Sparx Prolaborate vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest comparison

erwin by Quest and Sparx Systems are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. erwin by Quest is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.1, while Sparx Systems is ranked #18 with an average rating of 7.0. erwin by Quest holds a 10.7% mindshare in AM, compared to Sparx Systems’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of erwin by Quest users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Sparx Systems users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler by Quest reviews

4,005 Views
2,220 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Sparx Prolaborate

Read 5 Sparx Prolaborate reviews

360 Views
198 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Sparx Prolaborate

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Erwin Data Modeler by Quest and Sparx Prolaborate compete in the data management tools category, focusing on data modeling and model collaboration enhancements, respectively. Erwin Data Modeler exhibits an advantage in comprehensive modeling capabilities, while Sparx Prolaborate excels in collaboration and analytics features.

Features: Erwin Data Modeler by Quest offers robust data modeling, database optimization, and comprehensive modeling tools suitable for enterprise environments. It supports versioning, comparing data models across environments, and code generation. Sparx Prolaborate provides superior collaboration capabilities, with extensive visualization options and shared real-time diagrams to enhance team interaction.

Room for Improvement: Erwin Data Modeler could enhance its cloud deployment options and improve support for non-SQL server databases. Additionally, a more intuitive user interface could greatly benefit new users. Sparx Prolaborate might improve its modeling depth to match enterprise-scale needs, better integrate with a wider range of databases, and expand its user support services to expedite issue resolution.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Erwin Data Modeler by Quest provides a straightforward installation process with comprehensive support aimed at rapid deployment in complex environments. Sparx Prolaborate emphasizes seamless cloud-based deployment, offering extensive customer service focused on user engagement and problem resolution, making it ideal for flexible, dynamic environments.

Pricing and ROI: Erwin Data Modeler involves competitive setup costs, aiming for substantial ROI through long-term database management strategies. Sparx Prolaborate offers cost-effective pricing, highlighting immediate deployment benefits and collaborative efficiency. While Erwin Data Modeler may offer more investment for long-term advantages, Sparx Prolaborate presents an attractive price point with rapid collaboration returns.

To learn more, read our detailed Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

April 2025

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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

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (9th)

Sparx Prolaborate

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

18th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler by Quest is 10.7%, up from 9.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Prolaborate is 0.7%, down from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

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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Sastry Dhara

President/CEO at dhara consulting group, inc

Good extensibility, but there should be more cloud capabilities

Its extensibility is most valuable. There should be more cloud capabilities. We worked with this solution for two or three years. There are no stability issues. It is scalable. Their support is good. It was straightforward. I would rate it a seven out of ten. On-premises

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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

"The generation of DDL saved us having to write the steps by hand. You still had to go in and make some minor modifications to make it deployable to the database system. However, for the data lineage, it is very valuable for tracing our use of data, especially personal confidential data through different systems."

"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 solution's ability to compare and synchronize data sources with data models is fantastic. We use it for that on a regular basis to make sure that changes haven't been made to the database outside of the modeling process. I can take existing databases and reverse engineer them and understand their structure within 15 minutes. If I didn't have Data Modeler it would take hours. It increases our productivity and helps in understanding our legacy application."

"The solution is good for organizing the data and the scripting part is very powerful. It's easy to create technical scripts for models."

"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."

"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 most valuable features are the ability to reverse engineer and do model comparison. With the reverse engineering, I can understand the databases from third-party products. With the model comparison, I can track the differences between two versions of the same 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."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pros

"Sparx Prolaborate is user-friendly, easy to use, and has good documentation."

"Its extensibility is most valuable."

"What is really powerful in Sparx is the way in which you can model business processes. You can link business processes to organizational objectives. You can also take those business processes and link them to specific product features that you want to deliver."

"It allows us to give a better description of our project than using the written word."

"It is valuable to have diagrams available in real time."

Cons

"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 navigation is a little bit of a challenge. It's painful. For example, if you've got a view open and you want to try to move from side to side, the standard today is being able to drag and drop left and right. You can't really do that in the model. Moving around the model is painful because it doesn't follow the Windows model today."

"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 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 solution's model mark could be better because it crashes sometimes."

"I would like to see improved reporting and, potentially, dashboards built on top of that. Right now, it's a little manual. More automated reporting and dashboard views would help because currently you have to push things out to a spreadsheet, or to HTML, and there aren't many other options that I know of. I would like to be able to produce graphs and additional things right in the tool, instead of having to export the data somewhere else."

"It does not have a cloud application."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest cons

"The product is not very user-friendly."

"There should be more cloud capabilities."

"A lot of product teams use a lot of visualizations for mapping out the product roadmap, brainstorming, or understanding the vision of the product, but Sparx is not a great visualization tool. Sparx has to improve the way for visualizing processes, journeys, software designs, etc. It would really benefit the product management teams or even enterprise architects."

"In the next release, there should be more editable objects. We find Sparx Prolaborate very user-friendly, and having more features that are in the Enterprise Architect would be great, such as managing different versions of diagrams."

"The solution could offer different sources for design."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money."

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

"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 solution is expensive."

"Likewise, the solution is a little pricey."

"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"Price-wise, erwin Data Modeler is okay. You can purchase a single license and it is not very expensive."

"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."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pricing and cost advice

"The price of Sparx Prolaborate is good."

"The product is expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Government

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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.

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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

What do you like most about Sparx Prolaborate?

It allows us to give a better description of our project than using the written word.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sparx Prolaborate?

The product is not very user-friendly. It takes time to learn the concept. The user-friendliness and the learning curve must be improved. It takes quite a lot of time for experienced engineers to use.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Sparx Prolaborate?

We use the product primarily for model-based engineering.

See all answers

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Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

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Compared 68% of the time

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Compared 32% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

March 2025

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Also Known As

erwin DM

No data available

Overview

erwin pioneered data modeling, and erwin Data Modeler (erwin DM) remains trusted, award-winning software for data modeling and database design, automating complex and time-consuming tasks. Use it to discover and document any data from anywhere for consistency, clarity and artifact reuse across large-scale data integration, master data management, metadata management, Big Data, business intelligence and analytics initiatives – all while supporting data governance and intelligence efforts.

erwin by Quest

A high level tour of Sparx Systems latest product release, Prolaborate.

Prolaborate adds a vital information layer to Sparx Systems modeling tool suite, addressing the need of end users and non-modelers alike to be informed by the enterprise model.

In this webinar we'll show how Prolaborate empowers relevant stakeholders, including C-level executives, analysts and other business users, with curated views of the model.

Sparx Systems

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

April 2025

Free Report: Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Find out what your peers are saying about Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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