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IBM Rational System Architect vs LeanIX comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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

IBM Rational System Architect
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
20th
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
LeanIX
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of IBM Rational System Architect is 2.0%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LeanIX is 13.1%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
LeanIX13.1%
IBM Rational System Architect2.0%
Other84.9%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

GM
Lots of valuable features, especially the metamodel customization
In terms of what could be improved, we did not take the whole package with all the modules, and I think that the integration with other platforms like Office could be better. The reverse engineering of the database is already there, but in the next release I would like to see some pilot supplied with the solution in order to address any database.
Umit Sengul - PeerSpot reviewer
A platform that facilitates efficient IT architecture management and integration, improving organizational coordination and decision-making
LeanIX is primarily used to create and manage architectural models, link capabilities, activities, and products and generate comprehensive reports. It serves as a central platform for overseeing the IT landscape within EON, a large organization, streamlining operations and enhancing governance…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There are a lot of features I find valuable, but I think that the metamodel customization is one of the best features that the solution offers."
"The user interface is good. It's both clear and comprehensible. It's easy to work with."
"We have seen ROI with this solution over the years that we have used it."
"The solution is pretty stable."
"My favorite feature of LeanIX is its ability to induct attribute-driven surveys."
"The most valuable features are the clean user interface and the fact sheet feature in Application Portfolio Management. The tool integrates well with ServiceNow, which is the usual CMDB platform."
"One of the most valuable features of LeanIX is the Enterprise Architecture Management tool."
"LeanIX has a great application information architecture."
"LeanIX has good usability and stability. This SaaS is intuitive, easy to use, and comes with a nice reporting feature."
"The solution provides a single window view of business, application, data, and technology views of the IT ecosystem."
"The solution has a very useful assessment tool that automatically populates from input data to produce a detailed analysis of customer's environments."
"The usability is very high. It almost looks like a Facebook for Enterprise architecture, it's pretty nice. It's HTML5 based. The repository is very easy. It has 10 different ways of sorting the objects you have in your architecture repository. Maintaining new data or to add data to your repository is very easy."
 

Cons

"There needs to be more information at the outset about how to use the solution and how to deploy it. The deployment process needs improvement."
"This solution can be more user-friendly and easier to use, with better dashboards."
"The reverse engineering of the database is already there, but in the next release I would like to see some pilot supplied with the solution in order to address any database."
"The solution needs to better integrate with other products, like Microsoft."
"Another area for improvement is that when you're starting to look into more advanced information, using the solution's APIs and its customizations, documentation for that specific aspect is not very good. There is not too much support built into the offering for that aspect, for a developer."
"Adjustments related to specific organizational requirements are complex."
"The initial setup has room for improvement."
"They could include a combination of LeanIX and some modeling extensions."
"It would be beneficial to have additional features and capabilities to enhance mapping between applications, especially across domains where the relationships may not be direct."
"I think the tool's main issue might be direct integrations."
"They're probably positioned pretty well. I hope that they would not focus that much on the business architecture, and they would focus more on the overall cloud strategy and how we can leverage multi-cloud and transition back and forth from other cloud providers. With a lot of current vendors, you get locked in with one cloud, and then you try to migrate to someone else, and it becomes very problematic. What they need to do is to look at the overall data strategy, and they probably need to amplify their data strategy, especially around multi-cloud."
"LeanIX has limited in-build diagramming capabilities, requiring the purchase of another tool. That is the main drawback of LeanIX because they don't have a built-in add-on product for diagramming."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I would rate the pricing a one out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"As the tool is cloud-based, its cost is more affordable."
"It cost me $91,000 a year for 300 applications. For any enterprise, 300 applications are minimal, as many have well over 1,000 applications."
"LeanIX uses application-based account licensing, where the cost is multiplied by the number of applications in the software implementation."
"The solution's pricing is based on a licensing model that is competitive and in line with other products."
"The pricing is very good. We definitely get good value for the money."
"There is a sweet spot of where they need to be on pricing right now. They could go up a little bit in pricing, but it has to do with the cost savings, and it has to do with the practitioners using it. I use it where I get cost savings and I can justify it, but they probably have the ability to flex a 10% up channel on their sales on that. So, they could increase their settle price, not their offering price, when they sell. They can probably hold that up a little bit higher than it is because there are cost savings that we can drive from it."
"The tool needs to include more flexible licensing options. We do not use the tool all the time. So pricing should be considered only when we use the tool."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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Any experience with Strategic Project Portfolio Management Solutions?
Hi @Cheryl Joseph ​Looking at the crossover between Project and Portfolio management with EA, then Planview could be a good choice. If looking at Portfolio Management from an EA perspective then Le...
What do you like most about LeanIX?
The ability to import data and generate reports from it. That's where its power lies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for LeanIX?
LeanIX pricing ranges from moderate to high. Our usage and costs depend on the number of applications, and as the number of applications grows, so does the cost. We have aligned our usage with appl...
 

Also Known As

Rational System Architect
No data available
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Wuxi Lake Cloud, Nationwide, ETI, IDS Scheer
Bosch Rexroth, NSW Department of Education, Yamaha Motor Corporation, Tetra Pak, Deutsche Bahn, Flynn, SKF AB, NTT Group, Travis Perkins, SEEK, Haworth, Asahi Beverages, MediaMarktSaturn, KAO USA, Ørsted, The Mark Anthony Group of Companies, AmTrust, Banco Itaú Unibanco, SHL Medical,...
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Rational System Architect vs. LeanIX and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.