No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

SAP PowerDesigner vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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:
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP PowerDesigner
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (6th)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of SAP PowerDesigner is 8.6%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 8.6%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP PowerDesigner8.6%
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect8.6%
Other82.8%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

HemantKUMAR6 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
Customer support has delayed successful upgrade to supported version
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 latest version. I tried to upgrade to a trial version before purchasing a new license. During that process, I had some technical issues. When trying to go from 12.5 to 16.5, I could migrate but faced technical challenges. When I approached customer support, they informed me that even 16.5 is not supported. They stated I would need to go to 16.7 before they could look at my issue. They didn't spend any time on the issue because according to them, 16.5 is not supported. Until I get 16.7 and complete the migration, I'm not getting any help from them. I was not too happy with the customer support. This was my only interaction with customer support, and I haven't received any resolution to my issue. It can be rated as low as zero because that's the only time I approached them. I cannot even say zero out of ten because I approached only once. Perhaps they are correct that they don't support 16.5, so they don't want to spend any time on that.
Milan Sterba - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I would highly recommend this product to be used in each and every application system where you have to design a relational database."
"It is a very stable solution, which is one of the advantages of using PowerDesigner, especially in big databases."
"This solution has good tools for big data, where you can manage large and complex databases."
"I mostly work on the conceptual and logical side of things, and I enjoy how easy it is to use."
"It has helped me to develop the as-is state, design its to-be state, and track the capital investment according to gap analysis."
"The most valuable feature is the way you can extend it and customize it. With most modeling tools, you fit your modeling process to fit the tool. In PowerDesigner, you can make the tool fit the way you want to work."
"SAP PowerDesigner stands out as a robust tool that handles various aspects of data standardization, lineage tracking, and modeling efficiently."
"The most useful feature has been the detailed possibility to model almost anything regarding physical databases."
"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."
"Now for the first time we have a complete reference architecture repository to build different target architecture for every large program and projects."
"I like that there is support for software patterns."
"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect supports multiple modeling languages like ArchiMate for database design, software lifecycle visualization, and team management."
"In Poland, it's a very popular tool, and I recommended it."
"The profiles allow me to customize the tool to the corporate environment instead of the other way around saving huge amounts of time and energy on trying to turn dozens of individuals into TOGAF, ArchiMate or Zachman experts, or even Sparx EA experts."
"Scalable solution for modeling, project sharing, and collaboration. Support for it is good."
"The platform is stable and reliable."
 

Cons

"Although the presentation for viewing the models is good, I think it could be better."
"SAP PowerDesigner can improve the ease of use. It is not the best tool on the market because it is tough to navigate and use. A beginner would not be able to use it well, it requires some experience. If the solution was more user-friendly it would be able to be used by more audiences. I do not think many people are aware of this solution and they should use it."
"Technical support could be better and more human."
"You have the possibility to complete a connection for abbreviations if you are creating columns or names of the tables. In the Citrix environment, this has been lagging to the point where the PowerDesigner was not usable."
"It also has a web portal feature, which is much more convenient for giving people access to look at entity-relationship diagrams, but that web portal is unstable and does not work. It freezes up all the time."
"There are some minor things that could be easier. We're writing up procedures to bring all the modeling back into one group as this reduces delays in production."
"One disadvantage of SAP PowerDesigner is that you cannot reverse engineer the ALTER statements, so that's an enhancement or area for improvement I'm looking forward to seeing from the SAP team in the future. That should directly reflect on the physical data models my company builds."
"Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature."
"This solution should have better ease of use for the uninitiated."
"There should be a MATLAB-specific toolbox added to the solution with better compatibility. The connections currently are good but in the future, it needs a huge improvement."
"The product needs better tools for defining report templates."
"Not visually appealing."
"I think the UI could be improved and made a little bit more presentable."
"Sparx can be a bit slow. If you are trying to design software architecture, sometimes we run into issues and need to refresh."
"Enterprise Architect is not very good for mockups."
"We miss an integration tool like ARCSeeker which is intended to register elicited elements in a common repository with all their associations (this was removed last year)."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SAP PowerDesigner is cheaper than eriwin."
"PowerDesigner is not the cheapest solution on the market, so make sure that you are using it to its full potential."
"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."
"The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable."
"The price of the solution is low."
"I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited."
"The ROI has been 43%."
"Regarding costs, SAP PowerDesigner is pricey, as I've heard from my team manager, which is why the company has been thinking of bringing another solution on board."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access. You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"It is cheap."
"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."
"Pricing and licensing are suitable even for small companies."
"This product has a paid license, with a yearly subscription option."
"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is priced well. The price we pay is approximately $20 per month. Other solutions I have found to be much more expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Architecture Management solutions are best for your needs.
914,805 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise18
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business39
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
Synchronization is vital since I experience multiple problems, such as mismatched models and manual DDL handling. Improving the synchronization between models and databases can enhance integration ...
What is your primary use case for SAP PowerDesigner?
I use SAP PowerDesigner for data modeling, which greatly enhances the clarity of my data management processes. I manage data across multiple databases, including cloud databases, Teradata, and Orac...
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?
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 ...
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...
 

Also Known As

Sybase PowerDesigner
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
OmniLink
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP PowerDesigner vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
914,805 professionals have used our research since 2012.