SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

erwin Data Modeler by Quest
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Database Design (1st), Business Process Design (9th)
SAP PowerDesigner
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler by Quest is 10.8%, up from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP PowerDesigner is 9.2%, up from 9.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management
Unique Categories:
Business Process Design
2.7%
Metadata Management
3.1%
 

Featured Reviews

DS
Jul 26, 2023
A tool that you can use in multiple environment and creates data dictionaries
I use erwin Data Modeler for a metadata project. I don't have thousands of tables to manage or a data warehouse or anything erwin Data Modeler helps us reverse engineer and keep track of data before converting from one tool to another. erwin allows us to track data and share it with business…
KB
Jun 30, 2020
Good property sheet capabilities, and the central repository works well on the company network
When I began using PowerDesigner, it was an independent product. Since that time, SAP acquired it. It is a very solid product that does both data modeling and business process modeling. My advice for anybody who is implementing PowerDesigner is to make sure that the central repository for versioning models is on a high-bandwidth network with a solid database backing it up. In summary, this product gives you all of the features that a modeler would require to produce both logical and physical data models. There really is not a lot that is lacking and my only complaint is about the versioning repository. Of course, this is only a problem when we are working remotely. If there is a large model with perhaps 600 tables and 2,500 attributes, then it is going to be very demanding on bandwidth. I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"It's a safeguard for me because I'm always concerned that somebody is free handing it and will forget a key coming from the parent. The migrating keys are a great feature. Identifying relationships, non-identifying relationships, and being visually right there to understand the differences are great features. erwin is key to being able to visually understand whatever the customer is requesting. They'll give you words on a paper, but once they can actually view it as a picture, it really comes to life. The data comes to life to where they understand exactly what they're asking for."
"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 solution is good for organizing the data and the scripting part is very powerful. It's easy to create technical scripts for models."
"They have a lot of features and the most up-to-date technology integration, which I haven't seen in other products."
"There is absolutely no problem with the stability."
"The product allows us to reuse entities and attributes."
"The solution is excellent in providing a visual representation of a database and can generate DDL for implementing changes. We use DDL for logical purposes to review with business people, ensuring they have the required fields for processing. We also use it as a data dictionary for the physical data model to understand all the purposes of the terms. This helps us map the logical and physical terms with the business definition to understand our data."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a very fast reverse engineering process. It does a very expansive comparison."
"Very good repository features."
"I've used the reverse engineering feature a lot. I can take a look at the structure of the database and what relationships it has."
"The most useful feature has been the detailed possibility to model almost anything regarding physical databases."
"The most valuable features of the solution are it's built very well, easy to use, and simple to describe freely what is needed in logical and physical data models."
"It's a stable system. It never crashes."
"It is more flexible than other tools and user-friendly, making it easy to adapt."
"The most valuable feature of SAP PowerDesigner is the testing of the models, it has the best function. Reverse engineering is very helpful too."
 

Cons

"I would like to see the ability to support more NoSQL platforms more quickly. In addition, enhancing the graphics to render more quickly would be beneficial for any user."
"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."
"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 the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory."
"One of the things I've been talking to the erwin team about through the years is that every data model should have the ability to be multi-language... When I was working at Honda, it became very difficult to work with the Japanese teams using just one model. You can have two models, one in English and one in Japanese, but that means you have to keep the updates back and forth, and that always increases the risk of something not being updated."
"There is a lack of local support in the China region."
"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."
"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."
"This product does not have a good BPMN Modeler."
"This product lacks artificial intelligence that should be very good in terms of automatically identifying the classification of elements."
"The tool lags in the area of customer service."
"Regarding improvements, I suggest enhancing the connection between objects in process and data models. It's crucial to define the structure of objects, especially when dealing with standard frameworks like VMM. There should be better visualization of arrows between BPM and data modeling objects, specifying their structure and impact. For future versions, a feature similar to Bizagi, allowing users to see forms or SQL representations of objects, would be valuable for demonstrating and presenting project details to stakeholders."
"Pricing for small consultancies needs improvement. They sustain prices to competing tools. The competing tools tend to do special offers. PowerDesigner SAP doesn't pay much attention to the pricing of it and there are no special offers."
"UI could be improved by enabling simpler navigation."
"Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature."
"In terms of improvement, the pricing is a bit high."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution."
"Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money."
"Price-wise, erwin Data Modeler is okay. You can purchase a single license and it is not very expensive."
"This company had bought the license for three years, and it's not an individual license. While you can buy a license for each individual, that would be very expensive. There is something called concurrent licenses where you can purchase licenses in bulk and 15 to 20 people can access the license and model. Concurrent licenses are scalable to the number of users and are proportional to the cost."
"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."
"The tool is expensive."
"Likewise, the solution is a little pricey."
"The solution is expensive."
"The ROI has been 43%."
"The price of the solution is low."
"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."
"PowerDesigner is not the cheapest solution on the market, so make sure that you are using it to its full potential."
"I bought the software outright and do not pay a licensing fee."
"The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable."
"I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited."
"SAP PowerDesigner is cheaper than eriwin."
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Answers from the Community

SN
Nov 30, 2021
Nov 30, 2021
15 years ago was the one time I chose to use PowerDesigner over Erwin Data Modeler was for a project where we have hundreds of pl/sql ETL scripts that needed to be run in a specific order for specific tables. PowerDesigner had the ability to store the pl/sql within the data model and prioritize/order the script run sequence. This meant that we could count on PowerDesigner to automatically gene...
See 2 answers
EB
Nov 29, 2021
Hi @George McGeachie, @Carel Van Der Merwe, @Peter Vlekkekn, @Tracy Hautenen Kriel , @Sharon Allen, @Jose Luis Leon ​and @Pam Rivera, Can you please share your professional opinion/experience with our community?
TH
Nov 30, 2021
15 years ago was the one time I chose to use PowerDesigner over Erwin Data Modeler was for a project where we have hundreds of pl/sql ETL scripts that needed to be run in a specific order for specific tables. PowerDesigner had the ability to store the pl/sql within  the data model and prioritize/order the script run sequence. This meant that we could count on PowerDesigner to automatically generate the ddl and pl/sql code in the correct run order, rather than manually maintaining a spreadsheet with the script order and running each script manually, a VERY labor intensive process. I don't know if PowerDesigner still has that capability.  With all of the ways we have to program and perform ETL, Erwin Data Modeler has been my tool of choice for any other project throughout the years. Protecting intellectual property and transparently sharing data model information with other modelers by saving the the models in a centralized location (i.e. Model Mart) is important for any company. Making the data model diagrams transparently accessible via Web Portal is another important step in ensuring both technical and business users understand the structure and relationships of the data contains within a data store. Lastly, making the data model metadata available via the Erwin Data Intelligence Suite enables both technical and business users to completely understand everything about the data and data store: Business Glossary, Reference Data, Governance, Data Quality, Data Mapping, and especially automating data lineage and impact analysis.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Government
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The solution's model mark could be better because it crashes sometimes.
What do you like most about SAP PowerDesigner?
It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases.
What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature. Even if I have an ETL tool, I'd like the DMM options to directly connect to ETL tool repositories lik...
 

Also Known As

erwin DM
Sybase PowerDesigner
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP PowerDesigner vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.