Alibaba Cloud vs SAP S4HANA on AWS comparison

Alibaba and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are both solutions in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category. Alibaba is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.3, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.0. Alibaba holds a 13.3% mindshare in ISI, compared to Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s 3.7% mindshare. Additionally, 75% of Alibaba users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 97% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users who would recommend it.

Alibaba Cloud

Read 19 Alibaba Cloud reviews

6,239 Views
5,038 Comparison Views

75% willing to recommend

SAP S4HANA on AWS

Read 41 SAP S4HANA on AWS reviews

2,208 Views
1,821 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Alibaba Cloud

SAP S4HANA on AWS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

SAP S4HANA on AWS and Alibaba Cloud compete in cloud computing, focusing on ERP and infrastructure services respectively. SAP S4HANA on AWS seems to have the technological upper hand with advanced features and robust database management, but it faces criticism for high costs, while Alibaba Cloud offers a more economical solution with flexibility for SMEs.

Features: SAP S4HANA on AWS offers high-performance capabilities with the HANA database, enabling efficient real-time processing and integration. Its AWS integration minimizes the need for extensive on-premises setups, enhancing scalability. Alibaba Cloud provides economical solutions with flexible tools similar to AWS, offering a user-friendly interface and appealing pricing for SMEs, especially in Asia.

Room for Improvement: SAP S4HANA on AWS could benefit from reduced complexity and a better user interface, alongside more comprehensive documentation and expanded cloud provider support. Alibaba Cloud needs to address latency issues outside China, improve technical support, and enhance its SDK services.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP S4HANA on AWS offers reliable integration across various cloud environments, supported by AWS's robust infrastructure support, although costly. User satisfaction with support varies. Alibaba Cloud is noted for its simplicity in deployment within public cloud infrastructures but requires improvements in technical support and community resources.

Pricing and ROI: SAP S4HANA on AWS is a high-cost solution justified by its advanced features and long-term cloud hosting savings. Pricing varies with licensing models. Alibaba Cloud, with its competitive pricing, is attractive to businesses in Asia, promising cost savings and a stable ROI compared to major competitors.

To learn more, read our detailed Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS

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

Alibaba Cloud

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

8th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP S4HANA on AWS

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

7th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Alibaba Cloud is 13.3%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP S4HANA on AWS is 3.7%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

Featured Reviews

Min HtetOo

Chief Marketing Officer at Soft Intelligence

The solution is useful for application development, but the user interface and user experience must be improved

The product must be made easier to use. The design is a bit tricky. When we log in to the Alibaba Cloud Marketplace and browse products, they look very small. The user experience must be improved. Alibaba Cloud must increase its partner network and brand awareness in our country. It will give our customers more opportunities to scale and save in the long run.

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AtifNajam

Group CIO at Ghulam Faruque Group

Strong integration in manufacturing and enhances flexibility with useful workflow management

Installation is very straightforward, however, implementation takes years or months based on the project's size. In manufacturing, the requirement might go from ten to 12 people. If I'm a sales-oriented company, such as an FMCG or something else, then I might need around seven or eight people at the very minimum. It is not an easy task to migrate. If I'm moving from a different ERP to S/4HANA, I need a proper project that probably spans several months, with significant engagement from both the business side and the technical side. I need an opportunity partner on it. Processing to SCE S/4HANA takes a bit of effort.

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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

"I rate Alibaba Cloud's scalability an eight out of ten."

"Feature-wise, it provides many features. ECS, VM, SP, bucket object storage, and databases are the most valuable."

"Flexibility and costs were probably the most important thing for us. The cost was one of the big factors for choosing Alibaba Cloud relative to other cloud solutions, especially in Asia"

"It is a scalable product. So, scaling up or scaling down is possible."

"Alibaba Cloud has lower costs and good support."

"The most valuable feature of Alibaba Cloud is the communication it allows between two servers."

"We use the solution to run VMs."

"We use the solution's AI features for data analysis."

More Alibaba Cloud pros

"Overall, I am very satisfied with the solution, and it has proven to be highly beneficial to our organization."

"We deployed the database from another team called ECC into an SAP HANA system. The implementation project took about eighteen months. That team handled the technical aspects."

"The reporting capability is good, providing very in-depth information."

"This solution has one of the most modern databases and it is very stable."

"The HANA database is a valuable feature"

"Reporting transparency and user-friendliness are the key benefit of deploying SAP S4HANA on AWS. Furthermore, the solution offers a plethora of modules that have proven to be valuable, and there are regular updates available."

"They have their own instances where you can host your database."

"There are two main features that we find very valuable. One is the interface and the new user experience. That's really, really helpful for the end-user. The second is the HANA database itself because it speeds up the process. In other solutions, like Oracle, there is a lot of redundancy that slows things down."

More SAP S4HANA on AWS pros

Cons

"The solution needs to improve its graphical user interface."

"Alibaba Cloud needs to increase availability in Thailand."

"A big area for improvement in Alibaba Cloud is its support. Another area for improvement in Alibaba Cloud is SDK-based service because sometimes, the SDKs don't work correctly. Support for API-based services also needs improvement in Alibaba Cloud because, at the moment, it's not that stable."

"Alibaba Cloud's initial setup is somewhat complex."

"The solution should have more integration."

"I think that sometimes the customer service for Alibaba Cloud is inefficient.... Sometimes it's hard to reach out to them."

"The support offered by the tool is ridiculous."

"Alibaba Cloud has some problems related to latency and connection issues. If you go for a cloud solution provider, you will need to access the Internet, which may result in latency and bandwidth issues, leading to slowness in operations."

More Alibaba Cloud cons

"The product can be very complex."

"SAP S4HANA on AWS could improve by having more data centers because there are limited data centers in the region I am in. Amazon AWS has announced a few more data centers to be added, but they're still not 100 percent operational for SAP solutions."

"Over the last three to four years, I haven't encountered significant issues with SAP S/4HANA. While occasional system bugs are normal in software, the overall experience has been positive. As a business partner, it stands out as a reliable ERP solution."

"There might be an additional document approval workflow that can be done on top of already existing functionality."

"SAP S4HANA on AWS could improve by having the entire solution available as a web solution. They only have Fiori right now, and it's a solution for certain modules, but not for all the modules that SAP currently has. We would like to see the GUI removed, it is not very good. We want it to be web-based."

"The solution's overall enterprise support could be improved."

"More availability zones will help customers choose AWS. I would like to see features that provide easier onboarding for ERP solutions like SAP. SAP has already partnered with S/4HANA on AWS for hosting its public cloud as well. More educational videos for customers to choose this cloud path would be great to have. That is, providing more documentation and marketing material would be better."

"S4HANA is expensive. It costs much more than SuccessFactors."

More SAP S4HANA on AWS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Alibaba Cloud is good. If I was to use Microsoft Azure I would have to pay 30 percent more."

"We cut our costs significantly by migrating our infrastructure to the cloud. Alibaba Cloud employs a pay-as-you-go model, so that minimizes many costs for us."

"The solution's pricing is the same as AWS'."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten."

"I noticed on the pricing that it's quite expensive. It is the price you pay for making a practical choice for enterprise-level companies since it has so many features and it fits an enterprise-level company just like our company right now."

"The cost of Alibaba Cloud is lower than that of AWS, but I feel that its price is on the higher end of the spectrum. Alibaba Cloud charges its users a price in dollars"

"Pricing for Alibaba Cloud is a little bit cheaper. It has reasonable pricing."

"I'm not sure about the exact pricing, but let's just say if it cost a dollar for Amazon AWS, it was closer to 70 to 80 cents for Alibaba Cloud."

More Alibaba Cloud pricing and cost advice

"It is a significant investment, around six hundred thousand dollars, and it involves both a one-time on-premises installation on servers and a cloud subscription with different flavors for SAP S4HANA."

"The pricing is a little bit high."

"The pricing is on the higher end."

"Licensing fees are on an annual basis."

"SAP S4HANA on AWS has reasonable pricing."

"On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the highest price, I rate the solution's pricing an eight."

"We pay an annual subscription fee for the solution, which is slightly expensive."

"I would rate the pricing as a two and a half out of five."

More SAP S4HANA on AWS pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alibaba Cloud?

ECS is the most valuable feature of the solution.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alibaba Cloud?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a three out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Alibaba Cloud?

Alibaba Cloud needs to improve emails. Its pricing can also be lower. Regarding security issues, Alibaba Cloud is more complex and better suited for developers and R&D teams. On the other hand,...

See all answers

What do you like most about SAP S4HANA on AWS?

With extensive data and a sizable client base, this ensures seamless operations, responsiveness, and overall reliability, addressing our enterprise-scale needs effectively.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP S4HANA on AWS?

The initial setup required a higher investment, but the return on investment has justified the cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP S4HANA on AWS?

Currently, we have some integration areas like Concur and Ariba that could be improved. Having these integrations as a single source rather than working in silos would be beneficial for customers.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 29% of the time

Google Cloud vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 28% of the time

Amazon AWS vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

Tencent Cloud vs Alibaba Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

More Alibaba Cloud Competitors

Microsoft Azure vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 69% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 11% of the time

Google Cloud vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 7% of the time

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud vs SAP S4HANA on AWS

Compared 6% of the time

More SAP S4HANA on AWS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alibaba Cloud

June 2025

Download Alibaba Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP S4HANA on AWS

June 2025

Download SAP S4HANA on AWS product report

Also Known As

No data available

SAP S/4HANA on AWS

Overview

Alibaba Cloud offers a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to support growing enterprises worldwide, including data storage, relational databases, big-data processing, and content delivery networks.

Alibaba

SAP customers of all sizes can fully realize all the benefits of the SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition on the AWS Cloud. With SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition on the AWS Cloud you can:

Achieve faster time to value with the AWS on-demand infrastructure
Rapidly provision infrastructure for SAP S/4HANA with no upfront cost or long-term commitment
Pay for only what you need Don't spend upfront costs purchasing hardware for what you can't forecast
Test and evaluate SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition with a free trial offering from SAP on AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Schneider Electric, BorderX Lab, Royal Philips, Catchpoint, Conversant, Blogmint

Brigade Group, DoHome, Royal FloraHolland

Buyer's Guide

Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS

June 2025

Free Report: Alibaba Cloud vs. SAP S4HANA on AWS

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