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Anaplan vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Anaplan
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
28
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (1st), Production Planning (4th), Predictive Analytics (3rd)
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Busi...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
ERP (3rd), Activity Based Costing Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Anaplan and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Anaplan is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 13.6%, down 15.3% compared to last year.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, on the other hand, focuses on ERP, holds 6.5% mindshare, up 6.6% since last year.
Business Performance Management
ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Antonio Flor - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time data integration enhances operational efficiency and flexibility
As a client developer and solutions architect, I use Anaplan for building modules and deploying logic end-to-end. I work closely with the business in an agile manner to ensure the model aligns with business needs Anaplan offers flexibility in building different options within the platform. The…
StefaanVandesompele - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides end-to-end accounting and finance module at reasonable pricing
365 Business Central integrates with Office 365 to streamline the invoice approval process. This allows businesses to manage and approve invoices efficiently within a unified system. Our organization plans to transition to the Dynamics 365 environment, where various functions will be centralized. We will consolidate everything into one system instead of maintaining multiple databases for each country with local data. Dynamics 365 is fully integrated, which should address many of our challenges when we migrate to this new environment. We look forward to seeing how it performs in practice. The project is progressing well overall, though integrating it with other tools and ensuring Dynamics 365 operates smoothly can be challenging. Dynamics 365 is user-friendly and effective. However, a deeper understanding of its technical capabilities and architecture might be necessary to optimize its use fully. The software landscape is evolving, and achieving the best reporting and functionality with just a click can be complex. A clear vision of what you want to achieve with Dynamics 365 is essential. Proper preparation and configuration are crucial to achieving the desired outcomes. This principle applies not only to Dynamics 365 but to all software packages. Understanding the system's flexibility and adaptability based on your specific business needs is key to its successful implementation. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Technical support has been good."
"You don't need to have a programming language to use Anaplan."
"The solution scales well."
"It's simple to use with a lot of functions."
"It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive."
"The solution works very well for budgeting."
"Anaplan's scalability stands out compared to other platforms, especially for scenario planning and what-if analysis."
"It's real-time connected planning, so the calculations are pretty much seamless as far as your model is connected."
"The vertical covers all aspects of functionality and integrates easily with the existing Office products."
"We like the manufacturing and case management modules."
"It is a scalable solution. There are more than 5,000 end users in my organization."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The most important feature of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is that it lets us centralize all our information so that we don't need to rely on any other software outside of Microsoft."
"I have found the flexibility to be very valuable. It's highly flexible, and at least for us, it has been effective. It is also highly functional."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV's most valuable feature is the integration with other Microsoft solutions."
"The solution's integrations and interface are very good."
 

Cons

"The solution can improve by providing an easier form of integration to different platforms, such as receiving data from different Salesforce. There is a process to do it through the use of some APIs but it could be made much easier. This would be a large help to us."
"Anaplan could be improved with a stronger consolidation module."
"Anaplan is a relatively expensive piece of software."
"The cloud engine slows down when working with a large dataset. It still lacks a powerful engine."
"When there is a lot of data, it sometimes takes long to load."
"Space and integration are a problem."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"The solution could improve by better dashboards and while entering the form loss and project implementation the ability to use graphical shapes more effectively."
"The stability could always be improved."
"The configuration packages can be somewhat tiresome at times, and they can be slow when loading data."
"There is a book for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central explaining how to use it. But it is not easy to use, and it is not easy to learn."
"The reporting tool has room for improvement."
"The solution is not best suited for larger-scale businesses."
"If Microsoft made some of the security setups a little easier to work with, that would be a significant improvement. The warehouse management features could also use some work. We had to buy third-party software to make NAV's warehouse management and security more usable and functional."
"The formulas in Power BI could be simpler. Sometimes, it's difficult to figure them out, but I am part of a lot of communities that work with us, so we help each other."
"We need to customize more often than we would like."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
"The entry-level is anywhere from about $30,000 to $50,000 a year, however, it does go up significantly after that depending on the complexity and how much space you're using."
"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
"The license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
"We are currently using a free workspace license for 90 days. We are satisfied with the price of the solution. There are additional costs if you want more storage, the default limit is 250 GB."
"The cost of Anaplan is a challenge for clients, especially if they don't have an ongoing long-term use case for it. It's a $50,000 licensing fee just to get started. Clients need a strong business case to switch from Excel to Anaplan. But if clients have used something similar in the past, such as Hyperion or other solutions, that's not a factor because they know what to expect."
"This is a yearly subscription. So a customer initially buys a workspace and specifies how much GB they want. The minimum starts at around 30 GB. You can buy multiple workspaces."
"The solution is on the cloud and they provide 50 gigabytes of free space on their Microsoft Drive. The reason for this is that Microsoft is requiring you to upgrade all of your systems to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in order to effectively use the cloud. This means that if you are currently using a different version of Microsoft for a specific purpose that does not require this solution, it can be frustrating to have to spend money to upgrade to this solution just for the purpose of syncing with the cloud. Additionally, even if you do purchase Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, there can still be issues with syncing between the on-premise and cloud clients. This can be especially frustrating as the cloud storage is not free and can be difficult to access even after purchasing."
"Currently, the product offers a starting price of $70 per user per month, which provides access to the complete ERP engine. It is highly reasonable."
"There is an annual cost of using Microsoft Dynamics NAV. The cost is approximately 140,000 INR."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The price of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is reasonable."
"Business Central charges a monthly fee of $70 to $100 per user."
"I have some subscription-based customer and a few customers who have perpetual licenses that hosted the application on the cloud."
"We have a perpetual license to use Microsoft Dynamics NAV."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
26%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Retailer
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
What do you like most about Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
The platform offers a robust and comprehensive cycle for supply chain and inventory management, with features like minimum and maximum settings, dynamic monitoring of inventory levels, and integrat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
The pricing for Dynamics 365 Business Central is reasonable. The value for money is very high.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
There is a need for improvement in consolidation and multi-country master data management.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dynamics NAV, MS Dynamics NAV
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
Harris Farm Markets, Mister Spex GmbH, Bounce Foods, Eurofin Services SA, Medica Medizintechnik, Associated Gaskets, Onduline, Sitka Surfboard Corporation, World Animal Protection
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: April 2025.
850,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.