SAP Business ByDesign vs SAP S/4HANA comparison

The compared SAP Business ByDesign and SAP S/4HANA solutions aren't in the same category. SAP Business ByDesign is ranked #6 in CE , with an average rating of 9.0, and holds a 3.6% mindshare in the category. SAP S/4HANA is ranked #1 in ERP , with an average rating of 8.9, and holds a 6.1% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of SAP Business ByDesign users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of SAP S/4HANA users who would recommend it.

SAP Business ByDesign

Read 16 SAP Business ByDesign reviews

1,320 Views
818 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SAP S/4HANA

Read 127 SAP S/4HANA reviews

14,982 Views
13,634 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

SAP Business ByDesign

SAP S/4HANA

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between SAP Business ByDesign and SAP S/4HANA based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Oracle, NetSuite, SAP and others in Cloud ERP.

To learn more, read our detailed Cloud ERP Report (Updated: July 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cloud ERP

July 2026

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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

SAP Business ByDesign

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud ERP (6th)

SAP S/4HANA

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

127

Ranking in other categories

ERP (1st)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, they serve different purposes. SAP Business ByDesign is designed for Cloud ERP and holds a mindshare of 3.6%, down 7.6% compared to last year.
SAP S/4HANA, on the other hand, focuses on ERP, holds 6.1% mindshare, down 9.9% since last year.

Cloud ERP Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SAP Business ByDesign	3.6%
NetSuite ERP	20.6%
Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP	20.5%
Other	55.3%

Cloud ERP

ERP Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SAP S/4HANA	6.1%
SAP ERP	8.8%
Oracle E-Business Suite	4.0%
Other	81.1%

ERP

Featured Reviews

Manoj Sahoo

Divisional Manager IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Valuable features enhance sales and service capabilities while performance improvements are needed

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 handling. My feedback about the modular architecture and customized features of SAP Business ByDesign is that it is only good, but we have not explored much on this one. The initial setup for SAP Business ByDesign was complex. 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.

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MuhammadNadeem3

Manager Sap at PTCL

Integrated workflows have streamlined hiring, purchasing, and daily operations across departments

Areas of SAP S_4HANA that could be improved or enhanced include the evolving aspects of the application over time. There are other SAP applications such as SuccessFactors and Ariba that integrate with SAP S_4HANA. In recent years, SAP introduced an addition called RISE with SAP, which allows companies to use cloud solutions instead of requiring their own premises hardware. SAP partners with cloud providers such as Azure, Amazon, and Google, assisting companies in migrating from hardware to cloud solutions. A challenge that arises is the lack of immediate expertise when raising tickets for problem resolution with SAP, leading to delays. We have asked SAP to improve this area to provide users with better benefits from the cloud solution, as we encounter this issue frequently.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Now we can know our available stock; this visibility enables us to make better resource and supply chain operations decisions as well as better financial decisions."

"It has a quick implementation and onboarding of users. It is flexible with reports and powerful."

"The stability has been great, and compared to other products that I have used before, they have been doing really well with stability."

"I find the tool’s every feature valuable."

"I have found the consolidation of the business and group reports very useful, there are plenty of features, and the manufacturing and finance aspect of the solution are strong."

"I like its modern approach. It is very modern and new technology."

"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."

"When comparing SAP Business ByDesign to much larger ERP solutions, such as SAP ECC 6.0 or SAP S/4HANA, SAP Business ByDesign is more user-friendly and easier to implement."

More SAP Business ByDesign pros

"At present, it seems very stable because it is in the cloud."

"S/4HANA is an end-to-end solution and seamlessly integrates with all the SAP Business Suite products such as IoT, AI, Analytics and all other SaaS solutions, and the product is very robust and comprehensive."

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Provides multiple tools for easy integrations"

"SAP S/4HANA is a comprehensive ERP solution that provides better performance."

"The most valuable feature is the perfect end-to-end integration."

"The scalability is excellent, especially on cloud deployment models."

"The use of a memory-based database makes it more efficient."

More SAP S/4HANA pros

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the reporting capability. To use it properly, you need intensive IT support. You cannot write your own reports."

"The Purchase to Pay process could benefit from further sophistication and additional functionality. It would be helpful for the user community to receive clearer information about the future roadmap of the business. Unfortunately, there were some confusing articles in the German press towards the end of last year about the future of SAP Business ByDesign. Therefore, more clarity is needed in the support function to address this."

"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."

"The payroll module of the solution could improve."

"There might be some hurdles when integrating with SAP ECC, but integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is smooth."

"ByDesign could be improved by making screen modifications easier."

"The solution does not support customization for forms and reports. It's not flexible in case you need some enhancements in business processes."

"Scalability is difficult."

More SAP Business ByDesign cons

"I would like to see the AI included to help from a data standpoint."

"Planned Order List needs a change of screen."

"This solution can improve the Bill of Materials (BOM) and production planning."

"The problem with the tool is that its complexity is very high."

"Extensions to SAP S/4HANA have room for improvement, especially in integration with low-code/no-code platforms. Creating these extensions through Fiori transactions is more tedious than customers would like. Although the SAP build process has become more linear, further improvements could provide a huge benefit."

"I'm not a big fan of SAP S/4HANA because it needs a lot of hardware. It is really fast, but it needs a lot of hardware. The hardware for S/4HANA is too expensive."

"S4HANA is relatively stable, but it's not as stable as ECC was."

"The product could be improved in several key areas, particularly in API granularity and ease of configuration."

More SAP S/4HANA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool’s pricing is expensive."

"The price of the solution could be better. They have to come up with a new strategy."

"We have to pay yearly."

"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."

"I rate the price of SAP Business ByDesign a seven out of ten."

"The cost starts anywhere between fifty thousand dollars and up depending on the number of licenses."

"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."

"Everything is included in the licensing cost of the solution. However, they use a per-user model for additional charges."

More SAP Business ByDesign pricing and cost advice

"The licensing format is complicated for SAP S/4HANA"

"In Nigeria, we have to consider currency conversion rates with the Euro and Dollar that impact the final cost. But I believe that it'll be cheaper in the cloud where SAP has to do the maintenance of the server and more in the long run."

"SAP S/4HANA is expensive."

"The solution's license cost is on the higher side."

"The implementation costs of SAP is substantial."

"The price of the solution is on the higher side compared to others."

"I have found the price of the solution is on the medium to the expensive side of the scale. There is a license for this solution and there are additional maintenance fees."

"The solution's pricing depends on customers and how much discount they can get. However, the list price is expensive."

More SAP S/4HANA pricing and cost advice

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Answers from the Community

Rana Bhattacharjee

SAP Practice Manager at Data-core systems

Jun 30, 2021

What are the main differences between SAP RISE and SAP Business ByDesign?

The main difference is RISE is associated with S/4 Product Range on Cloud while By Design is modeled after SAP Business One also on Cloud. So both are SaaS but the difference is in enterprise size and also application complexities. Also, RISE offers a bundle of pre-configured modules while By Design is similar to B1 with a lot more flexibility and high scalability. License wise both are per us...

See 2 answers

Evgeny Belenky

Director of Community at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Jun 28, 2021

Hello @Terry Jones , @Sanath Premachandra , @Ben Melchionno and @ASalman. Can you please assist in answering this question?

Read full answer

Pradipta Bhattacharya

Project Delivery Head - MENA at WMS Middle East LLC

Jun 30, 2021

Read full answer

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	51
Midsize Enterprise	26
Large Enterprise	56

Questions from the Community

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%.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP Business ByDesign?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP Business ByDesign?

Our use case for SAP Business ByDesign is our dealer team accessing their system to perform sales and service; these two functionalities are done through SAP Business ByDesign. SAP Business ByDesig...

See all answers

Are there any advantages of SAP S4 HANA over SAP Business One (SAP B1) apart from the cost?

SaP Business One is a complete solution for business management. The software applications are broad, ranging from accounting to project management and human resources. It is very versatile and com...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP S4HANA?

SAP S_4HANA could definitely be improved by making the transformation process much simpler, perhaps through AI tools to automate a significant portion of it, as there is still much uncertainty with...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP S4HANA?

My main use case for SAP S_4HANA is finance and billing. I use SAP S_4HANA for finance and billing through different modules, such as FICO and BRIM. Different modules are utilized for various purpo...

See all answers

Comparisons

SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 25% of the time

Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 11% of the time

NetSuite ERP vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 10% of the time

SAP Business One vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics GP vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 5% of the time

More SAP Business ByDesign Competitors

SAP ERP vs SAP S/4HANA

Compared 25% of the time

Oracle E-Business Suite vs SAP S/4HANA

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central vs SAP S/4HANA

Compared 4% of the time

SAP S/4HANA Cloud vs SAP S/4HANA

Compared 4% of the time

Odoo vs SAP S/4HANA

Compared 4% of the time

More SAP S/4HANA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP Business ByDesign

July 2026

Download SAP Business ByDesign product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP S/4HANA

July 2026

Download SAP S/4HANA product report

Also Known As

No data available

SAP S4HANA

Overview

SAP Business ByDesign offers real-time integration and a streamlined design with comprehensive management of suppliers and service agents, making it ideal for financial reporting and project management.

SAP Business ByDesign is recognized for its comprehensive capabilities in financial and project management across sectors. With its Financial Closing Cockpit and real-time reporting, it integrates easily with SAP S/4HANA and offers a user-friendly approach to business process management. Challenges may exist in budget management, reporting, and user interface requiring further enhancements. Despite integration challenges, it streamlines operations in education, automotive manufacturing, and professional services.

What features are most important in SAP Business ByDesign?

Financial Closing Cockpit: Streamlines closing processes with automation.
Real-Time Integration: Ensures seamless data flow between systems.
End-to-End Process Capabilities: Supports comprehensive management activities.
Analytics and Dashboards: Provides actionable insights to drive decisions.
Customizable Interface: Allows businesses to tailor functionalities.

What benefits or ROI can users expect to find in reviews?

Streamlined Operations: Enhances efficiency without increasing user count.
Improved Real-Time Reporting: Delivers accurate and timely insights.
Comprehensive Management: Ensures effective handling of suppliers and services.
Reduced Time to Implementation: Facilitates quicker deployment.
Enhanced Performance: Boosts data-driven decision-making and accuracy.

SAP Business ByDesign is leveraged by education, automotive, and professional service industries for enhanced financial reporting and inventory management. It supports sales, service, and CRM functionalities, catering to companies looking to streamline their operations efficiently.

SAP

SAP S/4HANA is an advanced ERP system utilizing in-memory computing, offering real-time analytics and seamless integration. Its user-centric Fiori interface simplifies operations, making it ideal for diverse business needs in finance, logistics, and high-performance data management.

SAP S/4HANA stands out for its in-memory database technology and integrated analytics, which provide organizations with real-time access to data, enhancing business efficiency. It simplifies complex processes through prebuilt scenarios and allows robust customization to fit specific industry needs. The platform is crucial for high-performance data management and decision-making across sectors like finance and logistics, integrating different departments to support digital transformation initiatives. It offers both cloud and on-premise deployment options, catering to large-scale enterprises seeking flexibility, scalability, and improved operational efficiency.

What are the key features of SAP S/4HANA?

In-Memory Database: Enables real-time analytics and data processing.
Seamless Module Integration: Allows departments to work cohesively across the platform.
User-Friendly Fiori Interface: Enhances the overall user experience with intuitive design.
Integrated Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights for better business decisions.
Customization Options: Offers flexibility to tailor processes to specific business needs.

What benefits or ROI should be reviewed?

Improved Efficiency: Real-time data access helps streamline operations.
Enhanced Decision-Making: Integrated analytics provide actionable insights.
Scalability: Supports growth with flexible deployment options.
Cross-Department Integration: Facilitates collaboration across different business functions.
Cost-Benefit Balance: Evaluate setup costs vs. operational improvements.

In industries like finance, supply chain, and manufacturing, SAP S/4HANA supports business processes by integrating core functions and enabling real-time analytics. It enhances financial management, inventory control, and purchasing decisions, making it popular among large-scale users in retail and pharmaceuticals.

SAP

Sample Customers

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

Nestle, O.C. Tanner, Sabre, New York Life Insurance Co., MEMEBOX, Siemens AG.

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