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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
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (11th), Process Automation (8th), Rapid Application Development Software (16th), Low-Code Development Platforms (11th), No-Code Development Platforms (5th), Process Mining (7th)
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 July 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of Bizagi is 10.6%, up from 9.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Blueworks Live is 3.5%, 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

"I like that Bizagi is fully compatible with BPMN 2.0. It also eases the way in which we work with BPMN 2.0 itself, which is a comprehensive and rather complex notation standard."
"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."
"The solution's simulation capabilities are the most valuable aspects."
"The solution offers a free version of their product."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the process modeling part and process simulation."
"Your team can work on it having basic training about databases and BPM modeling."
"Great software for managing my business. I think this is the best business process management software."
"The free online Help and E-Learning is very strong."
"It's very easy, very quick to create a process map. It has templates. The look and feel is very nice. What we want to achieve out of the process map, we can achieve it using Blueworks."
"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."
"The stability is pretty good. It is highly available, which is key. You don't lose your work and can autosave."
"The reporting that we can generate from IBM Blueworks Live has been interesting. We found the KPIs, risks, process modeling, format, and colors, to be very good. We use the EY template and it is interesting to generate reporting in this format."
"The ease of documenting and digitizing the processes was valuable to us."
"I like the two-tiered approach, that is, discover and then drill down to the main steps. You can right click and attach risk, policies, and much more. It is a user-friendly solution."
"It has the ability to document in different formats. It is not tied to a specific model. You can look at it from different angles and see the intuitive nature of it. It always generates a valid diagram. You cannot create something that is not BPMN compliant."
"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."
 

Cons

"When you start working with information modeling, et cetera, here is no really good solution for the data modeling and information modeling."
"I would like to see simulation as a free feature again. In version 3.3 it was free, but in 4.0 it isn't."
"It works slowly on the cloud, sometimes."
"There could be more documentation."
"Bizagi needs a way to define categories such as process groups like the APQC framework, PCF, and handle the processes within it."
"The technical support is not fast enough and should be improved."
"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."
"It is difficult to drive ROI on types of processes involving complex business rules."
"Spaces are not well organized; space controls are lacking."
"I would like to see integration with ERP systems. This would help us to simulate the process and see where the problems are. Though IBM Blueworks Live is a good tool for documenting, it is not good for simulating."
"Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively."
"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."
"The ability to create a very structured rule. With the capability that we have right now, Blueworks Live is more process focused. We should be able to enhance it to include a lot more of decisions as well."
"We would like the ability to add additional custom colors. We would like to color additional items to add notes to the blueprint."
"The font size is really, really small and it's really not useful to print out process models because you cannot read what's written in different boxes. This makes it necessary for people to have access to the tool. We view licenses to see how the printing or output is. It's not very good."
"The user interface is quite easy at first but process analysts soon run into roadblocks of limited functionality, which is disappointing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'm trying the free unlimited version with unlimited use. But you have to pay to add some features."
"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."
"It is not expensive."
"The paid version costs us about $20,000 for 100 users annually."
"The Bizagi modeler can be downloaded free of charge."
"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."
"Make sure that your requirements are explicitly defined from the outset. This will help you choose the right setup and licensing for your needs."
"From what I know of the market, I think Bizagi is a cheap solution for process engineering. Out of the solutions I've tried, from cheapest to most expensive, would be Vizor, Bizagi, Signavio, and then Siemens. I used a version of Bizagi that my university provided for free, so I have never paid for a license."
"Making it less expensive would be good."
"Price wise, IBM Blueworks Live is in the middle range, and I would give it a five out of ten."
"We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time."
"There are editor licenses that are around 50 euros per month, and contributor licenses that are around 30 euros per month."
"They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users."
"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."
"The solution is not very expensive."
"The solution is very, very cost-effective."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
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: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.