Looking for an OBEO SmartEA Alternative?
What is the best alternative to OBEO's solution for modernizing your architecture? Discover why Boldo is the preferred choice for companies seeking agility and collaboration.
Why Consider an Alternative to OBEO SmartEA?
OBEO SmartEA
OBEO SmartEA is a key player in the modeling ecosystem, built on the power of the Eclipse Sirius framework. Highly regarded for its rigor and compliance with TOGAF and ArchiMate standards, it offers nearly limitless customization for methods engineers. However, this functional depth comes with significant technical complexity and an interface often perceived as austere, creating a high barrier to entry for non-experts and slowing down large-scale adoption.
Boldo democratizes Enterprise Architecture by providing a "Consumer Grade" user experience—fluid and intuitive. The platform moves away from the weight of traditional modeling tools to offer a No-code, collaborative environment where technical repositories are transformed into strategic narratives anyone can understand, all while ensuring exemplary digital sovereignty.
Free Architecture from Technical Complexity
While OBEO SmartEA’s power is undeniable for modeling experts familiar with Eclipse environments, its complex and cluttered interface is a major hurdle for occasional contributors. Navigation requires extensive training, which tends to isolate architecture practice within a small circle of specialists.
Boldo breaks these silos by offering a clean, ergonomic interface inspired by modern web standards. This accessibility allows any decision-maker to navigate the architecture without prior training, driving massive and immediate adoption by business teams.
Gain Agility with No-Code
While OBEO SmartEA allows for fine-tuned meta-model adaptation via Sirius, this flexibility often requires development skills or heavy technical configuration. Modifying the repository structure to meet new business needs can become an IT project in itself, slowing down the architecture team's responsiveness.
In contrast, Boldo offers total flexibility thanks to its No-Code approach. Evolving the meta-model, adding attributes, or creating new relationships is done in just a few clicks, allowing the tool to adapt to the company's pace, rather than the other way around.
Turn Architecture into a Dialogue Tool
Although OBEO SmartEA excels at producing standardized diagrams, information sharing is often limited to static or technical views that struggle to engage stakeholders. Collaboration is frequently hampered by model locking mechanisms, making real-time interaction difficult.
Boldo transforms modeling into a conversation through its Storytelling and real-time collaboration features. Architects can storyboard their views to explain transformation impacts, while users can comment and interact directly on objects, building true collective intelligence.
Compare Boldo with 10+ other Enterprise Architecture modelling and mapping solutions.
Designed for collaboration across all stakeholders
Architecture should not live in silos. With Boldo, business teams, IT and leadership work on the same views, in a shared and living workspace. Everyone explores, comments and aligns in real time. Architecture becomes a collective alignment tool, directly understood and adopted across the organization.
Built on European data sovereignty
Boldo is a French platform, with data hosted in Europe on Scaleway, a trusted sovereign cloud infrastructure. Your architecture repository stays fully under your control, in an environment designed to meet regulatory requirements. No ambiguity, no hidden dependencies: clear hosting, clear rules, full transparency.
A flexible metamodel that adapts to your reality
Every organization has its own constraints and maturity. Boldo relies on a flexible and evolving metamodel that adapts to your context instead of forcing a rigid framework. Start simple, enrich progressively, and let your architecture evolve at your own pace.
Visual storytelling at the core of the experience
In Boldo, diagramming is not an afterthought, it's the heart of the product. Views are intuitive, visually refined and immediately readable. Clear hierarchies, smooth navigation and embedded diagrams make architecture easy to grasp and easy to share, from executive committees to hands-on workshops.
Fair and transparent pricing
Boldo offers Pro and Team plans in self-service, with public and predictable per-user pricing. No opaque licenses, no hidden bundles, no constant renegotiation. From day one, you know what you pay, what you get, and how it scales.
We are here to drive adoption and value
Customer Success is central to our approach. We work closely with teams to build an architecture governance that is useful, alive and truly adopted. Responsive support, continuous exchanges and a long-term vision ensure architecture becomes a concrete decision-making asset, not a theoretical exercise.
OBEO SmartEA vs Boldo
| OBEO SmartEA | Boldo | |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | ||
| Pricing model | Based on users | User and modelled asset packs |
| Price positioning | $$$ | $$$ |
| Free trial | ||
| Self-service offering | ||
| Enterprise offering | ||
User experience | ||
| Modern interface | ||
| Consistency across views | ||
| Time to implement | ~ 3 to 9 months | ~ 1 to 6 weeks |
| Learning curve for architects | Steep | Very fast |
| Learning curve for business / C-level users | Fast | Very fast |
Collaboration | ||
| Access rights management | Simple | Very fine grained (fields and relationships) |
| Real-time multi-user modelling | ||
| Comments linked to objects and views | ||
| Mentions and notifications | ||
| Object-level history and versioning | ||
Modelling | ||
| Custom object type creation | ||
| Object hierarchies | ||
| Custom properties per object type | ||
| Custom relationships | ||
| Process modelling | ||
| ArchiMate metamodel support | (with Signavio) | |
| Framework-agnostic modelling | ||
Storytelling and visualisation | ||
| Dynamic views (auto-synchronised) | ||
| Nested maps and diagrams | ||
| Data visualisation | ||
| Auto-generated diagrams | ||
| Diagram in ""conception"" mode | ||
| Bi-directional data ↔ visuals synchronisation | ||
| Storytelling mode and scripted views | ||
| Multi-dimensional impact analysis | ||
Data and automation | ||
| Public API | ||
| Batch imports (CSV) | ||
| Native connectors | ||
| Data validation rules | (Q4 2026) | |
| Automatic triggers on changes | (Q4 2026) | |
| SaaS hosting | ||
| Sovereign hosting | ||
| On-premise hosting | ||
Other alternatives
LeanIX
LeanIX is an Enterprise Architecture and IT portfolio management platform designed to help large organizations document, analyze and govern their application landscape. Widely adopted by enterprises, LeanIX focuses on Application Portfolio Management (APM), technology risk, and transformation initiatives, often in close alignment with ERP programs such as SAP.
The platform is primarily used by architecture and transformation teams looking to structure, rationalize and govern complex IT environments at scale. LeanIX emphasizes data consistency, standardized reporting and integration with existing enterprise systems, making it a strong choice for mature, governance-driven organizations.
Ardoq
Ardoq is a data-driven Enterprise Architecture platform designed to help organizations visualize, analyze and manage complex IT landscapes. By connecting applications, systems and processes into a living data repository, Ardoq replaces static diagrams with dynamic, actionable insights.
Bizzdesign Horizzon
Bizzdesign Horizzon is a European business design and enterprise architecture platform that connects strategy, business capabilities, operating models and IT architecture within a single, unified environment.
The platform is primarily designed for large organizations looking to structure, govern and steer complex transformation initiatives at scale.
Bizzdesign HOPEX
Bizzdesign HOPEX is a European enterprise architecture and governance platform originally developed by MEGA International, and acquired by Bizzdesign in 2024.
It is widely used in regulated industries and the public sector to formalize Enterprise Architecture, governance, risk and compliance through structured models and reference frameworks.
The platform is designed for organizations seeking exhaustive coverage, strong methodological discipline and long-term governance across IT, business processes and compliance domains.
BlueDolphin
BlueDolphin is an Enterprise Architecture platform developed by ValueBlue. It helps organizations align strategy, business processes, information systems, and data within a shared repository, with strong capabilities for current and target state modeling, impact analysis, and stakeholder collaboration.
