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SAP ERP vs SAP S/4HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
4.5
SAP ERP offers ROI in 2-4 years by improving efficiency, automation, and cost savings, despite challenges tracking specific returns.
Sentiment score
5.1
SAP S/4HANA offers high long-term ROI by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and providing innovation despite initial investments.
SAP ERP did provide value for money.
CIO at Vortella
It's not a matter of the solution; it's a matter of the clients and the approach that we follow.
Works at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
If we can maximize that, we can get the full price benefit of the solution.
Principal Instrument and Control at PETRONAS
We have observed a good return on investment, with calculations based on a five-year ROI plan.
Account executive at Cisco
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
SAP ERP's customer service is praised for professionalism but criticized for inefficiencies and slow response times on priority issues.
Sentiment score
6.2
SAP S/4HANA support is mostly satisfactory, with varying experiences influenced by response times, partnership levels, and team efficiency.
SAP technical support is very good.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
It was very quick, and we didn't have many tickets, but every time any issues arose, they were very quickly resolved.
CIO at Vortella
It is not easy to justify something as high priority unless the system is completely down.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
A traditional challenge with SAP support is that SAP teams only support the standard functions, which are part of the product.
Delivery Head- IT Shared Services at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Establishing the right channels was a challenge, as BTP was new to everyone, including our SAP contacts.
Chief Executive Officer at LogicalDNA Solutions
I would rate the support a ten because there are a lot of knowledge-based articles published, and most of them are available online.
Program Director at KloudData Inc.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
SAP ERP is scalable and adaptable, effectively supporting growth with flexible architecture and cloud options despite initial integration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP S/4HANA offers flexible scaling in cloud environments, praised for adaptability but can be costly for smaller firms.
It is scalable when moving from one version to another or adding additional components like warehouse management.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
The scalability of SAP ERP is excellent.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
SAP S/4HANA scales exceptionally well.
Enterprise Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
It is very easy to scale within businesses, especially when a new business falls within the range.
Project accountant at Montego Upstream Services Limited
Scalability is a key strength of SAP, especially for HANA, compared to all the other ERPs.
Delivery Head- IT Shared Services at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
SAP ERP is widely regarded for its stability and reliability, with minimal bugs and strong performance surpassing other ERPs.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP S/4HANA is stable and reliable with some challenges in data handling, customizations, and infrastructure-dependent performance variations.
Production processes would be on hold without stability, so it is quite important that the software is very stable.
CIO at Vortella
Stability-wise, SAP ERP is the best product among others.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
The SAP HANA system is not very easy to unlock, and it's something strange as, compared to other databases, when transaction logs are full, you stop the system, run the transaction log backups, and then restart.
Associate Partner - SAP Solution Architect and MDG expert at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Not very often, but it can happen, especially with user load; if many people use the system at the same time, there might be issues depending on various factors.
Enterprise Architect at E.ON
I rate the stability of SAP S_4HANA as fairly stable because we have never experienced any downtime from SAP, and the performance is good.
Head of IT at Genix Pharma (Private) Limited
 

Room For Improvement

SAP ERP struggles with integration, user interface, high costs, and complicated usability, needing improvement in accessibility and flexibility.
SAP S/4HANA requires better integration, usability, and cost adjustment, alongside improved migration, support, and predictive analytics features.
SAP ERP could improve by integrating additional components such as digital signatures and barcoding.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
SAP recently implemented Databricks, and they started investing significantly in the analytic environment.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
I believe that SAP ERP needs to include AI functionality now, as I think it would be a significant change that could improve and enhance the product.
Manager at Innatech
Organizations face challenges like adapting to new technologies rapidly, and whether customers are early or late adopters influences their experience.
Managing Director at a recruiting/HR firm with 501-1,000 employees
I can perform a lot of data manipulation directly on SAP using S-One, without having to resort to Excel, unlike with View ID.
Project accountant at Montego Upstream Services Limited
The performance of the SAP interface could be improved.
Associate Partner - SAP Solution Architect and MDG expert at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

SAP ERP is costly with flexible licensing options, valued by larger organizations for features but complex for smaller businesses.
SAP S/4HANA is costly, with various licensing models and high pricing, often challenging for smaller businesses compared to competitors.
Small and medium companies can struggle with the pricing.
CIO at Vortella
The pricing for SAP ERP is medium but slightly on the higher side.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
It's higher compared to similar peer solutions.
Account executive at Cisco
Most users or IT professionals typically criticize the high price of SAP license costs.
Enterprise Architect at E.ON
It's not easy to have a clear understanding of the price and the value, especially if I talk about the business transaction platform.
Associate Partner - SAP Solution Architect and MDG expert at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Valuable Features

SAP ERP integrates finance, HR, and manufacturing with real-time insights, flexible architecture, and extensive automation for large enterprises.
SAP S/4HANA enhances business operations with integrated features, real-time analytics, user-friendly interfaces, and cloud-based scalability.
The consistent integrations and real-time data analytics in SAP ERP significantly enhance the decision-making process by facilitating follow-ups and action points.
Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
SAP ERP has impacted our organization positively because it is highly customizable to build any process we have in our companies and to write programs.
CIO at Vortella
SAP ERP is particularly strong in manufacturing, from production planning to plant maintenance, then Material Management itself, and managing warehouse management and inventory control.
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
It enables the posting of transactions and allows us to see the impact across various application scenarios, providing significant benefits for business.
Enterprise Architect at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The way SAP has helped our customers is by establishing a discipline where industry-specific operations and SAP's standard processes work hand in hand, improving resource utilization, material movement control, and cost control.
Chief Executive Officer at LogicalDNA Solutions
The insights given help us make strategic decisions.
Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP ERP
Ranking in ERP
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP S/4HANA
Ranking in ERP
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
125
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the ERP category, the mindshare of SAP ERP is 11.6%, down from 20.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP S/4HANA is 6.4%, down from 14.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ERP Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP S/4HANA6.4%
SAP ERP11.6%
Other82.0%
ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Achmad Dimyati - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Service Management Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Long-term adaptation and evolution meets changing technology trends
SAP ERP is not really real-time. We use the HANA database which is supposed to be memory data in memory, but we are still not very happy. It is supposed to be real-time and come very quickly, but in reality, it still takes time to run. That is why we use BW of SAP, Business Objects, and now we have moved to the Analytic Cloud where we start using predictive AI. SAP recently implemented Databricks, and they started investing significantly in the analytic environment. SAP ERP has been left behind as they moved to S/4HANA with the HANA database. They restructured the whole table structure of SAP ERP, introduced simple finance, simple logistics, and moved HR to SuccessFactors. They have the BTP layer where they manage everything from integration to master data management. The challenge with SAP is that they move very fast to different products and buy different products. It requires significant investment and many skills to catch up because all of these have different sets of technology. The fundamental has changed differently. It is not monolithic anymore but different products under one name, SAP. You have to buy it model by model for additional models. Products such as SuccessFactors, Ariba for procure to pay, Concur for travel, and Facility Management use totally different technology. They try to integrate with each other, but it remains a challenge for SAP to make them have the same management, technology, and operational approach.
Deepak Madhavan - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Head- IT Shared Services at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Implementation simplifies ERP management with comprehensive data integration and visibility
A lot of people would say the pricing. SAP is seen as quite expensive even now. It doesn't work for smaller or medium optimizations. The licensing and pricing could be looked at. In Brownfield migration, the trade-off between greenfield and brownfield means you either keep it clean or match the business requirements. Sometimes, it's not possible to do both. While ValixAPI provides significant support in making those decisions and the SAP consultant is very useful, we are still dependent on past history and how it was originally set up. I wouldn't call that a real disadvantage, yet more accessible consulting would be beneficial. Incorporating all other cloud products, like APO or IPP, into the S/4 house might also help.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
University
7%
Retailer
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise31
Large Enterprise76
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise26
Large Enterprise53
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
What needs improvement with SAP ERP?
I do not know how to give feedback regarding SAP ERP's analytics tools. The usage of analytics tools is not very popular among our customers, as some functions are not very modern. Customer study t...
Are there any advantages of SAP S4 HANA over SAP Business One (SAP B1) apart from the cost?
SaP Business One is a complete solution for business management. The software applications are broad, ranging from accounting to project management and human resources. It is very versatile and com...
What needs improvement with SAP S4HANA?
In my opinion, areas of SAP S/4HANA that have room for improvement would be in AI and insights generation, which would be a good enhancement for the future. Currently, this analytics is still drive...
What is your primary use case for SAP S4HANA?
My experience with SAP S_4HANA involves working on several projects helping customers prepare their transition from ECC to SAP S_4HANA. My role was to study the gap and technical feasibility by exe...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP S4HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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.
Nestle, O.C. Tanner, Sabre, New York Life Insurance Co., MEMEBOX, Siemens AG.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP ERP vs. SAP S/4HANA and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,889 professionals have used our research since 2012.