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Anaplan vs SAS Activity-Based Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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
Ranking in Business Performance Management
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Production Planning (3rd), Predictive Analytics (2nd)
SAS Activity-Based Management
Ranking in Business Performance Management
18th
Average Rating
5.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Business Performance Management category, the mindshare of Anaplan is 7.1%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Activity-Based Management is 2.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Performance Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Anaplan7.1%
SAS Activity-Based Management2.5%
Other90.4%
Business Performance Management
 

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.
it_user530763 - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
Helps to compare production costs across different departments. Try CostPerform from QPR.
Helps to compare production costs across different departments The data integration is very complex Visualization of the cost flow is not user-friendly It takes hours to build OLAP cubes to analyze the results of the model We have been using this solution for three years. I would rate the…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has supported a global process change to sales forecasting and created a single method for this."
"Because of that flexibility and ability to build models in the way you want to build it, it means you can tailor it to the company's requirements."
"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."
"Anaplan's scalability stands out compared to other platforms, especially for scenario planning and what-if analysis."
"The best thing is that it's very intuitive and user-friendly. You don't need coding skills to manipulate the platform."
"Anaplan has eased a major pain point in mapping multidimensional data by combining all the necessary dimensions into a single tool, making it much easier for managers to understand the data coming in from their reps."
"Where we're seeing the opportunity in the market is at the Fortune 100 companies that have far more complex modeling type scenarios where you need to be able to have a lot of people collaborating together, and you need a lot of information all at everyone's fingertips. This is where you see the big advantage of a solution like Anaplan."
"Anaplan's in-memory calculation engine is super-fast compared to the old tools we previously used. You enter the data and everything shows up in one go."
"The product allows us to calculate the distributed cost across activities."
"The product helped determine the organization's true cost of providing its products and services to customers."
"Helps to compare production costs across different departments."
"Cube generation is a valuable feature."
"We use ABM as an expense allocation model and it has improved the awareness and accountability of the cost incurred due to the traceability feature."
 

Cons

"Anaplan lacks a native ETL tool, making it challenging to integrate numerous flat files."
"Anaplan's workflow component is probably the biggest area for improvement. I'd also like to see Anaplan add an ad hoc reporting tool that allows users to query things."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"Automation needs to be built into this solution."
"The integration technique should be a little bit easier."
"Automation needs to be built into this solution."
"I chose a rating of eight because there is one backlog item: we are currently not using Anaplan for data reporting purposes."
"There are workspace issues, like the limitation on model sizes."
"It could be made much more simpler. Most of the time it looks like a black box for developers."
"The interface is poorly designed and could really use an improvement to compete with other comparable software."
"The data integration is very complex Visualization of the cost flow is not user-friendly It takes hours to build OLAP cubes to analyze the results of the model"
"We experienced severe performance issues when the models created are getting more details and becoming more complex."
"The usability needs to be improved but bear in mind that we did not have the latest update."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"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."
"A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Insurance Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise17
No data available
 

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...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
Bank of Queensland, Barclays Bank, BioMar, Danske Bank, Danske Spil, DPPS, First Allied
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan vs. SAS Activity-Based Management and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.