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IFS Cloud Platform vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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

IFS Cloud Platform
Ranking in ERP
13th
Ranking in Activity Based Costing Software
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
CRM (21st), Customer Experience Management (7th), Field Service Management (2nd), Help Desk Software (11th), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) (3rd), Local Government CRM (6th), IT Asset Management (10th), IT Service Management (ITSM) (10th), License Management (3rd)
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Busi...
Ranking in ERP
3rd
Ranking in Activity Based Costing Software
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the ERP category, the mindshare of IFS Cloud Platform is 2.5%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is 6.5%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Brendan Fisher - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust, customizable, and modern
IFS is a very large and complex software, and implementation of IFS can be challenging and may lead to a difficult lengthy project. It can take between 12 and 24 months in some cases to deploy. I have found that not all clients are fully aware of how big the task is that they're undertaking when they make a decision to move to software like this. Companies need to be more aware of the complexity of an ERP implementation project and while I fully recommend moving to IFS, it is not easy and does require business change when adopting an ERP solution. New features are a difficult ask - I work across multiple industries and everyone would probably choose a different feature. Maybe BIM in Construction or Customs link-ups for importers/exporters.
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

"Feature-wise, I like the way it provides inventory details...It is a stable solution."
"A high level of ERP can be handled in IFS."
"The solution overall is very versatile and flexible, especially compared to other products."
"The product is quite flexible."
"The platform is reliable and stable."
"Individual user profiles that can be configured as templates to minimize data entry."
"Having a young talented programmer, during the six years of use, we were able to save around 75 000 EUR preparing simple modifications using customization rather than ordering them in IFS / Partner."
"One of our favorite features is the "Info-Zone", which provides operational intelligence in flight and in context to guide both business users and support teams to productivity."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Business Central for me are its seamless integration with Power BI and the ability to create customized reports."
"The vertical covers all aspects of functionality and integrates easily with the existing Office products."
"The value for money is very high as it fits the business well."
"The product is customizable so we can tune it according to our requirements."
"I like Microsoft Dynamics' simplicity. The interface is excellent, and it's a highly mature product. You can hardly find any bugs in the product."
"Its most valuable feature is the user interface."
"The initial setup is easy - because it stands on Microsoft offerings, it's simple and intuitive to use."
 

Cons

"It would be ideal if, in the future, the product could incorporate IoT and blockchain elements. We'd like to explore more of these types of features going forward."
"An area for improvement would be transactions, which can be tedious to complete as the process is very complex."
"The support provided by IFS Applications has room for improvement. I'm based in Poland, and when my company had an issue, finding people from IFS to give my company the support it needed was difficult."
"Ability to place approval check-points in the custom workflow, so clients can decide what they want it."
"The next version has already been released, and some of the technical things are a little bit behind the curve in development. This is specifically security, maintenance, security role maintenance, and creation. This is in their new product, called IFS Cloud."
"I'm a business analyst, so I do a lot of customer-facing work. I take calls from businesses I have to troubleshoot. One thing that bugs me is the error messages you get from IFS. If I get an error message, I have to dig to find the cause because, often, the error message doesn't precisely describe the problem. It'll hint about where the problem lies, but you have to work to find the root cause. It doesn't help in my situation. You expect an error message to point to the field or what is causing the issue."
"Technical support could be improved."
"There are certain digital features that need to be incorporated, such as IOP."
"Customization and costs could be improved."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV could be improved in terms of exporting income statements and balance sheets. Currently, there is a feature, but you can only have the last three years. I spent some time trying to improve the KPI portion that exports the data, that already calculates the sub forms or subtotals, but they weren't able to break that up into different dimensions. They've now managed to crowd the separate table and you can export that, but it's only for the last three years. So, they could improve this solution by getting the chart of accounts or the account schedules to be exported, where you can go further than just three years with it."
"I wouldn't say that Microsoft Dynamics is very scalable."
"The stability could always be improved."
"The performance and virtual machine backup is not good with this solution and need improvements."
"The solution's event management can be improved."
"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 solution is stable, but it could improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of the solution may appear to be expensive for smaller companies with only tens of users; however, for larger and mid-size industrial companies, IFS is able to win deals and the pricing is competitive in the market."
"Compared to SAP, the pricing for IFS Applications was very affordable. People using the solution would find that it's worth the money."
"Licensing is on an annual basis, with no additional costs."
"I consider it to be a well-priced solution compared to other mid-range or high-end ERP solutions."
"There's an additional yearly cost for support."
"Pricing is an area that could be improved. They could be more competitive."
"The additional cost that comes with the solution includes the overhead of the people who are trying to fix the tool issues. These people are trying to reproduce the issue and report it to the technical support and testing with them which is huge. It is the cost of quality in the end."
"We pay for a license to use the solution, which is not very expensive."
"The price of the solution could be reduced to improve their offering."
"The price of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is reasonable. We pay monthly for the use of the solution."
"$80-$100 per license, per month."
"The solution's license is costly compared to other CRM tools."
"I have some subscription-based customer and a few customers who have perpetual licenses that hosted the application on the cloud."
"The on-premises model of Dynamics NAV is very expensive, hence our plan to migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, which appears to fit our needs better in terms of pricing. Compared to competitors, the cloud version of Dynamics is in the middle; not too high and not too low."
"The deployment cost us $70,000 and we pay around $18,000 annually for support, which we find to be expensive."
"We have a perpetual license to use Microsoft Dynamics NAV."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
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 do you like most about IFS Applications?
Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten since it is an extremely scalable solution that can be used for various use cases with thousands of users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IFS Applications?
The product is reasonably priced. The costs are justified by the value provided, considering the comprehensive features and minimal need for customization. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with IFS Applications?
I am not able to recall much about batch. Documentation-wise, they need more. There is not much available online, and the documentation availability is on the lower side compared to other products,...
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

IFS Applications, Assyst, IFS Cloud
Dynamics NAV, MS Dynamics NAV
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

China Airlines, Electrolux Group, Babcock, Cimcorp, Sky, Multiplex, Veolia. 
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 IFS Cloud Platform vs. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.