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SAS Data Management vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

 

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:
 

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
5.8
SAS Data Management boosts data accuracy, reduces storage costs, and is vital in banking, finance, and pharmaceutical sectors.
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.
Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
If the modeling is compromised, then the entire structure will be compromised.
Senior Data Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

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
7.1
Customer service satisfaction with SAS Data Management is high, despite regional differences and limited online resources, thanks to responsive support.
The quality and speed of their support are excellent; everyone is very helpful, and they can solve problems quickly.
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.
Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
The support for SAS in Brazil is not the best one, but the support in Sweden is really good, as they visit the company and work to solve the issues.
Data Scientist & Scrum Master at Volvo Group
 

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
6.8
SAS Data Management is highly scalable, supporting enterprise tasks with robust servers, comparable to Oracle and Microsoft solutions.
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.
Data Metrics Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Performance can degrade during larger collaborations and requires tuning for optimal performance.
Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.
 

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
7.2
SAS Data Management is highly stable, especially on Linux, but might need client-side configurations for optimal performance.
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.
Data Modeler at Capgemini
New versions often introduce enhanced features but may cause model crashes due to memory exhaustion.
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.
Senior Data Scientist at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Erwin Data Modeler users seek improvements in user interface, big data support, API documentation, and broader database compatibility.
SAS Data Management needs improved usability, licensing, integration, cloud features, scalability, stability, and enhanced automated reporting and documentation.
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.
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.
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.
Data Modeler at Capgemini
There is significant room for improvement, especially with regard to using a hybrid approach that involves both CAS and persistent storage.
Associate Director at Woodpecker Analytics & Services
 

Setup Cost

Erwin Data Modeler provides flexible licensing but can be costly compared to open-source alternatives, with moderate maintenance fees.
SAS Data Management is powerful but costly, with affordability challenges for businesses, though educational trials and market-based pricing options exist.
For a cloud or SaaS standard edition, it typically runs around two hundred to two hundred ninety-nine US dollars per month.
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.
Data Modeler at Capgemini
From my experience, SAS Data Management is an expensive tool.
Associate Director at Woodpecker Analytics & Services
 

Valuable Features

Erwin Data Modeler enhances database management with visualization, version control, automation, and adaptability, fostering efficient collaboration and governance.
SAS Data Management provides user-friendly, comprehensive data handling with strong integration, quality, governance, and flexible connectivity features.
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.
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.
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.
Data Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
SAS Data Management stands out because of its data standardization, transformation, and verification capabilities.
Associate Director at Woodpecker Analytics & Services
The best features I appreciate about SAS Data Management tool are that it's easy to create the flows and schedule data, and the tables are not too big, making it easy to control the ETL process, including user access which is also easy to manage in SAS.
Data Scientist & Scrum Master at Volvo Group
 

Categories and Ranking

erwin Data Modeler
Ranking in Data Governance
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd), Business Process Design (8th)
SAS Data Management
Ranking in Data Governance
22nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (28th), Data Quality (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 0.3%. The mindshare of SAS Data Management is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
erwin Data Modeler0.3%
SAS Data Management1.4%
Other98.3%
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

Sushree Panigrahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.
Data modeling has transformed regulatory reporting and collaboration across cloud environments
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.
FK
Data Scientist & Scrum Master at Volvo Group
Has supported centralized data access and improved governance through unified administration
The best features I appreciate about SAS Data Management tool are that it's easy to create the flows and schedule data, and the tables are not too big, making it easy to control the ETL process, including user access which is also easy to manage in SAS. The data integration tools with SAS Data Management were quite good because they allowed me to do all lineage, to manage and see all the variables, find the libraries where the data is, and understand the data in just one tool. Offering another development environment combining code and predefined objects, where I could just drag and drop to achieve what I needed, although some objects were not too good, but some were effective. The metadata management feature of SAS Data Management helps a lot; creating your data marts or data lake with good naming conventions, library conventions, and so on is very important because it allows easy queries to find the whole structure, though I think metadata governance also depends on first definitions, not only on the tool. SAS Data Management is very good for data governance; for me, it was the best tool I worked with in data management, although I don't have too much experience with others, and it truly helped a lot.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Performing Arts
5%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
 

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 SAS Data Management?
From my experience, SAS Data Management is an expensive tool.
What needs improvement with SAS Data Management?
There is significant room for improvement, especially with regard to using a hybrid approach that involves both CAS and persistent storage.
What is your primary use case for SAS Data Management?
The main idea for using SAS Data Management was to bring all data inside SAS. I brought the finance area and the sales area in the company that I have worked, along with some market planning data, ...
 

Also Known As

erwin DM
SAS Data Management Platform, Data Management Platform, DataFlux
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Data Management, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Absa, Aegon, Allianz Global Corporate & SpecialtyAusgrid, Bank of Queensland, Bell, BMC Software, Canada Post, Ceska pojistovna, Chantecler, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Credit Guarantee Corporation, Cr_dito y Cauci‹n, Delaware State Police, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DSM, Enerjisa, ERGO Insurance Group, Florida Department of Corrections, Generali Hellas, Gitanjali Group, Gloucestershire Constabulary, GS Home Shopping, HealthPartners, IAG New Zealand, iJET, Invacare, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Los Angeles County, Miami Herald Media Company, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Nippon Paper, North Carolina Office of Information Technology Services, Orlando Magic, OTP Group, PITT OHIO, Plano Independent School District, RWE Poland, Spanish Air Force, Stockholm County Council, Telus, The Travel Corporation, Transitions Optical, Triad Analytic Solutions, UNIQA, US Census Bureau, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, West Midlands Police, XS Inc., Zenith Insurance
Find out what your peers are saying about SAS Data Management vs. erwin Data Modeler and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.