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ARIS Cloud vs AWS Step Functions comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 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 Cloud
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
30th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (16th)
AWS Step Functions
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Workload Automation (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of ARIS Cloud is 1.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of AWS Step Functions is 1.4%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS Step Functions1.4%
ARIS Cloud1.1%
Other97.5%
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1294968 - PeerSpot reviewer
Transformational Leader at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Mapping capabilities lag behind while requiring significant customization but is scalable
I worked with ARIS Cloud under SAP. The solution was deployed by an agile team and utilized daily by process engineers and business process owners. It was involved in the financial services industry, with thousands of users within the company The platform's capabilities are highly dependent on…
YM
Senior Software Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Central orchestration has streamlined complex data workflows and now drives timely aviation alerts
The best features AWS Step Functions offers include the ability to deploy it via code. It helps us orchestrate anything that we want. Even if we have Glue jobs for another use case or Lambda that we are currently looking forward to, we are using Lambda to take DynamoDB data for real-time sales monitoring, then it goes to our S3 bucket. We have multiple workflows that are orchestrated by AWS Step Functions, and at the core, the main functionality is based on different frameworks. We have an Athena complete workflow, Glue job-based workflow, and a separate Lambda-based workflow. All of these are separately handled in AWS Step Functions. This is a good point and again with the inbuilt facilities of it, including how we can construct those workflows and add up a catch state or roll back or do multiple iterations using the Map state, that is very helpful for us.The Map state feature has specifically helped my team create a rollback state of the data since we were dropping some of our data assets. In case we want them back, we just wanted to do this. We took a particular layer and provided the data list, including the tables list, and using the Map state, we iterated over this list and one by one we did the backups of this data at the concurrency of five tables in a single execution. The Catch state, on the other hand, allows us to identify any error immediately. If we encounter an error, the Catch state immediately picks it up and we integrated webhooks or email notifications. That is how we are able to identify immediately if we face any error. At the core of our data engineering platform, AWS Step Functions sit at the topmost core of whatever pipelines we have. It is a main orchestration tool for us and helps us save costs. It is a key component of our engineering platform.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This solution has improved the way our organization does training."
"In terms of using the cloud version, if you're somebody who, like myself, has got a lot of experience and understands measures and notations and things, basically it's unrestricted. You can do so many things. You can do your Archimaze, you can do BPMN. There's lots of stuff you can do in there and if you're a good field person and you cause yourself re-using things or whatever, then it's very nice, it's very easy to use."
"The initial setup of this solution was straightforward."
"ARIS has proved that it works also in complex circumstances."
"From a total cost of ownership perspective, running this on the cloud is more efficient than having someone in the company take care of the infrastructure."
"We had used other products before Aris Cloud and we have chosen to go for the ARIS system, and we are quite happy because it's very easy to collaborate with and very user-friendly, intuitive for the end-users to use the tool, so we are happy and it's perfectly answering our needs."
"The solution's most valuable feature stems from its being very easy to use, making it a very user-friendly tool."
"The most valuable feature is GUI; it is very intuitive and easy to use."
"The JSON app launched recently allows us to define data execution more easily."
"It's Amazon, it's scalable."
"It has enabled my organization to create workflows with a lot of different AWS services; it's a general solution that you can adapt to your own needs and is simple to use."
"Overall, I would rate AWS Step Functions at least nine out of ten."
"It is a scalable solution."
"One can rate all the calls and that is a good feature."
"AWS Step Functions was stable, and there were no problems that I can recall."
"The number of historical events is great."
 

Cons

"The support team of ARIS Cloud has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"I was surprised when my license was deactivated and I could not access my data."
"If you have multiple tiers of approvals into that update of the policy, or the process design itself, it takes ages to prepare those internal flows within the system."
"I would like to see more support for architectural diagrams."
"The stability was poor due to frequent outages."
"Initial setup is rather complex. You have to find a way to isolate the complexity, and find common ground at a level where they don't need the details."
"It would be very helpful if this solution were more open and could integrate with other solutions like ServiceNow."
"It seems that there could be innovations in fostering spontaneous cooperation between departments and individuals. This extends to case management and finding new paradigms for enhancing such cooperation. While some approaches, like basic case management tools, have been tried in the past, they may not have met expectations entirely. However, ongoing efforts in administrative science are focused on these areas. Companies with innovative ideas can contribute to progress, possibly involving concepts related to trust, even within the context of web 3. There are intriguing developments in how economic and business organizations can be formed. When it comes to learning about these concepts, starting with simple examples and gradually moving to more complex ones is advisable. Begin with the basics, excluding unnecessary details that might hinder understanding. Over time, you can delve into more intricate aspects, such as Bitcoin and the Lightning Network, to gain a deeper understanding of these technologies."
"There is room for improvement in terms of integration with other products. It would benefit from more integration with different applications or services."
"Setup took about one day. We had some errors to understand in the beginning, but now everything is working good."
"If AWS Step Functions keeps adding more integrations, it would be even better."
"It is difficult to suggest improvements at the moment."
"AWS Step Functions' fault tolerance capabilities can be improved, but if managed well in orchestration, then the impact is minimal."
"It is hard to coordinate the declaratory language."
"I would like to see more data transformation features in Amazon Step Functions like additional operators and logic."
"I think AWS Step Functions is good, but the UI in the console can be much more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model of ARIS Cloud is leaner and more beneficial to the customer. The new license model is great. With the on-premise, you needed to subscribe to many more types of licenses. Now there are licensed bundles available on the cloud."
"There is a student version of this solution that can be used for free."
"The cloud deployment is not more expensive. In the cloud, you pay for what you use, and there's no need for maintaining infrastructure or additional personnel, making it cost-effective. On-premises deployment, on the other hand, involves infrastructure costs and maintenance expenses."
"The solution's price is reasonable."
"The solution is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS Cloud?
The price of ARIS Cloud is relatively high and not every firm can afford it, especially if the company is not mature enough to require such extensive process modeling and optimization.
What needs improvement with ARIS Cloud?
It would be beneficial for ARIS Cloud to add more customization options, such as having a landing page. Improving the importation script from Microsoft Visio ( /products/visio-reviews ) would also ...
What is your primary use case for ARIS Cloud?
I am currently working with both ARIS Cloud ( /products/aris-cloud-reviews ) and MEGA HOPEX ( /products/mega-hopex-reviews ), having switched from ARIS BPM ( /products/aris-bpa-reviews ) to MEGA HO...
What is your primary use case for Amazon Step Functions?
My main use case for AWS Step Functions is in our data platform where we are trying to generate alerts. For generating the alerts, we are getting the data on a daily basis. This is mainly for the a...
What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Step Functions?
I rate AWS Step Functions a nine out of ten on a scale of one to ten. I chose a nine out of ten because it is basically everything that we are really looking for. It is a great service and a great ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Step Functions?
AWS Step Functions helps us save costs as it is a self-managed service and is serverless. We look out for the inbuilt services that are orchestrated via AWS Step Functions, and we only pay for that...
 

Also Known As

Process Live, ARIS Simulation, ARIS Aware, ARIS Connect
Amazon Step Functions, Step Functions
 

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 and 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
Alpha Apps, The Guardian, SGK, Bigfinite
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS Cloud vs. AWS Step Functions and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.