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ARIS Cloud 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 Cloud
Ranking in Business Process Design
17th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (31st)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Business Process Design
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of ARIS Cloud is 2.9%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 6.9%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect6.9%
ARIS Cloud2.9%
Other90.2%
Business Process Design
 

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…
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 initial setup of this solution was straightforward."
"In terms of UX design, somebody who has not had experience with ARIS will be able to use it very easily."
"ARIS Cloud offers easy query writing for retrieving information and includes a user-friendly Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) part that aids risk managers effectively."
"The cloud version has the advantage that you can work on it from anywhere."
"Over the past few years, ARIS has made its interface more user-friendly and intuitive."
"In the end, what stands out to me is the ease of using the cloud. I don't see any distinct or unique advantages in business process modeling software compared to other application software. The cloud simplifies operations and removes many operational complexities, which is a significant benefit."
"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."
"This solution has improved the way our organization does training."
"Sparx EA beats all of these hands down on a cost/benefit analysis."
"We have a positive ROI and will probably be buying it."
"In terms of product features, I'm very happy with the support for UML 2 diagrams, Archimate, TOGAF and the collaboration capability using a RDBMS back-end."
"It is an excellent way for a company to start or an organization to start using an enterprise architecture discipline."
"We have found the stability to be very reliable."
"From an architectural point of view it is easy to define the application landscape and maintain the relationships between components, which helps when the current state application architecture is considered especially by architects new to an organisation and also assists the embedded architects to design the future state architecture more effectively."
"Large diagrams for hardware infrastructure, HA environments, Integrated Solution view, etc all help different teams to understand the scope of projects."
"Its ease of use and the breadth of the toolkit are most valuable. It has an incredible repository of artifacts to work with, and they're all cross-referenced. It works with a whole bunch of different standards. It works with BPMN, which is Business Process Modeling Notation, and it also works with something called TOGAF, which is the Open Group Architecture Foundation. There are different layers when you're dealing with architecture. There is the user interface, application, data, data servers, and all that kind of stuff. You have the infrastructure, hardware, and software layers, and then you have the application and business capability layers. You can model a business process and decompose it into all of the applications, data, and hardware to support it."
 

Cons

"The trial version of this solution does not give you enough time to learn how to use it, so it should be extended to one year."
"There is room for improvement in the support."
"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."
"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."
"On an enterprise level, the ability to onboard somebody quickly is cumbersome because it just has too many things in it. It's got something like a hundred or more techniques and things in it."
"They need to revamp a whole module. This module has been in place for 16 years. It hasn't been updated since then. It's actually a separate license on its own. It's a disaster."
"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."
"ARIS' flexibility and power add a certain complexity. And if ARIS could be more streamlined, I think customers would have a better handle on what to do with it in the end. So if you're not a tech geek, you might struggle to understand what you should do with it as a customer because it's that powerful."
"The model integrity is not the same as MagicDraw, so MagicDraw is a bit better as a tool."
"Running large and complex models (ours contained thousands of objects) does require a powerful machine with 8+GB of RAM."
"I would like the system to more "intellectually" build a scheme, place icons, and connect lines on the schemes."
"The user interface could be more intuitive and support for a Mac, iOS or at least a browser version would be very welcomed."
"The user interface could be more intuitive and support for a Mac, iOS or at least a browser version would be very welcomed."
"It would be nice to have it supported on the Linux operating system."
"The documentation could be better. Where I work, we speak French and we don't speak English, so we don't have anything in French. It's perfect in English, but we need something in French."
"Performance of remote rdbms is nightmare and the reason is that every link and every attribute is separate sequential insert/update to db."
 

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."
"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."
"There is a student version of this solution that can be used for free."
"It is cheaper than other solutions. Its cost is around $686 per year. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
"It is cheap."
"Its price is very good for the value that you get with it."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business39
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
 

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 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 ...
What is your primary use case for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
We are mostly using the ArchiMate language to describe enterprise or solution architecture, along with a bit of use cases. We are producing quite large models, with over 10,000 elements and relatio...
 

Also Known As

Process Live, ARIS Simulation, ARIS Aware, ARIS Connect
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 and 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
OmniLink
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS Cloud vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.