Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Evolve by Quest comparison

erwin by Quest and Sparx Systems are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. erwin by Quest is ranked #11 with an average rating of 9.0, while Sparx Systems is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1. erwin by Quest holds a 2.7% mindshare in AM, compared to Sparx Systems’s 13.6% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of erwin by Quest users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Sparx Systems users who would recommend it.

erwin Evolve by Quest

Read 19 erwin Evolve by Quest reviews

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559 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Read 99 Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect reviews

4,684 Views
3,433 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

erwin Evolve by Quest

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and erwin Evolve by Quest compete in the enterprise architecture modeling tools category. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect holds the upper hand due to its affordability and comprehensive feature set.

Features: Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect stands out with extensive support for UML, ArchiMate, and TOGAF frameworks, a robust collaboration via RDBMS back-end, and flexibility in handling diverse modeling languages. erwin Evolve emphasizes its strong repository and integration features, along with advanced collaboration functionalities.

Room for Improvement: Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect could benefit from a more intuitive design, enhanced user-friendliness, and improved documentation features. Its cloud capabilities could be extended for better accessibility and version management. erwin Evolve would improve with a simpler user interface, a broader feature set for enterprise architecture, and better integration with existing business and IT systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect primarily offers on-premises deployment with some hybrid options, allowing flexibility but necessitating extensive setup. User feedback highlights reliable but occasionally slow customer service. erwin Evolve supports both on-premises and cloud setups, providing versatility though sometimes facing critiques for customer service responsiveness.

Pricing and ROI: Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is praised for its competitive pricing, making it attractive for organizations seeking cost-effective solutions. Users report a high ROI, emphasizing time savings in modeling tasks. erwin Evolve's pricing can be higher, impacting perceived value, especially for smaller teams, though it provides productivity gains for larger organizations.

To learn more, read our detailed Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. erwin Evolve by Quest Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. erwin Evolve by Quest

April 2025

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Helped 851,604 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 Evolve by Quest

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

11th

Ranking in Business Process Design

18th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

2nd

Ranking in Business Process Design

4th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Evolve by Quest is 2.7%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 13.6%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

ScottLawson

Director IT Architecture at QAD

Enables us to present data and objects visually, in diagrams, and to make them available via the web. Also enables web-based editing of data.

We tried their collaborative web modeling and we used it with a few people but we tend to not use that piece. We tend to collaborate with the people and then my team of architects draws up the diagram using the modeling tool. We then iterate through those. I would like to use it, but it was a little clunky when they first rolled it out. Overall, it's more about the company having room for improvement. What they need to do is to consolidate more of their products. For example, I was just looking and I couldn't figure out what erwin DT is. It's on the website but it would help if they could put information together and make it more clear as to what products they have and how they work with other things. I hear them talking in the support forums and, when I talk to the representative, they say they're going to do a bunch of stuff but it seems the progress is slow. The changes they need to make are to take their old, legacy product, which we use, and focus a lot on it so they can transform it into a modern cloud tool so that we have fewer little pieces to deal with. They could also fix their security model. It's very confusing to get new people onto the tool and to make sure that your content isn't being exposed to the wrong people.

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Milan Sterba

Senior Enterprise Architect at Deepview S.r.o.

Efficient documentation generation through organized model structure with a good price-performance ratio

Whenever I begin a new project with Sparx, I have to spend time training people on how to use it since it is not straightforward. Although it's a powerful product with plenty of features, it's not easy for even experienced users to find their way without guidance. This is not the most user-friendly solution.

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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

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

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

"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."

"One of the most valuable features is the website that sits on top of the database. There's a database of objects and how they are related, and you can make views and diagrams and visual elements out of that information on the website. The website is the part that is called Evolve and we use the Evolve Designer and publish the website out to our employees. They can click around and navigate and search, etc."

"We use erwin Evolve to publish to the website. This allows us to enable publishing our website using parameterisation features. In a very fast, quick way, we can publish a table or chart onto a website."

"Support for a broad range of data sources from relational to big data to the Cloud."

"Evolve's reverse engineering ability is quite useful."

"Forward and reverse engineering were valuable features."

More erwin Evolve by Quest pros

"Scalable solution for modeling, project sharing, and collaboration. Support for it is good."

"Its ease of use and the breadth of the toolkit are most valuable. It has an incredible repository of artifacts to work with, and they're all cross-referenced. It works with a whole bunch of different standards. It works with BPMN, which is Business Process Modeling Notation, and it also works with something called TOGAF, which is the Open Group Architecture Foundation. There are different layers when you're dealing with architecture. There is the user interface, application, data, data servers, and all that kind of stuff. You have the infrastructure, hardware, and software layers, and then you have the application and business capability layers. You can model a business process and decompose it into all of the applications, data, and hardware to support it."

"It's easy to search within the solution."

"It's a very practical solution. You don't need to do an advanced course to start using this tool."

"Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect was easy to set up and it took just twenty minutes."

"Modeling is a part of my work, and it has a lot of standard modeling languages. It is quite wide, and a lot is possible in it. We are not programming it ourselves, but if you are into programming and developing software yourself, you can go further and do a lot with Sparx. You can work from the framework and go into the details. With this solution, you get a lot of value at a low cost. It is also quite intuitive in terms of use. I like the use of it."

"The solution is easy to use, supports SysML and UML, and is able to connect to MATLAB. This is very important for us."

"Some of the business processes are very easy to compare when you have the diagrams."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pros

Cons

"They need to develop Evolve's user experience. For example, MEGA has a useful client view that helps with impact analysis. MEGA provides information about the processes, services, infrastructure, and portfolio of applications in one central view. It lets you see the periphery and relationships among components. This view is impressive, and Evolve doesn't have it."

"With the Excel importing, the "up to date" part is the challenge. If we had a real-time integration, we could keep things up to date for whatever kinds of change points we had. With Excel, it is more that you have to export from one system then import it to another, so it's better for data that doesn't change that often."

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

"The way that we are using it for application management, we have several KPIs. We want to follow and monitor them regarding a number of solutions. We cannot calculate this today. We would like real-time calculations along with the KPIs in order to improve the user experience. We would like the tool to be able to display this, not only as signals, but as charts."

"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."

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

"I would like to see an improvement in the output of the solution."

"The solution needs to focus on allowing for more integrations."

More erwin Evolve by Quest cons

"Not visually appealing."

"The stability and performance of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect could still be improved. Setup for it is also slightly complicated and could be improved."

"Even if there are web-based tools in the Enterprise Architecture tool ecosystem (like Prolaborate), the main modeling application is still a fat client application."

"Inconsistent UI elements must be tidied up with the toolbox gaps removed."

"The integration could be improved."

"More challenging than other tools to maintain documents and document versions for an architecture board review."

"In a future release, they should improve portfolio planning."

"Insufficient control of metadata and standards."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect cons

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 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."

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

"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."

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

"It's affordable. The only additional cost that we haven't yet figured out is the floating license. If you buy a floating license, you have to have a license management server, which comes at an additional cost that's not discussed. So, we haven't yet used the floating license. That’s because I haven't had a chance to figure that out."

"Pricing and licensing is very attractive, simple, and straightforward."

"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."

"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."

"Enterprise licensing is competitive. What would be helpful if they load the pricing for consultants, you know, people who are consultants for clients. So the license is fine for end-user organizations. Still, they should consider lowering the license to support this adoption, particularly for people who are consultants like myself."

"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."

"Use floating licenses strategically."

"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access. You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less."

More Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Government

Educational Organization

18%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering erwin Evolve?

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

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What do you like most about erwin Evolve by Quest?

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

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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

What do you like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

One of the reasons many public sector institutions in the Czech Republic use it is that it provides a very good price-performance ratio. While it might be cumbersome to learn, it still delivers exc...

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What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Evolve by Quest

May 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

April 2025

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect report

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Also Known As

erwin EA, erwin Business Process, erwin Enterprise Architecture

No data available

Overview

erwin is used by more than 50,000 professionals in 60+ countries to get big results from their enterprise data initiatives. erwin is the #1 choice in virtually every industry, from government and healthcare to retail and finance.

erwin Modeling provides a collaborative environment to manage enterprise data through an intuitive, graphical interface. With a centralized view of key data definitions, you can leverage information as a strategic asset and more efficiently manage your data resources to save time and money.

erwin by Quest

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is an enterprise solution that helps streamline, accelerate, and integrate software, system, and business development. With this intuitive modeling and design solution, enterprises can stay in control of their workplaces, enable collaboration, support their teams and colleagues, and manage complex projects. Software architects, business analysts, project managers, developers, support staff, and testers can unite under a single repository. Through numerous view points and potential sub-systems, users are offered a unified view in a complex environment.

With Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, users are also offered a shared model option which can be accessed quickly and securely by in-office and remote team members through the Enterprise Architect’s Pro Cloud Server. Building a coherent, verifiable model can be done by connecting and integrating a variety of behavioral and structural information in visual form. As a result, Enterprise Architect offers high performance, flexibility, and the ability to model, manage, and trace every stage of the business development and modeling process.

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect Features

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect assists in creating a unified and accessible vision in business development by offering a flexible platform with a unique set of rich features. These features include:

Test and debug - Streamline software development and visualize software with the simulation process. Users can test and confirm correct behavior, set and oversee test points, and debug and examine software.

Track tasks - Track, prioritize, and assign individual and group tasks to assist in the model’s development. Users can visually monitor their progress through the Gantt chart.

Open standards - Users can visualize and analyze running software with integrated custom tools. They can also run advanced simulations, team-based repositories, testing tools, and version control. In addition, the solution supports enterprise architecture frameworks such as UPDM and TOGAF.

Simulation - Create and debug embedded solutions by simulating behaviors and state models. Users can specify events, triggers, constraints, and more. Users can also specify extensive and complex structural systems and create custom domain-specific solutions.

Reviews from Real Users

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect merges high-end tools, online availability, a dedication to open standards, and accessible pricing so enterprises can stay in control of their workplaces, whether remote or in-office. Users particularly like the architectural frameworks and the scalability.

Marc L., a principal architecture enterprise solution adviser at Cronomagic Canada, notes, "The product offers very good support for all mainstream modeling notations and architectural frameworks."

An enterprise architect at a manufacturing company writes, "Scalable solution for modeling, project sharing, and collaboration. Support for it is good."

Sparx Systems

Sample Customers

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.

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Buyer's Guide

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. erwin Evolve by Quest

April 2025

Free Report: Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. erwin Evolve by Quest

Find out what your peers are saying about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. erwin Evolve by Quest and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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