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IBM Public Cloud vs SAP Cloud Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 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

IBM Public Cloud
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
19th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
IoT Platforms (2nd)
SAP Cloud Platform
Ranking in PaaS Clouds
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.3%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Cloud Platform is 5.9%, down from 8.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
PaaS Clouds Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP Cloud Platform5.9%
IBM Public Cloud3.3%
Other90.8%
PaaS Clouds
 

Featured Reviews

Premnath Jaganathan - PeerSpot reviewer
Product Manager at Uop Ipl
Affordability and security improve our cloud experience while learning new systems
I'm not working with any AI features in IBM Public Cloud, but they are in the process of building it.I am very satisfied with the security that IBM Public Cloud provides. I would rate IBM Public Cloud eight out of ten, where one is worst and ten is the best.
HP
Head of Department ERP at The Singareni Collieries Company Limited
Consistently beneficial with excellent accessibility although support's response time needs improvement
The features and functions of the SAP Cloud Platform are very good; the performance is improved when compared with the older versions. Earlier, we were using Oracle DB, and after HANA DB migration, it is fine. We are getting the reports, and processing time is also reduced. Almost all the features of the SAP Cloud Platform are fine and good. SAP Fiori has also entered into the picture, and we are developing the Fiori apps. We have started with the BTP for the new innovations as per the SAP roadmap. The main benefits of the SAP Cloud Platform for us are that earlier we had the primary data center at our place, but now we have shifted to the cloud. The maintenance is free for us; the maintenance is completely done by this SAP partnership with Cloud4C. We have started using the SAP Analytics Cloud, and we have developed many applications for SAP SAC. We are going to give the presentation to our chairman most probably next week. The analytics features positively influence decision-making for us. The SAP Cloud Platform has been effective for us because the processing time is reduced, and we can access it easily.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I like most in IBM Public Cloud is how easy it is to create serverless functions. They are called IBM functions, but in AWS, they are called Lambda functions. Those are pretty standard, and another thing I like the most is that you have fewer restrictions on the amount of data you can transfer across those functions. IBM Public Cloud is way more flexible than AWS. I also like that IBM Public Cloud is pretty straightforward to integrate. As long as you have all the tools IBM provides you, getting everything up and running is straightforward."
"This is a predictable and dependable service."
"The beauty of cloud service providers, especially public cloud service providers, is that they are scalable every time when you need them because their payment model is pay-as-you-go."
"It is easy to deploy what you need for the initial setup"
"The initial setup was very easy. It's quite straightforward. Deployment took about fifteen minutes. Everything is well organized."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations."
"For non-complex applications, the IBM Cloud works fine and the price is much lower than the competitors."
"I am very much satisfied with the technical support team at IBM Public Cloud."
"The integration flows are the most valuable feature of this solution."
"The SAP Cloud Platform has been effective for us because the processing time is reduced, and we can access it easily."
"The solution can scale."
"The tool's most valuable aspects are the niche technologies and the latest editions. The way these updates are rolled out makes it easy to manage because clients and customers are not responsible for keeping everything up to date. It's SAP's responsibility, which makes it much easier to take advantage of the new features they roll out every month."
"The maintenance part can be outsourced easily."
"Though I'm not a massive fan of the SAP Cloud Platform, it has good features, such as its integration with other SAP solutions. When integrating with SAP or even the SAP sister company SuccessFactors and other companies SAP has acquired, you also enjoy data features in the SAP Cloud Platform, such as role-based permissions and other characteristics you can import from SAP."
"The most valuable feature is the data synchronization, or the push and pull of the data."
"SAP has provided very good support."
 

Cons

"Support could be improved."
"The initial setup and the pricing are areas that need improvement."
"They could improve on customizing reporting capabilities."
"An area for improvement in IBM Public Cloud is getting up-to-date information on how to set up everything. It's hard to find new documentation."
"The deployment can be a bit of a pain. There are a lot of packages and a lot of options and it can require complex configuration to get it right."
"While they have about 99% of what we need, the only exception, perhaps, was the push notification feature that was discontinued. They delayed the replacement product."
"The solution needs to be more autonomous. It should let the DL go to allow for more jobs on the cloud. It could have a better interface as well."
"The connectivity and speed of IBM Public Cloud are much lower compared to the competition."
"The product's support team has certain shortcomings, not from the solution's portal perspective but from the back-end side."
"Allowing more third-party applications to be integrated into the cloud platform would make it easier for customers to adopt SAP Cloud Platform."
"There is a lot of room for improvement in customer service and support. The availability of knowledgeable support to the implementation partners and the customers could be better."
"We need to connect our ERP solution via the VPN. We need to make sure our ERP solutions aren't exposed to the outside world. Our teams really struggle with this."
"Everything is very expensive, so it is not helping with the infrastructure costs."
"I would like to see more and better support for data transformations."
"Regarding improvements, I think the user experience, specifically the developer experience during design time, could be better. Platforms like MuleSoft and Flowgear have much better design times."
"From what I understand, the SAP Cloud Platform is for implementation on AWS or Azure, and it's not meant to be a full-fledged cloud solution, so while using the platform, an area for improvement is that it has fewer offerings and is less flexible when compared to AWS. AWS has a lot more flexibility than the SAP Cloud Platform. I've also used Azure in college and AWS in between, and I prefer AWS over the SAP Cloud Platform. The only reason I would ever stick with the SAP Cloud Platform is to create applications integrated with SAP or with other companies within SAP, such as SuccessFactors. When you go into the SAP Cloud Platform web page, it's a bit bland and has relatively limited offerings. For example, there doesn't seem to be in-house MongoDB support, but I realize there's in-house support for the PostgreSQL database, so there are fewer offerings in the SAP Cloud Platform. Yes, you can always go for a database on the actual MongoDB server rather than depending on the offerings of the SAP Cloud Platform. However, it's still better to support MongoDB from the platform, so payment is consolidated, rather than going to a different location to make a payment. Another room for improvement in the SAP Cloud Platform is the need to create an SAP subaccount if you need to use the platform unless you have an SSO login by Google or if you're using a different identity provider such as Microsoft or Google. Instead of requiring dependency on SAP, it would be good if users could use the SAP Cloud Platform even without a subaccount on SAP. For example, when hosting an application on AWS or Azure, you don't have to create an account in Amazon or Microsoft. You can still do it using Google. You can use almost anything, so I'd like SAP to improve by removing the dependency, particularly the requirement to create an SAP account to use the SAP Cloud Platform."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM has a lesser price compared to other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS."
"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."
"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."
"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."
"IBM Public Cloud is pretty cheap. They have an ongoing free tier that basically won't expire, so as long as your solution is small enough, you can have a test set that you can use for demos, which will cost you almost nothing."
"We are using the trial version of this solution, so we have not paid anything."
"The price of IBM Cloud is very cheap compared to competitors AWS and Azure."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."
"The tool could get too pricey...Small enterprises that want to leverage the tool's features will have difficulty in utilizing the solution."
"SAP's pricing is usually high compared to the competition. But this is also justified because they hold their products and services to quite high standards."
"SAP Cloud Platform is expensive. It can be quite costly."
"Cost-wise, I'm unsure of how expensive the SAP Cloud Platform is."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."
"The cost when it comes to monitoring can be difficult."
"SAP Cloud Platform is generally more expensive than the other options."
"SAP Cloud Platform costs $2 to $5 per hour, while I found other platforms way more affordable. You have to pay per use, though that's fine because that means the cost is flexible."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Educational Organization
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
University
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise4
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise26
 

Questions from the Community

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?
IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Public Cloud?
The prices are relatively lower compared to others. It is a good option for medium-sized businesses. However, businesses should also consider other vendors to ensure they meet their specific securi...
What needs improvement with IBM Public Cloud?
The connectivity and speed of IBM Public Cloud are much lower compared to the competition.
Which is better - SAP Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure?
One of the best features of SAP Cloud Platform is that it is web-based and you can log in from anywhere in the world. SAP Cloud Platform is suitable for companies of any size; it works well with bo...
How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS?
How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS? Amazon AWS offers options both in terms of upgrading and expanding capabilities as well as acquiring greater storage space. These upgrades can ...
What do you like most about SAP Cloud Platform?
The product improved our company's business operations since we got value out of it.
 

Also Known As

IBM Bluemix
SAP HANA Cloud Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Uvionics Tech, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alpha Modus, Inventive, Web Business Consulting, FindBrok, SilverHook Powerboats, United Way of Allegheny County
Siemens, Shell & Volkswagen, Still, EarlySense, Roche, National Football League, Heidelberg University Hospital, In Mind Computing, The Timken Company, OPAL, EnterpriseJungle, Groupe Danone, Accenture, T-Systems, Sailing Team Germany, Sloan Valve
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Public Cloud vs. SAP Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,732 professionals have used our research since 2012.