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ARIS BPA vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

 

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

ARIS BPA
Ranking in Business Process Design
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (12th)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Business Process Design
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 6.8%, down from 8.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 7.0%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect7.0%
ARIS BPA6.8%
Other86.2%
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.
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

"The technical support is good."
"ARIS BPM is an excellent platform to define, design, and analyse business processes."
"It has helped me get some ideas across more clearly to my colleagues.​"
"ARIS BPM is a good program; it's one of the leaders in the management of business processes."
"If you ever tried to draw a picture in a browser app or with a cloud service, it is normally a painful death. ARIS works perfectly on diagrams in the browser, so I was excited. I like it because there have been so many bad experiences in the past with drawing or doing something in a browser. Normally, it's always painful because it's coded badly. With ARIS, it is really well-implemented. It's simple."
"The solution's basic features are easy to use, overall designed well, and it has good process mining analysis."
"The most valuable features are business process modeling and reporting."
"It has the ability to scale up, as well as integrate with other systems within the organization to get real-time information from dashboards and reports."
"The TOGAF ADM model is most valuable. It is also very cheap as compared to other options in the market."
"There are a lot of features in Enterprise Architect. It allows us to take on a lot of tasks."
"Ability to keep inventory of reusable blocks, and use in different diagrams with views of various templates."
"Large variety of profiles and frameworks available out-of-the-box without the need for customization, and not locked into one way of doing architecture."
"From the island of non managed analysis and design information to shared repositories with templates, it has helped us with real MDA and code generation directly into Visual Studio."
"It is now based on business drivers, goals and requirements, and linked to business and IT functions, resulting in traceability and alignment with business objectives."
"It has led some teams to do better code reviews - to be less focussed on coding conventions (syntax) and more focussed on the semantics because of the abstraction level clear design affords."
"We could capture the process models around 24 countries with all their local variations."
 

Cons

"The Risk and Compliance Management tool is rather complex and moreover, it needs to be customized if you want to use it."
"ARIS has an internal fully customizable workflow system called APG, which is very good, but it’s targeted mostly at creating workflows related to ARIS content, and not general workflows to support other processes inside a company."
"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."
"This is a good solution, but it needs better integration with external tools and it is expensive."
"Since ARIS 9.X was released, the product has not been as robust and responsive as the previous versions."
"The solution's processes are huge and it is not easy to get an overview of how things work. It needs to improve the interface. I would like to see the product include a better overview of processes and improve search."
"User interface (UI)."
"There is not enough documentation provided for the tool's support or administration.​"
"The database management area was not usable."
"Repository integration. SVN based repositories can be a pain to merge changes."
"They should make the Save button easier to find. A simplified user interface for a lighter user would probably be useful. I am not sure if such an interface is already there."
"It would be great if we could decrease the use of different parts of the Toolbox."
"I would like to see integration with Confluence or any other TRM, and the capability to integrate with the data storage, such as a repository similar to GitHub."
"The user interface could be more intuitive and support for a Mac, iOS or at least a browser version would be very welcomed."
"When the model is large, it is a bit slow to render."
"The areas of improvement should be focused on utility service such as producing better graphics, perhaps having a wider image library set and producing better models for working directly with customers."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The setup cost and pricing depend on the license (Modeler, Viewer, Administrator)."
"We have a concurrent license system."
"ARIS is quite expensive."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"Prices are high. However, they are worth it if the organization utilizes the tool to its full potential."
"ARIS enables you to start small and grow the use of the solution over time, although it's quite expensive. So if you want to start small, it's quite an investment for a small company."
"ARIS BPA is too costly from a licensing perspective."
"Use floating licenses strategically."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
"Enterprise licensing is competitive. What would be helpful if they load the pricing for consultants, you know, people who are consultants for clients. So the license is fine for end-user organizations. Still, they should consider lowering the license to support this adoption, particularly for people who are consultants like myself."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"It's affordable. The only additional cost that we haven't yet figured out is the floating license. If you buy a floating license, you have to have a license management server, which comes at an additional cost that's not discussed. So, we haven't yet used the floating license. That’s because I haven't had a chance to figure that out."
"It is very economical and low cost. You have to pay for a one-time license, and it is active forever."
"We had a yearly license."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise47
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
 

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...
What do you like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.
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 ...
 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
No data available
 

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.
OmniLink
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS BPA vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.