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SAP Business ByDesign vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud 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

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
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Ranking in Cloud ERP
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Cloud ERP category, the mindshare of SAP Business ByDesign is 8.3%, down from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is 16.9%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Ramesh Pampana - PeerSpot reviewer
Extensive real-time analytics and superior support enhance decision making but continued product evolution impacts existing investments
Improvement is needed, and they need to slow down. When I say slow down, they need to do more validation. Things are going rapidly and changing fast. For example, they moved from SAP SRM product to SAP CLM. They bought IBM CLM and marketed it as SAP CLM. Shortly after, they bought SAP Ariba and discontinued the SAP CLM product. Now they state that SAP SRM is outdated and has reached sunset. The challenge is that if a customer has already deployed the entire solution on-premises, it becomes difficult to immediately convert to the new product and manage new license costs. From a consulting perspective, it appears that SAP's biggest competitor is itself, as they sometimes discontinue their own products to promote new ones.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"I like its modern approach. It is very modern and new technology."
"The most valuable feature of SAP Business ByDesign is it has a streamlined design."
"ByDesign's best features are its speed, real-time data, and reporting."
"The most helpful feature is the integrations. Integrating the tool with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is easy, facilitating implementation and deployment. The runtime analysis checks for real-time analytics to see if the software works properly. This is a powerful feature."
"The most valuable features of Business ByDesign are the integration of its modules, analytics, and dashboards."
"The standard system is stable."
"I like the tool’s customization."
"SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides easy database access."
"The most valuable aspect of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is its ease of deployment and the reduced hassles of infrastructure support."
"Speed has improved and getting analytical reports has been simplified."
"I have found the financial and production modules to be the most valuable features."
"The most valuable features of SAP S/4HANA Cloud are the ease of use from the cloud, CapEx analysis report, and everything being connected together well."
"Finance aspects of it and transportation management, asset management, and inventory management are valuable."
"SAP S4HANA Cloud is one of the best products in enterprise solutions, especially in manufacturing, retail, logistics, wholesaling, and distribution."
"SAP S4HANA Cloud has improved the efficiency and visibility of business operations, leading to potential cost and time savings."
 

Cons

"SAP Business ByDesign is a very vast product, but it has to be a bit more centralized. All the models need to be more centralized for a better experience."
"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."
"The payroll module of the solution could improve."
"The solution does not support customization for forms and reports. It's not flexible in case you need some enhancements in business processes."
"The Arabic localization is neglected. It should have an Arabic interface. It lacks Arabic translation or support from right to left."
"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."
"The database needs to be more customizable."
"ByDesign could be improved by making screen modifications easier."
"SAP S/4HANA Cloud's customization can be improved."
"It is a complicated solution. So it should be easier to use."
"The only thing I would improve is the overall user experience, particularly the mobile app. S/4HANA is a powerful, scalable platform, but the user experience isn't positive. It's a bit complex. The look and feel aren't attractive, and the mobile experience isn't great."
"The price is mainly suitable for larger companies, even then, there may be other, cheaper solutions. Additionally, this solution is the result of multiple acquisitions leaving room for there to be issues with performance."
"There have been some pain points in moving from SAP to S/4HANA, but the company seems to be staying on top of those issues."
"It's a huge software, and they need to make it look less complex and more user friendly. They need to work on user stories and user experiences."
"The pricing is way over any of the other ERPs, and the bank integrations are not perfect. There are a lot of costs for other implementations and integrations with Salesforce and other systems. Rather than being a fully-fledged system on its own like most of the other ERPs, it relies too much on developed integrations by the implementation partner."
"It can be done within a few hours, but it also depends on the customer's requirements. If they want some changes, it may be done within one hour. But if there are large-scale changes, it may take one week or one month."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Everything is included in the licensing cost of the solution. However, they use a per-user model for additional charges."
"I rate the price of SAP Business ByDesign a seven out of ten."
"We have to pay yearly."
"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."
"The price of the solution could be better. They have to come up with a new strategy."
"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 solution's costs have significantly increased, and we have not seen any anticipated cost savings."
"The solution is affordable."
"Its pricing is way over any of the other ERPs. I'd rate it one out of ten in terms of pricing."
"The pricing is competitive with other products at that level in that category."
"The solution’s pricing is very high."
"This is a pricey solution that best serves large enterprises. Be sure to ensure that your company's requirements need to be fulfilled by SAP. There are many other ERP's that are cheaper yet highly functional. However, it is still cheaper than some of the competition (i.e. Oracle, ESD, etc.)"
"The license for S/4HANA is expensive, and the licensing structure is hard to understand. The admin license is something like 500 euros per user. Other ERP solutions allowed you to pick only the modules you need. The SAP ECC version requires you to take all the modules even if you are not using them."
"The price of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is expensive. However, the benefits are good. We did not purchase any upgrades."
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Answers from the Community

RB
Jun 30, 2021
Jun 30, 2021
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
EB
Jun 28, 2021
Hello @Terry Jones ​, @Sanath Premachandra ​, @Ben Melchionno ​and @ASalman. Can you please assist in answering this question?
PB
Jun 30, 2021
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 user on the cloud.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
24%
Real Estate/Law Firm
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
Non Profit
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Retailer
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 pricing depends on company size. It's cheaper for small companies and more expensive for large ones.
What needs improvement with SAP Business ByDesign?
There might be some hurdles when integrating with SAP ECC, but integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is smooth.
What do you like most about SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
The manufacturing area is a good feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is very expensive, both to purchase and maintain. It's important to evaluate the costs of recruiting and maintaining trained personnel as it's not just a one-time payment yet requ...
What needs improvement with SAP S/4HANA Cloud?
While SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers numerous functional benefits and powerful integration capabilities, there remain certain usability and operational challenges—particularly within the Fiori applicatio...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP S4HANA Cloud
 

Overview

 

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
La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Business ByDesign vs. SAP S/4HANA Cloud and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.