Quest Data Intelligence vs SAP Information Steward comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Quest Software and SAP are both solutions in the Metadata Management category. Quest Software is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.0, while SAP is ranked #12. Quest Software holds a 7.6% mindshare in MM, compared to SAP’s 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Quest Data Intelligence

Read 22 Quest Data Intelligence reviews

7,045 Views
2,959 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SAP Information Steward

Read 9 SAP Information Steward reviews

2,503 Views
1,026 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Quest Data Intelligence

SAP Information Steward

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 16, 2026

SAP Information Steward and erwin Data Intelligence compete in the data governance tools category. While SAP excels in structured data management, erwin has the upper hand with its broader data governance capabilities.

Features: SAP Information Steward offers metadata management, data profiling, and integration within the SAP ecosystem. erwin Data Intelligence provides lineage and impact analysis, a broad governance framework, and reporting capabilities.

Room for Improvement: SAP Information Steward could improve in non-SAP integrations, user interface, and cost reduction. erwin Data Intelligence needs enhancements in integration flexibility, UI simplicity for non-tech users, and deployment efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP Information Steward facilitates rapid integration within SAP environments. However, erwin Data Intelligence adapts to varied IT ecosystems, with comprehensive customer support for broader deployments.

Pricing and ROI: SAP Information Steward involves higher initial costs for full SAP integration, catering to SAP system users. erwin Data Intelligence may have higher licensing costs but provides strong ROI with extensive functionality and long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Quest Data Intelligence vs. SAP Information Steward Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Quest Data Intelligence vs. SAP Information Steward

September 2026

Download the complete report

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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

Quest Data Intelligence

Ranking in Metadata Management

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Governance (15th), AI Governance (2nd)

SAP Information Steward

Ranking in Metadata Management

12th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Quality (21st)

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Metadata Management category, the mindshare of Quest Data Intelligence is 7.6%, up from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Information Steward is 3.2%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Metadata Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Quest Data Intelligence	7.6%
SAP Information Steward	3.2%
Other	89.2%

Metadata Management

Featured Reviews

Jog Raj

Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Automated lineage and business glossaries have improved data understanding and collaboration

I am open to answering a few questions about erwin Data Intelligence and sharing my opinion about the product. Regarding the analytic part of the product, I find it very interesting that erwin Data Intelligence has its own inbuilt reporting toolset, with a new version coming out in January that will be AI-powered. This means you will be able to write analytical reports and questions based on the metadata and data lineage, making it more powerful than the current version, as AI will assist in creating those reports and performing analysis on the metadata. I find that the time taken to realize value from erwin Data Intelligence can be quite long. Creating a data catalog and developing data lineage takes significant time, and I expect that AI will help accelerate the process of creating data products by streamlining the steps involved. I can recommend erwin Data Intelligence to other users. I would rate this review as an eight out of ten overall.

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FranciscoSantos

Director at Pixel Studio PTY

Provides accurate data that is validated against a personalized reference tool

For most SAP customers, Information Steward is enough because it is able to build quality data rules to detect issues in the source systems like SAP HANA, Business Warehouse, or other systems. A business user can first organize their data into several data domains. For example, procurement, human resources, and logistics setup. The domains can build data quality dimensions where you can describe the kind of rule that you are going to use. The user then can immediately see if something is wrong with their data using traffic lights. Another great feature of SAP Information Steward is the accuracy that the content is followed by validating against the reference tool. With the solution, you are creating data quality dimensions. Within these dimensions, you are creating business data quality rules that are looking for specific fields. From these rules, you can create a scorecard. The scorecard will highlight the percentage of good data and ensure the user can feel confident that the data is accurate within predetermined limits. SAP tables have field names that are very cryptic, making them hard to understand the meaning of the fields. Metapedia helps describe these fields in business terms.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The interface is easy to use. I also like Erwin's automatic data classification and data quality checks."

"I can estimate that we lowered our time to market by 70 percent right now using these automation scripts, which is a really big thing."

"Data Intelligence allows us to automate multiple tasks we had previously done manually, such as restructuring the metadata for our purposes, setting up ETL flows, and defining the data tables we create. It also enables us to standardize our approach and our technical processes."

"The client is thrilled with higher quality, lower-cost products, and the services."

"This tool has taken us from having nothing to being very efficient."

"The automated data lineage and impact analysis being driven from the mapping documents are astounding in reducing the time to research impact analysis from six to 16 weeks down to minutes, because it's a couple of clicks with a mouse."

"This type of solution was key to moving our entire company in the right direction by getting everyone to think about data governance."

"The data catalog feature is pretty good."

More Quest Data Intelligence pros

"I am very happy with the product."

"The scorecard will highlight the percentage of good data and ensure the user can feel confident that the data is accurate within predetermined limits."

"The most valuable features are data quality insight, metadata management, and metadata dictionary."

"The ability to analyze the data even before we start the transformation of it, and generating the user-friendly interface, giving analytical reports, and helping create the transformation rules before we proceed with the data migration part was the most helpful part of the solution for our company."

"Initial setup was straightforward."

"The Data Cleansing and the scorecard dashboard are very valuable. Additionally, the financial aspect of SAP Information Steward is very good. When a rule is incorrect then it will show how much is it costing the business. These features are very valuable."

"Data integration is much easier with Information Steward - irrespective of the data sources, integration is very smooth and easy."

"The product has improved company efficiency because we're able to categorize the need for user access at the folder level across storage enterprise wide."

More SAP Information Steward pros

Cons

"Another area where it can improve is by having BB-Graph-type databases where relationship discovery and relationship identification are much easier."

"There is room for improvement with respect to the connector and how to connect to the structured and unstructured database."

"We still need another layer of data quality assessments on the source to see if it is sending us the wrong data or if there are some issues with the source data. For those things, we need a rule-based data quality assessment or scoring where we can assess tools or other technology stacks. We need to be able to leverage where the business comes in, defining some business rules and have the ability to execute those rules, then score the data quality of all those attributes. Data quality is definitely not what we are leveraging from this tool, as of today."

"The SDK behind this entire product needs improvement. The company really should focus more on this because we were finding some inconsistencies on the LDK level. Everything worked fine from the UI perspective, but when we started doing some deep automation scripts going through multiple API calls inside the tool, then only some pieces of it work or it would not return the exact data it was supposed to do."

"There is room for improvement in automation, no question."

"The data quality assessment requires third-party components and a separate license."

"There may be some opportunities for improvement in terms of the user interface to make it a little bit more intuitive."

"There were some issues when drawing the data models. If you have more than 500 or 600 tables, it takes a long time to display those in the right position on the screen."

More Quest Data Intelligence cons

"SAP Information Steward could be improved by offering a cloud version of the product."

"The solution could improve by incorporating other applications, such as Power BI to show more visualization. More interaction with other solutions would be a good benefit."

"In some cases they have given extraneous or erroneous information, which is completely useless."

"SAP Information Steward is an expensive solution compared to others."

"Needs to be more powerful on rules."

"From a performance perspective, sometimes it behaves weirdly. When we are connecting with the file-based system, it doesn't give us the correct results, or it somehow shows us there is this issue with the data or the file connectivity."

"SAP is a bit pricey, and better tools are available for a lower price."

"Performance could be improved."

More SAP Information Steward cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost is around $7,000 for user. This is an estimation."

"There is an additional fee for the server maintenance."

"The solution is aggressively priced."

"We operate on a yearly subscription and because it is an enterprise license we only have one. It is not dependent on the number of users."

"I am not very familiar with its pricing. I know it is not cheap, but it is also not super expensive. It depends on the company size. For a company making $1 million, it is very expensive. For a company making 10 million and above, it might be okay."

"The licensing cost was very affordable at the time of purchase. It has since been taken over by erwin, then Quest. The tool has gotten a bit more costly, but they are adding more features very quickly."

"The price is reasonable and competitive. When you get into forward and reverse-engineering, the cost could go up. However, if you are a large organization, you would probably be able to access different packages. If, however, you don't need forward and reverse-engineering, then the price is relatively cheap."

"Smart Data Connectors have some costs, and then there are user-based licenses. We spend roughly $150,000 per year on the solution. It is a yearly subscription license that basically includes the cost for Smart Data Connectors and user-based licenses. We have around 30 data stewards who maintain definitions, and then we have five IT users who basically maintain the overall solution. It is not a SaaS kind of operation, and there is an infrastructure cost to host this solution, which is our regular AWS hosting cost."

More Quest Data Intelligence pricing and cost advice

"SAP Information Steward is an expensive solution compared to others."

"I do not know if there were additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."

"A bit pricey, and better tools are available for a lower price."

"Smaller-sized organizations may not be able to invest in SAP Information Steward because of the cost."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

16%

Government

10%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

In my opinion, the analytics part of erwin Data Intelligence is not satisfactory. The name 'Intelligence' is not related specifically to analytics; it is focused on data governance with no advanced...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

My main use case for erwin Data Intelligence is applying it and the DQ Labs in a financial institution.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

The integration of business glossaries has significantly helped improve collaboration in our organization. We define the business glossaries first during meetings with the business, and then we bul...

See all answers

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Compared 12% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Enterprise Data Quality (EDQ) vs SAP Information Steward

Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Quest Data Intelligence

October 2026

Download Quest Data Intelligence product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Information Steward

October 2026

Download SAP Information Steward product report

Also Known As

erwin DG, erwin Data Governance, erwin Data Catalog

Information Steward, SAP Data Insight

Overview

erwin Data Intelligence is a comprehensive platform for metadata management, data cataloging, and governance. It enables organizations to gain insights, improve traceability, and streamline compliance through its advanced features.

Focusing on data lineage, metadata repositories, and seamless integrations, erwin Data Intelligence provides a unified perspective of enterprise data. Its robust capabilities include Smart Data Connectors for automation, efficient data visualization with mind maps, and adaptable metadata properties. While the platform integrates well into existing systems, areas for improvement include automation, SDK inconsistencies, and the need for better data quality assessments. Use cases highlight its importance in enhancing business data models and regulatory compliance.

What are the key features of erwin Data Intelligence?

Single Source of Truth: Centralizes data for consistent information across the organization.
Smart Data Connectors: Automate connections to data sources, enhancing efficiency.
Data Lineage: Tracks data pathways for better traceability and understanding.
Business Glossaries: Enables clear definitions and shared vocabulary for all users.
Metadata Management: Streamlines metadata organization and retrieval.
Impact Analysis: Assesses implications of data changes rapidly and accurately.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Enhanced Efficiency: Automation scripts reduce manual processes and increase productivity.
Improved Data Visualization: Mind maps facilitate an intuitive understanding of complex data.
Customizable Properties: Adapt metadata attributes to fit specific organizational requirements.
Unified View: Offers a comprehensive perspective of data governance practices.

Industries implementing erwin Data Intelligence often focus on mapping data sources and integrating governance with ETL tools. This supports comprehensive data management strategies, enabling business teams to better locate, understand, and utilize data effectively. Its application in metadata management and automated reporting is particularly valuable in sectors requiring stringent regulatory compliance.

Quest Software

SAP Information Steward offers data quality insights, metadata management, and data validation scorecards, ensuring accurate data validation through scorecards and dashboards, making it user-friendly and efficient for businesses seeking clarity and effective data profiling.

SAP Information Steward provides a comprehensive approach to managing data quality and governance. It is designed to simplify deployment and streamline data profiling and cleansing with ease. Businesses leverage its capabilities to create data quality rules and detect issues in source systems, enhancing business clarity and accurate data validation. Centralizing cloud data and offering business-friendly metadata descriptions with Metapedia, it supports better metadata management and data profiling. However, it requires improvements in data export capabilities, integration for data manipulation, data filtering features, and enhanced support responsiveness.

What are the key features of SAP Information Steward?

Data Quality Insight: Provides tools for insightful data quality assessments.
Metadata Management: Allows centralized management of metadata through Metapedia.
Scorecard for Data Validation: Offers intuitive scorecards and dashboards for validating data accuracy.
Data Profiling and Cleansing: Facilitates effective profiling and cleansing processes.
Cloud Data Centralization: Centralizes cloud data for effective management.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Ease of Deployment: Simplifies the integration into existing systems ensuring swift usage.
User-friendly Interface: Enhances usability for efficient operations.
Accurate Data Validation: Improves the accuracy of business data.
Comprehensive Metadata Descriptions: Offers detailed business-friendly descriptions.
Integrated Data Profiling: Enhances the quality and accuracy of data management.

Industries implement SAP Information Steward widely, notably in global enterprises for S/4HANA business processes and historical reporting, prioritizing data profiling, data quality assessments, and business rules for managing customer information and transformations. Its Metapedia component supports data governance initiatives within these businesses.

SAP

Sample Customers

Oracle, Infosys, GSK, Toyota Motor Sales, HSBC

American Water, Graphic Packaging International, OSRAM Licht AG, Maxim Integrated

Buyer's Guide

Quest Data Intelligence vs. SAP Information Steward

September 2026

Free Report: Quest Data Intelligence vs. SAP Information Steward

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