SAP PowerDesigner vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest comparison

Quest Software and SAP are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Quest Software is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while SAP is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.3. Quest Software holds a 10.2% mindshare in AM, compared to SAP’s 8.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of SAP users who would recommend it.

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Read 39 erwin Data Modeler by Quest reviews

5,317 Views
3,669 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

SAP PowerDesigner

Read 35 SAP PowerDesigner reviews

3,727 Views
3,131 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

SAP PowerDesigner

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

SAP PowerDesigner and erwin Data Modeler by Quest are competitors in the data modeling category. erwin Data Modeler appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and perceived value, even though SAP PowerDesigner is preferred for pricing and support.

Features: SAP PowerDesigner offers robust metadata management and seamless integration with model-driven engineering, impact analysis, and reverse engineering. erwin Data Modeler is known for automating complex modeling tasks, detailed visual data models, and reverse engineering capabilities.

Room for Improvement: SAP PowerDesigner could improve in user-friendliness for new users, enhance cloud-based features, and streamline its reverse engineering process. erwin Data Modeler could benefit from simplifying its configuration, offering better cloud integration, and improving initial setup ease.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP PowerDesigner provides a flexible deployment model with strong support, aiding smooth transitions. erwin Data Modeler offers cloud-based options but may have complex configurations. SAP's customer service is proactive, while erwin provides responsive support.

Pricing and ROI: SAP PowerDesigner offers competitive pricing, which can lead to quicker ROI due to lower setup costs. erwin Data Modeler has higher initial costs but offers long-term ROI benefits through extensive features and capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP PowerDesigner vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SAP PowerDesigner vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

July 2025

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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

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (10th)

SAP PowerDesigner

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

5th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Metadata Management (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of erwin Data Modeler by Quest is 10.2%, up from 10.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP PowerDesigner is 8.8%, up from 8.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

JorgeSanz

Data Governance Senior Advisor at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Streamline data modeling and automate network changes for increased efficiency

The initial setup depends on the tool if you are using the data model environment. Stopping the server could be complex and require strong expertise. If you have everything set up and configured, Erwin is straightforward. You can deploy it in a few hours. In our case, it took a couple of months to address internal conditions, assign machines, and set up everything for the services. I rate the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

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JorgeSanz

Data Governance Senior Advisor at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What has been useful, I have been able to reverse engineer our existing data models to document explicitly referential integrity relationships, primary/foreign keys in the model, and create ERDs that are subject area-based which our clients can use when working with our databases. The reality is that our databases are not explicitly documented in the DDL with primary/foreign key relationships. You can't look at the DDL and explicitly understand the primary/foreign key relationships that exist between our tables, so the referential integrity is not easily understood. erwin has allowed me to explicitly document that and create ERDs. This has made it easier for our clients to consume our databases for their own purposes."

"The principal feature that I liked is that the solution has a very graphic interface."

"Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution."

"Being able to point it to a database and then pull the metadata is a valuable feature. Another valuable feature is being able to rearrange the model so that we can display it to users. We are able to divide the information into subject areas, and we can divide the data landscape into smaller chunks, which makes it easier to understand. If you had 14 subject areas, 1,000 entities, and 6,000 columns, you can't quite understand it all at once. So, being able to have the same underlying model but only display portions of it at a time is extremely useful."

"The solution is excellent in providing a visual representation of a database and can generate DDL for implementing changes. We use DDL for logical purposes to review with business people, ensuring they have the required fields for processing. We also use it as a data dictionary for the physical data model to understand all the purposes of the terms. This helps us map the logical and physical terms with the business definition to understand our data."

"There is absolutely no problem with the stability."

"The product allows us to reuse entities and attributes."

"It allows us to create logical data models. We can represent a database model in business terms, which is very useful for us."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pros

"In PowerDesigner, I primarily use BPM and modeling standards. I find it beneficial for process analysis, although I use data modeling to a lesser extent."

"It's a stable system. It never crashes."

"Has a specific template that's very helpful for importing metadata."

"In terms of operational efficiency and cause savings or return on investment, I can say that with SAP PowerDesigner, our company saves a lot of time."

"I like the property sheet capability and the user-defined attributes that you can set up."

"It has helped me to develop the as-is state, design its to-be state, and track the capital investment according to gap analysis."

"Provides the flexibility to create logical and conceptual data models."

"I've used the reverse engineering feature a lot. I can take a look at the structure of the database and what relationships it has."

More SAP PowerDesigner pros

Cons

"I still use Visio for conceptual modeling, and that's mainly because it is easier to change things, and you can relax some of the rules. DM's eventual target is a database, which means you actually have to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts, but in a conceptual model, you don't often know what you're working with. So, that's probably a constraint with erwin. They have made it a lot easier, and they've done a lot, but there is probably still room for improvement in terms of the ease of presentation back to the business. I'm comparing it with something like Visio where you can change colors on a box, change the text color and that sort of stuff, and change the lines. Such things are a whole lot easier in Visio, but once you get a theme organized in erwin, you can apply that theme to all of the objects. So, it becomes easier, but you do have to set up that theme."

"erwin generally fails to successfully reverse engineer our Oracle Databases into erwin data models. The way that they are engineered on our side, the syntax is correct from an Oracle perspective, but it seems to be very difficult for erwin to interpret. What I end up doing is using Oracle Data Modeler to reverse engineer into the Oracle data model, then forward engineer the DDL into an Oracle syntax, and importing that DDL into erwin in order to successfully bring in most of the information from our physical data models. That is a bit of a challenge."

"The solution's reporting side needs to be improved."

"The erwin Data Modeler is quite complex to use."

"The only real complaint I have is the time it takes to do a database comparison on a large model. If they could speed that up, that would be the only thing I can think of that needs improvement."

"The report generation has room for improvement. I think it was version 8 where you had to use Crystal Reports, and it was so painful that the company I was with just stayed on version 7 until version 9 came out and they restored the data browser. That's better than it was, but it's still a little cumbersome. For example, you run it in erwin, then export it out to Excel, and then you have to do a lot of cosmetic modification. If you discover that you missed a column, then you would have to rerun the whole thing. Sometimes what you would do is just go ahead and fix it in the report, then you have to remember to go back and fix it in the model. Therefore, I think the report generation still could use some work."

"I would like to see improved reporting and, potentially, dashboards built on top of that. Right now, it's a little manual. More automated reporting and dashboard views would help because currently you have to push things out to a spreadsheet, or to HTML, and there aren't many other options that I know of. I would like to be able to produce graphs and additional things right in the tool, instead of having to export the data somewhere else."

"I would like the solution to be more user-friendly to deploy."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest cons

"In the future, I would like to see data manipulation capability where you can actually write SQL queries and manipulate data from directly within the tool."

"This product lacks artificial intelligence that should be very good in terms of automatically identifying the classification of elements."

"Checking-in models to the repository, especially when working remotely, is a slow process than can sometimes have problems with models being corrupted."

"There are many areas of this solution that needs to be changed."

"It would be helpful if there were glossary, catalog and governance tools. It would help make it a true end-to-end product."

"There should be a better usage of current hardware including multicore CPUs, higher resolutions, and multiple displays."

"Connectivity can be improved because it's not very good."

"UI could be improved by enabling simpler navigation."

More SAP PowerDesigner cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"erwin has this option where you pay a one-time fee and you have the license for six years, which makes sense because I don't upgrade my database engine every other year. I have an application that depends on it. This is something weird about PowerDesigner. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."

"The tool is expensive."

"Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money."

"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The primary reasons that erwin was selected were that it was much more affordable for us [than Embarcadero] and it was easily maintainable."

"The pricing of the solution is cheap. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"Pricing is very high compared to any other product."

"The solution is expensive."

More erwin Data Modeler by Quest pricing and cost advice

"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."

"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."

"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."

"SAP PowerDesigner is cheaper than eriwin."

"PowerDesigner is not the cheapest solution on the market, so make sure that you are using it to its full potential."

"I bought the software outright and do not pay a licensing fee."

"The pricing varies based on functionality and users."

More SAP PowerDesigner pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Segundo Navarrete

Works at personal

Nov 30, 2021

Which would you choose - SAP PowerDesigner or erwin Data Modeler (DM)?

See 2 answers

Evgeny Belenky

Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Nov 29, 2021

Hi @George McGeachie, @Carel Van Der Merwe, @Peter Vlekkekn, @Tracy Hautenen Kriel , @Sharon Allen, @Jose Luis Leon and @Pam Rivera, Can you please share your professional opinion/experience with our community?

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Tracy Hautenen Kriel

Architecture Sr. Manager, Data Design & Metadata Mgmt at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Nov 30, 2021

15 years ago was the one time I chose to use PowerDesigner over Erwin Data Modeler was for a project where we have hundreds of pl/sql ETL scripts that needed to be run in a specific order for specific tables. PowerDesigner had the ability to store the pl/sql within the data model and prioritize/order the script run sequence. This meant that we could count on PowerDesigner to automatically generate the ddl and pl/sql code in the correct run order, rather than manually maintaining a spreadsheet with the script order and running each script manually, a VERY labor intensive process. I don't know if PowerDesigner still has that capability. With all of the ways we have to program and perform ETL, Erwin Data Modeler has been my tool of choice for any other project throughout the years. Protecting intellectual property and transparently sharing data model information with other modelers by saving the the models in a centralized location (i.e. Model Mart) is important for any company. Making the data model diagrams transparently accessible via Web Portal is another important step in ensuring both technical and business users understand the structure and relationships of the data contains within a data store. Lastly, making the data model metadata available via the Erwin Data Intelligence Suite enables both technical and business users to completely understand everything about the data and data store: Business Glossary, Reference Data, Governance, Data Quality, Data Mapping, and especially automating data lineage and impact analysis.

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

26%

Government

11%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

The product is expensive. I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?

As a documenting tool, it's solid, though its reporting could be more robust. The reporting mechanisms could be more intuitive regarding report creation. It can generate reports in CSV files, displ...

See all answers

What do you like most about SAP PowerDesigner?

It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP PowerDesigner?

The pricing varies based on functionality and users.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 19% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 6% of the time

AWS Well-Architected Tool vs erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Compared 4% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs SAP PowerDesigner

Compared 14% of the time

IDERA ER/Studio vs SAP PowerDesigner

Compared 5% of the time

SAP Information Steward vs SAP PowerDesigner

Compared 4% of the time

Visio vs SAP PowerDesigner

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Modeler by Quest

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

SAP PowerDesigner

June 2025

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Also Known As

erwin DM

Sybase PowerDesigner

Overview

erwin pioneered data modeling, and erwin Data Modeler (erwin DM) remains trusted, award-winning software for data modeling and database design, automating complex and time-consuming tasks. Use it to discover and document any data from anywhere for consistency, clarity and artifact reuse across large-scale data integration, master data management, metadata management, Big Data, business intelligence and analytics initiatives – all while supporting data governance and intelligence efforts.

Quest Software

SAP PowerDesigner is a valuable solution for developing several different types of data models according to business process needs. Data models can be logical, conceptual, and physical, and can also include dimensional and relational models. PowerDesiger has the ability to integrate a designed business process model with the actual database design to ensure that all the data process steps are included in the logical model. PowerDesigner is able to use the physical model to create the actual database, and from there, design various physical iterations from a single logical model.

PowerDesigner can perform excellent reverse-engineering of existing databases to create a model diagram. The solution integrates well with many of today's most recognized database management systems (DBMS). Some of the solution’s featured outputs include custom or standard reports of every object in the design (relationships, field, and tables), design impact analysis, and entity-relationship (ER) designs.

PowerDesigner offers intuitive capabilities such as metadata management, link and sync, and data modeling. Users can instantly view architecture layers and essentials, access the robust metadata repository, and share findings with the user’s entire team.

SAP PowerDesigner Features

Document Creation: Easily share documents to cultivate an environment of communication and collaboration with all stakeholders in a project. Users can even include non-modelers. Users can provide private, secure access to metadata using hyperlinked Web reporting and multi-model documents, and even use wizard-created lists.
Result Analysis: The solution helps merge all model types with an intuitive automated link-and-sync process. Users can easily streamline communication and creative streams to improve the organization’s ability to experience transformation.
Intelligence Mapping: Users can develop thorough mapping protocols for data dictionary input. Users can record dependencies correctly with a simple drag-and-drop mapping editor and drag information from any supported source to target model pairs.

SAP PowerDesigner Benefits

Improve Overall Productivity: The solution enables enterprise architects and developers to share information through a trusted metadata repository that can handle all modeling types.
Simplify Workflows: PowerDesigner offers an easy-to-use wizard-driven protocol to streamline web-based reporting and documentation, making workloads easier for IT staff and other users.
Improve Communication: PowerDesigner’s intuitive link-and-sync technology will facilitate secure trusted networks between an organization's specific protocols, data models, and language.

Reviews from Real Users

“The most valuable feature of SAP PowerDesigner is the testing of the models, it has the best function. Reverse engineering is very helpful too. I use SAP PowerDesigner for data modeling and documentation. It interacts well with the other tools. Additionally, we use it for all of the business requirements, such as CDM and PDM.” - Saadat T., Emerging Cloud Solution Architect at a tech services company

“It's a great tool for documentation. A new data scientist can easily understand the data just by looking at it. Once you are managing your physical data with a logical data model, by looking at this data model, you can understand what it means, the business meaning of the elements which are maintained by the relational database.” - Michael R., DA

SAP

Sample Customers

Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples

Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone

Buyer's Guide

SAP PowerDesigner vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

July 2025

Free Report: SAP PowerDesigner vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest

Find out what your peers are saying about SAP PowerDesigner vs. erwin Data Modeler by Quest and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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