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Anaplan vs SAP ERP comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.9
Anaplan's ROI varies by application; sales sees faster results, while finance benefits primarily from cost and efficiency savings.
Sentiment score
3.8
SAP ERP offers ROI in 2-4 years by improving efficiency, automation, and cost savings, despite challenges tracking specific returns.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.3
Anaplan provides responsive, skilled customer support, appreciated for quick, detailed assistance and effective resources, with generally minimal issues.
Sentiment score
6.8
SAP ERP's customer service is praised for professionalism but criticized for inefficiencies and slow response times on priority issues.
The technical support from Anaplan is amazing, with a dedicated team to assist in case of any issues.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We are getting the kind of support that we need from Anaplan.
Anaplan Solution Architect at a media company with 10,001+ employees
SAP technical support is very good.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
It was very quick, and we didn't have many tickets, but every time any issues arose, they were very quickly resolved.
CIO at Vortella
It is not easy to justify something as high priority unless the system is completely down.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.5
Anaplan offers scalable solutions for large companies, though scalability can be affected by server sizing, costs, and storage limits.
Sentiment score
7.1
SAP ERP is scalable and adaptable, effectively supporting growth with flexible architecture and cloud options despite initial integration challenges.
Anaplan had issues before, but the new Polaris engine solves them.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
It is scalable when moving from one version to another or adding additional components like warehouse management.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
The scalability of SAP ERP is excellent.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Anaplan is highly reliable with rare downtime and robust performance, earning strong user ratings for stability and efficiency.
Sentiment score
8.2
SAP ERP is widely regarded for its stability and reliability, with minimal bugs and strong performance surpassing other ERPs.
Production processes would be on hold without stability, so it is quite important that the software is very stable.
CIO at Vortella
Stability-wise, SAP ERP is the best product among others.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Anaplan users seek improved dashboards, AI integration, better pricing, enhanced automation, easier collaboration, and a more comprehensive interface.
SAP ERP struggles with integration, user interface, high costs, and complicated usability, needing improvement in accessibility and flexibility.
If any kind of history can be captured on the front-end UX page, that would be really appreciated and helpful.
Anaplan Solution Architect at a media company with 10,001+ employees
Anaplan cannot perform some tasks handled by Planning Analytics due to their different foundations, Anaplan on Hyperblock technology and TM1 on OLAP.
IBM Planning Analytics SME and Developer at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
One improvement that could be added to Anaplan is to stabilize the models when data complexity increases, allowing us to manage our time and space well.
Anaplan Model Builder at Xenlytics
SAP ERP could improve by integrating additional components such as digital signatures and barcoding.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
SAP recently implemented Databricks, and they started investing significantly in the analytic environment.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I believe that SAP ERP needs to include AI functionality now, as I think it would be a significant change that could improve and enhance the product.
Manager at Innatech
 

Setup Cost

Anaplan offers premium pricing with high functionality, competitive against market leaders despite limited licensing transparency and potential additional costs.
SAP ERP is costly with flexible licensing options, valued by larger organizations for features but complex for smaller businesses.
Currently, Anaplan is more expensive compared to other tools.
Product Support Engineer at JSW
The pricing is slightly on the premium side, but I do not have detailed knowledge about the exact licensing structure.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Small and medium companies can struggle with the pricing.
CIO at Vortella
The pricing for SAP ERP is medium but slightly on the higher side.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Valuable Features

Anaplan excels with real-time integration, user-friendly interface, scalability, collaboration, and cloud-based efficiency, enhancing planning and adaptability.
SAP ERP integrates finance, HR, and manufacturing with real-time insights, flexible architecture, and extensive automation for large enterprises.
Anaplan's connected planning feature is its most valuable aspect, allowing for seamless financial planning, HR planning, and updates.
Lead Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The integration is very seamless compared to any other tools in the market, making Anaplan quite easy to integrate with different tools.
Anaplan Model Builder at Xenlytics
I like about Anaplan the simplicity and the way it makes reporting easier and planning is broken down well.
Associate Manager, Accounting at BIC
The consistent integrations and real-time data analytics in SAP ERP significantly enhance the decision-making process by facilitating follow-ups and action points.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
SAP ERP has impacted our organization positively because it is highly customizable to build any process we have in our companies and to write programs.
CIO at Vortella
SAP ERP is particularly strong in manufacturing, from production planning to plant maintenance, then Material Management itself, and managing warehouse management and inventory control.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Anaplan
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (2nd), Production Planning (3rd), Predictive Analytics (4th)
SAP ERP
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
ERP (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Anaplan and SAP ERP aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Anaplan is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 7.4%, down 13.5% compared to last year.
SAP ERP, on the other hand, focuses on ERP, holds 11.6% mindshare, down 20.5% since last year.
Business Performance Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Anaplan7.4%
CCH Tagetik5.7%
Oracle Hyperion5.5%
Other81.4%
Business Performance Management
ERP Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP ERP11.6%
SAP S/4HANA6.4%
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central4.4%
Other77.6%
ERP
 

Q&A Highlights

NC
Content Manager at PeerSpot
Nov 09, 2021
 

Featured Reviews

Segun Oladele - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Manager, Accounting at BIC
Reporting and forecasting have become more automated through intuitive data organization and flexible number calendarization
I do not have any improvements from my own end at this time.There are some specific features or functionality that I would like to see included in Anaplan in the future. From what we have been using, I do not think there is any specific one because we import and export numbers. Importing and exporting with CSV files is already available in Anaplan. I do not have any special requests from Anaplan. I still decided to give Anaplan an eight because I have not seen a specific dashboard on Anaplan. Anaplan could have a dashboard where you can see the flow of your numbers displayed on pictorials rather than just saying this is the number. Simple dashboards should be implemented.
Achmad Dimyati - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Long-term adaptation and evolution meets changing technology trends
SAP ERP is not really real-time. We use the HANA database which is supposed to be memory data in memory, but we are still not very happy. It is supposed to be real-time and come very quickly, but in reality, it still takes time to run. That is why we use BW of SAP, Business Objects, and now we have moved to the Analytic Cloud where we start using predictive AI. SAP recently implemented Databricks, and they started investing significantly in the analytic environment. SAP ERP has been left behind as they moved to S/4HANA with the HANA database. They restructured the whole table structure of SAP ERP, introduced simple finance, simple logistics, and moved HR to SuccessFactors. They have the BTP layer where they manage everything from integration to master data management. The challenge with SAP is that they move very fast to different products and buy different products. It requires significant investment and many skills to catch up because all of these have different sets of technology. The fundamental has changed differently. It is not monolithic anymore but different products under one name, SAP. You have to buy it model by model for additional models. Products such as SuccessFactors, Ariba for procure to pay, Concur for travel, and Facility Management use totally different technology. They try to integrate with each other, but it remains a challenge for SAP to make them have the same management, technology, and operational approach.
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Answers from the Community

NC
Content Manager at PeerSpot
Nov 9, 2021
Nov 9, 2021
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 consolidating numbers into one space, employees can reshift their focus to deep-diving into the numbers, which is a huge advantage because it frees them up to do more value-added work instead. I also li...
See 2 answers
JM
Founder and CEO at FP&A Strategy Consulting
Oct 13, 2021
SAP ERP and Anaplan serve different purposes and actually work well together.   Think of SAP ERP focused on the Actuals, while Anaplan models the future. The reason why I’ve seen clients use Anaplan for planning vs. SAP BPC is Anaplan is more flexible and can easily keep up with constant changes in business planning.  While BPC is more of a consolidation tool, with Anaplan you can also have your driver-based models in a system vs. running them offline and only putting the answer into a system.   Therefore, my recommendation is to use both.
Janet Staver - PeerSpot reviewer
Tech Blogger
Nov 9, 2021
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 consolidating numbers into one space, employees can reshift their focus to deep-diving into the numbers, which is a huge advantage because it frees them up to do more value-added work instead. I also like that Analplan is a collaborative solution - it makes building out forecasts and modeling data much easier than just using Excel because it is in the cloud and is more structured. Anaplan is also very well connected. For example, data from one use case can be used in other models. Moreso, if a change is made to one model, it will be changed in all other models as well. Although Anaplan requires a slight learning curve and some training, initial setup is fairly easy. And for the times where you have technical questions, I have found that support is adequate. However, Anaplan is quite expensive. Nevertheless, I am very impressed with the stability of the solution and its performance. Not only that, but I am impressed by its ability to scale phenomenally. SAP ERP has been recognized as the best solution in the class of ERP products. In addition, it provides excellent visibility into the details of enterprise resource planning. Like Anaplan, it is very scalable. I think one of the best features SAP ERP has to offer is the claim management. One disadvantage is that you cannot easily create customizations. Also, outside of the SAP for RPA it is required for you to use an additional solution on a platform as a service if you want to extend the solutions. Another downside is that the initial setup is not straightforward and can be quite complex, so you have to be prepared to handle that. Conclusion: Overall, I would give Anaplan a 9 out of 10 rating. Anaplan has many more advantages for me than SAP ERP and since both options are very pricey, Anaplan takes the win because I like that it has so much more to offer.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
6%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
7%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise77
 

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 SAP ERP?
The solution has made the most significant impact on our human resources function, specifically in HR operations and HR analytics. One feature of SAP ERP that I found most valuable is its use of co...
What needs improvement with SAP ERP?
I do not know how to give feedback regarding SAP ERP's analytics tools. The usage of analytics tools is not very popular among our customers, as some functions are not very modern. Customer study t...
What is your primary use case for SAP ERP?
I work with use cases in some industries like retail and assembly for SAP ERP. I do not have experience with what my users usually use SAP ERP for in general, but we help our customers to use it.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
B&G Manufacturing, Unilever, Life is good Inc., Joy Global Inc., City of Cape Town, Bhopal Municipal, Corporation (BMC), adidas Group, Butcher & Packer Supply Company, Franklin Valve L.P., Evoshield, Prime Meats, a Norsan Group company, EMC Corporation, Varian Medical Systems Inc., FC Bayern Mªnchen AG, AkzoNobel Chemicals B.V., T¾V Rheinland, Pacific Drilling S.A., Fire & Rescue New South Wales, University of Amsterdam, Pa_alon S.A.
Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, Anaplan, Domo and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: December 2025.
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