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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central vs SAP Business ByDesign 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

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Busi...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
ERP (3rd), Activity Based Costing Software (1st)
SAP Business ByDesign
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Cloud ERP (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, they serve different purposes. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed for ERP and holds a mindshare of 6.7%, up 6.3% compared to last year.
SAP Business ByDesign, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud ERP, holds 8.3% mindshare, down 8.9% since last year.
ERP
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Majid-Mustafa - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides custom versions of reports personalized for users
For AI initiatives, you need to purchase a separate AI license to integrate with SAP Business ByDesign. I'd recommend SAP Business ByDesign for large companies that want to check data graphically, especially for monthly income, expenses, and taxes in the millions or trillions. Overall, for large-scale companies, I'd rate it ten 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

"The initial setup is easy - because it stands on Microsoft offerings, it's simple and intuitive to use."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the Teams application. I use Teams to share documents amongst my team members, have meetings, and talk to them."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV is brilliant and it's a different segment when comparing it with Dynamics AX. Dynamics AX is a larger product with much more features and it's aimed at a different segment of the market."
"This is readily available and affordable, as well as user-friendly and simple to use in my opinion."
"The customer support is good. The first level of support agent in every case was able to solve the problem very quickly."
"The most valuable features of Business Central for me are its seamless integration with Power BI and the ability to create customized reports."
"I am impressed with the tool's user authentication, compatibility , and policies."
"We are getting more features after switching to Microsoft 365."
"When we were using it, we did see an immediate benefit, especially in the inventory on consignment issue. We were a biotech pre-revenue company and most of our manufacturing was outsourced. So being able to track inventory within the system without creating a financial impact was very key for us."
"I have found the consolidation of the business and group reports very useful. There is plenty of features and the manufacturing and finance aspect of the solution are strong."
"When comparing SAP Business ByDesign to much larger ERP solutions, such as SAP ECC 6.0 or SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business ByDesign is more user-friendly and easier to implement."
"The most valuable features of Business ByDesign are the integration of its modules, analytics, and dashboards."
"SAP Business ByDesign is connected to our S/4 HANA system, and we have developed some APIs which help us integrate the system with S/4 HANA."
"I like its modern approach. It is very modern and new technology."
"The most valuable feature is the feature called Financial Closing Cockpit. This feature allows us to monitor our accounting and processing closely."
"The most helpful feature is the integrations. Integrating the tool with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is easy, facilitating implementation and deployment. The runtime analysis checks for real-time analytics to see if the software works properly. This is a powerful feature."
 

Cons

"Customization and costs could be improved."
"I would like a more modular and user-friendly interface."
"The performance and virtual machine backup is not good with this solution and need improvements."
"The solution could include the retail tool in the native version."
"The configuration packages can be somewhat tiresome at times, and they can be slow when loading data."
"Any request that had come from the website had to go through an e-form which was then plugged into Microsoft Dynamics NAV. There was no direct data capture. That was the pain point, where clients had to build e-forms, and that caused delays in transactions and getting information."
"I would like to improve the tool’s reporting and coding part."
"The advanced warehouse functionalities are not available and should be improved. The purchase requisition process is also lacking, and more advanced functionalities for intercompany consolidations could be added."
"The Purchase to Pay process could benefit from further sophistication and additional functionality. It would be helpful for the user community to receive clearer information about the future roadmap of the business. Unfortunately, there were some confusing articles in the German press towards the end of last year about the future of SAP Business ByDesign. Therefore, more clarity is needed in the support function to address this."
"The payroll module of the solution could improve."
"SAP Business ByDesign is a very vast product, but it has to be a bit more centralized. All the models need to be more centralized for a better experience."
"The solution does not support customization for forms and reports. It's not flexible in case you need some enhancements in business processes."
"ByDesign could be improved by making screen modifications easier."
"I would say budget controlling needs improvement. I mention this because it does not have all the functionalities that we need in terms of managing the budget."
"The Arabic localization is neglected. It should have an Arabic interface. It lacks Arabic translation or support from right to left."
"The database needs to be more customizable."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's cost is reasonable."
"The solution's license is costly compared to other CRM tools."
"We have an agreement with Microsoft and pricing is okay for us."
"I have some subscription-based customer and a few customers who have perpetual licenses that hosted the application on the cloud."
"The tool’s licensing is yearly. The solution is cheaper compared to other ERP products from Oracle or SAP."
"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."
"NAV might be a little pricey for a small or medium-sized company, but all the solutions out there are."
"The price of the solution could be reduced to improve their offering."
"The price of the solution could be better. They have to come up with a new strategy."
"Everything is included in the licensing cost of the solution. However, they use a per-user model for additional charges."
"The pricing depends on company size. It's cheaper for small companies and more expensive for large ones."
"The tool’s pricing is expensive."
"We have to pay yearly."
"The cost starts anywhere between fifty thousand dollars and up depending on the number of licenses."
"The price of SAP Business ByDesign is less expensive than SAP S/4HANA. However, the price is on par with other similar competitors, such as Microsoft."
"The tool’s subscription is yearly. There is no flat pricing involved and everything has a range. Pricing depends on the functionality that you would use. You need to also pay for the additional hosting and maintenance costs."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
23%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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?
The advanced warehouse functionalities are not available and should be improved. The purchase requisition process is also lacking, and more advanced functionalities for intercompany consolidations ...
What do you like most about SAP Business ByDesign?
The most valuable features of SAP Business ByDesign are customer invoicing and cost and revenue, from which I get the data for my project reports.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Business ByDesign?
The price is high, as every year SAP increases the price by 3.5%.
What needs improvement with SAP Business ByDesign?
We received a few complaints about the slowness in SAP Business ByDesign last year, so I think SAP can focus on improving performance, particularly when it becomes slow during data saving and handl...
 

Also Known As

Dynamics NAV, MS Dynamics NAV
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Harris Farm Markets, Mister Spex GmbH, Bounce Foods, Eurofin Services SA, Medica Medizintechnik, Associated Gaskets, Onduline, Sitka Surfboard Corporation, World Animal Protection
Standard Bank of South Africa, AOK Bundesverband, PT XL Axiata Tbk, Tvoy Dom, Schaidt Innovations GmbH & Co. KG, DeLaval International AB, EMC Corporation, Lenovo, Castle Importing Inc., Unilever, Rifle Paper Co., RAK Ceramics, Rough Country, B&G Manufacturing, Life is good Inc., Joy Global Inc., City of Cape Town
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Microsoft, Infor and others in ERP. Updated: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.