1
Modeling capability
18 / 20 out of 20How much of a real process the model can represent: routing, resources and shifts, queueing, batching, statistical distributions and control logic.
Twenty six distributions reachable from any time field through a picker that fits one to observed data, builds one from parameters with a live preview, or attaches a time table. A full control logic language with two authoring surfaces, a card builder and a text editor. Decision tables, one, two and three dimensional arrays, scenarios, signals, collapsible and callable process groups, batching with carriers, inventory with zones and reorder levels, and shifts managed centrally across every node at once rather than one at a time. A continuous flow layer now runs alongside that core: tanks, pipes, washes, and machines that chain together and fail together, with production plans that price their own changeovers. No agent based or system dynamics modeling, which the highest scoring product here carries alongside its own discrete event engine.
2
Ease of learning
16 / 20 out of 20How long it takes to reach a first useful model. Onboarding, templates, and how much scripting the product makes unavoidable.
An industry palette curates the element list for the chosen industry, and there are now three: process plant work in fluids, bulk and dairy, software delivery, and healthcare. The plant palette offers a starter set that adds a plant's materials in one click, and the healthcare palette starts a typical emergency department sized to the visits a year the user enters. The demo gallery can be searched and reads by industry, and a model package from the earlier version imports with a report of what changed. A first model still comes from a person working in the canvas, and the tool expects a modeler. The product with the strongest reputation for time to a first model remains the one built entirely around that.
3
Results, analysis and experimentation
19 / 20 out of 20Depth of reporting, bottleneck analysis, scenario comparison, repeated runs, and structured experiments.
A report of seventeen tabs, eight of them primary and nine advanced, each shown only when the model has that kind of element. A bottleneck view ranks every step by the time and cost it adds, a queue view shows when queues build across the operating window, and an experiments tool can then search against what the report found. A production report now prices every material, wash and changeover and adds a section showing revenue, running cost and cleaning cost, and a separate planner prices a candidate run order against the changeover matrix before it is committed to. A run can be saved and reopened later, and a single entity can be followed through a live run to see the path it actually took. The healthcare palette adds a report of its own, with seven headline tiles, six tabs and a cost per patient.
4
Pricing transparency and total cost
15 / 15 out of 15Whether a price is published at all, what training, renewal and hosting add to it, and what the free tier really allows.
One of three products in this comparison with a published price on the vendor's own site, and the only one of those three where a paid commercial license, spelled out in exact dollar figures for a single seat and for a team, sits next to a separate free tier that permits commercial use within its limits. Bizagi's reviewed product is free with no paid tier priced at all; ExtendSim publishes a full price list across its editions but nothing permanent free. Full marks reflect that both the paid figure and the free tier's terms are checkable on the publisher's own site in under a minute.
5
Visualization and stakeholder communication
8 / 10 out of 10How well a finished run persuades somebody who did not build the model. A three dimensional view is one route to that, and not the only one: an animated run, a heatmap showing when a queue builds, or a chart ranking every step by what it costs can each do the same job at a fraction of the effort to produce.
Two dimensional animation of a running model, a heatmap showing when queues build across the operating window, and a chart ranking every step by the time and cost it adds. Connections now show liquid or material actually moving at the rate delivered, a header names the tank it is drawing from, and a diverted valve shows the path it took. A completed run can also be saved and replayed by somebody who was not there. It communicates a result well without a three dimensional view, which is the gap: where a room expects to watch the operation itself, this cannot give them that.
6
Platform and deployment
7 / 10 out of 10Which operating systems are supported, whether it runs in a browser, and how teams share and govern work.
Native Windows and native macOS, signed and notarized, which only one other product in this comparison matches. No Linux build, and nothing that runs in a browser, so a reader who needs either is looking elsewhere.
7
Learning resources and support
4 / 5 out of 5Documentation, training, an active community, and academic access.
Published documentation and training, and a company trading since 1999. Materially less academic presence than the oldest product in this category, which is taught in more universities than the next several combined.