Collibra Lineage vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

Collibra and Quest Software are both solutions in the Data Governance category. Additionally, 90% of Collibra users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

Collibra Lineage

Read 10 Collibra Lineage reviews

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1,330 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler reviews

95% willing to recommend

Collibra Lineage

erwin Data Modeler

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Executive Summary

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Collibra and others in Data Governance.

To learn more, read our detailed Data Governance Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Data Governance

July 2025

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Helped 865,384 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

Collibra Lineage

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Governance (10th)

erwin Data Modeler

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (4th), Business Process Design (10th)

Featured Reviews

Prabhjyot Singh

Data and Analytics Manager at BMO Financial

Faster and more efficient than manual methods or other tools like Informatica

The main differences between Collibra Lineage and Informatica are significant, particularly for small to mid-sized organizations. First, Informatica requires a dedicated team, which incurs a huge cost, making it less suitable for smaller organizations. Second, Informatica's tools are very scattered. For instance, to create a domain, you need to use Axon, and then for lineage, you must use EDC. For profiling, Informatica Developer or Analyst is required. These different tools are not well-connected to display everything on one screen. While Informatica is trying to improve with its cloud version, not many users have adopted it yet. These are the two main areas where Informatica lags.

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JorgeSanz

Data Governance Senior Advisor at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Streamline data modeling and automate network changes for increased efficiency

The initial setup depends on the tool if you are using the data model environment. Stopping the server could be complex and require strong expertise. If you have everything set up and configured, Erwin is straightforward. You can deploy it in a few hours. In our case, it took a couple of months to address internal conditions, assign machines, and set up everything for the services. I rate the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

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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

"We find the most valuable feature of this solution to be the lineage aspect."

"The integration with other Collibra Lineage products is valuable in our data governance initiatives."

"The diagrams are good for data visualization."

"The solution allowed us to quickly and efficiently implement our data governance operating model, including accountabilities, regulatory lineage, and data dictionaries. This was much faster and more efficient than manual methods or other tools like Informatica. I prefer Collibra Lineage for its self-service capabilities."

"The solution has very good online assistance."

"The best features of Collibra Lineage include its ability to map data flows and provide clear visualizations."

"The main benefits that Collibra Lineage provides include measurable advantages."

"The most valuable features of Collibra Lineage are the multiple options for automation. Additionally, if you have a scenario where automation does not work, you have the option to manually create the lineage. The solution does not force you to always go through an automated way where you have broken lineage and you are stuck without a lineage."

More Collibra Lineage pros

"The product allows us to reuse entities and attributes."

"Any tool will do diagramming but I think the ability to put the stuff up in a graphical fashion, then think about it, and keep things consistent is what's valuable about it. It's too easy when you're using other methods to not have naming consistent standards and column consistent definitions, et cetera."

"The data lineage feature is very valuable."

"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 provides flexibility with the code. You can change the code as you want. Basically, you can change SQL based on what's best for your project."

"Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution."

"Being able to point it to a database and then pull the metadata is a valuable feature. Another valuable feature is being able to rearrange the model so that we can display it to users. We are able to divide the information into subject areas, and we can divide the data landscape into smaller chunks, which makes it easier to understand. If you had 14 subject areas, 1,000 entities, and 6,000 columns, you can't quite understand it all at once. So, being able to have the same underlying model but only display portions of it at a time is extremely useful."

"The visual data models for helping to overcome data source complexity and enabling understanding and collaboration around maintenance and usage are excellent. A picture speaks 1,000 words. Seeing a picture that shows you how the data relates to each other helps you better understand what the data is and how to use it. Pairing that information with a dictionary, which has the definitions of the tables and columns or the entities and attributes, ensures that the users understand what the data is so that they can use it best and most successfully."

More erwin Data Modeler pros

Cons

"It would be better if features like the privacy module and AI-based Collibra DQ were included in one package instead of being separate and requiring additional costs. Currently, the basic package covers lineage and documentation, but the extra modules come at an extra cost."

"I experience occasional downtime, bugs, and some glitches."

"Before you can use this solution, you have to make a lot of changes to how you measure your information in your organization, the data governance and policies, and the organizational structures that use them. Many companies believe that if they purchase the licenses for the tool that they have done the job, but this is far from the case with this tool."

"If a developer implements ETL in Glue or PySpark, Collibra cannot capture lineage out of that."

"The product must be cheaper."

"Collibra Lineage could improve connectively. If they can offer more out-of-the-box connectors, which come as in a package compared to you having to go and buy a lot in the marketplace for certain specific connectors."

"We would like this solution to be able to connect directly to the databases, so we can pull directly from Databank without manual intervention."

"I have seen many customers moving away from Collibra Lineage after using it for a couple of years because the cost-benefit analysis does not give them a favorable report."

More Collibra Lineage cons

"Some Source official systems give us DDLs to work with and they have contents not required to be part of the DDL before we reverse engineer in the erwin DM. Therefore, we manually make changes to those scripts and edit them, then reverse-engineer within the tool. So, it does take some time to edit these DDL scripts generated by the source operational systems. What I would suggest: It would be helpful if there were a place within the erwin tool to import the file and automatically eliminate all the unnecessary lines of code, and just have the clean code built-in to generate the table/data model."

"I would like to see more support for working with the big-data world. There are so many new databases evolving and it's very hard for them to keep up with all of the new technologies. It would be good if they were able to dynamically support big-data platforms, other than Hive and Teradata."

"One of the best aspects of the tool is its reverse engineering capability."

"The erwin ETL functionality has room for improvement when it comes to mapping databases with a classic entity-relationship model to a data warehouse model."

"It does not have a cloud application."

"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."

"I love the product. I love the ability to get into the code, make it automated, and make it do what I want. I would like to see them put some kind of governance over the ability to make changes to the mart tables with the API, so that instead of just using the modeler's rights to a table -- it has a separate set of rights for API access. That would give us the ability to put governance around API applications. Right now a person with erwin and Excel/VBA has the ability to make changes to models with the API if they also have rights to make changes to the model from erwin. It's a risk."

"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."

More erwin Data Modeler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are different licenses available for Collibra Lineage based on what kind of access you want. If you want, for example, a read-only license they have different ones to pick from."

"It's expensive, especially for small companies."

"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."

"I wish it wasn't so expensive. I would love to personally buy a copy of my own and have it at home, because the next job that I'm looking at is probably project management and I might not have access to the tool. I would like to keep my ability to use the tool. Therefore, they should probably have a pricing for people like me who want to just use the solution as an independent consultant, trying to get started. $3,000 is a big hit."

"An issue right now would be that erwin doesn't have a freely available browser (that I am aware of) for people who are not data modelers or data engineers that a consumer could use to look at the data models and play with it. This would not be to make any changes, but just to visually look at what exists. There are other products out there which do have end user browsers available and allow them to access data models via the data modeling tool."

"erwin has this option where you pay a one-time fee and you have the license for six years, which makes sense because I don't upgrade my database engine every other year. I have an application that depends on it. This is something weird about PowerDesigner. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."

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

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

"The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."

"erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution."

More erwin Data Modeler pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Insurance Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Collibra Lineage?

The solution makes data more discoverable and transparent.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Collibra Lineage?

The licensing cost depends on our requirements.

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What needs improvement with Collibra Lineage?

There are areas of improvement in Collibra Lineage, including pricing, support, and reporting. Regarding pricing, it is somewhat expensive, and I think it could be more cost-efficient.

See all answers

What do you like most about erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.

See all answers

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

The product is expensive. I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

As a documenting tool, it's solid, though its reporting could be more robust. The reporting mechanisms could be more intuitive regarding report creation. It can generate reports in CSV files, displ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Collibra Lineage

Compared 74% of the time

MANTA Flow vs Collibra Lineage

Compared 9% of the time

erwin Data Intelligence vs Collibra Lineage

Compared 5% of the time

Alation Data Catalog vs Collibra Lineage

Compared 4% of the time

OneTrust DataGovernance vs Collibra Lineage

Compared 3% of the time

More Collibra Lineage Competitors

SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 36% of the time

IDERA ER/Studio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 18% of the time

Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 12% of the time

Visio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 6% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 6% of the time

More erwin Data Modeler Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Collibra Lineage

August 2025

Download Collibra Lineage product report

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler

August 2025

Download erwin Data Modeler product report

Also Known As

No data available

erwin DM

Overview

Data lineage reveals how data transforms through its life cycle across interactions with systems, applications, APIs and reports. Collibra Lineage automatically maps relationships between data to show how data sets are built, aggregated, sourced and used.

Collibra

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

AXA XL, DNB, Adobe, PMI, Holland America Line, UC Davis Health, Cox Automotive

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

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Informatica, Collibra and others in Data Governance. Updated: July 2025.

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