IBM Blueworks Live vs iServer comparison

IBM and Orbus Software are both solutions in the Business Process Design category. IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.5, while Orbus Software is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.0. IBM holds a 3.2% mindshare in BPD, compared to Orbus Software’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Orbus Software users who would recommend it.

IBM Blueworks Live

Read 21 IBM Blueworks Live reviews

2,198 Views
1,912 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

iServer

Read 18 iServer reviews

2,178 Views
1,198 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

IBM Blueworks Live

iServer

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

iServer and IBM Blueworks Live compete in the business process management space. IBM Blueworks Live holds an edge with its robust features that justify its cost, despite iServer's competitive pricing and support.

Features: iServer offers strong integration capabilities and customizability, catering to comprehensive enterprise architecture needs. It integrates well with Microsoft Office, enabling workflow and document management. Its flexible platform supports enterprise architecture modeling and importing data. IBM Blueworks Live focuses on intuitive process management with collaboration tools and BPMN 2.0 compliance. It facilitates process documentation centrally and supports process version control. Its ability to collaborate in real-time and create process models easily makes it user-friendly.

Room for Improvement: iServer's on-premise deployment requires significant setup effort and could benefit from streamlined processes. Its complex customization might need additional user training. Enhancing its reporting and visualization features could also improve user experience. IBM Blueworks Live can improve its integration with non-IBM products. Its process modeling might benefit from more detailed analytics and reporting functionalities. Additional customization options could enhance flexibility for diverse business needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: iServer offers an on-premise deployment model requiring significant setup and offering extensive support. This allows extensive customization but involves more initial effort. IBM Blueworks Live, being cloud-based, allows for easier deployment and straightforward customer support. It provides an agile implementation process, helping with faster adoption for businesses.

Pricing and ROI: iServer has flexible pricing, emphasizing long-term ROI through customization benefits, ideal for complex environments. It proposes a cost-benefit that integrates well with existing systems. IBM Blueworks Live offers a clear pricing structure with quicker ROI delivery. Its lower setup costs and fast deployment contribute to immediate value and potentially lower overall costs.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Blueworks Live vs. iServer Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Blueworks Live vs. iServer

September 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

IBM Blueworks Live

Ranking in Business Process Design

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

iServer

Ranking in Business Process Design

16th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Architecture Management (8th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of IBM Blueworks Live is 3.2%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of iServer is 1.9%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Design Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Blueworks Live	3.2%
iServer	1.9%
Other	94.9%

Business Process Design

Featured Reviews

Nupur Wadhwa

Consultant 2 at Protiviti

Enables efficient process mapping but requires improvement in maintaining server stability

The pricing of the solution can be quite expensive when compared to competitors, though IBM Blueworks Live stands out from a technical standpoint. IBM Blueworks Live provides clear ROI as it saves both time and money. I have successfully imported Visio flowcharts into both IBM Blueworks Live and ARIS. Both tools handled the imports successfully, though some manual intervention was required because Visio is quite a basic tool. Importing flowcharts into advanced tools such as ARIS and IBM Blueworks Live requires some manual effort. The primary advantage is the ease of use. I have not encountered any features in other tools that I couldn't find in ARIS. This is a major factor because I don't have to switch between tools to find specific features. Using ARIS for the past three years has built confidence and trust in the tool.

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Antonios Lazanakis

Senior IT Solution Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Flexible, easy to use, and easy to import data

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization iServer is a very flexible platform for defining your own enterprise architecture model. It is very easy to import data, and we also have good integration with Visual Drawing Tools and SharePoint. The solution is…

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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

"Business users understand it really well, which means we can then help them automate their business processes."

"This solution is good at utilizing standards rules for connectivity."

"IBM Blueworks Live is cloud-based and provides easy access to all your processes in one place."

"Collaboration is most valuable. You can collaborate online with many people. People can comment, and you can comment back. It is just like a social network, and that, for me, is very good."

"It has the ability to document in different formats. It is not tied to a specific model. You can look at it from different angles and see the intuitive nature of it. It always generates a valid diagram. You cannot create something that is not BPMN compliant."

"The solution is stable. All the refreshes run very well."

"I like the two-tiered approach, that is, discover and then drill down to the main steps. You can right click and attach risk, policies, and much more. It is a user-friendly solution."

"For me, what I find to be the most valuable is its simplicity and the association with Microsoft Office."

More IBM Blueworks Live pros

"The most valuable feature is its reporting capability. It offers various packages for different types of reports, such as business and project management reporting packs."

"The product has a valuable customized model."

"Good and effective reporting features, which help in decision making."

"This is a flexible tool compared to some other solutions."

"iServer is a very flexible platform for defining your own enterprise architecture model."

"Integrating the Microsoft documents to the product and visualization matrix where we can see the end-to-end relationship of the network is of great importance to our company."

"The most valuable features of iServer are the integration with Microsoft Office and the interface is similar to Microsoft applications making them easy to use."

"It has helped having data lineage in the business cluster, which is used as control artifacts."

More iServer pros

Cons

"The font size is really, really small and it's really not useful to print out process models because you cannot read what's written in different boxes. This makes it necessary for people to have access to the tool. We view licenses to see how the printing or output is. It's not very good."

"In the solution Signavio, they have a customer journey mapping feature that should be added to IBM Blueworks Live. It's valuable to map or document the customer journey to identify the pains and opportunities in this process."

"Spaces are not well organized; space controls are lacking."

"IBM Blueworks is BPMN 2.0 compliant, but it does not adapt to the overarching BPMN 2.0 concepts."

"The solution is stable, but there are some glitches and latency issues."

"Some of the import functionality was a bit restrictive, in terms of loading data in from other data sources. Something as simple as Excel, loading data tables from Excel, wasn't great. And vice-versa. Some of the export and import functionality with something like Visio - which, I know it's a slightly different tool - but being able to work seamlessly with those other tool sets would've been quite useful. I know it was something that was in the pipeline to be looked at. So that would be useful."

"In the Blue Works Live software boxes and lines are automatically placed by the programme and can't be easily manipulated."

"I wish Blueworks Live had simulations built in, but it doesn't. It also lacks a feature of reporting; ad hoc, drag and drop reporting. A lot of senior people are always asking for reports, and there's no reporting feature within IBM Blueworks."

More IBM Blueworks Live cons

"There are other solutions out there that have a better user interface."

"It definitely needs help to improve the visual aspect of the solution."

"The migration tool needs to be included in the main package, and not as a separate license."

"There can be some performance issues using the solution that should be improved. When you make modifications modify to files there are embedded data within that can take a while to process."

"There could be features for process mining, process simulation, and analytics."

"More visualization techniques and ways to report the data might be helpful."

"It runs relatively slowly."

"Enhancing integration options with ERP or ITSM-related solutions for triggering automated requests for process definitions, changes, and tracking them in the iServer."

More iServer cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Making it less expensive would be good."

"They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users."

"Based on the licenses purchased, from a footprint perspective, you can have as many people as you want. You have multiple different categories of licenses to keep the cost low."

"Price wise, IBM Blueworks Live is in the middle range, and I would give it a five out of ten."

"The solution is not very expensive."

"There are editor licenses that are around 50 euros per month, and contributor licenses that are around 30 euros per month."

"We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time."

"The solution is very, very cost-effective."

"They offer annual subscriptions for developing countries, which are not affordable for small or medium businesses."

"Aim for the exact number of people who shall define/review approve and view the processes, as it will impact the cost."

"The solution is cheaper than its competitors."

"The product has a moderate pricing."

"The price of iServer is reasonable compared to other solutions."

"It's about 13K to set up and 9K for the license for three months. I think it's about 20K a year, but we haven't firmed up on pricing yet because the price depends on how long we commit to the solution."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Financial Services Firm

21%

Government

12%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	17

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	10

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Blueworks Live?

The solution is easy to operate. Also, there is an automatic mode to make the business flow. You don't have to put any lines or arrows in a decision point in IBM Blueworks Live; it's very automatic.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Blueworks Live?

The solution costs around 600-700 dollars/year, which is quite affordable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Blueworks Live?

Some features could still be enhanced in IBM Blueworks Live. The solution is easily scalable, but it can be expensive to scale and there may be some limitations. The solution is stable, but there a...

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What do you like most about iServer?

iServer has valuable features for workflow and document management.

See all answers

What needs improvement with iServer?

iServer should invest in enhancing the capabilities of the embedded drawing tool, draw.io. draw.io is a drawing tool used to draw architectural diagrams, flow diagrams, etc. It is an alternative to...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iServer?

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization.

See all answers

Comparisons

Visio vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 28% of the time

SAP Signavio Process Manager vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 22% of the time

Lucidchart vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 13% of the time

ARIS Cloud vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 11% of the time

ARIS BPA vs IBM Blueworks Live

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Blueworks Live Competitors

LeanIX vs iServer

Compared 22% of the time

OrbusInfinity vs iServer

Compared 16% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs iServer

Compared 10% of the time

BiZZdesign HoriZZon vs iServer

Compared 10% of the time

ARIS Cloud vs iServer

Compared 8% of the time

More iServer Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Blueworks Live

September 2025

Download IBM Blueworks Live product report

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

September 2025

Download iServer product report

Also Known As

IBM Lombardi Blueprint

No data available

Overview

IBM Blueworks Live is a cloud-based business process modeling tool that helps you discover, map and document your processes. It is easy to use, allowing you to learn and perform business process modeling in minutes.

With Blueworks Live you can:

Simplify business process modeling
Quickly build business processes in a straightforward, cloud-based interface designed for both IT and business users.

Improve process efficiency and accuracy
A central process repository eliminates version control and consistency issues by providing users real-time access to process workflows.

Enhance cross-team collaboration
A shared team workspace engages all business process owners, encouraging cross-team participation and continuous process improvement.

IBM

iServer is a unified software platform and enterprise modeling environment that extends and enhances the familiar, market leading Microsoft Visio and Office products. Core capabilities provided by iServer include an enhanced Microsoft Visio diagramming interface, a powerful central repository for all enterprise architecture or business process models and documentation, and a range of tools for visualization, analysis and decision making.

Orbus Software

Sample Customers

Cloudsoft Corp. Ltd., Bayer, S¾SS, Essex County Council

Barclays, Cathay Pacific, Deloitte, British Gas, MasterCard

Buyer's Guide

IBM Blueworks Live vs. iServer

September 2025

Free Report: IBM Blueworks Live vs. iServer

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