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SAP PowerDesigner vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

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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

"Apart from some improvements needed to integrate better with open source systems, SAP PowerDesigner is an excellent tool."
"If you have the money for it, buy it."
"PowerDesigner is definitely stable."
"What I appreciate best about SAP PowerDesigner is that it is a very detailed and comprehensive tool."
"It has helped me to develop the as-is state, design its to-be state, and track the capital investment according to gap analysis."
"Provides the flexibility to create logical and conceptual data models."
"I would highly recommend this product to be used in each and every application system where you have to design a relational database."
"It's a great tool for documentation."
"The solution allows us to quickly present designs and concepts to customers and get their feedback, thereby moving the project forward step by step."
"When I confronted the developer team that I plan to switch from JIRA to EA, they were not really happy, but now, after a short while, they love it because they immediately see changes, have access to all the diagrams (ERDs, Sequence Diagrams etc.), always have the big picture, and wherever they are, they can simply right-click an element, click "Find in Diagrams" and see this element in context."
"The platform is stable and reliable."
"Its ability to reference and link to components from any diagram and the vast number of frameworks supported make it easy to get started with modelling."
"I like that there is support for software patterns."
"I would definitively recommend the solution to any IT department as it's very cheap and very powerful."
"However, it is a useful tool for IT people who need to design their solution architecture."
"Features good reporting facilities coupled with a concrete database."
 

Cons

"They didn't spend any time on the issue because according to them, 16.5 is not supported."
"Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature."
"Checking-in models to the repository, especially when working remotely, is a slow process than can sometimes have problems with models being corrupted."
"The data governance should be improved, like ER/Studio."
"In terms of improvement, the pricing is a bit high."
"The focus is more on mainstream development environments, and I see a lack of focus on the open source world. I think SAP PowerDesigner probably interfaces better with SQL Server and Db2 but not with open source databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL."
"Better support for integration with open-source technologies is needed. For example, I try to use open-source databases such as Postgres and MySQL instead of Microsoft, DB2, or Oracle, however, I think it's lacking in capability from the tool to the database."
"It would be helpful if there were glossary, catalog and governance tools. It would help make it a true end-to-end product."
"It has not improved our organization mainly due to the poor diagramming capabilities within the product, which are outdated and look like Visual Studio 2005."
"The Business Process Modeling or BPM feature can be improved to make it more interactive and user friendly because it is a tool for technical people. My current use is only for business process modeling notation and putting in the icons etc. You need to take them in as a class, which makes things very complex. Because of this complexity, it is not an easy-to-handle solution. Enterprise Architect is not very good for mockups. We cannot create user screens and other similar kinds of stuff, which is bad. For these things, we prefer to use Axure RP and other similar solutions. They should either remove this feature from this product or provide some kind of connectivity with Axure RP so that people can do better mockups of screens and import them. They need to augment and strengthen the BPM feature, which is the main feature. They need to put in some elements like artificial intelligence and augmented reality. They should look into such features because these things are coming up."
"The documentation needs a bit of improvement. What I find is that when I'm trying to do something specific for some part of a project, in terms of documentation, it's kind of hard to get at figuring out if you don't use it all the time."
"The UX/UI seems a bit dated and clunky and I would like to see a refresh of this."
"No way to implement data integrity and referential integrity constraints."
"I think that collaboration can be better."
"It can be improved in the area of shared documentation. The idea is that the architecture tool can call back to an enterprise asset, pull that information, and link that as a sub-artifact."
"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

"The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable."
"PowerDesigner is not the cheapest solution on the market, so make sure that you are using it to its full potential."
"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 ROI has been 43%."
"The pricing varies based on functionality and users."
"The price of the solution is low."
"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."
"I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited."
"Pricing and licensing are suitable even for small companies."
"There is no license required for this solution."
"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."
"The license I use is on-premise. We haven't gone to the cloud where we have to pay monthly or something like that. Sparx is cheaper than most similar tools."
"There is a license for this solution. When comparing this solution to others it is priced well."
"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
"It is very economical and low cost. You have to pay for a one-time license, and it is active forever."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Outsourcing Company
6%
Government
6%
Retailer
5%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
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.
912,801 professionals have used our research since 2012.