No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

ERPNext vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

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

ERPNext
Ranking in ERP
25th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
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 ERPNext is 1.2%, up from 1.2% 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%
ERPNext1.2%
Other96.0%
ERP
 

Featured Reviews

NagendraCh - PeerSpot reviewer
Head Of Information Technology at BPM INFOTECH LLP
Installation and integration are areas that are quite easy to manage
With ERPNext, some business challenges will definitely be there. So far, my company has seen that it cannot go for bigger enterprise models, like SAP. With SAP, it is a completely different game, whereas for the SMEs having almost 100 to 500 users, ERPNext can be a good tool. With ERPNext, there can be some challenges in the case of business or routing. The tool is suitable if you have a multi-cloud environment in your company or if there is some company that prefers to be branded as an enterprise business. As there are so many third-party integrations, depending on third-party applications, all those. You know? I mean, you have so many CRM models, but the thing is that with the ERP ERPNext CRM, you can't compare it with Salesforce. For the SME sector, the tool is good. The tool's features are developed for a bigger network. It will take a little bit of time, but as of now, we can see that the tool is good for the SME sector. The tool has not come up with anything for some specific domains, like construction domains. Right now, it is a big challenge to use the tool in the education domain, but right now, the product has resolved it. Many people use the tool since it has a larger network. The tool keeps developing, and it will take time to develop. For the education domain, the tool will have to come up with LMS features and transportation, which make up for small challenges.
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

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten...I rate the product's initial setup a nine on a scale from one to ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is a very user-friendly tool that is customizable based on the business environment."
"The initial setup is easy - because it stands on Microsoft offerings, it's simple and intuitive to use."
"It improved our productivity and streamlined our processes."
"The security feature, particularly the encryption, which still builds sensitivity, is one of the most valuable features."
"Dynamics NAV can be customized to suit the client’s requirements, whether it be functionality, integrations, or interfaces."
"The solution has good dashboard functionalities and export functionalities."
"The solution's integrations and interface are very good."
"For me, the main strengths of Microsoft Dynamics NAV are that it's user-friendly and light. These are its major wins. I have used other ERPs and their architecture were a little more complex when compared to the Microsoft Dynamics NAV architecture."
"All of the features are valuable, depending on where you implement them. I've done implementations in 60 countries, across 86 different companies and groups, and each company has a different reason for why they want to use it. Every single feature that I've implemented has been successful, and for some companies, where they didn't use the functionality, they have moved to external products or they've integrated into other applications."
 

Cons

"The look, feel, and color are areas in ERPNext that can be improved."
"The tool has not come up with anything for some specific domains, like construction domains."
"They need to improve their processes."
"One aspect that could be improved in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is the visibility and accessibility of communication-related features, such as email integration."
"In the next release, I would like to see a quality check module - Navision doesn't have one, and the industry very much requires it."
"Inventory Management could be improved."
"The product should improve work optimization."
"It could be more stable."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV could be improved in terms of exporting income statements and balance sheets. Currently, there is a feature, but you can only have the last three years. I spent some time trying to improve the KPI portion that exports the data, that already calculates the sub forms or subtotals, but they weren't able to break that up into different dimensions. They've now managed to crowd the separate table and you can export that, but it's only for the last three years. So, they could improve this solution by getting the chart of accounts or the account schedules to be exported, where you can go further than just three years with it."
"Batch Processing Function should be developed to schedule running in the background at nighttime for posting a Purchase Receipt/Invoice, Sales Order/Invoice, Day End Statement or Item Journal Adjustment to minimize the Classic NAV table locking."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the product price as a three."
"Price-wise, ERPNext is a cheap product. There are no licensing costs attached to ERPNext since it is an open-source product. You have to pay for the solution's hosting and implementation process."
"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 price of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central could improve. It is costly. We are paying for the solution on a monthly basis."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV has a pay-as-you-use payment model."
"Its licensing is yearly. In addition to the licensing cost, there is the cost of hosting on Azure."
"The solution is a little bit expensive."
"The solution's cost is reasonable."
"I think the pricing is the best; it's cost effective for sure."
"The tool’s licensing is yearly. The solution is cheaper compared to other ERP products from Oracle or SAP."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which ERP solutions are best for your needs.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
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

What advice do you have for others considering ERPNext?
It offers more breadth than SAP. Also, having unlimited users model are 1000x definite plus. The open-source makes it license-free and just bear in mind that open source does not mean any compromis...
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

No data available
Dynamics NAV, MS Dynamics NAV
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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 ERPNext vs. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.