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AWS Well-Architected Tool vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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

AWS Well-Architected Tool
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
24th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
erwin Data Modeler
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (7th), Data Governance (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of AWS Well-Architected Tool is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 8.4%, down from 8.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
erwin Data Modeler8.4%
AWS Well-Architected Tool1.4%
Other90.2%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

Dayanand-Ksheemakaari - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Solution Architecht at GlobalLogic
Has an efficient adaptability feature and helps us set up a high-performing architecture.
We use the product for building enterprise applications with the help of microservice technology The tool helps us establish a baseline for the architecture. Our organization can follow all guidelines and adhere to the industry standards to set up a high-performing architecture. The product's…
Sushree Panigrahi - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product's most valuable feature is adaptability."
"Another feature of erwin is that it can help you enforce your naming standards. It has little modules that you can set up and, as you're building the data model, it's ensuring that they conform to the naming standards that you've developed."
"It reduces monthly savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Think about a company like Costco and all of the points of sale systems in Costco, all of the systems, the applications, but if all the applications in Costco all had their own data model, trying to integrate those, upgrade them and manage their different versions of the same model throughout the store, is an absolute nightmare. It's phenomenally expensive. This helps reduce that cost significantly. I'm talking on the orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars."
"It has made a lot of difference in terms of naming standards, processes around our metadata, and the schema in which we create a database."
"It's important to create standard templates — Erwin is good at that — and you can customize them. You can create a standard template so that your models have the same look and feel. And then, anyone using the tool is using the same font and the same general layout. erwin's very good at helping enforce that."
"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."
"Erwin is by far the best tool I've ever used."
"The most valuable feature is the physical or visual representation of the database, showing the tables, the columns, the foreign keys, and the ability to generate DDL, so you can physically implement databases."
"The product allows us to reuse entities and attributes."
 

Cons

"They could provide a simplified process for building and deploying solutions in the cloud."
"As someone who has used it for a long time, I have seen stability vary from version to version."
"What I did not like was that sometimes while I was creating relations, I was not getting errors. The errors only appeared when I tried to upload the model into a new database, which took a lot of time because I was creating a model, reproducing XML, and then trying to add the XML in the database."
"The report generation has room for improvement. I think it was version 8 where you had to use Crystal Reports, and it was so painful that the company I was with just stayed on version 7 until version 9 came out and they restored the data browser. That's better than it was, but it's still a little cumbersome. For example, you run it in erwin, then export it out to Excel, and then you have to do a lot of cosmetic modification. If you discover that you missed a column, then you would have to rerun the whole thing. Sometimes what you would do is just go ahead and fix it in the report, then you have to remember to go back and fix it in the model. Therefore, I think the report generation still could use some work."
"Although Quest Software has made tremendous strides in recent years, they need to evolve more in the big data arena; erwin Data Modeler could use a little more work when it comes to big database designs."
"The UI in erwin Data Modeler can be improved significantly because when any new person opens the tool, all the toolbars are kept open with many tools in view, making it appear chunky."
"I still use Visio for conceptual modeling, and that's mainly because it is easier to change things, and you can relax some of the rules."
"I would like to see the reporting capabilities be more dynamic and more inclusive of information. The API is very sparsely understood by people across the user community."
"In terms of improvements, support could have been better in terms of installation, especially of workgroups. We struggled quite a bit to get it up and running. Collaboration could have been better from an installation perspective, but it is trivial as compared to what we use it for. Other than that, I don't have much feedback. It works pretty well, and the fact that we've been using it for more than a decade shows that it is quite solid."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform’s pricing depends on the specific project requirements."
"The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."
"Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money."
"erwin is expensive compared to other solutions. We are paying almost $6,000 per seat a month."
"The tool is expensive."
"The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."
"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"Pricing is very high compared to any other product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise44
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing process is painful and quite onerous. The setup is okay, but there is room for improvement.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
Regarding improvements, the first thing I would mention is that every release has some issues, some of which are related to current functionalities, which means they often seem not very well tested...
What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
My main use case for erwin Data Modeler is to implement a single data architecture design department so everyone is using erwin Data Modeler for their data models to be a transactional application ...
 

Also Known As

AWS Well Architected Tool
erwin DM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CyberAgent, Inc., nClouds
 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Find out what your peers are saying about Quest Software, SAP, SAP LeanIX and others in Enterprise Architecture Management. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.