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

ARIS BPA vs IBM System Architect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ARIS BPA
Ranking in Business Process Design
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (12th)
IBM System Architect
Ranking in Business Process Design
26th
Average Rating
6.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.1%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM System Architect is 1.4%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ARIS BPA7.1%
IBM System Architect1.4%
Other91.5%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

BM
Consultant at KAFD DMC
Has improved process modeling and analysis while supporting integration with organizational data
The process design in ARIS BPA does help with our operational efficiency. What we are doing is object library management for various kinds of objects that we are using in ARIS BPA during our process modeling. We are using that to do a lot of analysis on how many times a system is being used in how many processes, who are the major stakeholders, and if we enhance one system, how is it going to impact other processes and integrated processes. This is helping us a lot. Everything related to ARIS BPA is helping us with regards to enhanced processes, strengthened controls, identifying risks, assessing process capabilities, and identifying where the gaps are and what kinds of activities within the processes are automated and manual. We are doing a lot of things with regards to the processes as it is at our heart. Processes are one thing and then we have different kinds of things which are related to it, such as SLAs, guidelines, and policy. We are identifying areas of improvement in other documents as well.
it_user542103 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Architect at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
It has helped in supporting the development of an Enterprise Data Model
Data model development: This has built-in ways to create multiple, separate solution data models, including ways to link to an Enterprise Data Model (EDM). Other objects are encyclopedia-wide and need a different approach for managing solution-specific diagrams with an ability to query, e.g…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The EPC modeling is very detailed, the semantic check is helpful, and auto-layout simplifies the formatting."
"Platform that it supports covers legacy and new. Caters to moving older objects into an integrated DB, relatively popular ones: SQL, Oracle, etc."
"The solution's basic features are easy to use, overall designed well, and it has good process mining analysis."
"For us, ARIS is a lifestyle more than a tool."
"Objects can be reused across different BPMNs and processes, so we can design new processes quicker and easier.​"
"Object oriented modeling allows us to trace what's going on with the specified object."
"​It is a well-featured, functional product."
"The whole ARIS BPM solution is a bit special, because from the very beginning it was targeted more to Business users and the Management."
"It has helped in supporting the development of an Enterprise Data Model."
 

Cons

"​The usability. Others tools are easier to manage without same complexity that ARIS has.​"
"The governance mechanism could be better, as could automation."
"The solution is difficult and not very exciting to learn."
"I would like to see the reporting aspects improved."
"Certain support functions around the knowledge base, customer service, and the information available on modules within the core ARIS component are lagging behind the SaaS movement."
"ARIS BPA’s usability could be improved."
"If you want to create new reports then you have to use JavaScript, or ARIS script as they call it, which is beyond the competencies of most people."
"There are some things in the collaboration module that could be improved a little, such as the functionality which dynamically pushes notifications to interested people when a process changes during the Release Cycle Management workflow."
"The product is very outdated software; complex to use, and the GUI is a fat client so no mobile or web access."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of pricing, it would be nice if it were more affordable."
"The product is expensive."
"ARIS is quite expensive."
"From my point of view, no, it is not cheap, but it is not too expensive because you get this big organization behind it, technical support, and all those things. It's not so expensive to use. It's a Rolls Royce in this field, I know that. Even for small organizations, they can get so much effect from using this tool, in a very fast way, so the money will be back in the customer's pocket very fast."
"​It is on the higher side."
"The tool is expensive."
"I would recommend the product to only enterprise companies because of the pricing."
"Pricing is a bit on the higher side."
Information not available
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Design solutions are best for your needs.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise47
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?
It is a bit expensive regarding ARIS BPA. However, ARIS BPA does save a lot of effort because this is one tool which can be used for multiple purposes and the viewers have the capability to perform...
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
We are not using any what-if scenario features in ARIS BPA. Currently, we are not using the performance monitoring and compliance checks features in ARIS BPA. We have plans to use them, but current...
What is your primary use case for ARIS BPA?
ARIS BPA is being used for process modeling, and we are planning to upgrade and enhance it for process mining and other purposes. We are using it for everything. Currently, we are doing HRMS integr...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
System Architect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tesco, Weifu, Airbus, Siemens, Proximus, Alicorp, Sekerbank, Bancor, Philips,Sky, Emirates NBD, Dubai Municipality, Suva, U.S. Army, Australia Post, Westfalen Weser Energie - ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as the market leader for process excellence with more than 30 years of experience in the market, 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
Wuxi Lake Cloud, Nationwide, ETI, IDS Scheer
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Bizagi, Camunda and others in Business Process Design. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.