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NetSuite ERP vs SAP Business ByDesign comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 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

NetSuite ERP
Ranking in Cloud ERP
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Activity Based Costing Software (6th), Billing Software (3rd)
SAP Business ByDesign
Ranking in Cloud ERP
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud ERP category, the mindshare of NetSuite ERP is 19.2%, down from 35.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Business ByDesign is 7.8%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud ERP Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
NetSuite ERP19.2%
SAP Business ByDesign7.8%
Other73.0%
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Suryansh Kaushal - PeerSpot reviewer
Has improved access to transactional data and supported return on investment
Some clients in my past complained about the accounting setup, as it requires people who already have knowledge about NetSuite ERP. They don't appreciate having to pay for consultants or specialists to work with it. It's not easier for them to understand. But every other feature that NetSuite ERP has is pretty decent. They're even introducing new features such as Bill Capture which was introduced last year. My sales and warehouse managers don't find the demand planning feature effective. They say it's quite buggy.
Majid-Mustafa - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides custom versions of reports personalized for users
For AI initiatives, you need to purchase a separate AI license to integrate with SAP Business ByDesign. I'd recommend SAP Business ByDesign for large companies that want to check data graphically, especially for monthly income, expenses, and taxes in the millions or trillions. Overall, for large-scale companies, I'd rate it ten out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The features that have been most effective in improving the financial management perspective include the budgeting, revenue recognition, and accounting perspectives."
"The most valuable aspect of NetSuite ERP is the multi-subsidiary portion, it is the strongest across all the other ERPs. If you want to do consolidations, it works a lot better than other tools."
"The most valuable feature in NetSuite ERP is the user interface."
"It's integrated into everything well so you can navigate and use it in a very simple way."
"We can install the bundles based on our needs."
"As NetSuite ERP is a cloud product, a valuable feature I found in it is the very friendly user interface. You can set up shortcuts within the applications for frequently used reports or navigation. You can also customize dashboards in NetSuite ERP. Another feature I found valuable in the solution is good reporting. It has many industry-standard reports focused on finance and inventory. I also like the seamless switching between production and test environments and that you can customize the environments within NetSuite ERP. For example, you can put banners on your test and production environments to differentiate or segregate the logins to prevent mistakes. The solution is pretty easy to use and navigate, and it's more of a lightweight software. I like that it's a cloud product, so work is done on the front end rather than the back end. There's also a community for NetSuite ERP where you can raise your queries and issues. You'll find other people sharing experiences about common issues so you can get quick fixes from the community."
"The initial setup is easy."
"NetSuite ERP has dramatically improved our organization. We went from QuickBooks to NetSuite. You can compare this transition to changing from tennis shoes to a flying car."
"The most valuable feature is the feature called Financial Closing Cockpit. This feature allows us to monitor our accounting and processing closely."
"The most valuable features of Business ByDesign are the integration of its modules, analytics, and dashboards."
"SAP Business ByDesign is connected to our S/4 HANA system, and we have developed some APIs which help us integrate the system with S/4 HANA."
"When we were using it, we did see an immediate benefit, especially in the inventory on consignment issue. We were a biotech pre-revenue company and most of our manufacturing was outsourced. So being able to track inventory within the system without creating a financial impact was very key for us."
"It has a quick implementation and onboarding of users. It is flexible with reports and powerful."
"I like its modern approach. It is very modern and new technology."
"ByDesign's best features are its speed, real-time data, and reporting."
"The most valuable features of SAP Business ByDesign are customer invoicing and cost and revenue, from which I get the data for my project reports."
 

Cons

"Improvement-wise, it should be more customizable. Currently, you can't enhance the product yourself in terms of development for any applications unless you've got a very strong and big development team. Those are the skills that are in very short supply."
"There is a lot of room for improvement. Multiple manufacturing features need to be updated on NetSuite. More functionalities need to be added. I think there are a lot of functionalities coming out for warehouse management systems and manufacturing automation via advanced manufacturing functionalities. I think they need to improve a little more on those aspects and make it easier on the scheduling aspect."
"Many features such as local taxation and fund management are not there yet."
"The solution could be more stable."
"The solution is not user-friendly and it is complex to use."
"In terms of the main improvement to NetSuite is the talent itself. It's grown so fast and there are about 25,000 companies running on it, and it's a relatively newer system compared to other competitors. It's growing so fast that the talent base in the partner organization (there's about 200 of them), is pretty thin."
"As with any system offering large volumes of data, there are limitations on processing large volumes of data in custom ways."
"The custom reports could be improved."
"I would say budget controlling needs improvement. I mention this because it does not have all the functionalities that we need in terms of managing the budget."
"ByDesign could be improved by making screen modifications easier."
"SAP Business ByDesign can improve the flexibility and user-friendliness of the reporting during the implementations. Customizing the reports inside the device requires a lot of knowledge and most of the time a developer level is needed. For example, if you want to have a more specific reporting layout."
"Scalability is difficult."
"There might be some hurdles when integrating with SAP ECC, but integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is smooth."
"One disadvantage was that we had the legacy system, SAP Business One, and we could not migrate our data to SAP Business ByDesign. They should have provided a migration path."
"The database needs to be more customizable."
"I would like the tool’s interface to be better. Currently, we use a client application to access the product. I want that to be replaced with a web version. I would like to improve the tool’s internet availability. I also want the product’s setup to be easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is an annual license required to use this solution."
"It is expensive."
"NetSuite ERP has a cost per module you want to use, and then you have the license per user."
"It's very competitively priced due to it being a subscription model. So, clients are quite happy with the pricing. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of pricing."
"The price of the solution is quite high."
"Regarding costs, it's not just about licensing. Customization recurring costs can become expensive over five to eight years, especially with new releases. However, NetSuite ERP integrates well with third-party applications, so it can still be used for finance while another ERP is used for localized production."
"Pricing for NetSuite ERP is okay, but it could be better. The licensing model for NetSuite ERP is based on the number of modules and users. The standard license covers up to twenty-five users. If you have more than twenty-five users, you'll have to buy the premium license, which would double the price. For one module with five user licenses, the cost is between $40,000 to $50,000."
"I would advise that you first meet with and scope out your project with a NetSuite VAR (Value Added Reseller)."
"We have to pay yearly."
"The tool’s subscription is yearly. There is no flat pricing involved and everything has a range. Pricing depends on the functionality that you would use. You need to also pay for the additional hosting and maintenance costs."
"The price of SAP Business ByDesign is less expensive than SAP S/4HANA. However, the price is on par with other similar competitors, such as Microsoft."
"Everything is included in the licensing cost of the solution. However, they use a per-user model for additional charges."
"The price of the solution could be better. They have to come up with a new strategy."
"The cost starts anywhere between fifty thousand dollars and up depending on the number of licenses."
"The pricing depends on company size. It's cheaper for small companies and more expensive for large ones."
"The tool’s pricing is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
22%
Healthcare Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business27
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about NetSuite ERP?
The inventory feature in NetSuite ERP is very valuable to me because it provides clear estimates about the depreciation of details and includes useful mobile modules.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetSuite ERP?
The initial cost for NetSuite ERP depends on the business size. My IT managers say that some of their features are quite expensive.
What needs improvement with NetSuite ERP?
Some clients in my past complained about the accounting setup, as it requires people who already have knowledge about NetSuite ERP. They don't appreciate having to pay for consultants or specialist...
What do you like most about SAP Business ByDesign?
The most valuable features of SAP Business ByDesign are customer invoicing and cost and revenue, from which I get the data for my project reports.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Business ByDesign?
The price is high, as every year SAP increases the price by 3.5%.
What needs improvement with SAP Business ByDesign?
We received a few complaints about the slowness in SAP Business ByDesign last year, so I think SAP can focus on improving performance, particularly when it becomes slow during data saving and handl...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

2Pure, Accuvant, Actian, Adtegrity, Advantage Sign Supply, All-Safe Pool Safety Products, Alton Lane, AMC Liquidators
Standard Bank of South Africa, AOK Bundesverband, PT XL Axiata Tbk, Tvoy Dom, Schaidt Innovations GmbH & Co. KG, DeLaval International AB, EMC Corporation, Lenovo, Castle Importing Inc., Unilever, Rifle Paper Co., RAK Ceramics, Rough Country, B&G Manufacturing, Life is good Inc., Joy Global Inc., City of Cape Town
Find out what your peers are saying about NetSuite ERP vs. SAP Business ByDesign and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.