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erwin Data Modeler vs iGrafx Process360 Live Platform comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

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 Business Process Design
7th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (1st), Data Governance (10th)
iGrafx Process360 Live Plat...
Ranking in Business Process Design
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (32nd), Process Mining (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 3.3%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of iGrafx Process360 Live Platform is 2.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
erwin Data Modeler3.3%
iGrafx Process360 Live Platform2.9%
Other93.8%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Sushree Panigrahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.
Data modeling has transformed regulatory reporting and collaboration across cloud environments
In erwin Data Modeler, areas that have room for improvement include performance improvements. I see that large models sometimes cause it to be slow when opening. Impact analysis can lag as well. Version control is another aspect. If we have developed a current version, it is not integrated with Git where we can easily compare different versions. UI modernization is also something we cannot utilize as it is primarily for development. Additionally, cloud-specific optimizations are needed when it comes to Snowflake or Databricks. When it comes to AI aspects, auto-suggestions for normalization or identifying primary, foreign, or surrogate keys are areas that can be improved.
MR
Solution Consultant at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
Provides documentation, process mining, simulation, and automation capabilities
If customers want to change the color or the logo, they have to go through every page to verify everything is right. We have a strategic approach for the customer. I was involved in almost 100 sessions where the customers were looking for a one-time process visualization or one-time process mining, not for a long-term association with this tool. The customer's requirements are more tactical than strategic. We had some challenges during this time frame as I was with iGrafx, and electricity costs rose in Germany. One customer stopped a large deal because they had to reduce every non-invested investment due to the electricity bill rising by 500% to 800%.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"erwin Data Modeler has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to implement the data architecture with the data strategy about six to eight years ago, since it allowed us to have a single language and implement new Nissan standards, naming conventions, constraints, and features."
"I have worked with erwin Data Modeler for quite some time and familiarity is its most valuable feature."
"The accuracy and speed of the solution in transforming complex designs into well-aligned data sources make the cost of the tool worth it."
"One of the best aspects of the tool is its reverse engineering capability."
"I compare erwin Data Modeler with other solutions such as ER/Studio and believe it stands out as an enterprise-grade data modeling tool capable of serving different industries, such as finance, healthcare, and telecom."
"It improved the way we were able to manage our models."
"It has made a lot of difference in terms of naming standards, processes around our metadata, and the schema in which we create a database."
"This tool is beneficial to any organization as it is foundational; there is no better way than this, and it is a must-have for every organization, whether large or small."
"The solution has helped our organization because instead of writing long documentation for the shop floor, flow charts make it more attractive for the staff to follow up on and carry out procedures."
"Finding the right symbol and creating links, horizontal and vertical are the features I use."
"The solution's most beneficial feature is the 360 approach, where documentation, process mining, simulation, and automation capabilities are in one solution."
"iGrafx is the most comprehensive way to have all the cross-feeds and the documents related to workflows, like cross-notes."
"Overall, the solution is very useful and has good features."
"We think iGrafx is well-priced, affordable; you don’t need a lot of license seats, and it has a good, free, downloadable iGrafx Viewer (akin to Adobe Reader)."
"If you need software to help you easily design processes, make simulations, build value stream mappings, which has some LEAN features, and DMAIC support, I strongly encourage you to go forward and buy iGrafx."
"This product fulfills ninety percent of our needs, and we're happy as users of it."
 

Cons

"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."
"I still use Visio for conceptual modeling, and that's mainly because it is easier to change things, and you can relax some of the rules. DM's eventual target is a database, which means you actually have to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts, but in a conceptual model, you don't often know what you're working with. So, that's probably a constraint with erwin. They have made it a lot easier, and they've done a lot, but there is probably still room for improvement in terms of the ease of presentation back to the business. I'm comparing it with something like Visio where you can change colors on a box, change the text color and that sort of stuff, and change the lines. Such things are a whole lot easier in Visio, but once you get a theme organized in erwin, you can apply that theme to all of the objects. So, it becomes easier, but you do have to set up that theme."
"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."
"Some Source official systems give us DDLs to work with and they have contents not required to be part of the DDL before we reverse engineer in the erwin DM. Therefore, we manually make changes to those scripts and edit them, then reverse-engineer within the tool. So, it does take some time to edit these DDL scripts generated by the source operational systems. What I would suggest: It would be helpful if there were a place within the erwin tool to import the file and automatically eliminate all the unnecessary lines of code, and just have the clean code built-in to generate the table/data model."
"One area for improvement of erwin Data Modeler would be the overall user interface, which can feel dated and takes some time to get familiar with."
"Regarding improvements, the first thing I would mention is that every release has some issues, some of which are related to current functionalities, which means they often seem not very well tested or affected in the development process of the new version, leading to issues until that is released."
"I would like the solution to be more user-friendly to deploy."
"Complete Compare is set up only to compare properties that are of interest to us, but some of the differences cannot be brought over from one version of the model to another. This is despite the fact that we are clicking to bring objects from one place to another. Therefore, it's hard to tell at times if Complete Compare is working as intended without having to manually go into the details and check everything. If it could be redesigned to a degree where it is easier to use when we bring things over from one site to another and be sure that it's been done correctly, that would be nice to have. We would probably use the tool more often if the Complete Compare were easier to use."
"One of the areas in the product with certain shortcomings where improvements are required includes the tool's reporting capabilities."
"If the price of the solution was more competitive, it would have made things easier for our company to extend the usage."
"Visio is more user-friendly."
"With iGrafx, the implementation and the licensing were pretty complex."
"I would love to see a template and shapes for customer journey mapping."
"There are a few areas iGrafx which could improve, probably the biggest area would be to support iOS as well as PC, so clients don’t have to emulate PC on an iOS platform."
"They can reduce the cost of the product and make it easily accessible for consultants."
"It would be helpful to be able to do more analytics and generate reports on historical documents that have already been uploaded to the server."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not a very expensive solution. Only the licensing and maintenance fee needs to be paid."
"Likewise, the solution is a little pricey."
"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."
"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 price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."
"erwin Data Modeler by Quest is an expensive solution."
"Price-wise, erwin Data Modeler is okay. You can purchase a single license and it is not very expensive."
"The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."
"The licensing part is one of the problems. Its licensing depends on the number of users, so it sometimes gets expensive."
"My company is trying to replace iGrafx because the license is a little bit expensive."
"Our license is a subscription-based model that is per user. The solution is not expensive, I believe a subscription-based model is $10 per user."
"I have heard that the solution's pricing is very competitive."
"Earlier, the licensing part was complex because there were so many modules and elements in the tool. Over the last one and a half years, a lot of work has gone into how the product has priced and positioned its tools in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business17
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise43
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing process is painful and quite onerous. The setup is okay, but there is room for improvement.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
Regarding improvements, the first thing I would mention is that every release has some issues, some of which are related to current functionalities, which means they often seem not very well tested...
What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
My main use case for erwin Data Modeler is to implement a single data architecture design department so everyone is using erwin Data Modeler for their data models to be a transactional application ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for iGrafx?
I have heard that the solution's pricing is very competitive.
What needs improvement with iGrafx?
If customers want to change the color or the logo, they have to go through every page to verify everything is right. We have a strategic approach for the customer. I was involved in almost 100 sess...
What is your primary use case for iGrafx?
The solution is used for the documentation and visualization of the main processes. The customers have hundreds or thousands of processes, but they start with the top 20 processes. The next step is...
 

Also Known As

erwin DM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Multinational Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about erwin Data Modeler vs. iGrafx Process360 Live Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.