We performed a comparison between Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect and Visio based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Visio comes out slightly ahead in this comparison. Sparx users mention performance difficulties when dealing with large volumes of data. Sparx does come out ahead in the pricing category, however.
"We have found the stability to be very reliable."
"Its ease of use and the breadth of the toolkit are most valuable. It has an incredible repository of artifacts to work with, and they're all cross-referenced. It works with a whole bunch of different standards. It works with BPMN, which is Business Process Modeling Notation, and it also works with something called TOGAF, which is the Open Group Architecture Foundation. There are different layers when you're dealing with architecture. There is the user interface, application, data, data servers, and all that kind of stuff. You have the infrastructure, hardware, and software layers, and then you have the application and business capability layers. You can model a business process and decompose it into all of the applications, data, and hardware to support it."
"The TOGAF ADM model is most valuable. It is also very cheap as compared to other options in the market."
"There are a couple of things. Price is one thing, but we also like the scriptability of it. We got into scripting it and automating tasks with it, and it is super duper easy to do and helpful. The API has improved over the years. We automate everything, and I love the automation aspects of it."
"There are a lot of features in Enterprise Architect. It allows us to take on a lot of tasks."
"The profiles and ready-made templates are an extremely helpful feature. This is one of the biggest features that I find very useful in Sparx."
"It is simple to build the first model for the solution."
"The advantages of Enterprise are that it's cheaper and much more practical than MagicDraw."
"The most valuable aspect of Visio is enabling comprehensive coverage of architectural elements."
"The most valuable feature is how easy it is to use."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"A major benefit of Visio is its user-friendliness. Upon opening the program, you have access to a variety of pre-made templates, saving you time and effort. All you need to do is input your data into the template and you're ready to proceed with your project."
"The solution is easy to understand with some hands-on experience."
"It is pretty easy to use if you are looking for this type of solution."
"The product is stable."
"The usability in general is good. The integration of uploading custom stencils is also very nice."
"Its usability needs to be improved. For non-technical users, it is a little difficult to understand how Enterprise Architect works. Users who are not engineers find it difficult to understand how this tool works. This is something they need to work on. They can develop a BPM model to simulate processes."
"It could be more user-friendly. The tools could be more simple to use. It's a very complex solution. Because I am a business analyst, I use these tools to manage requirements, and I make models in UML, BPMN, and ArchiMate, and it's complex. In the next release, I would like to see more integrations."
"Their technical support is not good in India. I wrote to them because I had a question, but I never got an answer. So, I just left it behind."
"When many users are accessing the system at the same time, Sparx slows down. It can't easily support a large team."
"There used to be that feature in ArchiMate Modeling of Enterprise Architect called inherited relationships. Now it's gone."
"One room for improvement in Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is that it's not very friendly. Another room for improvement in the tool is that it doesn't enable you to import the metadata from a database very easily, so reverse engineering of a database was very difficult. Its database modeling and entity-relationship modeling functions need improvement."
"More challenging than other tools to maintain documents and document versions for an architecture board review."
"When collaborating with other people, it needs to be more user-friendly."
"The database modeling has deteriorated significantly in the more current versions."
"The application grid seems to be unreliable which makes simple tasks complicated."
"Microsoft should include Visio as part of their Office 365 offering."
"It's not the easiest software to use. It's not user-friendly out-of-the-box."
"The product only functions well professionally, with adding additional software for configuration."
"Something that needs to improve, is the interface interaction with other tools."
"The solution could improve by having more integration."
"The user interface could be more robust."
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Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is ranked 4th in Business Process Design with 97 reviews while Visio is ranked 1st in Business Process Design with 100 reviews. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is rated 8.0, while Visio is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect writes "Easy to set up and had no issues with stability, but it's not a very friendly tool, and its database modeling and entity-relationship modeling functions need improvement". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Visio writes "A software for drawing a variety of diagrams which include flowcharts, org charts, building plans, floor plans, data flow diagrams". Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is most compared with Visual Paradigm, No Magic MagicDraw, LeanIX, Lucidchart and MEGA HOPEX, whereas Visio is most compared with Bizagi, Visual Paradigm, IBM Blueworks Live, Lucidchart and SAP Signavio Process Manager. See our Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. Visio report.
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We monitor all Business Process Design reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.