Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.
Get the report

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IDERA ER/Studio enables extensive automation to enhance workflows and processes.
It efficiently documents data lineage and data flows between systems.
The ability to reverse-engineer databases and create models from scratch is highly valued.
Shared repository allows multiple users to work simultaneously on comprehensive enterprise models.
Strong reverse-engineering and DDL generation features are fundamental for database development.

CONS

IDERA ER/Studio can be unstable when used with older versions, leading to issues such as unsuccessful installations and database corruption.
Better documentation and tutorials are needed to help users understand the benefits of upgrades from a business perspective, as the release notes focus heavily on technical enhancements.
The debugging process is cumbersome, and users would benefit from a built-in debugging feature to identify and resolve errors independently.
There are performance issues with repository functions like checking in and out, and reverse-engineering large databases with about 3,000 tables often causes the system to freeze.
IDERA ER/Studio's metadata management is not as effective as Erwin's, particularly in the context of large-scale operations.
 

IDERA ER/Studio Pros review quotes

it_user738693 - PeerSpot reviewer
Administrador de Dados at a non-tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Sep 18, 2017
This application does a lot of things, as do competitor products, but the main reason to go with this product was the ability to create many automations, where we can improve our work and our process.
LW
Data Architect at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 25, 2018
We are able to document the data lineage and data flows of our data from one system to another.
DataArchadd7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 2, 2018
It's easy to model and has a user-friendly interface. I like the team portal because, once we upload, the entire team can see the model.
Learn what your peers think about IDERA ER/Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
VpDataInd01c - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Designer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 5, 2018
We have a database design group of about 15 people. The Repository enables multiple people to work on the same model at the same time. We have fully integrated models, so we have one model for the enterprise data warehouse, one model for MDM, with a lot of sub-models in these things. People work on different parts of the model at different times. So the repository enables us to share the models, and keep track of what everybody is working on.
JV
IT Specialist at a government with 10,001+ employees
Aug 7, 2018
We found a lot of duplication, a lot of non-conformity in the way our databases were designed. By identifying these situations, we're able to go back in and try to create a more standardized solution.
Database9ac8 - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 9, 2018
The reverse engineering is the most important feature.
MG
DBA at a consumer goods company with 201-500 employees
Aug 9, 2018
One of the valuable features is inheritance when joining tables. When setting up RI and domains and rules, ER/Studio does a lot of the grunt, boilerplate code that would otherwise have to be hand-coded.
DataArchd5df - PeerSpot reviewer
Asst. Director, Data Management & Analytics at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Aug 16, 2018
Developing new dimensional models; for the data we're hosting, dimensional modeling is more useful.
DBA8d65 - PeerSpot reviewer
DBA at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Sep 9, 2018
The most valuable features are... those that enable me to represent the database to the development community and the business users.
Reviewer951561 - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Administrator at a government with 10,001+ employees
Oct 29, 2018
We use the solution to create data models which describe our company's data architecture
 

IDERA ER/Studio Cons review quotes

it_user738693 - PeerSpot reviewer
Administrador de Dados at a non-tech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Sep 18, 2017
Sometimes our version is a little unstable. But I think this problem occurs because our version is old.
LW
Data Architect at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jan 25, 2018
I would like to see better documentation/help for the Data Architect tool. Creation of tutorials would be nice, as there are some features which are not as clearly defined as they should be.
DataArchadd7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Architect at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 2, 2018
Whenever there is a new version, there are a lot of release notes on the technical side of it, but I would like to be told why are we doing the upgrade... What I would like to really see is how this benefits us from the business point of view. What are the real benefits that the user gets? I want some kind of way white paper. The release notes describe the technical enhancements but, from the layman's point of view, if someone asks me what are the business benefits of this upgrade, I don't have any documentation to explain it to the business.
Learn what your peers think about IDERA ER/Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
VpDataInd01c - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Designer at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 5, 2018
What I would like to see improved is the reliability of the releases, releases that are a little less buggy.
JV
IT Specialist at a government with 10,001+ employees
Aug 7, 2018
We did have a big issue when we upgraded to the 2016 version. The Team Server portion never did quite install correctly, and/or the database was corrupted, and we never figured it out.
Database9ac8 - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 9, 2018
When building the relationships there should be a little more flexibility.
MG
DBA at a consumer goods company with 201-500 employees
Aug 9, 2018
The number of options can be overwhelming at times. That is not necessarily a bad thing but for a newbie, it can be daunting.
DataArchd5df - PeerSpot reviewer
Asst. Director, Data Management & Analytics at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Aug 16, 2018
One limitation I have found in ER/Studio is that when you want to make some changes to the table definitions, you have to go item by item. You cannot do it globally. Another issue concerns defining the foreign keys between the different tables. It is a little more tedious in the ER/Studio than in ERrwin. With ERwin it is direct.
DBA8d65 - PeerSpot reviewer
DBA at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Sep 9, 2018
It would be helpful if they could create a generic JSON database type, as a target database, rather than a specific one like Mongo.
Reviewer951561 - PeerSpot reviewer
Database Administrator at a government with 10,001+ employees
Oct 29, 2018
The solution could be sped up, as it is a little slow (e.g., when it's doing its database compare).