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Ellucian vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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

Ellucian
Ranking in ERP
28th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Student Information System (SIS) (1st)
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Busi...
Ranking in ERP
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Activity Based Costing Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the ERP category, the mindshare of Ellucian is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is 2.8%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
ERP Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central2.8%
Ellucian1.2%
Other96.0%
ERP
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1308615 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Dean at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Presents all information in one place and automates some of our manual processes
This product is used by more than 50 colleges in our state and it is purchased by the government. The system office does the testing and pushes out the patches to us, so everything has been testing. Even if there is any customization that needs to be done, it happens before it comes to us. As such, I haven't had to contact technical support myself.
Jacinta Chanda - PeerSpot reviewer
Examinations Manager at Northrise University
Integrated academic workflows have transformed how our institution manages courses and results
For Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, every time we need to make an adjustment, we must make a payment, which is slightly expensive for us as an organization. There are certain modifications we'd like to make, and those come with a cost. The licensing is also very expensive, so if the prices could be revisited, especially for educational institutions, that would be really helpful. Otherwise, it has proven to be a very good tool for us as an organization. I chose a rating of nine for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central because it has been very useful for us as an organization, but there are still a few improvements that need to be made. Sometimes we experience glitches when generating certain reports, and every time we need to make a modification, we have to pay for that. Thus, I will not give it a ten because there are a few areas needing improvement.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Using Ellucian means that we have more automated processes, and don't have to do everything manually."
"Decent support, large installed base, adequate plus training."
"I like that all of the student information is in one place."
"One of the most valuable features of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is its ease of installation and user-friendly interface."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The solution is the most stable business ERP available, and changes in development, processes, and integrated apps do not affect the stability."
"The best features Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers for me is that this software makes my life very easy, as I have a complete snapshot of my pipeline and a complete snapshot of my daily activities, where I can see what the status of my leads is, where I am standing in terms of closure, and the aging of my opportunities, which tells me how much time there is in the opportunity."
"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."
"The audit trails, which include any IP system, are very useful."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is cloud accessibility."
"The solution is very well integrated and doesn't require a lot of work in that respect, and one of the advantages is that the vertical covers all aspects of the functionality for the various areas of operations and integrates easily with the existing Office products, BI, and CRM."
 

Cons

"The functionality for monitoring satisfactory academic progress has room for improvement."
"It is expensive and uses an antiquated database (Unidata) that requires a specialized set of technical skills in staff."
"Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has been buggy in my experience and they should improve in this area. Additionally, there are too many updates. The updates involve a whole bunch of applications as part of the package, such as the Edge browser. The updates are too broad across the whole package of applications."
"There is a book for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central explaining how to use it. But it is not easy to use, and it is not easy to learn."
"The price of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central could be reduced."
"The tool needs to work on reporting issues and user interface."
"I would like to improve the tool’s reporting and coding part."
"Customer service and support are mixed. Sometimes the support is quick, but other times it is very slow."
"I work in Pakistan, and many people want desktop solutions. They don't want to work on the cloud. They want a strictly on-premises solution."
"An improvement would be the customizations that we do tend to limit by adapting our processes to the software."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution's cost is reasonable."
"Business Central charges a monthly fee of $70 to $100 per user."
"I give the solution a seven out of ten for pricing."
"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."
"The first time we tried to buy the newest version, it was expensive."
"The on-premises model of Dynamics NAV is very expensive, hence our plan to migrate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, which appears to fit our needs better in terms of pricing. Compared to competitors, the cloud version of Dynamics is in the middle; not too high and not too low."
"Its licensing is yearly. In addition to the licensing cost, there is the cost of hosting on Azure."
"NAV might be a little pricey for a small or medium-sized company, but all the solutions out there are."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
31%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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Is it advisable to purchase Dynamics CRM in addition to NAV 2016?
Short answer: depends on your sales needs. NAV 2016’s built-in CRM is very basic. It’s fine for simple contact management and basic sales tracking, but it lacks: Proper pipeline management Adva...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
Microsoft Dynamics NAV pricing can vary significantly depending on the number of users, deployment model, customizations, and implementation scope. In my experience, the software license is only pa...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
For Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, every time we need to make an adjustment, we must make a payment, which is slightly expensive for us as an organization. There are certain modifications...
 

Also Known As

Datatel
Dynamics NAV, MS Dynamics NAV
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Oklahoma Christian University
Harris Farm Markets, Mister Spex GmbH, Bounce Foods, Eurofin Services SA, Medica Medizintechnik, Associated Gaskets, Onduline, Sitka Surfboard Corporation, World Animal Protection
Find out what your peers are saying about Ellucian vs. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.