SAP Business ByDesign vs SAP ERP comparison

The compared SAP Business ByDesign and SAP ERP solutions aren't in the same category. SAP Business ByDesign is ranked #5 in CE , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 8.3% mindshare in the category. SAP ERP is ranked #2 in ERP , with an average rating of 7.8, and holds a 18.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of SAP Business ByDesign users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of SAP ERP users who would recommend it.

SAP Business ByDesign

Read 16 SAP Business ByDesign reviews

1,014 Views
588 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SAP ERP

Read 105 SAP ERP reviews

14,855 Views
12,627 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

SAP Business ByDesign

SAP ERP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SAP Business ByDesign and SAP ERP based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, NetSuite, SAP and others in Cloud ERP.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud ERP Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud ERP

June 2025

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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

SAP Business ByDesign

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud ERP (5th)

SAP ERP

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

105

Ranking in other categories

ERP (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, they serve different purposes. SAP Business ByDesign is designed for Cloud ERP and holds a mindshare of 8.3%, down 9.1% compared to last year.
SAP ERP, on the other hand, focuses on ERP, holds 18.7% mindshare, down 22.4% since last year.

Cloud ERP

ERP

Featured Reviews

Majid-Mustafa

Senior SAP Technical Consultant at Tallimax Consultancy

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.

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Srinivasan Kuppuswamy

Founder Partner & Chief Consultant at Sagesse Abundance

The amazing, robust framework with unlimited scalability earns its #1 status

The solution is not ready for the current e-commerce environment. Its was built for large enterprises who need to predictably optimize their human, material, and financial resources. ERP has evolved and businesses are changing. There are not many large corporations. Most are small enterprises with the capabilities of large enterprises through networking and platform integration. Some companies promote products but get things done with other enterprises as a network. Companies do not want to create new capacity but want to leverage existing capacity with innovative products. They do not want to spend resources on duplicating capacity or facilities. I do not think any ERP product is ready to support this environment so ERPs as a whole might end up being used for back-office functions only. It is not easy to evolve an ERP product because its intent is to integrate functions and processes within an organization. Whereas, in the new business model, processes are not limited to one's own enterprise but cut across different enterprises. There is no enterprise solution as this point in time for the current e-commerce environment so companies must integrate with many solutions.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"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."

"The most valuable features of Business ByDesign are the integration of its modules, analytics, and dashboards."

"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."

"The standard system is stable."

"I like its modern approach. It is very modern and new technology."

"I like the tool’s customization."

More SAP Business ByDesign pros

"The Material Management and Sales and Distribution modules are great. The Financial Accounting module is also great."

"The stability is SAP ERP is not good only because the version is old. They could work on improving the versions."

"The most valuable features are that it's very customizable and it's flexible."

"The solution can easily be standardized across processes."

"It is a stable solution."

"It's a good ERP system."

"There are many interfaces, so you really can build satellites around it like with other SAP stuff or even third-party stuff."

"The architecture of the solution overall is great. It's great for development, testing, and production. I've worked with solutions where the architecture wasn't as strong and it was a disaster."

More SAP ERP pros

Cons

"SAP Business ByDesign can improve the flexibility and user-friendliness of the reporting during the implementations. Customizing the reports inside the device requires a lot of knowledge and most of the time a developer level is needed. For example, if you want to have a more specific reporting layout."

"The Arabic localization is neglected. It should have an Arabic interface. It lacks Arabic translation or support from right to left."

"The solution does not support customization for forms and reports. It's not flexible in case you need some enhancements in business processes."

"There is room for improvement in the reporting capability. To use it properly, you need intensive IT support. You cannot write your own reports."

"There might be some hurdles when integrating with SAP ECC, but integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is smooth."

"Scalability is difficult."

"ByDesign could be improved by making screen modifications easier."

"One disadvantage was that we had the legacy system, SAP Business One, and we could not migrate our data to SAP Business ByDesign. They should have provided a migration path."

More SAP Business ByDesign cons

"I'm only working on the front end with ERP's user interface, which isn't very easy for end-users. It's an old-school interface, so it's often challenging to find what you need."

"It's very difficult to find people who are well versed in it."

"Pricing could be improved for preferred customers."

"It was not designed to service all industries."

"The solution's UI could be better."

"SAP ERP could improve by having better integration with other platforms."

"In the next release, I would like to see more technical integration for directly designed solutions on behalf of the selling process so that you can design solutions and not have to use ten or more other tools to get the solution for selling."

"It has a high cost."

More SAP ERP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Everything is included in the licensing cost of the solution. However, they use a per-user model for additional charges."

"The cost starts anywhere between fifty thousand dollars and up depending on the number of licenses."

"The tool’s pricing is expensive."

"The price of the solution could be better. They have to come up with a new strategy."

"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."

"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 pricing depends on company size. It's cheaper for small companies and more expensive for large ones."

"I rate the price of SAP Business ByDesign a seven out of ten."

More SAP Business ByDesign pricing and cost advice

"SAP is a bit on the costly side, but they also provide support and other things. We are paying for licenses and the use of the cloud."

"I rate the product's price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. SAP ERP is a costly tool."

"SAP ERP is expensive."

"When we talk about pricing it is expensive. On a scale of one to ten, it would rank a two. There are no additional fees but the user licenses are high."

"Some components are available at an additional cost, depending on the type of contract that you have."

"The solution is expensive and is best-suited for large enterprises."

"There is a one-time license that is needed to use the solution. The support is what is needed to be renewed annually."

"There is an annual subscription for the use of SAP ERP."

More SAP ERP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

24%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

12%

Retailer

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

See all answers

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%.

See all answers

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...

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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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP ERP?

SAP ERP could improve by integrating additional components such as digital signatures and barcoding. Having such features embedded within the ERP would be more beneficial rather than relying on ext...

See all answers

Comparisons

SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 68% of the time

SAP S/4HANA vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 32% of the time

More SAP Business ByDesign Competitors

Infor M3 vs SAP ERP

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics AX vs SAP ERP

Compared 12% of the time

SAP S/4HANA vs SAP ERP

Compared 11% of the time

Anaplan vs SAP ERP

Compared 10% of the time

Infor LN vs SAP ERP

Compared 10% of the time

More SAP ERP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP Business ByDesign

June 2025

Download SAP Business ByDesign product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP ERP

June 2025

Download SAP ERP product report

Overview

SAP Business ByDesign is a cloud-based business management software that supports everything from finance to CRM – and is available anytime, anywhere, on almost any device. It helps medium-sized businesses seize new opportunities and accelerate growth – and it helps subsidiaries take advantage of head office resources, while keeping their flexibility.

Streamline end-to-end processes and maximize efficiency across your organization
Gain timely business insights with integrated analytics and reporting powered by SAP HANA
Manage your business from anywhere, at any time, with built-in mobile apps
Rely on highly secure data centers that are managed, monitored, and maintained by SAP experts

SAP

SAP ERP addresses the core business software requirements of midsize and large organizations in all industries and sectors. SAP ERP includes four individual solutions that support key areas of enterprise resource planning: human capital management, financials, operations, corporate services.

SAP

Sample Customers

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

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.

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