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SAP ERP vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.8
SAP ERP optimizes inventory and efficiency, offering long-term savings despite unclear ROI, benefiting finance more than other departments.
Sentiment score
4.5
SAP S/4HANA Cloud users saw long-term ROI and efficiency, despite high initial costs and varied experiences.
The transcript suggests SAP S4HANA Cloud may offer cost and time savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
SAP ERP customer service is valued for knowledgeable support but criticized for response delays and high costs without priority plans.
Sentiment score
6.9
SAP S/4HANA Cloud's service is praised for professionalism but criticized for long response times and support channel navigation challenges.
SAP technical support is very good.
The technical team is skilled, but the process of reaching the correct team is cumbersome from an end-user perspective.
My experience shows that it often requires another level or two to reach someone who can effectively address the problems.
For support of this product, I would rate it nine points.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
SAP ERP is highly scalable, with adaptability and modularity praised, though smaller businesses may face complexity and cost challenges.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is praised for scalability, adaptability, and integration, suiting both large and small enterprises effectively.
It is scalable when moving from one version to another or adding additional components like warehouse management.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
SAP ERP is highly stable and reliable, with minimal downtime and effective performance in various operational environments.
Sentiment score
7.4
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is praised for stability and performance, though updates and customizations can occasionally affect reliability.
Stability-wise, SAP ERP is the best product among others.
It is very flexible and can cater to every industry.
SAP S_4HANA Cloud is very stable, especially for bigger corporates that are geographically spread out.
 

Room For Improvement

SAP ERP needs better user interface, easier integration, improved support, flexible reporting, affordable pricing, and enhanced user-friendliness.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud needs interface, mobile, and user improvements, with cost, integration, and complexity posing challenges for businesses.
Features that allow transactions based on barcoding should be part of the ERP component.
This reliance on ETL experts or data engineers is necessary to ensure clean quality data, which is critical for the effective operation of the SAP S_4HANA system.
It should have features or facilities so customers can get audit-related queries resolved independently without requiring ticket-based service.
The challenge is that if a customer has already deployed the entire solution on-premises, it becomes difficult to immediately convert to the new product and manage new license costs.
 

Setup Cost

SAP ERP is costly, favored by large enterprises for features, but may deter smaller businesses due to high expenses.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud pricing is modular and expensive, typically more suitable for larger enterprises than smaller businesses.
The pricing for SAP ERP is medium but slightly on the higher side.
 

Valuable Features

SAP ERP offers integration, customization, and scalability with strong finance modules, enhancing decision-making and user experience for enterprises.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud enhances business efficiency with integration, real-time analytics, scalability, and global access, supporting diverse platforms.
The consistent integrations and real-time data analytics in SAP ERP significantly enhance the decision-making process by facilitating follow-ups and action points.
SAP S_4HANA Cloud provides faster real-time transaction processing compared to ECC 6.0.
Real-time analytics is valuable when data is visible to all segments.
The integration between SAP EWM and S4HANA Cloud is seamless.
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP ERP
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
105
Ranking in other categories
ERP (2nd)
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Cloud ERP (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, they serve different purposes. SAP ERP is designed for ERP and holds a mindshare of 18.8%, down 22.7% compared to last year.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud ERP, holds 16.9% mindshare, up 12.3% since last year.
ERP
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Patrick Posch - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides full integration and automates workflows
The best feature of SAP ERP is the full integration. Each model in the SAP system works with the same data. You have only one single point of truth, considering the data. You can automate many things in SAP, like workflows and some APIs to send and receive EDI (electronic data interchange) documents from our customers and suppliers.
Ramesh Pampana - PeerSpot reviewer
Extensive real-time analytics and superior support enhance decision making but continued product evolution impacts existing investments
Improvement is needed, and they need to slow down. When I say slow down, they need to do more validation. Things are going rapidly and changing fast. For example, they moved from SAP SRM product to SAP CLM. They bought IBM CLM and marketed it as SAP CLM. Shortly after, they bought SAP Ariba and discontinued the SAP CLM product. Now they state that SAP SRM is outdated and has reached sunset. The challenge is that if a customer has already deployed the entire solution on-premises, it becomes difficult to immediately convert to the new product and manage new license costs. From a consulting perspective, it appears that SAP's biggest competitor is itself, as they sometimes discontinue their own products to promote new ones.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Retailer
7%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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?
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...
What do you like most about SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
The manufacturing area is a good feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is very expensive, both to purchase and maintain. It's important to evaluate the costs of recruiting and maintaining trained personnel as it's not just a one-time payment yet requ...
What needs improvement with SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
While SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers numerous functional benefits and powerful integration capabilities, there remain certain usability and operational challenges—particularly within the Fiori applicatio...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP S4HANA Cloud
 

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.
La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Microsoft, Infor and others in ERP. Updated: May 2025.
857,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.