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SAP PowerDesigner vs Visio 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

SAP PowerDesigner
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (5th), Metadata Management (4th)
Visio
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (1st), Mind Mapping Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

SAP PowerDesigner and Visio aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. SAP PowerDesigner is designed for Enterprise Architecture Management and holds a mindshare of 8.8%, up 8.5% compared to last year.
Visio, on the other hand, focuses on Business Process Design, holds 12.5% mindshare, down 13.2% since last year.
Enterprise Architecture Management
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

JorgeSanz - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective in terms of validating everything, but sometimes they don't allow us some flexibility and GUI could improve
I would recommend SAP PowerDesigner to others for data architecture management. It provides all the functionalities in terms of data modeling, so it's also a good tool for that. I see trends in terms of data classification, but I don't see this tool with the intelligence to do that automatically. So, like, with artificial intelligence. Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because there are too many validations. Also, I found some gaps in terms of relationships; they didn't appear when you do reverse engineering. Also, this tool lacks artificial intelligence that should be very good in terms of automatically identifying the classification of elements and maybe also to incorporate some artificial intelligence in providing descriptions for each data element included in the solution.
Tugrul TASCI - PeerSpot reviewer
We have seen return on investment in the form of time savings but should have more design tools
I am generally using Visio to create some diagrams Visio should implement more complex tools or graphics to facilitate processing and use flexible templates. It should allow users to easily drag and drop some previously created diagrams. The tools supplied or provided are very basic, and there…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Very good repository features."
"It's a great tool for documentation."
"I mostly work on the conceptual and logical side of things, and I enjoy how easy it is to use."
"It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases."
"It's a stable system. It never crashes."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a very fast reverse engineering process. It does a very expansive comparison."
"The most valuable features of SAP PowerDesigner are the creation the flow charts and folders. It is a powerful tool."
"The most valuable feature is the way you can extend it and customize it. With most modeling tools, you fit your modeling process to fit the tool. In PowerDesigner, you can make the tool fit the way you want to work."
"This is a very straightforward product and I don't think that anything needs to be simplified."
"I recommend Visio to others based on my experience."
"The tools tab within Visio has been amazingly useful, and it is updated quite frequently. Along with how Visio handles components and everything else, I would call it an easy-to-use tool."
"Visio is a very easy tool in general, making it easy for anyone to understand."
"Just the fact that a majority of the industry uses it, and you've got third-party templates that were created."
"Visio makes it easy to communicate your ideas from several areas of your imagination across several domains."
"I could jump into it and learn the basics pretty quickly."
"I like that once you create what you need, you can group that, at least within that drawing, and you have access to that new stencil object or that custom object throughout that drawing."
 

Cons

"Technical support could be better and more human."
"UI could be improved by enabling simpler navigation."
"There are many areas of this solution that needs to be changed."
"This product lacks artificial intelligence that should be very good in terms of automatically identifying the classification of elements."
"Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature."
"Not very intuitive or user-friendly."
"There are some minor things that could be easier. We're writing up procedures to bring all the modeling back into one group as this reduces delays in production."
"Pricing for small consultancies needs improvement. They sustain prices to competing tools. The competing tools tend to do special offers. PowerDesigner SAP doesn't pay much attention to the pricing of it and there are no special offers."
"There are too many features."
"The performance sometimes lags and has room for improvement."
"Integration with other software would be an area of improvement, so that it's not just used to document but also as a center plane for information sharing."
"Some of the improvements that have been made in Visio have not been beneficial, at least to me, personally. Too many things have been added to it, and it makes it kind of clunky sometimes. There is an overwhelming desire or competition to continue to improve it when the product is and has been pretty good, and some of what is done tends to clutter it. In some cases, the updates make it more difficult to use. It is already pretty feature-heavy and continuing to add stuff is not productive from my perspective."
"I would like to see included in the next release is the implementation of web publishing."
"There are some issues in Visio with the connectors, and it gets tricky when you want to connect objects with each other."
"Visio should implement more complex tools or graphics to facilitate processing and use flexible templates."
"The only downside to Visio is the learning curve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is low."
"I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited."
"The ROI has been 43%."
"The pricing varies based on functionality and users."
"SAP PowerDesigner is cheaper than eriwin."
"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."
"The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable."
"I bought the software outright and do not pay a licensing fee."
"We probably have an M-365 E3 license."
"I think costs are on a per user basis."
"Now we pay about $200, which is maybe $10 per user per month."
"The yearly cost is approximately $400 CAD ($300 USD)."
"While I don't recall the exact price I do recall that it was quite high."
"We have about 10 to 15 people with Visio licenses in my company, but I wasn't involved in the direct negotiation of the prices since this was taken care of by my administrative office."
"Personally, I think the price of this solution is too high."
"You can purchase a corporate license for more users to use the solution. We have purchased a stand-alone license and which could be cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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?
Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature. Even if I have an ETL tool, I'd like the DMM options to directly connect to ETL tool repositories lik...
How easy is it to migrate process flow charts (modeled using tools like Visio) into Bizagi?
I have been using Bizagi with a major project for a state government agency for about four years now. It is pretty straightforward to load in files that are BPMN 2.0 compliant. The option to load V...
What do you like most about Visio?
The diagrams Visio creates are quite impressive in the sense that we can cooperate with more colleagues in one task and see the flow of the process.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visio?
One of the main problems with Visio is its licensing options and associated issues, which lead to discussions about the price with a Microsoft representative. If asked to rate the price, I would gi...
 

Also Known As

Sybase PowerDesigner
Microsoft Visio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
Thomas College, Hamburg Port Authority, Portigon AG, Conseil G_n_ral du d_partement des Hautes-Alpes, AAA Auto a. s., Commonwealth Financial Network, ICA, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP LeanIX, Sparx Systems, erwin by Quest and others in Enterprise Architecture Management. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.