Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management vs erwin Data Intelligence comparison

Quest Software and Microsoft are both solutions in the Data Governance category. Quest Software is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.0, while Microsoft is ranked #27 with an average rating of 8.0. Quest Software holds a 1.9% mindshare in DG, compared to Microsoft’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Intelligence

Read 19 erwin Data Intelligence reviews

2,813 Views
2,757 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Purview Data Life...

Read 4 Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management reviews

2,328 Views
559 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

erwin Data Intelligence

Microsoft Purview Data Life...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 30, 2025

Erwin Data Intelligence and Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management compete in data management. Erwin might have an edge due to its pricing and customer support, but Microsoft Purview could be preferable for its robust features.

Features: Erwin Data Intelligence provides data lineage, governance, and cataloging, offering an integrated view of data assets. Microsoft Purview focuses on lifecycle management with advanced data classification, retention, and policy enforcement features.

Room for Improvement: Erwin can enhance its ease of use and automation capabilities, improve data visualization, and offer more integration options with other platforms. Microsoft Purview can benefit from expanding its metadata management capabilities, improving customization options for data policies, and providing better integration with non-Microsoft tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Erwin's traditional deployment model may require more manual setup but offers strong customer support. Microsoft Purview, being cloud-native, delivers seamless deployment with integrated support in the Microsoft ecosystem.

Pricing and ROI: Erwin offers a possibly more cost-effective initial setup, appealing for cost-conscious companies. Microsoft Purview, despite potentially higher initial costs, offers substantial ROI with its comprehensive data lifecycle management capabilities, making it a strategic investment.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management vs. erwin Data Intelligence Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management vs. erwin Data Intelligence

December 2025

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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

erwin Data Intelligence

Ranking in Data Governance

16th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Governance (3rd)

Microsoft Purview Data Life...

Ranking in Data Governance

27th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Email Archiving (9th), Document Management Software (2nd), Microsoft Security Suite (30th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of erwin Data Intelligence is 1.9%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management is 1.2%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
erwin Data Intelligence	1.9%
Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management	1.2%
Other	96.9%

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Jog Raj

Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Automated lineage and business glossaries have improved data understanding and collaboration

I am open to answering a few questions about erwin Data Intelligence and sharing my opinion about the product. Regarding the analytic part of the product, I find it very interesting that erwin Data Intelligence has its own inbuilt reporting toolset, with a new version coming out in January that will be AI-powered. This means you will be able to write analytical reports and questions based on the metadata and data lineage, making it more powerful than the current version, as AI will assist in creating those reports and performing analysis on the metadata. I find that the time taken to realize value from erwin Data Intelligence can be quite long. Creating a data catalog and developing data lineage takes significant time, and I expect that AI will help accelerate the process of creating data products by streamlining the steps involved. I can recommend erwin Data Intelligence to other users. I would rate this review as an eight out of ten overall.

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Ram-Krish

Cloud Security & Governance at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

A comprehensive data management solution shows potential for improvement while providing strong integration with existing infrastructure

One of the requirements is to have data leak policies and data access policies. This is very critical to enforce data governance standards, which relate to data classification, access control, data protection, and retention. It covers the entire lifecycle, helping us to protect, detect, and classify the documents. Challenges are mostly related to the security products onboarded into the bank; they have challenges in terms of those products complying with the internal standards. Sometimes, we cannot just use the DLP across the state. For example, using Microsoft products has been easy to adopt, such as OneDrive and SharePoint on-premise, but it becomes a challenge when it comes to AWS, as data also exists in S3 buckets. Testing is still ongoing, but it will eventually be done. The time it takes to scan is one issue; when we raise high-volume issues and tickets related to scanning failures, it relates to permission errors, which are technical challenges. These take time because we have high volume tickets in terms of connectivity, scanning failures, and related matters. There are also frequent change requests, especially regarding scoping or rescoping due to complexities, creating several challenges. In both organizations I work with, there are gaps, and there is no enterprise-wide data classification available. However, there are pockets of implementations for various products. Some agencies are using it, but otherwise, there's no product existing across the enterprise. Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management is definitely a good solution, but there is significant room for improvement from a product perspective. Reporting is another area that needs improvement.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Being able to capture different business metrics and organize them in different catalogs is most valuable. We can organize these metrics into sales-related metrics, customer-related metrics, supply chain-related metrics, etc."

"The data mapping manager is the most valuable feature."

"We always know where our data is, and anybody can look that up, whether they're a business person who doesn't know anything about Informatica, or a developer who knows everything about creating data movement jobs in Informatica, but who does not understand the business terminology or the data that is being used in the tool."

"Data Intelligence creates a single source of truth for all of our metadata. This solution is better for data warehousing, but the metadata features speed up our development work. It's easy to create and manage mappings because we can export them to Informatica and pick up the work where we left off."

"There is a wide range of widgets that enables the user to find the proper information quickly. The presentation of information is something very valuable."

"The biggest benefit with erwin DI is that I have a single source of truth that I can send anybody to. If anybody doesn't know the answer we can go back to it. Just having a central location of business rules is good."

"It is a central place for everybody to start any ETL data pipeline builds. This tool is being heavily used, plus it's heavily integrated with all the ETL data pipeline design and build processes. Nobody can bypass these processes and do something without going through this tool."

"They have just the most marvelous reports called mind maps, where whatever you are focused on sits in the middle. They have this wonderful graphic spiderweb that spreads out from there where you can see this thing mapped to other logical bits or physical bits and who's the steward of it. It's very cool and available to your business teams through a portal."

More erwin Data Intelligence pros

"The impact of Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management on my unified data catalog has improved a lot; the improvements I see are in the lineage, the discovery, and the labeling."

"The automatic data labeling is compelling, and we are investigating its use."

"The UI is the most valuable feature."

"Purview's built-in functionality provides immediate access to reports, streamlining the entire process."

"The system is stable; I haven't encountered any worldwide stability issues unlike other office products."

Cons

"The data quality assessment requires third-party components and a separate license."

"If we are talking about the business side of the product, maybe the Data Literacy could be made a bit simpler. You have to put your hands on it, so there is room for improvement."

"The fact that I sometimes have to go in and out of different applications, even though it's all part of the whole erwin suite, perhaps means it could be architected a little bit better. I think they do have some ideas for improvements there."

"Really huge datasets, where the logical names or the lexicons weren't groomed or maintained well, were the only area where it really had room for improvement. A huge data set would cause erwin to crash. If there were half a million or 1 million tables, erwin would hang."

"There are a lot of little things like moving between read screens and edit screens. Those little human interface type of programming pieces will need to mature a bit to make it easier to get to where you want to go to put the stuff in."

"The solution's Arabic language processing is limited. The results are limited when you use the interface in Arabic."

"I find that the time taken to realize value from erwin Data Intelligence can be quite long."

"We chose to implement on an Oracle Database because we also had the erwin Data Modeler and Web Portal products in-house, which have been set up on Oracle Databases for many years. Sometimes the Oracle Database installation has caused some hiccups that wouldn't necessarily have been caused if we had used SQL Server."

More erwin Data Intelligence cons

"Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management can be challenging to implement due to its complexity and dense documentation, making it difficult to get started."

"Microsoft's Purview Data Lifecycle Management preview features can be unreliable, hindering their usefulness."

"The time it takes to scan is one issue; when we raise high-volume issues and tickets related to scanning failures, it relates to permission errors, which are technical challenges."

"I think labeling could use a lot more AI assistance. AI implementation into labeling would be beneficial."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is too high."

"Smart Data Connectors have some costs, and then there are user-based licenses. We spend roughly $150,000 per year on the solution. It is a yearly subscription license that basically includes the cost for Smart Data Connectors and user-based licenses. We have around 30 data stewards who maintain definitions, and then we have five IT users who basically maintain the overall solution. It is not a SaaS kind of operation, and there is an infrastructure cost to host this solution, which is our regular AWS hosting cost."

"erwin's pricing was cheaper than its competitors."

"The licensing cost is around $7,000 for user. This is an estimation."

"There is an additional fee for the server maintenance."

"The price is reasonable and competitive. When you get into forward and reverse-engineering, the cost could go up. However, if you are a large organization, you would probably be able to access different packages. If, however, you don't need forward and reverse-engineering, then the price is relatively cheap."

"The whole suite, not just the DI but the modeling software, the harvester, Mapping Manager — everything we have — is about $100,000 a year for our renewals. That works out to each module being something like $8,000 to $10,000."

"We operate on a yearly subscription and because it is an enterprise license we only have one. It is not dependent on the number of users."

More erwin Data Intelligence pricing and cost advice

"The service operates on a pay-as-you-go basis, charging an extra one cent per field of metadata scanned in our data."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Government

10%

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

The dashboard in erwin Data Intelligence is customizable, and you can easily create different views. However, you are confined to the widgets that are already provided, so the customization is some...

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What is your primary use case for erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

erwin Data Intelligence serves two primary use cases: one is where people use it as a data catalog, which is one of the main ones, and the other is for traceability and lineage.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management?

We opted for Purview Data Lifecycle Management due to its significant cost advantage over competitors. At a 95 percent price reduction, it was a clear winner. The service operates on a pay-as-you-g...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management?

I think labeling could use a lot more AI assistance. AI implementation into labeling would be beneficial.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management?

My major use case for Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management is for the classification of data.

See all answers

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Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

Ataccama ONE Platform vs erwin Data Intelligence

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Compared 18% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management

Compared 7% of the time

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Compared 2% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Intelligence

January 2026

Download erwin Data Intelligence product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management

January 2026

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management report

Download Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management product report

Also Known As

erwin DG, erwin Data Governance

Microsoft Information Governance, Microsoft Purview Records Management

Overview

Erwin Data Intelligence drives automation, supports data catalog and literacy, and offers Smart Data Connectors for efficient metadata handling. Its customization flexibility and integration facilitate enhanced data governance, visualization, analysis, and compliance.

Erwin Data Intelligence offers automation scripts that accelerate development, integrated data cataloging, data profiling, and lineage analysis to streamline information management. Users appreciate its capability in metadata harvesting, code engineering, and infrastructure integration. The tool provides flexibility to enhance governance and data visualization. While it performs well, users have noted challenges with API robustness and interface complexity, and there are opportunities to improve workflow integration, AI features, and large dataset handling. Companies rely on it for metadata management, automation of metadata mappings, and data governance to support compliance and literacy.

What are the main features of Erwin Data Intelligence?

Automation Scripts: Speeds up development processes through powerful scripts.
Data Catalog: Supports comprehensive data mapping and profiles for better analysis.
Smart Data Connectors: Efficiently handles code engineering and metadata harvesting.
Customization Flexibility: Adapts to existing infrastructure for seamless integration.
Comprehensive Visualization: Empowers data visualization and standardization processes.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Increased Development Speed: Automation scripts notably enhance development efficiency.
Improved Data Governance: Streamlines processes, supporting compliance and business definitions.
Effective Integration: Seamlessly fits with ETL tools and existing workflows.
Enhanced Data Literacy: Supports data literacy initiatives with robust cataloging features.
Comprehensive Impact Analysis: Facilitates thorough analysis for informed decision-making.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, organizations implement Erwin Data Intelligence for efficient metadata management and governance. It assists in automating lineage and mapping, supporting ETL procedures while enhancing compliance and data literacy efforts. Its flexibility and integration support create valuable data insights and governance improvements.

Quest Software

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management helps businesses manage data effectively, enhancing compliance and control while optimizing data usage across the organization.

Designed for comprehensive data governance, Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management aids businesses in automating data retention, labeling, and protection policies. It integrates seamlessly with existing systems, facilitating robust data management, which supports compliance and risk management efforts. Suitable for businesses seeking to consolidate data management processes, it ensures that valuable data is efficiently cataloged, accessible, and secured, contributing to informed decision-making and resource optimization.

What features should users be aware of?

Automated Data Retention: Simplifies data management by automatically applying retention policies.
Sensitivity Labeling: Offers robust capabilities to classify and protect sensitive information.
Data Insights: Provides analytical insights that help in monitoring compliance and data usage.
Policy Enforcement: Integrated tools for automating policy application across data assets.

What benefits can users expect from reviews?

Improved Compliance: Ensures adherence to regulations through automated policy enforcement.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlines data management tasks, reducing manual intervention and potential errors.
Cost Effectiveness: Reduces the need for multiple tools by consolidating data management activities.
Enhanced Security: Protects sensitive data through advanced labeling and encryption features.

In finance, Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management facilitates compliance with strict regulations, in healthcare, it safeguards patient data while streamlining retention policies, and in retail, it organizes customer data for better insights and tailored marketing strategies, ensuring data is a strategic resource across sectors.

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Oracle, Infosys, GSK, Toyota Motor Sales, HSBC

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Purview Data Lifecycle Management vs. erwin Data Intelligence

December 2025

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