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Bizagi vs IBM Blueworks Live 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

Bizagi
Ranking in Business Process Design
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
83
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (5th), Process Automation (5th), Rapid Application Development Software (14th), Low-Code Development Platforms (9th), No-Code Development Platforms (5th), Process Mining (6th)
IBM Blueworks Live
Ranking in Business Process Design
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of Bizagi is 10.6%, up from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Blueworks Live is 3.4%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Paparao Nadipineni - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables budget review efficiency with open source advantages and workflow orchestration
Definitely, right now, it is purely open source, and we don't have much community support. If they add a few more capabilities like AIML and DocGen AI, these features would be good. Reporting capabilities can be improved more, and community support should be increased. Otherwise, people cannot onboard that particular technology easily.
AjarMathur - PeerSpot reviewer
An easily scalable and affordable solution that enables users to document and digitize processes with ease
IBM Blueworks is BPMN 2.0 compliant, but it does not adapt to the overarching BPMN 2.0 concepts. There is only one kind of BPMN 2.0 diagram. It is a process diagram. It doesn't have the concept of separate tools, which other products offer. If I had to do a hardcore BPMN 2.0 modeling, the product would have its own reservations. There were features we could not explore from a BPMN 2.0 perspective. Most of the time, people who are shifting from Microsoft Office tools to a digitized way of working still want the reporting capabilities to be strong. Some tools, like ARIS or Signavio, offer customized solutions from the reporting perspective. If I have documented my whole finance process and want to fetch out a complete SOP report in a very customized manner, IBM Blueworks cannot provide it. We have to rely on some other services. So that's one area in which we always struggled, how to really customize the reporting aspects. I understand that we need to keep the tool a little more asset-light. It's very difficult to keep adding many options, but at least a few BPMN 2.0 options were needed. We have been suggesting to IBM that we should have some way of customizing the reporting. At least we should get a custom way of reporting it into different formats like Excel or putting up a logo for one of the clients so that their SAP can be printed that way.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool helps to improve business processes and have better KPIs. Also, it is easy to use. Our developers find it easy to learn."
"The documentation capabilities are very good. Very structured documents and process versions are valuable features, and being able to communicate that to our customers is also a very good feature. It has a good balance between the effort and the result. So, you don't need to be too detailed. You can document while you are modeling, which is a very good feature."
"Agility is most valuable because we can develop so much faster than other tools. We can make requirements, develop, and go out to production much faster. So, agility in the software cycle is most valuable."
"This solution is easy to use and it is a good tool for process modeling."
"The API is pretty straightforward."
"Bizagi is a very useful tool because it does not require you to program. The user logic is very easy to understand even for people who are not engineers or developers."
"With the appropriate governance framework, properly trained business analysts can be empowered to design and build business solutions themselves."
"I like the integration part, and I also like how they use the database, such as the data when they implement all the data side, and how you can easily integrate it with their widgets."
"The solution is easy to operate. Also, there is an automatic mode to make the business flow. You don't have to put any lines or arrows in a decision point in IBM Blueworks Live; it's very automatic."
"The stability is pretty good. It is highly available, which is key. You don't lose your work and can autosave."
"The licenses are transferrable between different users."
"Collaboration is most valuable. You can collaborate online with many people. People can comment, and you can comment back. It is just like a social network, and that, for me, is very good."
"We are you using the product as a process mapping tool and as part of a larger process improvement project. We use it with IBM BPM and IBM ODM. We get an automated workflow solution for our customers, an improved workflow automation."
"You can use if from your mobile device or you can be on the desktop. It doesn't matter. You are always connected. It is cloud-based, so you don't have to install anything."
"It enables decisions based upon processes that we do model, and ultimately move forward with."
"It has a built-in capability to capture process owners and managers against processes along with other process governance roles."
 

Cons

"The product must make automation easier."
"In terms of what needs improvement, the costs can be lowered."
"From a developer's point of view, an improvement in the layout would make the UI better."
"It needs an easier setup for the Bizagi Engine."
"Sometimes, when your process is big with multiple lanes, the product will freeze the issue noticed on multiple laptops, not a single PC."
"Its performance needs to be improved. The main thing is that it is limited, especially in terms of the response times. When the processes become a bit large, it is very awkward to work with the Bizagi modeler. When you have already modeled but start to rearrange, it is quite a bit of an effort to change the stuff. When you rearrange lanes or have new structures, it goes rather squiggly up and down and so on, which could be improved. The visual outputs of the DIREPs of the process models are pixelated and have a bad image quality. It is a PNG or JPEG, and you cannot export it as a PDF. When you have rather large processes, you should be able to arrange them hierarchically. Currently, it is not supported. If you use sub-processes and inflate a process, suddenly the arrangement is totally different, and although you know the process, you have to look where is it now. You need a good understanding of the levels of your processes before you start in Bizagi. It can have automatic support for optimal presentation. In BPM, you should have it from the top left to the bottom right. However, in most cases, people don't know how they should arrange it. Therefore, it would be nice to have a suggestion system for different arrangements to be able to better present the process."
"Bizagi has been aggressively adding features to maintain its market-leading position, however, in some cases, this has impacted the stability of certain product builds."
"The performance could use improvement. We couldn't connect the processes to on one file. The performance is an issue for us."
"IBM Blueworks is BPMN 2.0 compliant, but it does not adapt to the overarching BPMN 2.0 concepts."
"The user interface is quite easy at first but process analysts soon run into roadblocks of limited functionality, which is disappointing."
"Some of the import functionality was a bit restrictive, in terms of loading data in from other data sources. Something as simple as Excel, loading data tables from Excel, wasn't great. And vice-versa. Some of the export and import functionality with something like Visio - which, I know it's a slightly different tool - but being able to work seamlessly with those other tool sets would've been quite useful. I know it was something that was in the pipeline to be looked at. So that would be useful."
"In the solution Signavio, they have a customer journey mapping feature that should be added to IBM Blueworks Live. It's valuable to map or document the customer journey to identify the pains and opportunities in this process."
"The objects that the solution creates are not unique."
"In the Blue Works Live software boxes and lines are automatically placed by the programme and can't be easily manipulated."
"There should be an option to import from and export to Microsoft Visio. Being able to move files back and forth between Blueworks Live and Visio would be good."
"Spaces are not well organized; space controls are lacking."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We didn't use the licensed versions where you could exactly go into automatization. However, we looked at the pricing in the beginning, and the only thing that I remember is that it was too expensive for the things we were using because our clients would also have to license the product. One client said that it was too expensive for the benefit they get out of it."
"The pricing model is good; I believe it's free for up to 20 users, and then they start charging. I hear the solution can get quite expensive, however."
"Some solutions are completely free. One would be the business process diagramming tool, the server beneath it, and the automation tool. You don't need to pay to map the business process, but you would need to when you want to execute any of the commands. So, basically, they lure you in with a free ride, and when you want to scale the solution, you'll have to pay for it."
"We have no issues with the pricing."
"Bizagi is totally free for modeling."
"I'm trying the free unlimited version with unlimited use. But you have to pay to add some features."
"The paid version costs us about $20,000 for 100 users annually."
"The modeling part of the software is free. Most of the time, it is used for this purpose."
"Based on the licenses purchased, from a footprint perspective, you can have as many people as you want. You have multiple different categories of licenses to keep the cost low."
"We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time."
"Price wise, IBM Blueworks Live is in the middle range, and I would give it a five out of ten."
"The solution is not very expensive."
"They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users."
"There are editor licenses that are around 50 euros per month, and contributor licenses that are around 30 euros per month."
"The solution is very, very cost-effective."
"Making it less expensive would be good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How easy is it to migrate process flow charts (modeled using tools like Visio) into Bizagi?
I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty straightforward to load in files that are BPMN 2.0 compliant. The option to load V...
What do you like most about Bizagi?
The natural notation is the best feature of Bizagi because it makes it compatible with other products.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Bizagi?
Bizagi's pricing is very aggressive, and it was one of the reasons we chose it. It was less expensive than some of the other tools.
What do you like most about IBM Blueworks Live?
The solution is easy to operate. Also, there is an automatic mode to make the business flow. You don't have to put any lines or arrows in a decision point in IBM Blueworks Live; it's very automatic.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Blueworks Live?
The solution costs around 600-700 dollars/year, which is quite affordable.
What needs improvement with IBM Blueworks Live?
Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Lombardi Blueprint
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

adidas, Audi, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Post DHL & many more - 500+ customer globally.
Cloudsoft Corp. Ltd., Bayer, S¾SS, Essex County Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Bizagi vs. IBM Blueworks Live and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.