Planview Portfolios vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

Planview Portfolios vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

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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

Planview Portfolios

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Portfolio Management (4th)

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

4th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 2.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 8.9%, down from 13.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect	8.9%
Planview Portfolios	2.8%
Other	88.3%

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Monabi Kingsley

Project Manager at 3M

Centralized planning has improved resource visibility and supports data‑driven financial decisions

The best features Planview Portfolios offers are visibility enhancement, robust system performance, and comprehensive resource management. This enhanced visibility in Planview Portfolios ensures that all users can easily track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize workflow efficiency. When discussing robust system performance, the system's robust performance in meeting our various work requirements effectively and efficiently stands out. It is very stable and reliable, contributing to a seamless user experience, which enables users to focus on their tasks without disruptions. I also love the financial breakdown, planning and prioritization, and attribute collection on projects in Planview Portfolios. Planview Portfolios has positively impacted my organization since I started using it. It has enabled me to gain insights into the full scope of work consuming resources. I am able to know where the resources are being consumed more, especially which resources are consuming the most. I have been able to leverage resources management and resource time reporting, which enabled the generation of $90 million in annual revenue through labor billing to customers.

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Milan Sterba

Senior Enterprise Architect at Deepview S.r.o.

Efficient documentation generation through organized model structure with a good price-performance ratio

Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not easy for even experienced users to find their way without guidance. This is not the most user-friendly solution.

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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

"The resource capacity planning is the most valuable feature because you can evaluate your team's capacity by team and what projects they're working on and you can forecast easily by team."

"It gives us flexibility in configuring assignments. We can do both Agile Teams and non-Agile Teams. This flexibility affects our ability to meet our company's particular needs by allowing us to work in a hybrid model, some Agile Teams, and some non-Agile Teams."

"Planview has helped connect funding and strategic outcomes with work execution."

"Planview Portfolios has positively impacted my organization since we started using this tool as a project management solution."

"The integration stuff from tool to tool, like Projectplace to Planview, to manage projects is the most valuable feature; it keeps all our tasks up-to-date and closely follows up with everything, which is really cool."

"The biggest impact has been the ability to see your resources and what they're working on, and most importantly having your projects in one place."

"The portfolio management gives you a view of all the projects as well as all the information about the total amount of effort, time, and cost being spent on the projects. It gives the organization how much money and effort should be spent towards projects so they can budget and do better capacity planning in the next fiscal year. It gives them visibility into their resources and if they have capacity."

"The most valuable feature for me is the ease and customizability of reporting."

More Planview Portfolios pros

"Its ability to reference and link to components from any diagram."

"Amazing solution for its price, but has its flaws."

"With this solution, you get a lot of value at a low cost."

"Supporting all of the important architecture modeling notations and all types and levels of architecture modeling in a secure, collaborative, and well-integrated model repository is really unifying and beneficial."

"I like Sparx's BPM features and the way it lets you create the diagram."

"Its most valuable feature is the Zachman Framework."

"The most valuable feature is that it provides tuning for multiple layers of enterprise in the business application architecture."

"Its traversability is most valuable. I can use ArchiMate, and I can create a UML model. ArchiMate is for logical enterprise architecture, UML is for software engineering, and BPMN is for business processes. I can build it to have multiple models, and they are also traversable, which is not something that every tool allows. If there is a huge organization, you can segment it and have separate models for business technology or internal resource management system. You don't need to keep them in one model, and you can decide to segregate them."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pros

Cons

"The administrative tabs are very confusing, especially in terms of configuring screens and users."

"The solution is stable. However, it's so robust, there's so much data, that it has the tendency to lag."

"The scheduling's kind of clunky in terms of its ability for us to see what stage work is at. They could have done better with that."

"The technical people are very competent, but there is so much turnover in the people that we talk to, and that's frustrating. They will say, "We can make this work." Suddenly, that guy has left, and we have no one. Then, we have to start all over."

"The technical support is a little overworked. At least, they have been in the past year. We need them to focus on somethings from time to time. You can tell that they're really focusing on many things. It has gotten better, but I think they could still use some relief."

"I would like a bit more flexibility, as far as the configuration, and have additional capabilities to configure, making it more flexible for our use."

"The content management definitely needs to improve."

"The solution out-of-the-box that we established was insufficient. I don't believe that it's a great solution out-of-the-box but eventually you can get there."

More Planview Portfolios cons

"The user interface could be more intuitive and support for a Mac, iOS or at least a browser version would be very welcomed."

"Inconsistent UI elements must be tidied up with the toolbox gaps removed."

"The UI could be improved and made a little bit more presentable."

"The tutorials are a little thin for doing this, and I could find no examples that were provided for ideas."

"It really did not work for logical modeling. The look is very old-fashioned. You can't make the diagrams easy on the eye, so we ended up drawing them again in Visio anyhow."

"The product could be improved in terms of its ease of use and documentation. While it offers a lot of functionality, it can be difficult to grasp how to utilize these features effectively."

"I would like the system to more "intellectually" build a scheme, place icons, and connect lines on the schemes."

"I struggled with most of the features for this tool, as did the rest of our architecture team."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have several hundred licenses. It costs us several hundred thousand dollars a year."

"Our licensing costs are about a quarter of a million dollars per year."

"When we went through that process, I believe it is competitive with others on the market. However, there are less expensive options available. It's a more premium offering at a higher price."

"The licensing part is a bit costly in comparison with the other available PPM tools."

"I think all in we are at $33,000 a year and that includes Projectplace and Planview. We used to have the integration to JIRA, but we don't pay for that anymore."

"In the time that I've used it, we've doubled up the amount of dollars on our intended projects."

"Our licensing fees are approximately $50,000 USD annually."

"With the costs, they were very understanding. Knowing that we were an existing customer, they were very much willing to work with us to make sure that we were able to transition to Enterprise One from PPM Pro."

More Planview Portfolios pricing and cost advice

"Use floating licenses strategically."

"The license for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is paid yearly, but I don't handle that area. It's good for its price, so I'm rating it a five out of five, but I'm not using it much. I also don't have information regarding additional costs apart from the standard licensing fees."

"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."

"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."

"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."

"They have the price on their site for the enterprise version, and we do receive a small discount."

"I think our license costs roughly $1,000 a year, but I could be wrong."

"It's affordable. The only additional cost that we haven't yet figured out is the floating license. If you buy a floating license, you have to have a license management server, which comes at an additional cost that's not discussed. So, we haven't yet used the floating license. That’s because I haven't had a chance to figure that out."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Marketing Services Firm

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	66

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	39
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	58

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Planview Portfolios?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that Planview Portfolios is one of the best and a very cost-effective tool.

What needs improvement with Planview Portfolios?

Planview Portfolios can be improved as the user interface defaults to the last opened portfolio, which can waste a lot of time loading a large portfolio if that is not what I need at that moment. J...

What is your primary use case for Planview Portfolios?

My main use case for Planview Portfolios is to ensure governance and decision auditability by incorporating embedded workflows, approval management, and key document retention supporting a single c...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

One of the reasons many public sector institutions in the Czech Republic use it is that it provides a very good price-performance ratio. While it might be cumbersome to learn, it still delivers exc...

What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

What is your primary use case for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

We are mostly using the ArchiMate language to describe enterprise or solution architecture, along with a bit of use cases. We are producing quite large models, with over 10,000 elements and relatio...

Broadcom Clarity vs Planview Portfolios

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Product Reports

Planview Portfolios

Download Planview Portfolios product report

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Download Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect product report

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect report

Also Known As

Planview Enterprise One, Troux

No data available

Overview

Planview Portfolios empowers executives, finance, and portfolio leaders by enhancing strategic investments, improving market responsiveness, and connecting strategy and execution for optimal visibility.

Planview Portfolios offers comprehensive strategic and project portfolio management to organizations. Automating and scaling these processes, it enhances speed-to-value, aligns strategic objectives with execution, and connects business and technology planning for optimal funding and resource capacity. Users gain end-to-end visibility, track progress, and improve decision-making by utilizing integrated financial and capacity planning.

What key features does Planview Portfolios offer?

Strategic Alignment: Aligns objectives and OKRs with execution to ensure strategic goals are met.
End-to-End Visibility: Tracks performance across the organization to support timely decision-making.
Dynamic Planning and Funding: Utilizes scenario modeling for flexible strategic investment funding.
Flexible Capacity Planning: Balances programs and staffing levels against available capacity.
Connected Technology Strategy: Aligns technology investments with strategic digital initiatives.
Adaptive Program Management: Manages dependencies, risk, and progress through integrated planning.

What benefits can users find in reviews of Planview Portfolios?

Workflow Efficiency: Enhances efficiency by minimizing bottlenecks and optimizing execution.
Improved Decision-Making: Provides comprehensive insights for better informed strategic decisions.
Financial Insights: Offers detailed financial tracking across projects for greater transparency.
Organizational Agility: Increases productivity and adaptability through a unified platform.

Planview Portfolios is implemented across projects in industries requiring strategic planning, resource allocation, and financial tracking. Organizations manage project lifecycle and integration with ERP systems on a centralized platform, utilizing customizable workflows and reporting tools to enhance efficiency and streamline team processes.

Planview

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect supports modeling standards like UML, ArchiMate, and TOGAF. Its strengths include collaboration, scalability, and affordability, making it adaptable to enterprise architecture tasks.

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect provides a robust and versatile platform for enterprises by offering comprehensive modeling capabilities and integration with diverse tools. It supports diagram creation, automatic documentation, and reverse engineering, making tasks efficient. Though user interface improvements are needed for intuitiveness, its overall framework support and affordability remain attractive. Users typically integrate it with other solutions for enhanced functionality, benefiting from its version control and adaptability in IT landscapes.

What are the most important features?

Support for Multiple Standards: Offers UML, ArchiMate, TOGAF compatibility.
Collaboration Capabilities: Encourages effective teamwork and data sharing.
Scalable Solutions: Grows with enterprise demands.
Extensive Framework Support: Provides diverse modeling options.
Automatic Documentation: Generates essential documents efficiently.
Reverse Engineering and Code Generation: Supports software development processes.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Affordability: Cost-effective compared to competitors.
User-Friendliness: Easy to navigate for experienced users.
Integration: Works well with existing systems and tools.
User Flexibility: Adapts to specific needs without significant cost.

In specific industries, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is often implemented for developing detailed architecture frameworks and business process models. Organizations leverage its capabilities in establishing application inventories and managing projects. Its use in data modeling and solution design is particularly valued in sectors requiring comprehensive IT landscape mapping.

Sparx Systems

Sample Customers

UPS, NatWest, Ingram Micro, Canadian Tire, Viessmann, Volvo, NASCO, UNESCO

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Planview Portfolios vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect