Ardoq vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

Ardoq and Quest Software are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Ardoq is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.5, while Quest Software is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3. Ardoq holds a 3.4% mindshare in AM, compared to Quest Software’s 10.0% mindshare. Additionally, 50% of Ardoq users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Quest Software users who would recommend it.

Ardoq

Read 2 Ardoq reviews

1,007 Views
1,007 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler reviews

5,179 Views
3,574 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Ardoq

erwin Data Modeler

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 19, 2025

Erwin Data Modeler and Ardoq are competitive solutions in data modeling and enterprise architecture. Erwin Data Modeler holds a significant lead in data integrity and consistency, while Ardoq's dynamic modeling capabilities make it advantageous in adaptive environments.

Features: Erwin Data Modeler provides data mapping, automated schema generation, and integration capabilities. Ardoq offers collaborative design, real-time visualization, and effective integration with various frameworks.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Erwin Data Modeler has straightforward deployment and robust support services suitable for structured settings. Ardoq presents a steeper learning curve but compensates with strong customer service and assistance with integrations and updates.

Pricing and ROI: Erwin Data Modeler requires significant initial investment with long-term value in data management. Ardoq's flexible pricing allows for potential high ROI in agile settings due to its streamlined processes and rapid adaptability. Erwin's model is an upfront investment, while Ardoq aligns expenditure with project complexity and size.

To learn more, read our detailed Ardoq vs. erwin Data Modeler Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Ardoq vs. erwin Data Modeler

July 2025

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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

Ardoq

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

11th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

erwin Data Modeler

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (10th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of Ardoq is 3.4%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 10.0%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Anthony Houghton

Data Architect at UK Research and Innovatio

Provides stable performance and scalability but not intuitive for data modeling

Overall, I would rate it around six out of ten. The training environment wasn't very intuitive, but maybe with more use, it will get better. We need to learn to navigate it. So, there is a potential learning curve in this tool. I use it once in a blue moon, and not very frequently because I have not found it very intuitive.

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JorgeSanz

Data Governance Senior Advisor at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Streamline data modeling and automate network changes for increased efficiency

The initial setup depends on the tool if you are using the data model environment. Stopping the server could be complex and require strong expertise. If you have everything set up and configured, Erwin is straightforward. You can deploy it in a few hours. In our case, it took a couple of months to address internal conditions, assign machines, and set up everything for the services. I rate the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

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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

"Snapshots are the most valuable feature."

"It is a stable solution."

"It reduces monthly savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Think about a company like Costco and all of the points of sale systems in Costco, all of the systems, the applications, but if all the applications in Costco all had their own data model, trying to integrate those, upgrade them and manage their different versions of the same model throughout the store, is an absolute nightmare. It's phenomenally expensive. This helps reduce that cost significantly. I'm talking on the orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"The most valuable feature is the physical or visual representation of the database, showing the tables, the columns, the foreign keys, and the ability to generate DDL, so you can physically implement databases."

"There is absolutely no problem with the stability."

"It's important to create standard templates — Erwin is good at that — and you can customize them. You can create a standard template so that your models have the same look and feel. And then, anyone using the tool is using the same font and the same general layout. erwin's very good at helping enforce that."

"The solution is excellent in providing a visual representation of a database and can generate DDL for implementing changes. We use DDL for logical purposes to review with business people, ensuring they have the required fields for processing. We also use it as a data dictionary for the physical data model to understand all the purposes of the terms. This helps us map the logical and physical terms with the business definition to understand our data."

"The solution's ability to compare and synchronize data sources with data models is fantastic. We use it for that on a regular basis to make sure that changes haven't been made to the database outside of the modeling process. I can take existing databases and reverse engineer them and understand their structure within 15 minutes. If I didn't have Data Modeler it would take hours. It increases our productivity and helps in understanding our legacy application."

"One of the best aspects of the tool is its reverse engineering capability."

"The ability to collaborate between different members across the organization is the most valuable feature. It gives us the ability to work on the same model, regardless of where we are physically."

More erwin Data Modeler pros

Cons

"The training environment wasn't very intuitive, but maybe with more use, it will get better."

"Scalability as a standalone system is good, given the information that has been described inside Ardoq. But not the scalability as a third-party system or with integration with other systems. Because in this direction, the scalability is about zero for Ardoq."

"erwin generally fails to successfully reverse engineer our Oracle Databases into erwin data models. The way that they are engineered on our side, the syntax is correct from an Oracle perspective, but it seems to be very difficult for erwin to interpret. What I end up doing is using Oracle Data Modeler to reverse engineer into the Oracle data model, then forward engineer the DDL into an Oracle syntax, and importing that DDL into erwin in order to successfully bring in most of the information from our physical data models. That is a bit of a challenge."

"We are planning to move, in 2021, into their server version, where multiple data modelers can work at the same time and share their models. It has become a pain point to merge the models from individual desktops and get them into a single data model, when multiple data modelers are working on a particular project. It becomes a nightmare for the senior data modeler to bring them together, especially when it comes to recreating them when you want to merge them."

"I am not so happy with its speed. Sometimes, it can have problems with connections."

"I would like to see the reporting capabilities be more dynamic and more inclusive of information. The API is very sparsely understood by people across the user community."

"It would be nice to have it on the Linux platform, not just Windows. If they can support Linux, there would be a huge market for it."

"The erwin ETL functionality has room for improvement when it comes to mapping databases with a classic entity-relationship model to a data warehouse model."

"I would like to see improved reporting and, potentially, dashboards built on top of that. Right now, it's a little manual. More automated reporting and dashboard views would help because currently you have to push things out to a spreadsheet, or to HTML, and there aren't many other options that I know of. I would like to be able to produce graphs and additional things right in the tool, instead of having to export the data somewhere else."

"We can only get licenses through partners."

More erwin Data Modeler cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay for extended support."

"Price-wise, erwin Data Modeler is okay. You can purchase a single license and it is not very expensive."

"It is not a very expensive solution. Only the licensing and maintenance fee needs to be paid."

"There are two license options and the pricing is reasonable."

"The pricing of the solution is cheap. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"We've continued to use the product for many years and compared it with others on the market. The pricing is reasonable considering what the solution offers and what we pay. There are cheaper tools, but they may not be as robust and easy to use, so it's worth the money."

"Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money."

"I wish it wasn't so expensive. I would love to personally buy a copy of my own and have it at home, because the next job that I'm looking at is probably project management and I might not have access to the tool. I would like to keep my ability to use the tool. Therefore, they should probably have a pricing for people like me who want to just use the solution as an independent consultant, trying to get started. $3,000 is a big hit."

"This company had bought the license for three years, and it's not an individual license. While you can buy a license for each individual, that would be very expensive. There is something called concurrent licenses where you can purchase licenses in bulk and 15 to 20 people can access the license and model. Concurrent licenses are scalable to the number of users and are proportional to the cost."

More erwin Data Modeler pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

University

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Any experience with Strategic Project Portfolio Management Solutions?

Hi @Cheryl Joseph Looking at the crossover between Project and Portfolio management with EA, then Planview could be a good choice. If looking at Portfolio Management from an EA perspective then Le...

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What do you like most about Ardoq?

It is a stable solution.

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What needs improvement with Ardoq?

It doesn't seem good for data modeling. So, I would like to see some features related to that in future releases.

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What do you like most about erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

The product is expensive. I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

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What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

As a documenting tool, it's solid, though its reporting could be more robust. The reporting mechanisms could be more intuitive regarding report creation. It can generate reports in CSV files, displ...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler

August 2025

Download erwin Data Modeler product report

Also Known As

No data available

erwin DM

Overview

A Dynamic and Data-Driven Approach to Enterprise Architecture
Engage and connect stakeholders across the organization with business-friendly visualizations understandable to all.

Ardoq

Erwin Data Modeler provides an effective approach to visualizing and managing data models. It assists in creating, reversing, and synchronizing data models with ease, supporting logical and physical transitions while enhancing understanding across teams.

Erwin Data Modeler is a comprehensive tool designed for professional database management. It offers capabilities to organize and enforce standards, automating script generation with robust reverse engineering and DDL output. Users can manage complex data environments, capitalize on integration with data intelligence, and maintain large-scale databases smoothly. Despite its strengths, improvements in multi-language support, database integration, and reporting features are needed. Users benefit from extensive support for conceptual, logical, and physical database modeling, enhancing architectural design and data governance for platforms like SQL Server, Oracle, and Teradata.

What are the key features of Erwin Data Modeler?

Visual Representation: Facilitates clear visualization of data models, aiding comprehension.
Versioning and Editing: Enhance usability with versioning and bulk editing capabilities.
Reverse Engineering: Offers powerful tools for reverse engineering and DDL generation.
Integration: Aligns with data intelligence to streamline database management.
Naming Standards: Enforces consistency with automated script creation.

What benefits should users consider in Erwin Data Modeler reviews?

Collaboration: Promotes team understanding and collaboration through visual tools.
Automation: Reduces manual effort through automated processes and integration.
Scalability: Handles large database management efficiently, crucial for enterprise settings.
Data Governance: Facilitates effective data governance with structured modeling.

Erwin Data Modeler finds application in industries focused on robust data management, implementing it for enterprise data warehouses, business domain models, and operational systems. It supports architectural design and governance, aligning with business applications demanding precise data representation and visualization.

Quest Software

Sample Customers

Schibsted, Government of Malmo, Torvald

Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples

Buyer's Guide

Ardoq vs. erwin Data Modeler

July 2025

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