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SAP Information Steward vs SAP PowerDesigner comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 3, 2025

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

SAP Information Steward
Ranking in Metadata Management
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Data Quality (19th)
SAP PowerDesigner
Ranking in Metadata Management
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Metadata Management category, the mindshare of SAP Information Steward is 3.2%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP PowerDesigner is 3.3%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Metadata Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP PowerDesigner3.3%
SAP Information Steward3.2%
Other93.5%
Metadata Management
 

Featured Reviews

FranciscoSantos - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
HemantKUMAR6 - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
Customer support has delayed successful upgrade to supported version
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 latest version. I tried to upgrade to a trial version before purchasing a new license. During that process, I had some technical issues. When trying to go from 12.5 to 16.5, I could migrate but faced technical challenges. When I approached customer support, they informed me that even 16.5 is not supported. They stated I would need to go to 16.7 before they could look at my issue. They didn't spend any time on the issue because according to them, 16.5 is not supported. Until I get 16.7 and complete the migration, I'm not getting any help from them. I was not too happy with the customer support. This was my only interaction with customer support, and I haven't received any resolution to my issue. It can be rated as low as zero because that's the only time I approached them. I cannot even say zero out of ten because I approached only once. Perhaps they are correct that they don't support 16.5, so they don't want to spend any time on that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I am very happy with the product."
"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."
"The solution is very fast."
"The solution is user-friendly even for those who are dealing with it for the first time."
"Data insight is the most valuable feature."
"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."
"Initial setup was straightforward."
"It is more flexible than other tools and user-friendly, making it easy to adapt."
"PowerDesigner is definitely stable."
"It is a very stable solution, which is one of the advantages of using PowerDesigner, especially in big databases."
"One of the key reasons for choosing this solution above others is because of the repository features which we're able to consolidate and work on a single repository where we store all our models in one location."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a very fast reverse engineering process. It does a very expansive comparison."
"It offers a lot of features in one solution, and you would have to get multiple other products to bundle together all of the capabilities that you get in just this product."
"I would highly recommend this product to be used in each and every application system where you have to design a relational database."
"The initial setup was very easy."
 

Cons

"Performance could be improved."
"In some cases they have given extraneous or erroneous information, which is completely useless."
"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."
"A problem with the solution is that it does not allow us to review the results of Information Stewards for other analogies."
"SAP Information Steward could be improved by offering a cloud version of the product."
"The user experience of metapedia could be improved."
"Granularity could be reduced from an application level to the object level."
"Although the presentation for viewing the models is good, I think it could be better."
"It would be helpful if there were glossary, catalog and governance tools. It would help make it a true end-to-end product."
"The solution is very, very expensive. It would be ideal if it was a more affordable product."
"Synchronization is vital since I experience multiple problems, such as mismatched models and manual DDL handling."
"Regarding improvements, I suggest enhancing the connection between objects in process and data models. It's crucial to define the structure of objects, especially when dealing with standard frameworks like VMM. There should be better visualization of arrows between BPM and data modeling objects, specifying their structure and impact. For future versions, a feature similar to Bizagi, allowing users to see forms or SQL representations of objects, would be valuable for demonstrating and presenting project details to stakeholders."
"The solution itself does not need to be improved. However, they could add support for different languages."
"The data governance should be improved, like ER/Studio."
"Technical support needs improvement."
 

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."
"Smaller-sized organizations may not be able to invest in SAP Information Steward because of the cost."
"A bit pricey, and better tools are available for a lower price."
"The pricing varies based on functionality and users."
"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."
"I bought the software outright and do not pay a licensing fee."
"The price of the solution is low."
"Regarding costs, SAP PowerDesigner is pricey, as I've heard from my team manager, which is why the company has been thinking of bringing another solution on board."
"PowerDesigner is not the cheapest solution on the market, so make sure that you are using it to its full potential."
"I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited."
"The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Government
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
Synchronization is vital since I experience multiple problems, such as mismatched models and manual DDL handling. Improving the synchronization between models and databases can enhance integration ...
What is your primary use case for SAP PowerDesigner?
I use SAP PowerDesigner for data modeling, which greatly enhances the clarity of my data management processes. I manage data across multiple databases, including cloud databases, Teradata, and Orac...
 

Also Known As

Information Steward, SAP Data Insight
Sybase PowerDesigner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Water, Graphic Packaging International, OSRAM Licht AG, Maxim Integrated
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 SAP Information Steward vs. SAP PowerDesigner and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.