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IDERA ER/Studio vs SAP PowerDesigner comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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
5.8
Users appreciate IDERA ER/Studio for ease, graphical presentation, and efficiency, despite not fully utilizing its capabilities.
Sentiment score
3.4
SAP PowerDesigner users report a 43% ROI, with improved efficiency and quick returns outweighing licensing costs.
I cannot put a number on it, but if you think about developing software manually or using a tool to generate software and considering the license cost of SAP PowerDesigner, the ROI is pretty positive relatively quick because it's not that expensive.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.1
IDERA ER/Studio's customer support is praised for responsiveness and professionalism, despite occasional delays, especially for East Coast users.
Sentiment score
5.8
SAP PowerDesigner support is efficient but has issues with slow response times, complex systems, and accessibility concerns.
There is plenty of documentation available online for assistance, making it straightforward to address any issues.
Managing Partner at DXC Technology
It relies heavily on VBScript, which is something that will be end of life in a few years in Windows.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
Regarding technical support, after a recent licensing issue caused a temporary halt, we realized the importance of tracking licensing and version updates to avoid future disruptions in service.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Until I get 16.7 and complete the migration, I'm not getting any help from them.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Most users find it scalable; performance improves in new versions, especially using cloud environments for large data models.
Sentiment score
7.3
SAP PowerDesigner is highly scalable, effectively supporting varied team sizes and models, with generally positive feedback on its performance.
It scales well to teams of one hundred plus people.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Currently, there are no scalability limitations in SAP PowerDesigner, allowing us to create numerous data models for various projects.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The scalability of SAP PowerDesigner is very good.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
Our main objective is to upgrade to the supported version and be able to do whatever we are doing at the moment.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
IDERA ER/Studio is generally stable, though occasional issues exist with older versions, complex models, and server performance.
Sentiment score
7.0
SAP PowerDesigner is generally stable, though challenges may arise with remote access, complex models, and specific configurations.
Erwin is a very stable product.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
If you use a lot of customizations, especially using VBScript, it becomes less stable.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
This may lead to frequent downtimes requiring server maintenance; thus, it is not suitable for highly complex solutions, but moderate complexities can be handled.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The product is reliable.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Room For Improvement

IDERA ER/Studio needs deployment, licensing, documentation, performance, and feature enhancements for better user experience and functionality.
SAP PowerDesigner faces challenges with high pricing, limited database integration, poor usability, and inadequate collaboration, requiring improvements.
Both Erwin and ER/Studio do not have AI or machine learning features for automation.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
SAP PowerDesigner does not have a cloud option. It's only on-premise.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
I would like to see a feature added to SAP PowerDesigner where, upon extracting data from a source, it automatically identifies relationships between tables.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The web portal is unstable and does not work. It freezes up all the time.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
 

Setup Cost

IDERA ER/Studio is costly and complex to license, but many find its features offer valuable returns.
SAP PowerDesigner pricing varies, manageable for large firms but costly for small consultancies, considering licensing and setup expenses.
The setup cost may have been around $1500 to $2000.
Data Modeler at Ascendion
In terms of pricing, ER/Studio is slightly more expensive compared to Erwin, by about five to ten percent.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
One issue is the cost, as it is a high-priced tool coming from SAP.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

IDERA ER/Studio enables comprehensive data modeling, collaboration, and automation with user-friendly interfaces and integration with versioning tools.
SAP PowerDesigner is praised for its data modeling, customization, user interface, and collaboration features enhancing data management efficiency.
When we built an application, it facilitated the development process by providing the skeleton of the application and the foundation for functions.
Managing Partner at DXC Technology
It has strong versioning support and can even integrate with third-party versioning tools like GitHub.
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
The best features of SAP PowerDesigner, from my perspective, are its ability to keep the connectivity between the source database and the new system, data redundancy and availability, and impact analysis.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
SAP PowerDesigner doesn't only allow you to model the structure of your database, but you can also model data mappings or data flows or lineage.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
What I appreciate best about SAP PowerDesigner is that it is a very detailed and comprehensive tool.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
 

Categories and Ranking

IDERA ER/Studio
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Database Development and Management (8th)
SAP PowerDesigner
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of IDERA ER/Studio is 3.6%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP PowerDesigner is 7.3%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP PowerDesigner7.3%
IDERA ER/Studio3.6%
Other89.1%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

KP
Works at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Enables large teams to collaborate seamlessly with comprehensive integration and strong versioning support
ER/Studio is excellent for large teams; it scales well to teams of over one hundred plus people. It has strong versioning support and can even integrate with third-party versioning tools like GitHub. It has a rich set of integration options with various products in the market. The tool also supports both logical and physical data modeling, and it has out-of-the-box support for data vault methodologies. ER/Studio allows the enforcement of naming conventions, which is beneficial for maintaining standards within the organization.
Kopparapu Venkatesh Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Data modeling tool improves data management and decision-making efficiency
The lineage analysis helps my organization understand data dependencies at an enterprise level. As a SAP PowerDesigner developer, I monitor data across the organization, creating data models that reflect not just one data warehouse but comprehensive organizational information. If you have a small company, lineage helps track employee data across different areas such as finance and HR. Data governance prevents duplicate records, so when tracking employee details, SAP PowerDesigner highlights where data exists in various areas, helping ensure we only use the appropriate sources. This functionality allows us to assess the impact of data deletions effectively. I utilize the reverse engineering capabilities in SAP PowerDesigner. Reverse engineering is helpful, especially since I have colleagues new to SAP PowerDesigner. They often do not know which columns are available where. In SAP PowerDesigner, we can reverse engineer existing data from its source and identify errors in production. For instance, by using Ali's example, if an error arises, I can trace it back to the table and environment it originated from using the reverse engineering feature. The best features of SAP PowerDesigner, from my perspective, are its ability to keep the connectivity between the source database and the new system, data redundancy and availability, and impact analysis. The first feature acts as a bridge between systems. The second allows us to see what data is already available and what new data can be brought in. The third, impact analysis, helps determine how many tables will be affected if a specific table is deleted. This critical point allows us to capture how much data will be lost if any table is removed. Currently, these features shape my daily work. SAP PowerDesigner primarily benefits business management units by offering three types of data modeling structures: conceptual, logical, and physical models. The conceptual model communicates high-level insights to top executives, while logical and physical models address complex queries faced by developers in analytics. SAP PowerDesigner enhances the clarity of our data management significantly, as around 80% of data can be searched quickly and maintained in our SAP systems. The tool enables mapping from end to end, making my work faster and more efficient than using other ER data modeling solutions. The interface allows easy creation of data models and searching for existing data, ensuring I can complete my tasks significantly quicker. The importance of SAP PowerDesigner's collaboration capabilities lies in fostering a unified data management approach. It acts as a unified tool, preventing the duplication of existing data in analytical processes, thus saving both effort and storage costs, which is essential for effective data management. We utilize collaboration capabilities in SAP PowerDesigner with various source systems such as PG admin, Postgres, Oracle, and Snowflake. Recently, we have added Snowflake for cloud data modeling and POC work, streamlining the collaboration process across different systems.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
23%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise25
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IDERA ER Studio?
In terms of pricing, ER/Studio is slightly more expensive compared to Erwin, by about five to ten percent.
What is your primary use case for IDERA ER Studio?
I have been working with data modeling tools. Personally, I have been working with Erwin for many years now. ER/Studio is something I am currently trying to evaluate for acquiring it for our organi...
What advice do you have for others considering IDERA ER Studio?
I would strongly recommend ER/Studio for large teams. Erwin is a very stable product, but for smaller teams, it's okay. If I had to rate ER/Studio, I would give it nine out of ten because the absen...
What do you like most about SAP PowerDesigner?
It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases.
What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
It was a long time back when my company purchased it, but I am now participating in upgrading it to the latest version. I found customer support to be tedious during the upgrade process to the late...
 

Also Known As

IDERA ER Studio, ER/Studio, ER/Studio Enterprise Team Edition
Sybase PowerDesigner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Newmont Mining, Entrust, Accolade, TalkTalk, Catalina, Protective Life, NTT Data, dir systèmes, Microsoft; American Express, Astellas Pharma, AstraZeneca, Coriant, Fedex, GlaxoSmithKline, PepsiCo, Prudential, Wells Fargo
Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
Find out what your peers are saying about IDERA ER/Studio vs. SAP PowerDesigner and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.