No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (1st), Business Process Design (4th), Data Governance (11th)
Lucidchart
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Mind Mapping Software (1st), Visual Collaboration Platforms (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

erwin Data Modeler and Lucidchart aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. erwin Data Modeler is designed for Enterprise Architecture Management and holds a mindshare of 8.6%, up 8.2% compared to last year.
Lucidchart, on the other hand, focuses on Mind Mapping Software, holds 20.5% mindshare, down 24.2% since last year.
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
erwin Data Modeler8.6%
SAP PowerDesigner9.1%
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect8.7%
Other73.6%
Enterprise Architecture Management
Mind Mapping Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Lucidchart20.5%
Visio16.5%
Xmind13.6%
Other49.4%
Mind Mapping Software
 

Featured Reviews

SR
Director, Analytics at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Structured data modeling has accelerated AI-driven customer insights and cloud migrations
One feature that I wish erwin Data Modeler could improve is how user experience becomes much more intuitive, particularly when navigating large models or reviewing changes over time. Easier model exploration, clear visibility into differences between versioning, and practical documentation for use cases could help users work more effectively. I would also welcome the capability to have integrations with other platforms where the blueprint can be exchanged seamlessly without having to do an export and an import process. This would also help in bringing in the AI capability, which can assist in better positioning erwin Data Modeler not just as a tool for designing and documenting data models, but also as part of the broader data architecture and development lifecycle. Regarding erwin Data Modeler's AI capabilities, there is an opportunity to enhance user experience from a governance standpoint, supporting tracking model changes, maintaining audit trails, and managing role-based access while enforcing consistent modeling standards across teams would be a value-added feature, particularly in a large-scale environment. It would also be beneficial to have better visibility into sensitive data attributes and their relationships to govern the requirements, including privacy and access controls. As organizations increasingly adopt AI development, integrating these governance and security considerations into the model and implementing workflows could also help teams work more effectively while maintaining appropriate oversights. Regarding erwin Data Modeler's AI capabilities, there is still room for improvement regarding accuracy and reliability of output as large language models need clear instructions. There is room for growth because business requirements keep changing, relationships keep changing, and the capability to identify inconsistencies, missing relationships, or incorrect definitions are areas where it can improve. This is not to say that the current features are not good enough; they are excellent, but there is definitely room to catch up on AI changes. This is particularly important when modeling using blueprints inputted via AI assistant programs, and when an error occurs in the original model, it could carry over into a generated implementation. That is one of the experiences I faced when working on a project for the Adobe Experience Platform. I experience some integration failures often with erwin Data Modeler, but there is documentation that we can look up that helps resolve these bugs. The new integration changes on our end sometimes pose a challenge, but the process is generally seamless, and the support available makes it much easier for us to troubleshoot any challenges we might face. Managing data across different environments, such as traditional databases, NoSQL, big data, and cloud platforms with erwin Data Modeler presents the biggest challenge of translating from a traditional database to a non-SQL database. These challenges are primarily based on the structure of the data model. Overall, there are external tools that help us in translating that, and I would love to add this as a feature to simplify the process and reduce the complexity of using external extensions for making those changes or guiding through the process.
AlexMartin1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Nestlé
Visual collaboration has improved remote workflows and supports faster shared decisions
The best features Lucidchart offers are that it diagrams processes very well. It allows for project management to help with client timelines. It is also easy to use and create diagrams, especially mermaid diagrams. Collaborating is easy. Out of all those features, collaboration stands out to me the most because it is easy to share with team members to do joint design work. Lucidchart has positively impacted my organization by improving productivity and collaboration. In terms of specifics, collaboration helps us come to conclusions. I notice better throughput as it is easy to use. Improved productivity allows us to express ourselves more quickly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It saves a lot of development time, and I think we are saving from two weeks to one month annually."
"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."
"erwin has versioning so you can keep versions, over time, of those models and you can compare any version to any version. If you're looking at a specific database and you want to see what changed over time, that's really useful. You can go back to a different version or connect that to your change-control processes so you can see what was released when."
"Having well-documented and consistent schemas makes it easier to identify, understand, and prepare reliable data for analytics and new AI use cases, ensuring my data is AI-ready and reliable."
"We can create mappings in erwin and possibly data dictionaries."
"The modeling product itself is far and above anything else that I've seen on the market."
"Erwin is by far the best tool I've ever used."
"The solution is good for organizing the data and the scripting part is very powerful. It's easy to create technical scripts for models."
"This is the one tool I want to use; I don't care how much it costs; it's the best tool for the stuff I'm working on, it fulfills my needs, and for this sake, it can cost 10 times more."
"It makes collaboration easy, it makes presentation easy, the real-time collaboration is super-helpful, and it has saved me time on the order of 20 percent for project planning."
"As a result, it has saved me time, on the order of at least 50 to 60 percent, because of the ease of use."
"Lucidchart has positively impacted our organization by enabling us to identify process bottlenecks and architecture issues earlier, which improves our project outcomes and reduces network load."
"When it comes to documenting things like processes, systems, and new teams, I'd give it an eight or nine out of ten. It's very high because it's fairly intuitive, there's a low learning curve, and it's easy to get immediate output. You can get results very quickly without a lot of direct effort. You don't usually take a week-long series of training. You don't need to go through a lot of hoops to make it work."
"The interface is very user-friendly and it is not a hassle to use the site at all. They did a really good job in that regard."
"I like how all the contacts in my chart are linked to LinkedIn. That's what makes it really easy for outreach and for making sure we have all the contacts right there in front of us when we need to."
"Lucidchart is a reliable and effective tool for visualizing ideas and improving workflow clarity, and it stands out for its ease of use, drag-and-drop features, a large collection of templates, and strong collaboration features, making it suitable for both individual and team-based work."
 

Cons

"I would rate the visualization feature in erwin Data Modeler a six out of ten because the visualization is somewhat poor and some of the features are not user-friendly."
"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 to see improved reporting and, potentially, dashboards built on top of that."
"I would like to have more data sources from other, different vendors. In recent years, the vendor has reduced the number of data sources, and I would like to have more data sources for every brand. For example, with Oracle, I would like to have compatibility for many versions, including old ones, not just the most recent."
"This is a very complex product."
"I believe erwin Data Modeler could be improved in a few areas, particularly performance, especially when dealing with large models that contain thousands of tables, as opening those models and running impact analysis can become slow."
"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."
"As erwin Data Modeler files get larger, the response time really slows down, and when I have multiple files open I sometimes get a glitch where a lot of the text fields get solid black and the first eight characters of column names might be blacked out with a rectangle."
"Another thing that somewhat irritated me is the fact that there is a paste function in the menu, but when you right-click and select paste, it tells you that you can't use paste."
"I wish Lucidchart would add dark mode to improve the user experience."
"Lucid should create some proper documentation and video tutorials to demonstrate the capabilities of the product to new users. It should explain everything that it offers and everything that it can be used for."
"Additionally, it could improve offline accessibility or performance under low internet conditions, as I remember working on a workflow diagram in a car where I lost my network connection, and the entire diagram I had been working on disappeared."
"It would be helpful if there were different options available for organizing the folders, such as having a high-level display with pictures."
"It would be really helpful if we could create a process flow based on a Word Document or a PPT file."
"It can have more colors or graphics. Currently, it is a little boring. It can have a little bit more fun factor."
"The flowcharting feature would be improved if it had some kind of prediction capability that helped to create the diagrams, such as the ability to automatically join components with my database."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of the solution is cheap. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"Pricing is very high compared to any other product."
"erwin is expensive compared to other solutions. We are paying almost $6,000 per seat a month."
"Likewise, the solution is a little pricey."
"The tool is expensive."
"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."
"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"There are two license options and the pricing is reasonable."
"We chose Lucid based on the price comparison between it and draw.io... Lucidchart was about 15 percent cheaper per user... I was surprised to learn that it came with a separate subscription model and was not included in my existing Lucidchart subscription."
"Lucidchart's pricing model is not excessive, as compared to similar products. It is pretty much in line with everyone else."
"The pricing and licensing are fine. It has a lot of features that I prefer over some of the other programs, which is good. Being that it is web-based, I feel that it is acceptable that it's on a monthly pay basis. However, I think I pay on an annual basis, which is fine with me."
"Pricing comes in at about $100 for a year's subscription, which is very reasonable if this is a tool that you will use more than once."
"The licensing is pretty cost-effective but I haven't considered it on an enterprise level."
"At €167 per user per year, the pricing is slightly higher than Visio, but it's worth it."
"I'm happy with the pricing of Lucidchart but I can't say I'm completely happy with it. It could be cheaper for what it offers, about $5 cheaper, or Lucid could charge $5 more and add more features, like automation. Right now, it's $15 per user per month... On the other hand, they have made their billing super-easy for users, such as for people who have to do expense reports. It is probably the easiest platform I'm using when it comes to billing for software as a service."
"I was using the paid version, but at $12 USD per month, I canceled the plan because it was a little bit too expensive for me."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Architecture Management solutions are best for your needs.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise61
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
My experience with erwin Data Modeler's pricing and setup costs shows it to be on the expensive side; the licensing fees reflect this higher cost, which results in fewer users adopting the tool.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The UI of erwin Data Modeler could be improved. It could be cleaner, as the current setup sometimes confuses users searching for specific features. Streamlining options and removing unnecessary ele...
What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
My main use case for erwin Data Modeler involves designing a logical and conceptual model, and physicalized model. I typically use it for creating tables, establishing relationships between tables,...
LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom
Hi @Krista Thompson ​ - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. LucidSpark is designed to do a better job managing multiple users participating ...
Do you recommend Lucidchart?
I definitely recommend Lucidchart. I feel it is one of the top visual collaboration platforms that’s available on the market. Out of all the solutions I have tried, it is by far the best for diagra...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?
It is cloud-based, so no setup is required. Currently, we are using a free plan.
 

Also Known As

erwin DM
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Whirlpool, Uber, Wal Mart, Pearson, Twitch, Riot Games, Western Union, Trimble, Starbucks
Find out what your peers are saying about Quest Software, SAP, SAP LeanIX and others in Enterprise Architecture Management. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.