UNICOM System Architect vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest comparison

erwin by Quest and Unicom Systems are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. erwin by Quest is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while Unicom Systems is ranked #25. erwin by Quest holds a 10.2% mindshare in AM, compared to Unicom Systems’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of erwin by Quest users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Unicom Systems users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler by Quest reviews

3,669 Views
2,004 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

UNICOM System Architect

Read 2 UNICOM System Architect reviews

269 Views
99 Comparison Views

50% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

UNICOM System Architect

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

UNICOM System Architect and erwin Data Modeler by Quest are key players in enterprise architecture and data modeling. While UNICOM has advantages in pricing and support, erwin is favored for its comprehensive feature set, indicating a justified investment.

Features: UNICOM System Architect offers comprehensive enterprise architecture modeling, visualization capabilities supporting complex frameworks, and adaptive integration. erwin Data Modeler by Quest provides strong data modeling, metadata management, and collaboration functionalities, supporting complex database environments efficiently.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: UNICOM System Architect provides a flexible deployment model with satisfactory customer support, allowing for adaptive integration. erwin Data Modeler by Quest delivers an intuitive deployment process and superior customer service for smooth transitions, emphasizing its user-friendly setup.

Pricing and ROI: UNICOM System Architect is known for a lower initial setup cost and satisfactory ROI, thanks to efficient licensing options. erwin Data Modeler by Quest, despite a higher potential cost, offers better ROI through extensive scalability and sophisticated functionalities, highlighting its long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed UNICOM System Architect vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

UNICOM System Architect vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

June 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 Modeler by Quest

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (10th)

UNICOM System Architect

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

25th

Average Rating

6.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler by Quest is 10.2%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of UNICOM System Architect is 0.6%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

JorgeSanz

Data Governance Senior Advisor at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Streamline data modeling and automate network changes for increased efficiency

The initial setup depends on the tool if you are using the data model environment. Stopping the server could be complex and require strong expertise. If you have everything set up and configured, Erwin is straightforward. You can deploy it in a few hours. In our case, it took a couple of months to address internal conditions, assign machines, and set up everything for the services. I rate the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

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reviewer1261290

Project Manager at a government with 10,001+ employees

Useful for creating build-outs and architecture views, but requires a publisher add-on for some detailed reports

I don't use the tool or know a lot. It is going to have some shortcomings. When it comes down to publishing, we just found out this week that they actually have a publisher add-on. So, what we were trying to publish was not giving a detailed report about the architecture, views, etc. I just wish they had sent these to UNICOM and contacted them about add-on features for the publishing part of the tool.

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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

"We can create mappings in erwin and possibly data dictionaries."

"We use the Forward and Reverse Engineering tools to help us speed things up and create things that would have to be done otherwise by hand. E.g., getting a database into a data model format or vice versa."

"Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution."

"The most valuable features are the ability to reverse engineer and do model comparison. With the reverse engineering, I can understand the databases from third-party products. With the model comparison, I can track the differences between two versions of the same database."

"It reduces monthly savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Think about a company like Costco and all of the points of sale systems in Costco, all of the systems, the applications, but if all the applications in Costco all had their own data model, trying to integrate those, upgrade them and manage their different versions of the same model throughout the store, is an absolute nightmare. It's phenomenally expensive. This helps reduce that cost significantly. I'm talking on the orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"The product lets us import different types of models from various databases."

"Any tool will do diagramming but I think the ability to put the stuff up in a graphical fashion, then think about it, and keep things consistent is what's valuable about it. It's too easy when you're using other methods to not have naming consistent standards and column consistent definitions, et cetera."

"There is absolutely no problem with the stability."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pros

"It is useful for creating build-outs and architecture views and for publishing reports and stuff like that for different programs."

"It has good end-to-end metamodel interrelationships."

Cons

"Although Quest Software has made tremendous strides in recent years, they need to evolve more in the big data arena; erwin Data Modeler could use a little more work when it comes to big database designs."

"The Bulk Editor needs improvement. If you had something that was a local model to your local machine, you could connect to the API, then it would write directly into the repository. However, when you have something that is on the centralized server, that functionality did not work. Then, you had to export out to a CSV and upload up to the repository. It would have been nice to be able to do the direct API without having that whole download and upload thing. Maybe I didn't figure it out, but I'm pretty sure that didn't work when it was a model that sat on a centralized repository."

"In terms of improvements, support could have been better in terms of installation, especially of workgroups. We struggled quite a bit to get it up and running. Collaboration could have been better from an installation perspective, but it is trivial as compared to what we use it for. Other than that, I don't have much feedback. It works pretty well, and the fact that we've been using it for more than a decade shows that it is quite solid."

"As someone who has used it for a long time, I have seen stability vary from version to version."

"It would be nice to have it on the Linux platform, not just Windows. If they can support Linux, there would be a huge market for it."

"I love the product. I love the ability to get into the code, make it automated, and make it do what I want. I would like to see them put some kind of governance over the ability to make changes to the mart tables with the API, so that instead of just using the modeler's rights to a table -- it has a separate set of rights for API access. That would give us the ability to put governance around API applications. Right now a person with erwin and Excel/VBA has the ability to make changes to models with the API if they also have rights to make changes to the model from erwin. It's a risk."

"The only real complaint I have is the time it takes to do a database comparison on a large model. If they could speed that up, that would be the only thing I can think of that needs improvement."

"We are planning to move, in 2021, into their server version, where multiple data modelers can work at the same time and share their models. It has become a pain point to merge the models from individual desktops and get them into a single data model, when multiple data modelers are working on a particular project. It becomes a nightmare for the senior data modeler to bring them together, especially when it comes to recreating them when you want to merge them."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest cons

"They need to add reports that show the enterprise architecture perspectives, and the dashboards should be comfortable for the senior enterprise architects so that they can view the complete landscape."

"I don't use the tool or know a lot. It is going to have some shortcomings. When it comes down to publishing, we just found out this week that they actually have a publisher add-on. So, what we were trying to publish was not giving a detailed report about the architecture, views, etc. I just wish they had sent these to UNICOM and contacted them about add-on features for the publishing part of the tool."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."

"Likewise, the solution is a little pricey."

"The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."

"This company had bought the license for three years, and it's not an individual license. While you can buy a license for each individual, that would be very expensive. There is something called concurrent licenses where you can purchase licenses in bulk and 15 to 20 people can access the license and model. Concurrent licenses are scalable to the number of users and are proportional to the cost."

"The tool is expensive."

"I don't specifically know what we're paying now. About three years ago, in another organization, I have this memory of 6,000 AUD a seat or something like that, but I am not sure. In the mid-2000s, it was something like 1,200 AUD a seat. I get the impression that there was a price jump when it was spun off from CA as a separate company, which is understandable, but it could sometimes be a barrier in some organizations picking it up. I haven't talked to erwin people yet, but I'm going to suggest to them that they could perhaps think of having an entry-level product that is priced a bit lower, and then, you can buy the extra suite."

"Price-wise, erwin Data Modeler is okay. You can purchase a single license and it is not very expensive."

"erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pricing and cost advice

"I don't remember the price. It is a different cost for just buying it, and then you have a maintenance cost, which you need to renew every year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Computer Software Company

Government

16%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

The product is expensive. I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

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What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

As a documenting tool, it's solid, though its reporting could be more robust. The reporting mechanisms could be more intuitive regarding report creation. It can generate reports in CSV files, displ...

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erwin Data Modeler by Quest

June 2025

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Also Known As

erwin DM

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Overview

erwin pioneered data modeling, and erwin Data Modeler (erwin DM) remains trusted, award-winning software for data modeling and database design, automating complex and time-consuming tasks. Use it to discover and document any data from anywhere for consistency, clarity and artifact reuse across large-scale data integration, master data management, metadata management, Big Data, business intelligence and analytics initiatives – all while supporting data governance and intelligence efforts.

erwin by Quest

Information not available

Unicom Systems

Sample Customers

Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples

Apple, Facebook, Google, HSBC, PayPal

Buyer's Guide

UNICOM System Architect vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

June 2025

Free Report: UNICOM System Architect vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Find out what your peers are saying about UNICOM System Architect vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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