erwin Data Modeler vs erwin Evolve comparison

erwin Data Modeler and erwin Evolve are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. erwin Data Modeler is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3, while erwin Evolve is ranked #12 with an average rating of 9.0. erwin Data Modeler holds a 10.0% mindshare in AM, compared to erwin Evolve’s 2.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of erwin Data Modeler users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 81% of erwin Evolve users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Modeler

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler reviews

5,179 Views
3,574 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

erwin Evolve

Read 19 erwin Evolve reviews

1,108 Views
831 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler

erwin Evolve

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 19, 2025

erwin Evolve and erwin Data Modeler are complementary products in enterprise architecture and data modeling. erwin Evolve has the upper hand with its strategic enterprise planning capabilities, while erwin Data Modeler excels in detailed database design and management.

Features: erwin Evolve supports business process modeling, enabling holistic organizational views, strategic enterprise planning, and framework support for enterprise architecture. erwin Data Modeler provides comprehensive data modeling, strong integration capabilities, and supports detailed database design, essential for data governance and management.

Room for Improvement: erwin Evolve could improve its ease of deployment, streamline processes for setup, and enhance user experience in complex implementations. erwin Data Modeler could benefit from more intuitive collaboration tools, additional cloud database support, and enhanced template options for diverse data structures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: erwin Data Modeler is noted for straightforward deployment and reliable technical support with consistent updates. erwin Evolve requires intricate setup due to its expansive capabilities, resulting in longer implementation times but benefits from dedicated enterprise-level customer service.

Pricing and ROI: erwin Evolve involves higher initial setup costs due to its comprehensive features, potentially leading to a higher long-term ROI for enterprise architecture-focused organizations. erwin Data Modeler offers a moderate cost structure, appealing with strong data modeling efficiencies for data-centric environments, providing substantial ROI based on its focused features.

To learn more, read our detailed erwin Data Modeler vs. erwin Evolve Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler vs. erwin Evolve

July 2025

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Helped 865,295 peers since 2012

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

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

4th

Ranking in Business Process Design

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

erwin Evolve

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

12th

Ranking in Business Process Design

19th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 10.0%, down from 10.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Evolve is 2.6%, up from 2.5% 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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Asish Sahu

SPM at Infosys

The reverse engineering capabilities are quite useful.

Evolve is primarily focused on the entity's licenses diagrams, but it would be nice if erwin could integrate case development, so that it shows the ER diagram plus certain inputs on the use cases and how the data is used. That deviates somewhat from the overall scope, so maybe they could call it a different product.

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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

"The visual data models for helping to overcome data source complexity and enabling understanding and collaboration around maintenance and usage are excellent. A picture speaks 1,000 words. Seeing a picture that shows you how the data relates to each other helps you better understand what the data is and how to use it. Pairing that information with a dictionary, which has the definitions of the tables and columns or the entities and attributes, ensures that the users understand what the data is so that they can use it best and most successfully."

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

"The data lineage feature is very valuable."

"It has centralized storage so that a data model can be shared by different teams."

"The most valuable features are being able to visualize the data in the diagrams and transform those diagrams into physical database deployments. These features help, specifically, to integrate the data. When the source data is accumulated and modeled, the target model is in erwin and it helps resolve the data integration patterns that are required to map the data to accommodate a model."

"Quest can create conceptual and physical data models to facilitate effective communication between business and IT. It can also integrate expertise from various engineering and database systems within your organization to enhance data management and administration."

"They have a lot of features and the most up-to-date technology integration, which I haven't seen in other products."

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

More erwin Data Modeler pros

"The most valuable features for us are impact analysis, where I can easily visualize the impact of change."

"The initial setup was really straightforward and the deployment was done within one day."

"There is a model behind it. It's really nice that the Evolve front-end, as it builds a website, keeps those relationships in mind. You can even go to a procedure and see all the applications that are related to it. Then you can go into that application and see all the standard operating procedures that that application is a part of. It's just very connected."

"I can send images in the PDF form, along with the relationships and the associations that are a very important part of what we do. It can show what is affected and what is impacted by a certain change in one area of the system architecture or enterprise architecture. I can very quickly draw those issues and topics to the fore."

"Workgroup Repository collection of data models allows research across models without worry about platform incompatibilities and provides easy KPIs about corporate data assets."

"I have not seen capabilities for web-sharing and interaction with the architecture from any other supplier. It's a great capability..."

"Evolve is like a tank. You can do whatever you want with the solution, but you need to customize it. I think that it's not very aligned with the framework for enterprise architecture. MEGA is focused on these enterprise architectures, but it's only for that. With Evolve, you can do everything you want with professional services."

"The feature that stands out for me is the ease of configuring objects and the screens to show them. It's really easy to add a new type of object in this reference. Creating a new type of object, using it, and evolving it a little bit in terms of what we can document about it are the main features that made us decide to use this provider."

More erwin Evolve pros

Cons

"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."

"The modeling product itself is far and above anything else that I've seen on the market. There are certain inconsistencies when it comes to keeping up with other platforms' databases in the reverse-engineering process. It should also support more database platforms."

"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."

"I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory."

"The reverse engineering in Oracle Databases needs improvement, as there are issues."

"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."

"I'd really like to see the PDF function become available. It would make my life much easier than what it is at the moment because whenever I need to collaborate with people that do not have erwin, I have to go through the wonkiness of going to Word and then save it from Word into PDF. There's a lot of differences between erwin 4.4 and 2020."

"One of the best aspects of the tool is its reverse engineering capability."

More erwin Data Modeler cons

"The solution's integration capabilities with other tools in our system has not been all that well done. We have people who use ARIS, who use System Architect and, of course, Visio. erwin has very limited ways to import and export from those kinds of tools. It's not a very easy thing to do."

"They have improved the search engine a little bit but it can always be improved more. The more data you put inside it, the more you want to use it."

"If it had fewer features to model all kinds of architecture, it would be less complicated."

"Business process modelling could be improved."

"I feel that the UML drawing capability needs to be improved."

"There might be improvement required to better support some of the MPP databases for non-relational data structures and NoSQL databases."

"I would like it to be easier to make changes and then deploy them into production, especially when you have multiple web servers or front-ends. It would be nice to make a change and then have it propagate to the production servers in a more automated fashion."

"Add some ability to do conditional Visualization on the models and in reports (some ideas) – maybe as a specialized Theme or Diagram or Display."

More erwin Evolve cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not a very expensive solution. Only the licensing and maintenance fee needs to be paid."

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

"There is either a one-year or three-year license. It is not a pay-as-you-go license like a SaaS solution. It’s more of a traditional licensing. They are a little bit on the pricier side."

"An issue right now would be that erwin doesn't have a freely available browser (that I am aware of) for people who are not data modelers or data engineers that a consumer could use to look at the data models and play with it. This would not be to make any changes, but just to visually look at what exists. There are other products out there which do have end user browsers available and allow them to access data models via the data modeling tool."

"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."

"Pricing is very high compared to any other product."

"The tool is expensive."

"erwin is expensive compared to other solutions. We are paying almost $6,000 per seat a month."

More erwin Data Modeler pricing and cost advice

"Yearly, our cost is €100,000."

"I think erwin is quite expensive. I have difficulty selling the portal, in fact."

"The licensing enables you to differentiate between people who edit the content and the people who consume it. We are able to keep the licensing costs down by keeping the "contributor" licenses to a minimum, and we then just roll out the content in a read-only version for the rest of our users."

"Unless you are a one person shop – always go with the Workgroup edition and Concurrent licensing."

"On a yearly basis, our licensing costs are 50,000 euro. There are no additional costs because we are on a SaaS model."

"The cost is something like $15,000, per license. But I haven't looked at those numbers in three years. It was over $100,000 to initially set everything up and get it all configured."

"I estimate that we pay between $40,000 and $50,000 a year for the solution, not including the upfront costs to buy things the first time."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

20%

Government

10%

Performing Arts

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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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What advice do you have for others considering erwin Evolve?

I rate erwin Evolve by Quest a nine out of ten.

See all answers

What do you like most about erwin Evolve by Quest?

We can efficiently deploy business models into the databases and generate SQL scripts.

See all answers

What needs improvement with erwin Evolve by Quest?

erwin Evolve by Quest could have additional features to manage the architecture of enterprises and businesses.

See all answers

Comparisons

SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 36% of the time

IDERA ER/Studio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 18% of the time

Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 12% of the time

Visio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Rational System Architect vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 1% of the time

More erwin Data Modeler Competitors

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Evolve

Compared 16% of the time

SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Evolve

Compared 12% of the time

Bonita vs erwin Evolve

Compared 11% of the time

LeanIX vs erwin Evolve

Compared 11% of the time

OrbusInfinity vs erwin Evolve

Compared 5% of the time

More erwin Evolve Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

erwin Evolve

August 2025

Download erwin Evolve product report

Also Known As

erwin DM

erwin EA, erwin Business Process, erwin Enterprise Architecture

Overview

Erwin Data Modeler provides an effective approach to visualizing and managing data models. It assists in creating, reversing, and synchronizing data models with ease, supporting logical and physical transitions while enhancing understanding across teams.

Erwin Data Modeler is a comprehensive tool designed for professional database management. It offers capabilities to organize and enforce standards, automating script generation with robust reverse engineering and DDL output. Users can manage complex data environments, capitalize on integration with data intelligence, and maintain large-scale databases smoothly. Despite its strengths, improvements in multi-language support, database integration, and reporting features are needed. Users benefit from extensive support for conceptual, logical, and physical database modeling, enhancing architectural design and data governance for platforms like SQL Server, Oracle, and Teradata.

What are the key features of Erwin Data Modeler?

Visual Representation: Facilitates clear visualization of data models, aiding comprehension.
Versioning and Editing: Enhance usability with versioning and bulk editing capabilities.
Reverse Engineering: Offers powerful tools for reverse engineering and DDL generation.
Integration: Aligns with data intelligence to streamline database management.
Naming Standards: Enforces consistency with automated script creation.

What benefits should users consider in Erwin Data Modeler reviews?

Collaboration: Promotes team understanding and collaboration through visual tools.
Automation: Reduces manual effort through automated processes and integration.
Scalability: Handles large database management efficiently, crucial for enterprise settings.
Data Governance: Facilitates effective data governance with structured modeling.

Erwin Data Modeler finds application in industries focused on robust data management, implementing it for enterprise data warehouses, business domain models, and operational systems. It supports architectural design and governance, aligning with business applications demanding precise data representation and visualization.

Quest Software

erwin Evolve provides comprehensive graphical support for handling large data models. It offers features such as metadata access, version control, and model comparison, enhancing operational reports and system analytics through its collaborative web-driven design.

erwin Evolve facilitates reverse engineering and database integration, fostering collaboration and process exploration through its web interface. Customizable and easy to configure, it supports workflow configuration and architectural modeling. Users can utilize its capabilities for developing industry models, managing transformation programs, and presenting standard operating procedures. Despite its strengths, there are demands for improved integration, enhanced UML support, and a more modern user experience. Users also express challenges with legacy system updates and call for better connectors and collaborative features.

What are the key features of erwin Evolve?

Graphical Support for Large Data Models: Provides visualization capabilities for complex data structures.
Metadata Access via API: Allows integration and management of metadata across platforms.
Version Control and Model Comparison: Enhances tracking and analysis of model changes.
Collaborative Web Interface: Facilitates teamwork and process exploration remotely.
Architectural Modeling: Supports the design and configuration of enterprise architecture.

What are the benefits and ROI of using erwin Evolve?

Customization and Ease of Configuration: Reduces setup time and adapts to specific organizational workflows.
Enhanced Accessibility and Mobile Usability: Offers access to critical information on the go.
Operational Reports Creation: Generates insights and facilitates informed decision-making.
System Analytics Handling: Provides robust tools for analyzing system performance and integration.

Data-driven organizations in sectors like finance and healthcare implement erwin Evolve for data warehousing, enterprise architecture, and business process modeling. They leverage its capabilities for cataloging architectural elements, linking to CMDBs, analyzing system interfaces, and describing business processes. Utilization extends to IT solution registration, business capability planning, and strategic modeling, with frequent deployments on cloud platforms to support transformation initiatives.

Quest Software

Sample Customers

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

AT&T, Bank of America, Chevron, Duke University, ESPN, Fidelity, GE, JP Morgan Chase, KPMG, McGraw Hill, NASA, Pfizer, Royal Bank of Scotland, Teradata, Union Pacific, Vodafone, Wells Fargo.

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler vs. erwin Evolve

July 2025

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