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Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs iGrafx Process360 Live Platform 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

iGrafx Process360 Live Plat...
Ranking in Business Process Design
17th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (18th), Process Mining (9th)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Ranking in Business Process Design
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of iGrafx Process360 Live Platform is 2.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is 7.0%, down from 11.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect7.0%
iGrafx Process360 Live Platform2.5%
Other90.5%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

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%.
Milan Sterba - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's a great product, but all the functionalities need to be exploited in order to get the full value of the investment."
"Another good feature is that the numbering of the shapes in iGrafx is much easier and more convenient, in comparison to what is found in Visio. So far I haven't found anything similar to what I have with iGrafx, in that regard."
"The solution is very stable."
"One of the biggest plus points of the product stems from the fact that I have never seen any glitches in it."
"This product fulfills ninety percent of our needs, and we're happy as users of it."
"Finding the right symbol and creating links, horizontal and vertical are the features I use."
"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)."
"The IDEF0 add-on solution truly integrates all the process maps through intelligent arrow name management."
"Scalable solution for modeling, project sharing, and collaboration. Support for it is good."
"I tend to come back to Sparx because it is the best value for the money."
"It is simple to build the first model for the solution."
"We can easily use it with our new customers."
"Large variety of profiles and frameworks available out-of-the-box without the need for customization, and not locked into one way of doing architecture."
"It is a very rich tool in terms of the functionality, and the types of diagrams, that you can create in this tool."
"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."
"I have found the Meta Model tuning feature useful as it provides me with an overview of all my work needs."
 

Cons

"Dragging and dropping shapes is not as user-friendly as in Visio. In Visio, it's very easy to work with shapes and in very few minutes you can plot a whole, multi swim-lane, cross-functional process."
"I used the single license product. The entire suite can manage complex organizations, linking it with ERP, but it is not so easy to link it to a new ERP."
"In the next release, I would like to see more layers like three, four, and five. It might be possible but I haven't seen it yet."
"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."
"They can reduce the cost of the product and make it easily accessible for consultants."
"I would like to see a lower price, although when used correctly, you can have a good return on your investment."
"The look and feel, along with the ease of use of the solution's web modeling version, is an area with certain shortcomings."
"With iGrafx, the implementation and the licensing were pretty complex."
"The templates for documentation should be enhanced to include complex documents such as template RFP, or Non functional requirements template."
"Installation will be challenge for quick and one time use, some time the code not sync due to some issues."
"The solution needs to offer better support for the mobile-based system. Right now, it's not working."
"The Business Process Modeling or BPM feature can be improved to make it more interactive and user friendly because it is a tool for technical people. My current use is only for business process modeling notation and putting in the icons etc. You need to take them in as a class, which makes things very complex. Because of this complexity, it is not an easy-to-handle solution. Enterprise Architect is not very good for mockups. We cannot create user screens and other similar kinds of stuff, which is bad. For these things, we prefer to use Axure RP and other similar solutions. They should either remove this feature from this product or provide some kind of connectivity with Axure RP so that people can do better mockups of screens and import them. They need to augment and strengthen the BPM feature, which is the main feature. They need to put in some elements like artificial intelligence and augmented reality. They should look into such features because these things are coming up."
"Its best features are not intuitive or easy to learn. Most companies I have worked with, when I see what they are doing with it, are not using more than 5% of what they could and should be doing with it."
"When the model is large, it is a bit slow to render."
"In a future release, they should improve portfolio planning."
"It really did not work for logical modeling. The look is very old-fashioned. You can't make the diagrams easy on the eye, so we ended up drawing them again in Visio anyhow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"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."
"I have heard that the solution's pricing is very competitive."
"There is no license required for this solution."
"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."
"The license for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is paid yearly, but I don't handle that area. It's good for its price, so I'm rating it a five out of five, but I'm not using it much. I also don't have information regarding additional costs apart from the standard licensing fees."
"I use my own license. So, I just bought the professional version, which costs $800 or something like that. In the company where I am working, we have floating licenses. They are probably more expensive. Its licensing is affordable, but we are talking about a large organization, and there could be modelers or viewers of the models. We don't know how much that would cost us."
"We have an annual license, and it's very affordable."
"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."
"The license I use is on-premise. We haven't gone to the cloud where we have to pay monthly or something like that. Sparx is cheaper than most similar tools."
"We paid 1200 euros as a once-off cost. All add ons and integrations come at an additional cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business38
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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.
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...
What needs improvement with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
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 ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Multinational Bank
OmniLink
Find out what your peers are saying about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. iGrafx Process360 Live Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.