Read 46 erwin Data Modeler reviews

5,210 Views
156 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Atlan

erwin Data Modeler

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Atlan and erwin Data Modeler based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Data Governance solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Atlan vs. erwin Data Modeler Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Atlan vs. erwin Data Modeler

December 2025

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Helped 881,114 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

Atlan

Ranking in Data Governance

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Metadata Management (5th)

erwin Data Modeler

Ranking in Data Governance

15th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd), Business Process Design (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Atlan is 2.1%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 0.3%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Atlan	2.1%
erwin Data Modeler	0.3%
Other	97.6%

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Peter Neumann

IT consultant at Pathfinder

Has struggled to meet business needs but supports technical data exploration and transparency

Atlan can be improved by concentrating more on business data since it is developed from developers for developers, and it needs to be more business relevant. For instance, when re-importing data model diagrams, Atlan provides some diagram automation that is not connected to the business glossary, which I consider a significant fault. Atlan needs to improve by focusing more on the business side of data, not only on technical aspects.If you want to focus on technical considerations, it would be beneficial to have an interface with a real business data modeling tool such as Erwin or other business data tools, since data modeling is not the same as Draw.io. Additionally, Atlan can improve its workflows, which are hard to understand. Working with templates, Excel import, export, and running automations is not self-explanatory, and you always need help from Atlan support team. If business people want to use it and run their own reports, it must be easier to customize for their business needs.

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Sushree Panigrahi

Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.

Data modeling has transformed regulatory reporting and collaboration across cloud environments

In erwin Data Modeler, areas that have room for improvement include performance improvements. I see that large models sometimes cause it to be slow when opening. Impact analysis can lag as well. Version control is another aspect. If we have developed a current version, it is not integrated with Git where we can easily compare different versions. UI modernization is also something we cannot utilize as it is primarily for development. Additionally, cloud-specific optimizations are needed when it comes to Snowflake or Databricks. When it comes to AI aspects, auto-suggestions for normalization or identifying primary, foreign, or surrogate keys are areas that can be improved.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Overall, I rate Atlan as a ten out of ten."

"The best feature of Atlan is its integration with communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so business users don't have to go into a data catalog to see metadata about data assets."

"As a senior analytics engineer, Atlan's ability to show end-to-end data lineage is the most important feature for me."

"They also offer automated lineage embedded in the connectors, allowing us to track where the data is coming from and where it's going. We find it very efficient in cataloging data sources. Additionally, the user-friendly interface is a big plus, making it easy for users to familiarize themselves with the solution. These two features, in my opinion, stand out the most."

"Atlan is helpful for identifying datasets and discovering PI data, such as the classification levels of datasets (gold, silver, bronze)."

"Atlas is quite intuitive."

"The best feature of Atlan is its integration with communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, so business users don't have to go into a data catalog to see metadata about data assets."

"Overall, I rate Atlan a nine out of ten."

More Atlan pros

"We find that its ability to generate database code from a model for a wide array of data sources cuts development time. The ability to create one model in your design phase and then have it generate DDL code for Oracle or Teradata, or whichever environment you need is really nice. It's not only nice but it also saves man-hours of time. You would have to take your design and just type in manually. It has to take days off out of the work."

"We can create mappings in erwin and possibly data dictionaries."

"I have worked with erwin Data Modeler for quite some time and familiarity is its most valuable feature."

"The most valuable features are being able to visualize the data in the diagrams and transform those diagrams into physical database deployments. These features help, specifically, to integrate the data. When the source data is accumulated and modeled, the target model is in erwin and it helps resolve the data integration patterns that are required to map the data to accommodate a model."

"I have used most of the modeling tools available, but I found that erwin Data Modeler is the most suitable data modeling tool in our current industry."

"It supports a wide variety of databases, including the latest ones. We have chosen to go for a cloud-based database, and it supports that, which is very useful."

"The fitting model is very intuitive."

"The process of creating visual representations of data structures using erwin Data Modeler allows you to see everything you are doing, and you have visuals to see what you are going to do and what has been done so far."

More erwin Data Modeler pros

Cons

"Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly."

"The challenge is in the lineage, where it requires improvement."

"There are some improvements. There is a feature called Playbooks, which basically allows me to automate certain activities that would otherwise be manual. It's a very interesting feature, but there is room to improve it because, depending on the task you automate, the playbooks seem to have a hard time handling the task. So, it could be improved there. Even though it's a great feature, it can evolve further."

"Certain UI changes could make Atlan more user-friendly."

"One area that could be improved is the capability to find duplicates of datasets."

"One of the main areas for improvement is its governance capabilities. Atlan supports only basic out-of-the-box workflows, and it becomes challenging to customize features like how data owners should approve access to data assets."

"The product could be improved by offering scheduled email reports for managed assets."

"One area that could be improved is the capability to find duplicates of datasets."

More Atlan cons

"Erwin Data Modeler is a good product, but I recently experienced a problem where I was not able to open an erwin Data Modeler file because its version had automatically changed."

"It has a very steep learning curve, limited support for NoSQL or streaming systems, and potentially a high licensing cost."

"The reverse engineering in Oracle Databases needs improvement, as there are issues."

"I find the UI very clunky and very difficult to use. If I add columns to a table the whole workflow could be so much easier. I get frustrated using it. I've tried other tools. I've tried to get off of erwin a few times. I always come back to it because every tool has its own set of problems, and it seems like if I have to pick my poison, I stay with erwin. But so many things that are clunky with it."

"We can only get licenses through partners."

"The price should be reduced."

"erwin generally fails to successfully reverse engineer our Oracle Databases into erwin data models. The way that they are engineered on our side, the syntax is correct from an Oracle perspective, but it seems to be very difficult for erwin to interpret. What I end up doing is using Oracle Data Modeler to reverse engineer into the Oracle data model, then forward engineer the DDL into an Oracle syntax, and importing that DDL into erwin in order to successfully bring in most of the information from our physical data models. That is a bit of a challenge."

"I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory."

More erwin Data Modeler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay per-user license. It's a different classification model than with other solutions, where they usually charge you for resources. So, that was a better model for us. And because of this difference in models or classification, it was cheaper for us to go with Atlan."

"The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."

"There is either a one-year or three-year license. It is not a pay-as-you-go license like a SaaS solution. It’s more of a traditional licensing. They are a little bit on the pricier side."

"It is not a very expensive solution. Only the licensing and maintenance fee needs to be paid."

"The tool is expensive."

"Likewise, the solution is a little pricey."

"The primary reasons that erwin was selected were that it was much more affordable for us [than Embarcadero] and it was easily maintainable."

"I don't specifically know what we're paying now. About three years ago, in another organization, I have this memory of 6,000 AUD a seat or something like that, but I am not sure. In the mid-2000s, it was something like 1,200 AUD a seat. I get the impression that there was a price jump when it was spun off from CA as a separate company, which is understandable, but it could sometimes be a barrier in some organizations picking it up. I haven't talked to erwin people yet, but I'm going to suggest to them that they could perhaps think of having an entry-level product that is priced a bit lower, and then, you can buy the extra suite."

"erwin is expensive compared to other solutions. We are paying almost $6,000 per seat a month."

More erwin Data Modeler pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	34

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlan?

Atlas is competitively priced compared to other data governance platforms like Collibra and Informatica. The only major drawback is its lack of an integrated data quality module.

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What needs improvement with Atlan?

Atlan can be improved by integrating agents that can support users in finding assets of interest.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Atlan?

Atlan is used as a data catalog and a data governance tool. The primary idea for implementing Atlan for data cataloging in day-to-day work was to create a business data catalog to support asset dis...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

Regarding pricing, I am unsure what the exact price is for erwin Data Modeler, but I believe it is not useful for an individual. It is more targeted toward an enterprise level since organizations l...

See all answers

What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I write code and I write code accessing erwin Data Modeler's API, the Application Programming Interface, so that I can use Excel to update erwin Data Modeler and then get those updates and put them...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I work for CVS with a pretty big database as a data modeler on the PBMs, the Caremark PBM side, which is the Pharmacy Benefits Manager. There's a retail side too for all the stores, but our data wa...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Atlan

Compared 37% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Atlan

Compared 16% of the time

Alation Data Catalog vs Atlan

Compared 12% of the time

Collibra Platform vs Atlan

Compared 9% of the time

Varonis Platform vs Atlan

Compared 5% of the time

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SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 41% of the time

IDERA ER/Studio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 11% of the time

Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 7% of the time

Visio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 5% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 4% of the time

More erwin Data Modeler Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Atlan

January 2026

Download Atlan product report

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler

January 2026

Download erwin Data Modeler product report

Also Known As

No data available

erwin DM

Overview

Atlan is a comprehensive data management platform designed to enhance data democratization, governance, and collaboration across departments in organizations. It offers a centralized data catalog, intuitive user interface, and robust governance framework to ensure data security and compliance. Users appreciate its efficiency in streamlining processes, promoting better communication, and providing insightful analytics, which drive organizational growth and success.

Atlan

Erwin Data Modeler provides an effective approach to visualizing and managing data models. It assists in creating, reversing, and synchronizing data models with ease, supporting logical and physical transitions while enhancing understanding across teams.

Erwin Data Modeler is a comprehensive tool designed for professional database management. It offers capabilities to organize and enforce standards, automating script generation with robust reverse engineering and DDL output. Users can manage complex data environments, capitalize on integration with data intelligence, and maintain large-scale databases smoothly. Despite its strengths, improvements in multi-language support, database integration, and reporting features are needed. Users benefit from extensive support for conceptual, logical, and physical database modeling, enhancing architectural design and data governance for platforms like SQL Server, Oracle, and Teradata.

What are the key features of Erwin Data Modeler?

Visual Representation: Facilitates clear visualization of data models, aiding comprehension.
Versioning and Editing: Enhance usability with versioning and bulk editing capabilities.
Reverse Engineering: Offers powerful tools for reverse engineering and DDL generation.
Integration: Aligns with data intelligence to streamline database management.
Naming Standards: Enforces consistency with automated script creation.

What benefits should users consider in Erwin Data Modeler reviews?

Collaboration: Promotes team understanding and collaboration through visual tools.
Automation: Reduces manual effort through automated processes and integration.
Scalability: Handles large database management efficiently, crucial for enterprise settings.
Data Governance: Facilitates effective data governance with structured modeling.

Erwin Data Modeler finds application in industries focused on robust data management, implementing it for enterprise data warehouses, business domain models, and operational systems. It supports architectural design and governance, aligning with business applications demanding precise data representation and visualization.

Quest Software

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples

Buyer's Guide

Atlan vs. erwin Data Modeler

December 2025

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