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Lucidchart vs Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Lucidchart
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Mind Mapping Software (2nd), Visual Collaboration Platforms (3rd)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Ar...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
99
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (5th), Business Process Design (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Lucidchart and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Lucidchart is designed for Mind Mapping Software and holds a mindshare of 18.1%, down 23.2% compared to last year.
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Architecture Management, holds 8.7% mindshare, down 12.7% since last year.
Mind Mapping Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Lucidchart18.1%
Visio19.6%
Xmind13.8%
Other48.5%
Mind Mapping Software
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect8.7%
SAP PowerDesigner8.3%
erwin Data Modeler8.0%
Other75.0%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

AlexMartin1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Nestlé
Visual collaboration has improved remote workflows and supports faster shared decisions
The best features Lucidchart offers are that it diagrams processes very well. It allows for project management to help with client timelines. It is also easy to use and create diagrams, especially mermaid diagrams. Collaborating is easy. Out of all those features, collaboration stands out to me the most because it is easy to share with team members to do joint design work. Lucidchart has positively impacted my organization by improving productivity and collaboration. In terms of specifics, collaboration helps us come to conclusions. I notice better throughput as it is easy to use. Improved productivity allows us to express ourselves more quickly.
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

"Previously, we used to create something in a PowerPoint or Keynote file, but they were just not as collaborative, dynamic, and adaptable as Lucidchart."
"It makes collaboration easy, it makes presentation easy, the real-time collaboration is super-helpful, and it has saved me time on the order of 20 percent for project planning."
"We are using Lucidchart a lot for documenting things, such as processes, systems, new teams, etc. Its ability to document processes is great. Some of the major pluses are the sheer number of templates and the flexibility in the types of things that you can document. This is a benefit because we are able to structure it in whatever format we want. So, we can take a template that maybe was designed for something different and not have to create it from scratch. We just modify it for our purposes."
"Lucidchart's capabilities for visualizing and understanding those flows and processes are absolutely excellent."
"This is the one tool I want to use; I don't care how much it costs; it's the best tool for the stuff I'm working on, it fulfills my needs, and for this sake, it can cost 10 times more."
"The templates are good, they eliminate creating something from scratch and allow me to create from a framework, which saves time and makes documenting processes and systems really easy."
"I have observed several advantages overall while using Lucidchart, as it has improved time to decision by at least fifteen percent, created more visibility over the process and decision-making across our business, and enabled collaboration across the team to improve by at least thirteen percent."
"We saved our team time by 20-30% and made our work considerably easier."
"We are using Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect for model-based system engineering."
"The pricing of the solution is pretty good; it's reasonable, it works pretty well overall, it's easy to create all diagrams, it's easy to search within the solution, and it's very good software."
"I tend to come back to Sparx because it is the best value for the money."
"For the money, breadth of scope, depth of features, add-ons, customizability, and capabilities, it still ranks number one."
"Initially, I used the temporary license for capturing some initial requirements on a new project restricting my use to the Desktop Edition."
"We use this solution for our enterprise architecture and all forms of data modeling using UML."
"Some of the business processes are very easy to compare when you have the diagrams."
"Sparx EA proposed all the required features for a good price, and continuity and quality of support."
 

Cons

"This might already be a feature, but I remember sometimes when we're just all viewing, if you accidentally click, then there's an arrow that pops up, and you have to go back and delete it. A lot of times there are accidental arrows being drawn when really we're just trying to present to each other."
"I'm not sure if this feature is already there, but it would be good if we can import a cloud database in the web version."
"The system is a bit clumsy when it comes to stylizing to match corporate imaging styles."
"In terms of the UI aspect of Lucidchart, I see that most of the features are available on the left pane, which has the basic diagrams and shapes."
"The primary area that could be improved is the learning curve."
"The main improvement I would like to see is for them to improve the help section on the flow charts or on the formatting."
"It would be nice to be able to import not just contacts from Salesforce but also leads. In the beginning, when I was still learning the ropes and my way around it, I couldn't find such an option. There might be an option, but I just don't know about it."
"They could provide more documentation or tutorials of ERDs or DDD on the Lucidchart site. That could be better."
"I think the project management part should be easier to use."
"More challenging than other tools to maintain documents and document versions for an architecture board review."
"It has not improved our organization mainly due to the poor diagramming capabilities within the product, which are outdated and look like Visual Studio 2005."
"I think the product is good. When I'm trying to do something specific for some part of project documentation, it's hard to get it figured out if you don't use it all the time. It's such a massive tool, it's hard to figure out how to dig in and get to the documentation where you have to be to get some idea of what to do. There are not a lot of examples that I'm aware of to be able to do that."
"In a database-server deployment there are performance/locking issues when multiple users make changes simultaneously."
"The initial setup of the Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect It's very complicated. It's very difficult to start with the right templates because there are many possibilities. The deployment took approximately two days."
"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."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"At €167 per user per year, the pricing is slightly higher than Visio, but it's worth it."
"Its pricing is very affordable and reasonable for the features that it provides. I am using its basic plan, and for my usage, it is perfectly reasonable. It suits perfectly."
"I have a subscription as an individual user for one year, and it is not expensive."
"Lucidchart's pricing model is not excessive, as compared to similar products. It is pretty much in line with everyone else."
"There is a nominal charge for the paid version of the product. They have a free version available and from what I could see, there was not much difference between it and the pro version."
"I was using the paid version, but at $12 USD per month, I canceled the plan because it was a little bit too expensive for me."
"The licensing is pretty cost-effective but I haven't considered it on an enterprise level."
"The pricing and licensing are fine, though I wish they didn't require you to buy the licenses in batches of five."
"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
"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."
"They have the price on their site for the enterprise version, and we do receive a small discount."
"There is a license for this solution. When comparing this solution to others it is priced well."
"The Corporate Edition, or one of the bundles, is the way to go."
"Licenses are pretty low cost compared to, for example, ARIS."
"The licensing is not as expensive as some of the other data modeling tools such as Erwin."
"The pricing for ultimate version is steeply high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business39
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise58
 

Questions from the Community

LucidChart vs LucidSpark for brainstorming sessions over Zoom
Hi @Krista Thompson ​ - Yes, LucidSpark is a much more nimble and, in some ways, user-friendly tool than LucidChart. LucidSpark is designed to do a better job managing multiple users participating ...
Do you recommend Lucidchart?
I definitely recommend Lucidchart. I feel it is one of the top visual collaboration platforms that’s available on the market. Out of all the solutions I have tried, it is by far the best for diagra...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Lucidchart?
It is cloud-based, so no setup is required. Currently, we are using a free plan.
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 ...
What is your primary use case for Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect?
We are mostly using the ArchiMate language to describe enterprise or solution architecture, along with a bit of use cases. We are producing quite large models, with over 10,000 elements and relatio...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Whirlpool, Uber, Wal Mart, Pearson, Twitch, Riot Games, Western Union, Trimble, Starbucks
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