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Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (1st), Business Process Design (4th), Data Governance (11th)
Lucidchart
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Mind Mapping Software (1st), Visual Collaboration Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

erwin Data Modeler and Lucidchart aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. erwin Data Modeler is designed for Enterprise Architecture Management and holds a mindshare of 8.6%, up 8.2% compared to last year.
Lucidchart, on the other hand, focuses on Mind Mapping Software, holds 20.5% mindshare, down 24.2% since last year.
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
erwin Data Modeler8.6%
SAP PowerDesigner9.1%
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect8.7%
Other73.6%
Enterprise Architecture Management
Mind Mapping Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Lucidchart20.5%
Visio16.5%
Xmind13.6%
Other49.4%
Mind Mapping Software
 

Featured Reviews

SR
Director, Analytics at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Structured data modeling has accelerated AI-driven customer insights and cloud migrations
One feature that I wish erwin Data Modeler could improve is how user experience becomes much more intuitive, particularly when navigating large models or reviewing changes over time. Easier model exploration, clear visibility into differences between versioning, and practical documentation for use cases could help users work more effectively. I would also welcome the capability to have integrations with other platforms where the blueprint can be exchanged seamlessly without having to do an export and an import process. This would also help in bringing in the AI capability, which can assist in better positioning erwin Data Modeler not just as a tool for designing and documenting data models, but also as part of the broader data architecture and development lifecycle. Regarding erwin Data Modeler's AI capabilities, there is an opportunity to enhance user experience from a governance standpoint, supporting tracking model changes, maintaining audit trails, and managing role-based access while enforcing consistent modeling standards across teams would be a value-added feature, particularly in a large-scale environment. It would also be beneficial to have better visibility into sensitive data attributes and their relationships to govern the requirements, including privacy and access controls. As organizations increasingly adopt AI development, integrating these governance and security considerations into the model and implementing workflows could also help teams work more effectively while maintaining appropriate oversights. Regarding erwin Data Modeler's AI capabilities, there is still room for improvement regarding accuracy and reliability of output as large language models need clear instructions. There is room for growth because business requirements keep changing, relationships keep changing, and the capability to identify inconsistencies, missing relationships, or incorrect definitions are areas where it can improve. This is not to say that the current features are not good enough; they are excellent, but there is definitely room to catch up on AI changes. This is particularly important when modeling using blueprints inputted via AI assistant programs, and when an error occurs in the original model, it could carry over into a generated implementation. That is one of the experiences I faced when working on a project for the Adobe Experience Platform. I experience some integration failures often with erwin Data Modeler, but there is documentation that we can look up that helps resolve these bugs. The new integration changes on our end sometimes pose a challenge, but the process is generally seamless, and the support available makes it much easier for us to troubleshoot any challenges we might face. Managing data across different environments, such as traditional databases, NoSQL, big data, and cloud platforms with erwin Data Modeler presents the biggest challenge of translating from a traditional database to a non-SQL database. These challenges are primarily based on the structure of the data model. Overall, there are external tools that help us in translating that, and I would love to add this as a feature to simplify the process and reduce the complexity of using external extensions for making those changes or guiding through the process.
AlexMartin1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Nestlé
Visual collaboration has improved remote workflows and supports faster shared decisions
The best features Lucidchart offers are that it diagrams processes very well. It allows for project management to help with client timelines. It is also easy to use and create diagrams, especially mermaid diagrams. Collaborating is easy. Out of all those features, collaboration stands out to me the most because it is easy to share with team members to do joint design work. Lucidchart has positively impacted my organization by improving productivity and collaboration. In terms of specifics, collaboration helps us come to conclusions. I notice better throughput as it is easy to use. Improved productivity allows us to express ourselves more quickly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The modeling product itself is far and above anything else that I've seen on the market."
"They have a lot of features and the most up-to-date technology integration, which I haven't seen in other products."
"The logical model gives developers, as well as the data modelers, an understanding of exactly how each object interacts with the others, whether a one-to-many, many-to-many, many-to-one, etc."
"The best features of erwin Data Modeler include the forward engineering tool, which gives you the schema according to the data model that you generate."
"My advice to others looking into using erwin Data Modeler is that I highly recommend reviewing the product. It is one of the greatest products I have been using for over five years, and it has brought consistent improvements as AI has grown, seamlessly integrating new capabilities that can help customers advance alongside their evolving businesses."
"Using erwin Data Modeler has positively impacted my organization by improving data consistency and standardization, reducing development effort, enhancing data governance, fostering better collaboration, and minimizing risk and rework."
"erwin has versioning so you can keep versions, over time, of those models and you can compare any version to any version. If you're looking at a specific database and you want to see what changed over time, that's really useful. You can go back to a different version or connect that to your change-control processes so you can see what was released when."
"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."
"This process flow has really helped all the regions in understanding how onboarding works across all the regions."
"Lucidchart has positively impacted our organization by enabling us to identify process bottlenecks and architecture issues earlier, which improves our project outcomes and reduces network load."
"What I like about Lucidchart is its flexibility of how you put things together along with its intuitive sense."
"The swimlanes feature is one that I use a lot. I have used swimlane diagrams to create business process flows and I think that it does the job pretty well."
"I like how all the contacts in my chart are linked to LinkedIn. That's what makes it really easy for outreach and for making sure we have all the contacts right there in front of us when we need to."
"Lucidchart's capabilities for visualizing and understanding process flows are very good."
"With the clean format and the straightforward boxes and arrows and everything like that, it makes it so you don't have to dig and you don't have to spend personal time flipping through pages, because everything is right there and super easy to read and super understandable."
"The best features Lucidchart offers are that it is easy to use, the diagrams created are of good quality, and there are a lot of elements available."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"The erwin Data Modeler is quite complex to use."
"I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory."
"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."
"The solution only works with one server and one database, so I don't think it's scalable enough."
"The price should be reduced."
"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."
"The UML diagram that it gave me initially was a huge flow with a bunch of UML tables, and I wasn't going to need that many. If it was a more simple linkage between the tables then it would be easier to finish projects, instead of having to select unnecessary tables and delete them."
"I would like to have access to more colorful and more vibrant icons."
"Another thing that somewhat irritated me is the fact that there is a paste function in the menu, but when you right-click and select paste, it tells you that you can't use paste."
"Though I really appreciate Lucidchart, I feel it is not as intuitive as it could be."
"As far as I know, LucidChart can’t be automated with Visual Basic .Net like Visio."
"It would be nice to be able to import not just contacts from Salesforce but also leads."
"Perhaps it already exists, but if there were software to install the solution on a Mac, that would be helpful. I see that it's not in the App Store, so that's something that could be improved."
"They could provide more documentation or tutorials of ERDs or DDD on the Lucidchart site. That could be better."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is not a very expensive solution. Only the licensing and maintenance fee needs to be paid."
"erwin is expensive compared to other solutions. We are paying almost $6,000 per seat a month."
"erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution."
"The tool is expensive."
"Pricing is very high compared to any other product."
"We signed up for the month-to-month and it charged us all at once for the whole year. I believe we signed up for the $7.99 one. I think that was the price."
"The price and licensing are good."
"There is a nominal charge for the paid version of the product. They have a free version available and from what I could see, there was not much difference between it and the pro version."
"The pricing and licensing are fine, though I wish they didn't require you to buy the licenses in batches of five."
"The pricing is very competitive. It is more cost-effective than some competing products, such as Visio."
"I was using the paid version, but at $12 USD per month, I canceled the plan because it was a little bit too expensive for me."
"I had a quick glimpse of it. It was about 100 Canadian Dollars a year for just me. I don't know if there are any additional costs."
"The licensing is pretty cost-effective but I haven't considered it on an enterprise level."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise61
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
My experience with erwin Data Modeler's pricing and setup costs shows it to be on the expensive side; the licensing fees reflect this higher cost, which results in fewer users adopting the tool.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The UI of erwin Data Modeler could be improved. It could be cleaner, as the current setup sometimes confuses users searching for specific features. Streamlining options and removing unnecessary ele...
What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
My main use case for erwin Data Modeler involves designing a logical and conceptual model, and physicalized model. I typically use it for creating tables, establishing relationships between tables,...
LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom
Hi @Krista Thompson ​ - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. LucidSpark is designed to do a better job managing multiple users participating ...
Do you recommend Lucidchart?
I definitely recommend Lucidchart. I feel it is one of the top visual collaboration platforms that’s available on the market. Out of all the solutions I have tried, it is by far the best for diagra...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?
It is cloud-based, so no setup is required. Currently, we are using a free plan.
 

Also Known As

erwin DM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Whirlpool, Uber, Wal Mart, Pearson, Twitch, Riot Games, Western Union, Trimble, Starbucks
Find out what your peers are saying about Quest Software, SAP, SAP LeanIX and others in Enterprise Architecture Management. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.