Visual Paradigm vs erwin Evolve comparison

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erwin Evolve

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 19, 2025

Erwin Evolve and Visual Paradigm are competing products in the space of modeling and architecture tools. Based on comparisons, Visual Paradigm offers more extensive features providing greater value despite higher costs.

Features: Erwin Evolve is strong in enterprise architecture modeling and data governance, with tools like Evolve Designer for website deployment, and the Collector tool syncing external data sources for model integration. Visual Paradigm offers a comprehensive suite including UML, BPMN, and simulation features, easy diagramming, and extensive process modeling capabilities which supports numerous modeling methodologies and maintains intuitive user-friendliness.

Room for Improvement: Erwin Evolve could improve by offering better alignment with enterprise frameworks and enhanced customization options. There might also be a need to fully integrate its client/server version into the web for easier accessibility. Visual Paradigm could enhance its deployment simplicity, improve customer support for complex queries, and expand offline capabilities for remote or mobile work environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Erwin Evolve is frequently noted for its smoother deployment process and robust customer support which enhances satisfaction. Visual Paradigm provides flexible deployment options but may come across as more complex, potentially needing additional assistance for certain setups.

Pricing and ROI: Erwin Evolve involves a higher initial setup cost, which is mitigated by extensive support services and quick deployment. Visual Paradigm may incur higher expenses over time due to its feature-rich nature; however, it is preferred when expansive modeling functionalities are prioritized, effectively delivering substantial ROI through improved process efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Visual Paradigm vs. erwin Evolve Report (Updated: July 2025).

Visual Paradigm vs. erwin Evolve

July 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 Evolve

Ranking in Business Process Design

19th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (12th)

Visual Paradigm

Ranking in Business Process Design

8th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of erwin Evolve is 1.0%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visual Paradigm is 5.6%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Visual Paradigm	5.6%
erwin Evolve by Quest	1.0%
Other	93.4%

Business Process Design

Featured Reviews

Asish Sahu

SPM at Infosys

The reverse engineering capabilities are quite useful.

Evolve is primarily focused on the entity's licenses diagrams, but it would be nice if erwin could integrate case development, so that it shows the ER diagram plus certain inputs on the use cases and how the data is used. That deviates somewhat from the overall scope, so maybe they could call it a different product.

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Angie Ibrahim Eissa

Founder & Managing Partner at BBL

A software application designed for software development teams to model business information systems and manage development processes

Setting up Visual Paradigm is easy. There's hardly any configuration needed, unlike some other tools. You just choose your method and diagram type, and you're good to go. As for improvements, integrating project management features with diagrams could be better. Viewing outputs could also be smoother, especially when working with multiple files.Deployment is quick and painless. It practically takes no time at all to set up. And because I also teach at the university, I use Visual Paradigm for my classes and case studies. It's easy to switch between products, and my students have no trouble using it on their own.

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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

"I can send images in the PDF form, along with the relationships and the associations that are a very important part of what we do. It can show what is affected and what is impacted by a certain change in one area of the system architecture or enterprise architecture. I can very quickly draw those issues and topics to the fore."

"I have not seen capabilities for web-sharing and interaction with the architecture from any other supplier. It's a great capability..."

"We can efficiently deploy business models into the databases and generate SQL scripts."

"By placing the data and the metadata into a model, which is what the tool does, you gain the abilities for linkages between different objects in the model, linkages that you cannot get on paper or with Visio or PowerPoint. That is a huge discriminator."

"Workgroup Repository collection of data models allows research across models without worry about platform incompatibilities and provides easy KPIs about corporate data assets."

"I really liked that it mapped out processes and was able to attach the data model to the appropriate process. You could map out the process, then when you got down to a specific couple of data elements, you could attach the table in the database that supported that process. You could connect it with erwin Data Modeler for that."

"Forward and reverse engineering were valuable features."

"Evolve is like a tank. You can do whatever you want with the solution, but you need to customize it. I think that it's not very aligned with the framework for enterprise architecture. MEGA is focused on these enterprise architectures, but it's only for that. With Evolve, you can do everything you want with professional services."

More erwin Evolve pros

"Visual Paradigm allowed me to create UML diagrams efficiently."

"I find it very user-friendly for my purposes, which is creating business process models that I can publish as HTML pages. It has worked flawlessly for my project, and my clients are able to utilize it as an internal web portal for their process documentation and other needs."

"It is a scalable solution...The initial setup was straightforward."

"Stable design software with multiple functions and features. It's simple to install and easy to use."

"Visual Paradigm is super user-friendly, especially for new team members. I always have them start with it because the interface is so simple to pick up. They usually spend about six months to a year using only Visual Paradigm before moving on to other tools. We also use the cloud repository for collaborative work, but I've had some trouble with code reviewing and limitations. Sometimes, customers even request the source file or exported XML because it's easier for them to access and review."

"I love Visual Paradigm because it has many different types of diagrams. For any field of engineering, we can find a diagram."

"The Visual Paradigm business process forms for designing we good. There was not a lot of configuration for the process diagram."

"Visual Paradigm is simple and easy to use."

More Visual Paradigm pros

Cons

"There might be improvement required to better support some of the MPP databases for non-relational data structures and NoSQL databases."

"I feel that the UML drawing capability needs to be improved."

"The way that we are using it for application management, we have several KPIs. We want to follow and monitor them regarding a number of solutions. We cannot calculate this today. We would like real-time calculations along with the KPIs in order to improve the user experience. We would like the tool to be able to display this, not only as signals, but as charts."

"Business process modelling could be improved."

"The solution's integration capabilities with other tools in our system has not been all that well done. We have people who use ARIS, who use System Architect and, of course, Visio. erwin has very limited ways to import and export from those kinds of tools. It's not a very easy thing to do."

"If it had fewer features to model all kinds of architecture, it would be less complicated."

"What they need to do is to consolidate more of their products. For example, I was just looking and I couldn't figure out what erwin DT is. It's on the website but it would help if they could put information together and make it more clear as to what products they have and how they work with other things."

"Evolve is primarily focused on the entity's licenses diagrams, but it would be nice if erwin could integrate case development, so that it shows the ER diagram plus certain inputs on the use cases and how the data is used. That deviates somewhat from the overall scope, so maybe they could call it a different product."

More erwin Evolve cons

"There is a certain inherent complexity when creating UML diagrams."

"Visual Paradigm could improve many aspects. The performance could be better because it can be low. When we have large and complicated models, it has a low speed and many bugs. Sometimes the solution stops and you have to restart Microsoft Windows on your PC. The larger database modeling cannot be done properly, I have to use another solution called SAP PowerDesigner."

"Visual Paradigm's initial deployment was difficult since we did it for the first time. It is challenging to learn to use the product."

"There are some connectivity issues that crop up rarely when used with SQL Server."

"In terms of room for improvement in Visual Paradigm, I tried looking for one. I'm pleased with the tool, but it would be great if you could integrate Visual Paradigm with more tools. For example, when moving from Visual Paradigm to another tool, such as Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, the process could be improved a bit. Still, I wonder if it's not limited by the standards Visual Paradigm follows, such as XMI files. It could be connected to limitations related to the standards rather than a tool limitation. When you move projects from Visual Paradigm into Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect via XMI files, you lose all your notes from the elements, so this is an area for improvement in Visual Paradigm. TOGAF support is an additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of Visual Paradigm. I'd also like the tool to have ArchiMate support. If both TOGAF and ArchiMate could be supported in Visual Paradigm and made part of a lower level of licensing or cheaper licensing models, that would be best for me."

"The product can always get better as the industry changes."

"More flexibility when choosing the type of diagram would be nice."

"I would like to see something for visualizing innovation work maps."

More Visual Paradigm cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a yearly basis, our licensing costs are 50,000 euro. There are no additional costs because we are on a SaaS model."

"I estimate that we pay between $40,000 and $50,000 a year for the solution, not including the upfront costs to buy things the first time."

"The cost is something like $15,000, per license. But I haven't looked at those numbers in three years. It was over $100,000 to initially set everything up and get it all configured."

"Yearly, our cost is €100,000."

"I think erwin is quite expensive. I have difficulty selling the portal, in fact."

"Unless you are a one person shop – always go with the Workgroup edition and Concurrent licensing."

"The licensing enables you to differentiate between people who edit the content and the people who consume it. We are able to keep the licensing costs down by keeping the "contributor" licenses to a minimum, and we then just roll out the content in a read-only version for the rest of our users."

"Pricing for Visual Paradigm is a four out of five for me. I'm happy with its pricing."

"Over the years I've seen an increase in price, and it makes it difficult for a single person company, like me, to decide whether to extend the license."

"Visual Paradigm's pricing is not expensive."

"Compared to other solutions such as IBM Rational which is expensive, This solution is priced low."

"You can use Paradigm on a subscription basis and you can choose from different tiers of subscription."

"I rate the pricing a three on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."

"This is an open-sourced solution, it is free to use."

"The pricing of Visual Paradigm is very appropriate and affordable. There are no hidden costs involved."

More Visual Paradigm pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Design solutions are best for your needs.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Government

10%

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering erwin Evolve?

I rate erwin Evolve by Quest a nine out of ten.

What do you like most about erwin Evolve by Quest?

We can efficiently deploy business models into the databases and generate SQL scripts.

What needs improvement with erwin Evolve by Quest?

erwin Evolve by Quest could have additional features to manage the architecture of enterprises and businesses.

What do you like most about Visual Paradigm?

The solution is the best application for data modeling. It helps to architect business processes. Its best features are pricing and functionality.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Paradigm?

I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced, so I was fine with the pricing.

What needs improvement with Visual Paradigm?

The product can always get better as the industry changes, however, I didn't necessarily feel it was lacking for what I did with it.

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Compared 36% of the time

Visio vs Visual Paradigm

Compared 19% of the time

Lucidchart vs Visual Paradigm

Compared 16% of the time

Bizagi vs Visual Paradigm

Compared 7% of the time

Camunda vs Visual Paradigm

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Download erwin Evolve product report

erwin Evolve

August 2025

Download Visual Paradigm product report

August 2025

Also Known As

erwin EA, erwin Business Process, erwin Enterprise Architecture

No data available

Overview

erwin Evolve provides comprehensive graphical support for handling large data models. It offers features such as metadata access, version control, and model comparison, enhancing operational reports and system analytics through its collaborative web-driven design.

erwin Evolve facilitates reverse engineering and database integration, fostering collaboration and process exploration through its web interface. Customizable and easy to configure, it supports workflow configuration and architectural modeling. Users can utilize its capabilities for developing industry models, managing transformation programs, and presenting standard operating procedures. Despite its strengths, there are demands for improved integration, enhanced UML support, and a more modern user experience. Users also express challenges with legacy system updates and call for better connectors and collaborative features.

What are the key features of erwin Evolve?

Graphical Support for Large Data Models: Provides visualization capabilities for complex data structures.
Metadata Access via API: Allows integration and management of metadata across platforms.
Version Control and Model Comparison: Enhances tracking and analysis of model changes.
Collaborative Web Interface: Facilitates teamwork and process exploration remotely.
Architectural Modeling: Supports the design and configuration of enterprise architecture.

What are the benefits and ROI of using erwin Evolve?

Customization and Ease of Configuration: Reduces setup time and adapts to specific organizational workflows.
Enhanced Accessibility and Mobile Usability: Offers access to critical information on the go.
Operational Reports Creation: Generates insights and facilitates informed decision-making.
System Analytics Handling: Provides robust tools for analyzing system performance and integration.

Data-driven organizations in sectors like finance and healthcare implement erwin Evolve for data warehousing, enterprise architecture, and business process modeling. They leverage its capabilities for cataloging architectural elements, linking to CMDBs, analyzing system interfaces, and describing business processes. Utilization extends to IT solution registration, business capability planning, and strategic modeling, with frequent deployments on cloud platforms to support transformation initiatives.

Quest Software

Visual Paradigm is a UML tool. The tool is designed for a wide range of users including software engineers, system analysts, business analysts and system architects, or for anyone who is interested in reliably building large-scale software systems using an object-oriented approach. In addition, Visual Paradigm supports the latest standards of UML notation.

Sample Customers

AT&T, Bank of America, Chevron, Duke University, ESPN, Fidelity, GE, JP Morgan Chase, KPMG, McGraw Hill, NASA, Pfizer, Royal Bank of Scotland, Teradata, Union Pacific, Vodafone, Wells Fargo.

Adobe, Apple, at&t, Caterpillar, Intel, NASA, Nokia, Toyota