Microsoft Purview Information Protection vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

Microsoft Purview Information Protection vs. erwin Data Modeler

December 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:

ROI

Sentiment score

4.8

erwin Data Modeler improves productivity and efficiency with enhanced data management, governance, and automation, offering significant time savings.

Sentiment score

6.4

Microsoft Purview enhances protection, automates compliance, reduces response time, and supports growth, though exact savings are hard to quantify.

If three engineers save ten hours each per month using erwin Data Modeler versus manual modeling, that equals three hundred sixty hours saved per year.

Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.

It replaces manual charting in Visio with a structured tool, providing significant return on investment.

For more quotes and insights, download the erwin Data Modeler report

Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

If the modeling is compromised, then the entire structure will be compromised.

reviewer2795649

Senior Data Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Purview can do a quick scan, and it doesn't use human resources, so it gets time to do things that we need humans to focus on.

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

The E5 license comes with different solutions like data discovery classification, CASB, DLP solutions, and Defender for Cloud.

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

The cost of data loss and your data going to a competitor is potentially massive.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.0

Erwin Data Modeler support is helpful and proactive, with minor delays; ratings are generally between seven to nine.

Sentiment score

4.0

Users experience inconsistent Microsoft Purview support, citing slow responses and unresolved issues, despite some improvements in visibility and engagement.

The quality and speed of their support are excellent; everyone is very helpful, and they can solve problems quickly.

Yang Jiao

Senior Data Scientist at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

This rating reflects my ability to effectively utilize the tool and get support for licensing issues, installation errors, or corrupted repositories end-to-end.

Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.

Quest is committed to keeping the product robust.

For more quotes and insights, download the erwin Data Modeler report

Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Sometimes, I get a fast and knowledgeable response, while other times, I've experienced delays and received no resolution.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

It's hard to be an ambassador for a product when you know it will be hard to get support.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

After our issues are reported, it takes a long time to find a resolution.

SantoshDeshpande

Director Security Architecture at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

6.5

Erwin Data Modeler is scalable, supporting multiple platforms, handling complex architectures, and suitable for cloud and on-premise use.

Sentiment score

6.0

Microsoft Purview Information Protection is praised for scalability despite some concerns with data analytics speed and policy update intervals.

I would rate it probably a nine, making it a leader in data modeling.

Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

erwin Data Modeler had a very good standardization infrastructure and supported a controlled multi-user environment with check-ins and check-outs.

Monisha Sharma

Data Metrics Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Performance can degrade during larger collaborations and requires tuning for optimal performance.

For more quotes and insights, download the erwin Data Modeler report

Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.

It can be scaled across different departments organization-wide very quickly and easily.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

It can handle large collections of data without issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

Scalability can be improved by reducing these intervals.

Ayse Kocak

Information Technology Senior Expert at Garanti Teknoloji

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

6.0

erwin Data Modeler is stable and reliable, but performance and memory issues can occur with large models and older versions.

Sentiment score

7.0

Microsoft Purview is stable and reliable, with minor delays and occasional drawbacks, fostering user trust and wide deployment.

This lack of an auto-save methodology can be improved so that if a system crash occurs, work can be saved and rework can be avoided.

Khadarvalli Phatan

Data Modeler at Capgemini

New versions often introduce enhanced features but may cause model crashes due to memory exhaustion.

For more quotes and insights, download the erwin Data Modeler report

Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Sometimes when I want to open the attribute editor, it stops working and the whole application freezes.

Yang Jiao

Senior Data Scientist at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Once implemented, I haven't had issues with its consistency.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

The product is stable, and whatever it does, it does better than any other thing.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Since identity is where everything is based, if that goes down, you're screwed.

reviewer2778771

Director, Network & Cloud Infrastructure at a legal firm with 501-1,000 employees

Room For Improvement

Erwin Data Modeler users seek improvements in user interface, big data support, API documentation, and broader database compatibility.

Microsoft Purview requires better integration, pricing, navigation, and feature enhancements to address user concerns about functionality and support.

The previous version of erwin Data Modeler used to crash unaccountably, but this one hasn't ever crashed on me, so it's been a lot more stable than the previous version that we had.

Alton Thibodeaux

Data Warehouse Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

There are many features, and I would expect good documentation detailing each feature, including when and how to use it, to be very useful because data modeling is not very popular in the data area and there aren't many educational videos regarding erwin Data Modeler.

Yang Jiao

Senior Data Scientist at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Erwin Data Modeler could improve in areas such as the interface, as there are features like copy and paste, creating duplicates, and the visualization elements and toolbars which feel quite old.

Khadarvalli Phatan

Data Modeler at Capgemini

For more quotes and insights, download the erwin Data Modeler report

Effectiveness in Microsoft Purview Information Protection means enforcing the policy and making sure it works consistently across non-Microsoft products as well.

SantoshDeshpande

Director Security Architecture at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

A lot of functionality in Microsoft Purview Information Protection is not exposed in an API officially yet, which has made a lot of implementation work difficult because we have to do click ops instead of DevOps.

Jp Bourget

CEO at Blue Cycle

Having a roadmap or updates about new releases would be helpful for demonstrating to clients.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

Setup Cost

Erwin Data Modeler provides flexible licensing but can be costly compared to open-source alternatives, with moderate maintenance fees.

Microsoft Purview offers competitive pricing, flexible enterprise licenses, and cost-effective bundled solutions, despite some complexity in licensing options.

For a cloud or SaaS standard edition, it typically runs around two hundred to two hundred ninety-nine US dollars per month.

For more quotes and insights, download the erwin Data Modeler report

Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.

It is more targeted toward an enterprise level since organizations looking to store business information and relationship values may consider the pricing.

Khadarvalli Phatan

Data Modeler at Capgemini

I talked to people who had compared it to other products on the market, and they're spending five figures to get started.

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

The E5 license covers most of the solutions for different technologies, so that way, it is good and more affordable compared to any other solution.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Our focus is on helping customers maximize their software investment.

JohnAssouline

Business Development Manager, Transformational Services at Dell Technologies

Valuable Features

Erwin Data Modeler enhances database management with visualization, version control, automation, and adaptability, fostering efficient collaboration and governance.

Microsoft Purview enhances data protection with encryption, automated labeling, and compliance, excelling in Microsoft ecosystem integration and management.

One of the key aspects of data governance is defining the data dictionary and clearly identifying which data is accessible by whom and what is not accessible, particularly regarding PII-related data.

Asish Sahu

SPM at Infosys

The way the data is organized and you have a visual of that organization helps a great deal in terms of trying to remember what you did and trying to retrieve the information.

Monisha Sharma

Data Metrics Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

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

For more quotes and insights, download the erwin Data Modeler report

Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

Microsoft Copilot is an advantage because it's enterprise-grade AI.

JohnAssouline

Business Development Manager, Transformational Services at Dell Technologies

It's paramount to have a single solution for information protection.

Client Experience Officer at 1234 Micro Technologies

Regardless of the education, the employee might share the information anyway, so the AI shouldn't be the first point of failure. It should be a human making good decisions.

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Mgr Data Engineering at Avanade

Categories and Ranking

erwin Data Modeler

Ranking in Data Governance

15th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd), Business Process Design (8th)

Microsoft Purview Informati...

Ranking in Data Governance

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Privacy Management Software (3rd), Microsoft Security Suite (14th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 0.3%. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Information Protection is 2.2%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Microsoft Purview Information Protection	2.2%
erwin Data Modeler	0.3%
Other	97.5%

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Data modeling has transformed regulatory reporting and collaboration across cloud environments

Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.

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.

Read full review

Achieve comprehensive data protection with reliable performance and room for enhanced discovery accuracy

Associate Director at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

The product is still in a growing phase. I could see that many use cases in their product are not capable enough in terms of detecting or protecting. Compared to other products, they are in the middle of bringing their solution up to the mark, so it is not a full-grown solution. They have to get more accurate results in terms of data discovery and classification. The second thing is their support; support from Microsoft takes a lot of time to get a response from their support team. The third thing is their OCR capability is not that great in terms of identifying the documents. We would love to see response times of less than 24 hours. Additionally, there is no way to check the policy's current status in terms of whether it got synced or not. You have to wait and test the use cases after 24 hours or after 48 hours, and once it starts working, then it appears the policy got implemented.

Read full review

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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Governance solutions are best for your needs.

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881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	34

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	12

Questions from the Community

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

Regarding pricing, I am unsure what the exact price is for erwin Data Modeler, but I believe it is not useful for an individual. It is more targeted toward an enterprise level since organizations l...

What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I write code and I write code accessing erwin Data Modeler's API, the Application Programming Interface, so that I can use Excel to update erwin Data Modeler and then get those updates and put them...

What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I work for CVS with a pretty big database as a data modeler on the PBMs, the Caremark PBM side, which is the Pharmacy Benefits Manager. There's a retail side too for all the stores, but our data wa...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

In my experience with Microsoft Purview Information Protection, the experience of pricing, setup costs, and licensing is confusing, especially knowing what I have to do for add-ons with buying SCUs...

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

I think the role of sensitivity labels in guiding AI interaction with Microsoft Purview Information Protection is pretty good, but for us, it's too general. It says, "Here's a dataset" and because ...

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Information Protection?

My main use case for Microsoft Purview Information Protection is sensitivity labeling, as I use it for exposing labeling for inside Teams and outside Teams.

SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler

Comparisons

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Compared 5% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 4% of the time

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BigID Next vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

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Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

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Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Microsoft Purview Information Protection

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Product Reports

Download erwin Data Modeler product report

erwin Data Modeler

January 2026

Microsoft Purview Information Protection

January 2026

Microsoft Purview Information Protection report

Download Microsoft Purview Information Protection product report

Also Known As

erwin DM

Microsoft Information Protection

Overview

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

Implement Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) to help you discover, classify, and protect sensitive information wherever it lives or travels.

MIP capabilities are included with Microsoft 365 Compliance and give you the tools to know your data, protect your data, and prevent data loss.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available