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ARIS BPA vs Visual Paradigm 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
ARIS BPA varies in ROI timelines, enhancing process understanding and control but with hard-to-quantify financial impacts.
Sentiment score
6.5
Visual Paradigm improves efficiency and documentation, offering good ROI despite challenging free assessment, with benefits varying by usage duration.
The product did what it was supposed to do for the documentation development I was engaged in.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
ARIS BPA's support is praised for technical assistance and flexibility but could improve in responsiveness and communication.
Sentiment score
7.8
Visual Paradigm excels with responsive technical support, helpful community resources, and ease of use, despite limited regional support.
The consultants are fine, however, reliance on single experts for modules can be risky.
The tool was easy enough to use.
We didn't use customer service extensively, but our questions were answered when needed.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
ARIS BPA is scalable for small to large enterprises, offering flexibility, modular features, and easy licensing for process management expansion.
Sentiment score
7.7
Visual Paradigm is seen as scalable for enterprise use, though opinions vary, with some noting challenges and a steep learning curve.
For user scalability, it is a matter of licenses, while functional scalability is supported and easy to implement.
ARIS BPA has high scalability and wide scalability for any enterprise or organization.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
ARIS BPA is generally stable, with minor issues primarily in large environments, but responsive support enhances stability perception.
Sentiment score
8.3
Visual Paradigm is stable with minor hardware needs, achieving high satisfaction and occasional specific bug issues reported by users.
The stability of ARIS BPM is quite strong, rated eight out of ten.
 

Room For Improvement

ARIS BPA needs better integration, user interface, scripting, documentation, training, pricing, and simplicity for wider accessibility.
Visual Paradigm needs enhancements in integration, export features, UI design, performance, and pricing to meet user demands effectively.
Software AG should focus on developing AI models for ARIS BPA on-premises, particularly in user interfaces, as well as creating predefined business processes for common areas such as HR and finance.
Software AG could improve this by making the database more open.
ARIS BPA needs to be more accurate when generating documents.
The product can always get better as the industry changes.
 

Setup Cost

ARIS BPA pricing is high but valued by large enterprises; smaller firms may find costs prohibitive due to complex licensing.
Visual Paradigm provides flexible pricing from $6 to $197, offering affordable options for both community and enterprise users.
The free version of Visual Paradigm does not incur any setup costs and offers a set of usable features.
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced.
 

Valuable Features

ARIS BPA offers powerful modeling, customization, and collaboration tools, integrating SAP and databases, ensuring strategic alignment and governance.
Visual Paradigm integrates diverse diagrams, supports enterprise architecture, and is favored for its intuitive interface and adaptability.
ARIS BPA is a tool to build models and frameworks for organizations or reengineer business processes from both functional and business perspectives.
The solution is very stable with no stability issues.
The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable.
It is user-friendly, and as you become more familiar with its deep features, you might consider upgrading to the paid version for more complex projects.
In other drawing programs, if I moved a box, I had to move the arrow, but Visual Paradigm handled those tasks automatically.
 

Categories and Ranking

ARIS BPA
Ranking in Business Process Design
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (7th)
Visual Paradigm
Ranking in Business Process Design
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS BPA is 7.5%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visual Paradigm is 5.8%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Tamer Eldamanhouri - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowers teams with robust business process modeling capabilities
They should examine competitor solutions to identify differentiators. One issue related to ARIS BPA is its integration with AI; it has AI features for cloud solutions, yet many in the government sector in Kuwait do not view the cloud as viable. Software AG should focus on developing AI models for ARIS BPA on-premises, particularly in user interfaces, as well as creating predefined business processes for common areas such as HR and finance. This aspect is crucial for adapting to the market's needs and streamlining custom solutions. While they have been helpful regarding pricing, I cannot compare ARIS BPA to other business process modeling tools because I understand some competitors have significantly lower costs than ARIS BPA. To maintain market share, good discounts should be provided to customers.
Angie Ibrahim Eissa - PeerSpot reviewer
A software application designed for software development teams to model business information systems and manage development processes
Setting up Visual Paradigm is easy. There's hardly any configuration needed, unlike some other tools. You just choose your method and diagram type, and you're good to go. As for improvements, integrating project management features with diagrams could be better. Viewing outputs could also be smoother, especially when working with multiple files.Deployment is quick and painless. It practically takes no time at all to set up. And because I also teach at the university, I use Visual Paradigm for my classes and case studies. It's easy to switch between products, and my students have no trouble using it on their own.
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Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Business Process Design solutions are best for your needs.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ARIS BPA?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?
Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay.
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying. I must write scripts, which requires specific knowledge. Software AG could improve this by making the database more open. ...
What do you like most about Visual Paradigm?
The solution is the best application for data modeling. It helps to architect business processes. Its best features are pricing and functionality.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Paradigm?
I purchased Visual Paradigm on my own, and it was competitively priced, so I was fine with the pricing.
What needs improvement with Visual Paradigm?
The product can always get better as the industry changes, however, I didn't necessarily feel it was lacking for what I did with it.
 

Comparisons

 

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.
Adobe, Apple, at&t, Caterpillar, Intel, NASA, Nokia, Toyota
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS BPA vs. Visual Paradigm and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.