Sparx Prolaborate vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

Quest Software and Sparx Systems are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Quest Software is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4, while Sparx Systems is ranked #20. Quest Software holds a 8.3% mindshare in AM, compared to Sparx Systems’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Sparx Systems users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Modeler

Read 46 erwin Data Modeler reviews

5,210 Views
3,543 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Sparx Prolaborate

Read 5 Sparx Prolaborate reviews

474 Views
474 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler

Sparx Prolaborate

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

Erwin Data Modeler and Sparx Prolaborate both compete in the data management and collaboration category. Sparx Prolaborate excels in collaboration due to its robust capabilities and value.

Features: Erwin Data Modeler's strengths include comprehensive data modeling tools, extensive metadata management, and seamless integration capabilities. Sparx Prolaborate shines with advanced collaboration functionalities, support for enterprise architecture, and effective stakeholder communication.

Room for Improvement: Erwin Data Modeler could enhance user experience, provide better cloud support, and improve tool integration consistency. Sparx Prolaborate may benefit from more comprehensive training resources, enhanced customization options, and improved documentation quality for advanced features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Erwin Data Modeler offers user-friendly deployment with effective guidance and ample support throughout implementation. Sparx Prolaborate ensures quick deployment with responsive customer service, focusing on fostering user collaboration during deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Erwin Data Modeler is known for competitive pricing and solid ROI, appealing to those with detailed data modeling needs. Sparx Prolaborate justifies its setup cost with extensive platform capabilities, offering significant ROI through improved collaboration and project visibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler

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 Modeler

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (8th), Data Governance (15th)

Sparx Prolaborate

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

20th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 8.3%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Prolaborate is 1.6%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
erwin Data Modeler	8.3%
Sparx Prolaborate	1.6%
Other	90.1%

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Sushree Panigrahi

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.

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Pawel Gawronski

Group IT Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 10,001+ employees

Diagram are available in real time but edits sometimes require a manual refresh

Diagram edits take a few minutes to update or require a manual refresh. If we make a change in an enterprise architect diagram, then we want to assume everything is up to date on the documentation side. That isn't always the case after many minutes, so a manual step is required to refresh the link. The solution could offer different sources for design. We currently use Lucidchart but would like additional options. Some vendors provide support on the back end for things like verification of the reference architecture so you don't have to design it yourself.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What has been useful, I have been able to reverse engineer our existing data models to document explicitly referential integrity relationships, primary/foreign keys in the model, and create ERDs that are subject area-based which our clients can use when working with our databases. The reality is that our databases are not explicitly documented in the DDL with primary/foreign key relationships. You can't look at the DDL and explicitly understand the primary/foreign key relationships that exist between our tables, so the referential integrity is not easily understood. erwin has allowed me to explicitly document that and create ERDs. This has made it easier for our clients to consume our databases for their own purposes."

"I have worked with erwin Data Modeler for quite some time and familiarity is its most valuable feature."

"It is a scalable solution...The technical support team is fine."

"My favorite feature of erwin Data Modeler is that we can export and import tables directly from the databases, and it is easy to map from table to table and column to column."

"It's important to create standard templates — Erwin is good at that — and you can customize them. You can create a standard template so that your models have the same look and feel. And then, anyone using the tool is using the same font and the same general layout. erwin's very good at helping enforce that."

"I have used most of the modeling tools available, but I found that erwin Data Modeler is the most suitable data modeling tool in our current industry."

"The solution is good for organizing the data and the scripting part is very powerful. It's easy to create technical scripts for models."

"The most valuable feature is the physical or visual representation of the database, showing the tables, the columns, the foreign keys, and the ability to generate DDL, so you can physically implement databases."

More erwin Data Modeler pros

"What is really powerful in Sparx is the way in which you can model business processes. You can link business processes to organizational objectives. You can also take those business processes and link them to specific product features that you want to deliver."

"Its extensibility is most valuable."

"It is valuable to have diagrams available in real time."

"Sparx Prolaborate is user-friendly, easy to use, and has good documentation."

"It allows us to give a better description of our project than using the written word."

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 would like to see the reporting capabilities be more dynamic and more inclusive of information. The API is very sparsely understood by people across the user community."

"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."

"I would like to see improved reporting and, potentially, dashboards built on top of that. Right now, it's a little manual. More automated reporting and dashboard views would help because currently you have to push things out to a spreadsheet, or to HTML, and there aren't many other options that I know of. I would like to be able to produce graphs and additional things right in the tool, instead of having to export the data somewhere else."

"The erwin ETL functionality has room for improvement when it comes to mapping databases with a classic entity-relationship model to a data warehouse model."

"The report generation has room for improvement. I think it was version 8 where you had to use Crystal Reports, and it was so painful that the company I was with just stayed on version 7 until version 9 came out and they restored the data browser. That's better than it was, but it's still a little cumbersome. For example, you run it in erwin, then export it out to Excel, and then you have to do a lot of cosmetic modification. If you discover that you missed a column, then you would have to rerun the whole thing. Sometimes what you would do is just go ahead and fix it in the report, then you have to remember to go back and fix it in the model. Therefore, I think the report generation still could use some work."

"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."

"I would like to see more support for working with the big-data world. There are so many new databases evolving and it's very hard for them to keep up with all of the new technologies. It would be good if they were able to dynamically support big-data platforms, other than Hive and Teradata."

More erwin Data Modeler cons

"There should be more cloud capabilities."

"In the next release, there should be more editable objects. We find Sparx Prolaborate very user-friendly, and having more features that are in the Enterprise Architect would be great, such as managing different versions of diagrams."

"The product is not very user-friendly."

"The solution could offer different sources for design."

"A lot of product teams use a lot of visualizations for mapping out the product roadmap, brainstorming, or understanding the vision of the product, but Sparx is not a great visualization tool. Sparx has to improve the way for visualizing processes, journeys, software designs, etc. It would really benefit the product management teams or even enterprise architects."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The primary reasons that erwin was selected were that it was much more affordable for us [than Embarcadero] and it was easily maintainable."

"We've continued to use the product for many years and compared it with others on the market. The pricing is reasonable considering what the solution offers and what we pay. There are cheaper tools, but they may not be as robust and easy to use, so it's worth the money."

"The pricing of the solution is cheap. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"The solution is expensive."

"I wish it wasn't so expensive. I would love to personally buy a copy of my own and have it at home, because the next job that I'm looking at is probably project management and I might not have access to the tool. I would like to keep my ability to use the tool. Therefore, they should probably have a pricing for people like me who want to just use the solution as an independent consultant, trying to get started. $3,000 is a big hit."

"There are two license options and the pricing is reasonable."

"erwin has this option where you pay a one-time fee and you have the license for six years, which makes sense because I don't upgrade my database engine every other year. I have an application that depends on it. This is something weird about PowerDesigner. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."

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

More erwin Data Modeler pricing and cost advice

"The price of Sparx Prolaborate is good."

"The product is expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

18%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

Real Estate/Law Firm

11%

Energy/Utilities Company

Insurance Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	15
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	34

No data available

Questions from the Community

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

Regarding pricing, I am unsure what the exact price is for erwin Data Modeler, but I believe it is not useful for an individual. It is more targeted toward an enterprise level since organizations l...

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What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

I write code and I write code accessing erwin Data Modeler's API, the Application Programming Interface, so that I can use Excel to update erwin Data Modeler and then get those updates and put them...

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

I work for CVS with a pretty big database as a data modeler on the PBMs, the Caremark PBM side, which is the Pharmacy Benefits Manager. There's a retail side too for all the stores, but our data wa...

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Comparisons

SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 41% of the time

IDERA ER/Studio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 11% of the time

Lucidchart vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 7% of the time

Visio vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 5% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler

Compared 4% of the time

More erwin Data Modeler Competitors

LeanIX vs Sparx Prolaborate

Compared 36% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs Sparx Prolaborate

Compared 21% of the time

Sparx Pro Cloud Server vs Sparx Prolaborate

Compared 21% of the time

More Sparx Prolaborate Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler

January 2026

Download erwin Data Modeler product report

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

January 2026

Download Sparx Prolaborate product report

Also Known As

erwin DM

No data available

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

A high level tour of Sparx Systems latest product release, Prolaborate.

Prolaborate adds a vital information layer to Sparx Systems modeling tool suite, addressing the need of end users and non-modelers alike to be informed by the enterprise model.

In this webinar we'll show how Prolaborate empowers relevant stakeholders, including C-level executives, analysts and other business users, with curated views of the model.

Sparx Systems

Sample Customers

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler

December 2025

Free Report: Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler

Find out what your peers are saying about Sparx Prolaborate vs. erwin Data Modeler and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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