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SAS Viya Platform 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
4.5
erwin Data Modeler enhances productivity and efficiency by automating design processes, reducing errors, and supporting diverse database management needs.
Sentiment score
4.2
Organizations see high ROI from SAS Viya Platform due to automation, scalability, and improved efficiency, enhancing productivity and revenue.
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
I have seen a return on investment with SAS Viya Platform in the form of money saved, as this is scalable and on the cloud, whereas previously we had to pay for space and on-premises servers.
Director, Lead, Ri Technical Solutions at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
We generate revenue from the data visualization options, which is a very important key aspect for return of investment.
Biostatistician at Lambda Therapeutic Research Ltd.
The relevant metrics definitely show time saved because it is able to crunch 50 to 60,000 rows of numbers in a matter of five to ten minutes, which is a huge improvement.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.5
Erwin Data Modeler support is skilled and helpful, but users sometimes face delays and inconsistencies, especially for advanced queries.
Sentiment score
5.3
SAS Viya's customer service is praised for responsiveness and professionalism, with mature AI and flexible programming language 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
I would rate customer support for SAS Viya Platform a 10 out of 10.
Biostatistician at Lambda Therapeutic Research Ltd.
we have received help whenever we have asked, and their response time is quite fast
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 201-500 employees
we got the solution on time
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
erwin Data Modeler efficiently handles large data models and concurrent users, adaptable to evolving data needs with scalable performance.
Sentiment score
5.6
SAS Viya Platform efficiently scales to meet growing data and user needs, offering stable, cloud-based performance across projects.
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.
We have not had a problem, and it is because it is on the cloud, it scales quite well.
Director, Lead, Ri Technical Solutions at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
SAS Viya Platform is quite scalable and can handle large data volumes.
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 201-500 employees
SAS Viya Platform's scalability is great; it can be scaled throughout the project, even company-wide.
Technical Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
Erwin Data Modeler is stable but struggles with large models, needing better auto-save and resource management.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAS Viya Platform is praised for stability and scalability despite occasional lag, with efficient support addressing issues effectively.
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
SAS Viya Platform is good, scalable, and stable.
Data & BI Architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
In my experience, SAS Viya Platform is stable and perfect.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
SAS Viya Platform's output has been very robust and accurate.
CIO / CTO / Head Of Data at Data Excellence
 

Room For Improvement

Erwin Data Modeler needs a modern interface, improved performance, better collaboration, and expanded data support for enhanced usability.
SAS Viya struggles with complex interface, high costs, integration challenges, and user demands for better performance and customization.
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
Two main improvements would transform this into a great tool: improving the UI and calculation capabilities, and merging AI capabilities.
Data & BI Architect at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
The cost is also quite high; SAS Viya Platform via SaaS can be expensive compared to some open-source or other cloud alternatives.
Assistant Manager Data Analytics (WFM) at Johari Digital Healthcare Limited
In comparison, other packages I have used are more complete and less divided; SAS is quite divided, particularly with quality control, which used to be included, but now requires separate packages for control charts and so on.
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 201-500 employees
 

Setup Cost

Erwin Data Modeler's high cost is offset by concurrent licensing's flexibility, benefiting large teams but challenging for smaller users.
Enterprise users find SAS Viya Platform cost-effective and efficient, despite some online claims of potential high expense.
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.
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing process is painful and quite onerous.
Contract Data Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
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
I did check with Reddit and they indicated that SAS Viya Platform is a pretty expensive program.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is very positive, as the pricing is good and efficient for my organization.
Biostatistician at Lambda Therapeutic Research Ltd.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for SAS Viya Platform was smooth.
Director, Lead, Ri Technical Solutions at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Erwin Data Modeler simplifies database integration using visual diagrams, automates processes, and supports modern technologies and collaboration tools.
SAS Viya Platform boosts efficiency with AI support, real-time processing, in-memory performance, and no-code functionalities, enhancing data tasks.
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
Migrating DDLs using erwin Data Modeler is easy because I just connect to the database and generate the data model from what is already implemented, making the process straightforward.
Data Modeler at FNB Mozambique
SAS Viya Platform has improved the speed, scalability, and accessibility of data, leading to more efficient and informed decision-making.
Assistant Manager Data Analytics (WFM) at Johari Digital Healthcare Limited
SAS Viya Platform has positively impacted my organization by saving time compared to when we were using SAS 9.4.
SAS Developer at XpertDox
The speed and documentation of SAS Viya Platform helped me in my coursework because we were having very intense analyses done and we needed to submit a lot of assignments and analyses as quickly as possible.
Computer Instructor at Carleton University
 

Categories and Ranking

erwin Data Modeler
Ranking in Data Governance
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (1st), Business Process Design (7th)
SAS Viya Platform
Ranking in Data Governance
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (21st), Data Quality (6th), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 0.5%. The mindshare of SAS Viya Platform is 0.6%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
erwin Data Modeler0.5%
SAS Viya Platform0.6%
Other98.9%
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.
KK
Assistant Manager Data Analytics (WFM) at Johari Digital Healthcare Limited
Modern analytics has transformed large data into faster insights and streamlined reporting
There are some areas of improvement I would mention regarding SAS Viya Platform. New users may find it complex initially, as its learning curve can be steep. Understanding CAS and different components is very challenging for a new user. The cost is also quite high; SAS Viya Platform via SaaS can be expensive compared to some open-source or other cloud alternatives. There are also some limitations in Visual Analytics. While it is easy to use, it could be more flexible compared to Power BI or Tableau. These are the main improvement areas where SAS Viya Platform should focus. I would add some additional pointers about needed improvements in SAS Viya Platform. Regarding customer support, it is good, but the response time for complex issues can sometimes be slower than expected. The documentation and learning resources are not very beginner-friendly, making it challenging for beginners to navigate. Regarding integration, it could be smoother with Databricks, Snowflake, and Power BI, but it is more complex than it should be. Since updates are automatic, users are sometimes not fully aware of changes or new features that are being updated, as compared to Power BI, which publishes updates on its website. SAS Viya Platform should work on these aspects.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
6%
Construction Company
24%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Healthcare Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise42
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
I have no idea about the setup cost because I did not buy the license.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The UI in erwin Data Modeler can be improved significantly because when any new person opens the tool, all the toolbars are kept open with many tools in view, making it appear chunky. If possible, ...
What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
I primarly use erwin Data Modeler for modeling purposes. Once we have the business requirement, we create the models in erwin Data Modeler, and then we perform forward engineering to get the query ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Viya Platform?
I am not much aware of the pricing, setup cost, and licensing of SAS Viya Platform because that was handled by the administrator. However, I do not think it is too costly to use. I never did a comp...
What needs improvement with SAS Viya Platform?
I would rate SAS Viya Platform an eight on a scale of one to ten. I chose an eight because it is a great product that we rely on heavily. However, the complexity of licensing and learning curves fo...
What is your primary use case for SAS Viya Platform?
Our main use case for SAS Viya Platform is analytics, particularly predictive analytics to determine demand planning and forecasting of stock. We are also interested in exploring ways we can use it...
 

Also Known As

erwin DM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about SAS Viya Platform vs. erwin Data Modeler and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.