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Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs SAP PowerDesigner comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 11, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
Informatica's cloud platform enhances data management efficiency, cost savings, and data security, requiring effective change management for optimal results.
Sentiment score
3.4
SAP PowerDesigner users report a 43% ROI, with improved efficiency and quick returns outweighing licensing costs.
Leadership prefers to utilize third-party tools, such as Snowflake, which has both storage and ELT features.
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
The stability and performance remain issues.
consultant at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Compared to Collibra Catalog, where the value is noticeable within six months.
Data and Analytics Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I cannot put a number on it, but if you think about developing software manually or using a tool to generate software and considering the license cost of SAP PowerDesigner, the ROI is pretty positive relatively quick because it's not that expensive.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Informatica's customer service is generally rated positively for quick, knowledgeable support, though some report occasional delays and inconsistencies.
Sentiment score
5.8
SAP PowerDesigner support is efficient but has issues with slow response times, complex systems, and accessibility concerns.
Due to the tool's maturity limitations, solutions are not always simple and often require workarounds.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
Even after going out of service support, they still reached back to me whenever I raised tickets.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We expect more responsive assistance because they have the expertise since Informatica is their tool, but I don't see enough expertise on the Informatica support side.
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
It relies heavily on VBScript, which is something that will be end of life in a few years in Windows.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
Regarding technical support, after a recent licensing issue caused a temporary halt, we realized the importance of tracking licensing and version updates to avoid future disruptions in service.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Until I get 16.7 and complete the migration, I'm not getting any help from them.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud is praised for scalability and flexibility in handling large datasets, despite pricing concerns.
Sentiment score
7.3
SAP PowerDesigner is highly scalable, effectively supporting varied team sizes and models, with generally positive feedback on its performance.
I have used the product over multiple systems and was able to write reports for large data sets without any performance issues.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
As a SaaS platform, IDMC is quite scalable and provides complete flexibility.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
There are many options available, and the licensing model is quite good, supporting our needs effectively.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
Currently, there are no scalability limitations in SAP PowerDesigner, allowing us to create numerous data models for various projects.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The scalability of SAP PowerDesigner is very good.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
Our main objective is to upgrade to the supported version and be able to do whatever we are doing at the moment.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Users generally find IDMC stable, with occasional challenges after updates, especially in older versions or specific integrations.
Sentiment score
7.0
SAP PowerDesigner is generally stable, though challenges may arise with remote access, complex models, and specific configurations.
Stability is crucial because IDMC holds business-critical data, and it needs to be available all the time for business users.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
There are substantial stability issues with Informatica Cloud Data Quality on the cloud.
consultant at a energy/utilities company with 5,001-10,000 employees
I find the stability to be good, with occasional restarts required every two to three months due to glitches.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
If you use a lot of customizations, especially using VBScript, it becomes less stable.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
This may lead to frequent downtimes requiring server maintenance; thus, it is not suitable for highly complex solutions, but moderate complexities can be handled.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The product is reliable.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Room For Improvement

Informatica IDMC needs UI improvements, better connectivity, streamlined configuration, cheaper pricing, and enhanced support with AI integration.
SAP PowerDesigner faces challenges with high pricing, limited database integration, poor usability, and inadequate collaboration, requiring improvements.
The tool needs to mature in terms of category-specific attributes or dynamic attributes.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
The current solution requires code-writing and tweaking, while other solutions offer material-level matches.
IT Manager - Data Quality and Migration at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
If the development interface could be optimized to have fewer modules, it would be greatly beneficial.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
SAP PowerDesigner does not have a cloud option. It's only on-premise.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
I would like to see a feature added to SAP PowerDesigner where, upon extracting data from a source, it automatically identifies relationships between tables.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The web portal is unstable and does not work. It freezes up all the time.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
 

Setup Cost

Informatica IDMC provides a robust but expensive pricing model with complex licensing and potential negotiation discounts for enterprises.
SAP PowerDesigner pricing varies, manageable for large firms but costly for small consultancies, considering licensing and setup expenses.
It ranges from a quarter million to a couple of million a year.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services is affordable for my specific use cases, with the pricing being rated three or four on a scale where one is very cheap.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
Regarding pricing, compared to other tools I have worked with, Informatica offers competitive pricing, which I find not high in terms of starting strategy.
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
One issue is the cost, as it is a high-priced tool coming from SAP.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Informatica IDMC offers seamless data integration, AI-enhanced features, and efficient governance, enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.
SAP PowerDesigner is praised for its data modeling, customization, user interface, and collaboration features enhancing data management efficiency.
The platform's ability to pull in data from other platforms without the need for an additional integration tool enhances its appeal.
Consulting Principal & Founder at Digital Data Consultancy
The connectors serve as the main functionality, making data integration processes more efficient by saving time and effort.
Data Integration Architect at Endeavour Foundation
We could run data quality rules as part of Service Bus, which ensured the integrity of customer information before it was entered into our database.
Data and Analytics Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
The best features of SAP PowerDesigner, from my perspective, are its ability to keep the connectivity between the source database and the new system, data redundancy and availability, and impact analysis.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
SAP PowerDesigner doesn't only allow you to model the structure of your database, but you can also model data mappings or data flows or lineage.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
What I appreciate best about SAP PowerDesigner is that it is a very detailed and comprehensive tool.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
 

Categories and Ranking

Informatica Intelligent Dat...
Ranking in Metadata Management
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
214
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (2nd), Data Quality (1st), Business Process Management (BPM) (7th), Business-to-Business Middleware (3rd), API Management (6th), Cloud Data Integration (3rd), Data Governance (3rd), Test Data Management (3rd), Cloud Master Data Management (MDM) (1st), Data Management Platforms (DMP) (2nd), Data Masking (1st), Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (3rd), Test Data Management Services (3rd), Product Information Management (PIM) (1st), Data Observability (1st), AI Data Analysis (1st)
SAP PowerDesigner
Ranking in Metadata Management
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Metadata Management category, the mindshare of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) is 16.0%, down from 24.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP PowerDesigner is 2.9%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Metadata Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)16.0%
SAP PowerDesigner2.9%
Other81.1%
Metadata Management
 

Featured Reviews

Divya-Raj - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Consultant cum Assistant Manager & Offshore Lead at Deloitte
Handles large data volumes effectively and offers competitive pricing
There is a lot of improvement required, as we still face some cache issues most of the time, which is a challenge that we expect to see resolved in the future. Additionally, there is some limitation when we are working with a tool, especially regarding In and Out parameters, and I feel that this aspect should be improved going ahead. We face issues with the API side, as Cloud Application Integration cannot handle large volumes; according to the API page, there is a limitation of 500 records or 500 MB. The AI integrated into the Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services solution is called Application Integration, where we still face challenges when dealing with huge volumes, as previously explained.
Kopparapu Venkatesh Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Data modeling tool improves data management and decision-making efficiency
The lineage analysis helps my organization understand data dependencies at an enterprise level. As a SAP PowerDesigner developer, I monitor data across the organization, creating data models that reflect not just one data warehouse but comprehensive organizational information. If you have a small company, lineage helps track employee data across different areas such as finance and HR. Data governance prevents duplicate records, so when tracking employee details, SAP PowerDesigner highlights where data exists in various areas, helping ensure we only use the appropriate sources. This functionality allows us to assess the impact of data deletions effectively. I utilize the reverse engineering capabilities in SAP PowerDesigner. Reverse engineering is helpful, especially since I have colleagues new to SAP PowerDesigner. They often do not know which columns are available where. In SAP PowerDesigner, we can reverse engineer existing data from its source and identify errors in production. For instance, by using Ali's example, if an error arises, I can trace it back to the table and environment it originated from using the reverse engineering feature. The best features of SAP PowerDesigner, from my perspective, are its ability to keep the connectivity between the source database and the new system, data redundancy and availability, and impact analysis. The first feature acts as a bridge between systems. The second allows us to see what data is already available and what new data can be brought in. The third, impact analysis, helps determine how many tables will be affected if a specific table is deleted. This critical point allows us to capture how much data will be lost if any table is removed. Currently, these features shape my daily work. SAP PowerDesigner primarily benefits business management units by offering three types of data modeling structures: conceptual, logical, and physical models. The conceptual model communicates high-level insights to top executives, while logical and physical models address complex queries faced by developers in analytics. SAP PowerDesigner enhances the clarity of our data management significantly, as around 80% of data can be searched quickly and maintained in our SAP systems. The tool enables mapping from end to end, making my work faster and more efficient than using other ER data modeling solutions. The interface allows easy creation of data models and searching for existing data, ensuring I can complete my tasks significantly quicker. The importance of SAP PowerDesigner's collaboration capabilities lies in fostering a unified data management approach. It acts as a unified tool, preventing the duplication of existing data in analytical processes, thus saving both effort and storage costs, which is essential for effective data management. We utilize collaboration capabilities in SAP PowerDesigner with various source systems such as PG admin, Postgres, Oracle, and Snowflake. Recently, we have added Snowflake for cloud data modeling and POC work, streamlining the collaboration process across different systems.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Retailer
7%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise27
Large Enterprise153
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...
What are the biggest benefits of using Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
When it comes to cloud data integration, this solution can provide you with multiple benefits, including: Overhead reduction by integrating data on any cloud in various ways Effective integration ...
What do you like most about SAP PowerDesigner?
It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases.
What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
It was a long time back when my company purchased it, but I am now participating in upgrading it to the latest version. I found customer support to be tedious during the upgrade process to the late...
 

Also Known As

ActiveVOS, Active Endpoints, Address Verification, Persistent Data Masking
Sybase PowerDesigner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

The Travel Company, Carbonite
Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
Find out what your peers are saying about Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs. SAP PowerDesigner and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.