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Bonita BPM vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 7, 2026

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

Bonita BPM
Ranking in Business Process Design
16th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
27
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Management (BPM) (26th), Process Automation (29th)
erwin Data Modeler
Ranking in Business Process Design
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (1st), Data Governance (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of Bonita BPM is 3.1%, down from 4.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Modeler is 3.2%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
erwin Data Modeler3.2%
Bonita3.1%
Other93.7%
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Mohamed Guermazi - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Director / Project Manager at I-way
The user interface is easy to use, and the product performs well, but the dashboard and the monitoring features are limited
We use the product to design workflows. We model and install them on the server. We use the Community edition The modeling features are easy. The performance of the tool is good. The user interface is easy to use. I have used the product for complex processes and sub-processes successfully. The…
Sushree Panigrahi - PeerSpot reviewer
Snowflake Data Engineer| Senior PLSQL Developer |Data Modeler|Assitant Vice Pre at Jp Morgan Chase & Co.
Data modeling has transformed regulatory reporting and collaboration across cloud environments
In erwin Data Modeler, areas that have room for improvement include performance improvements. I see that large models sometimes cause it to be slow when opening. Impact analysis can lag as well. Version control is another aspect. If we have developed a current version, it is not integrated with Git where we can easily compare different versions. UI modernization is also something we cannot utilize as it is primarily for development. Additionally, cloud-specific optimizations are needed when it comes to Snowflake or Databricks. When it comes to AI aspects, auto-suggestions for normalization or identifying primary, foreign, or surrogate keys are areas that can be improved.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Studio provides an opportunity to get early feedback from real users and quickly change the process and forms."
"Compared to other products on the market, Bonita presents a pretty acceptable level of robustness."
"With Bonita BPM, you can run the process (as it will in the final stage) immediately after the design stage, giving you 100% control over the quality of your processes and flows."
"Process automation with Bonita BPM is really easy."
"I really enjoy using the workflow management tool."
"Bonitasoft helped us automate complicated and labor intensive processes"
"The user interface is better than all of the open-source BPMs that I have tried."
"It is more than helpful, it is worth the effort of learning to better our company."
"If you want to have good data architecture, you need to have database design done."
"My favorite feature of erwin Data Modeler is that we can export and import tables directly from the databases, and it is easy to map from table to table and column to column."
"Using erwin Data Modeler has positively impacted my organization by improving data consistency and standardization, reducing development effort, enhancing data governance, fostering better collaboration, and minimizing risk and rework."
"It allows us to create logical data models. We can represent a database model in business terms, which is very useful for us."
"The fitting model is very intuitive."
"Without erwin Data Modeler, it would be hard to define the DDL in tables."
"Having erwin Data Modeler, we stored data modeling in a particular erwin Data Modeler mart, and people from other teams who want to understand the data benefit from collaborative efforts, which increases productivity and enhances understanding of data."
"The solution's ability to compare and synchronize data sources with data models is fantastic."
 

Cons

"BPMN 2.0 notations are not all supported, would love to see them all coming in (e.g. complex gateway)."
"The menus likely would be more intuitive if read in French. Things seem to be under strange headings at times."
"That said, creating custom connectors for 3rd party applications and APIs is still a challenging task."
"There is a need for more components in the library and additional customization options for these components."
"There is a considerable learning curve."
"We are struggling a bit with integrations."
"I would like to improve the product's load balancing."
"I should be able to park the tasks that are within a process in a kind of container, and dynamically, a super admin should be able to connect these processes. This kind of feature might be helpful."
"I would like to see more support for working with the big-data world. There are so many new databases evolving and it's very hard for them to keep up with all of the new technologies. It would be good if they were able to dynamically support big-data platforms, other than Hive and Teradata."
"The UI of erwin Data Modeler could be improved; it could be cleaner, as the current setup sometimes confuses users searching for specific features."
"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."
"The interface must be improved."
"Although Quest Software has made tremendous strides in recent years, they need to evolve more in the big data arena; erwin Data Modeler could use a little more work when it comes to big database designs."
"Regarding improvements, the first thing I would mention is that every release has some issues, some of which are related to current functionalities, which means they often seem not very well tested or affected in the development process of the new version, leading to issues until that is released."
"One area for improvement of erwin Data Modeler would be the overall user interface, which can feel dated and takes some time to get familiar with."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is not cheaper, not costlier; it is reasonable. Bonita’s license is very flexible, with options to meet the needs of different customers and clients. Previously, it was less flexible, but now, many different licensing options are available."
"The product's pricing is acceptable. Pricing is yearly."
"Licensing cost for the Enterprise edition comes out to be around 40,000 a year. There is also a Community edition, which is free. Some customers can go for the Community edition, but some of them require the Enterprise edition. Big companies go for the Enterprise edition, which comes with a lot of additional features such as a mobile app."
"I believe this is a very good financial choice."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The Enterprise edition is very expensive."
"Price to service ratio with Bonita BPM is good."
"The Community Edition comes free of charge."
"The pricing of the solution is cheap. I rate the pricing a five out of ten."
"The tool is expensive."
"The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."
"The solution is expensive."
"The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."
"I wish it wasn't so expensive. I would love to personally buy a copy of my own and have it at home, because the next job that I'm looking at is probably project management and I might not have access to the tool. I would like to keep my ability to use the tool. Therefore, they should probably have a pricing for people like me who want to just use the solution as an independent consultant, trying to get started. $3,000 is a big hit."
"Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money."
"I don't specifically know what we're paying now. About three years ago, in another organization, I have this memory of 6,000 AUD a seat or something like that, but I am not sure. In the mid-2000s, it was something like 1,200 AUD a seat. I get the impression that there was a price jump when it was spun off from CA as a separate company, which is understandable, but it could sometimes be a barrier in some organizations picking it up. I haven't talked to erwin people yet, but I'm going to suggest to them that they could perhaps think of having an entry-level product that is priced a bit lower, and then, you can buy the extra suite."
report
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise11
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise59
 

Questions from the Community

How does Bonita compare with Camunda Platform?
One of the things we like best about Bonita is that you can create without coding - it is a low-code platform. With Bonita, you can build the entire mechanism using the GUI, it’s that simple. You c...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the licensing process is painful and quite onerous. The setup is okay, but there is room for improvement.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
Regarding improvements, the first thing I would mention is that every release has some issues, some of which are related to current functionalities, which means they often seem not very well tested...
What is your primary use case for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
My main use case for erwin Data Modeler is to implement a single data architecture design department so everyone is using erwin Data Modeler for their data models to be a transactional application ...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Bonita BPM
erwin DM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Ofelia, the company formerly named Bonitasoft, was founded in 2009 and serves more than 130 organisations across 40 countries. It has two products, Ofelia Agentic and Bonita BPM. Bonita BPM is available in an open source community edition and in a commercial subscription edition.
 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Find out what your peers are saying about Bonita BPM vs. erwin Data Modeler and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.