SAP Business ByDesign vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud comparison

SAP Business ByDesign and SAP S/4HANA Cloud are both solutions in the Cloud ERP category. SAP Business ByDesign is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.5, while SAP S/4HANA Cloud is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1. SAP Business ByDesign holds a 5.3% mindshare in CE, compared to SAP S/4HANA Cloud’s 9.9% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of SAP Business ByDesign users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of SAP S/4HANA Cloud users who would recommend it.

SAP Business ByDesign

Read 16 SAP Business ByDesign reviews

841 Views
513 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Read 57 SAP S/4HANA Cloud reviews

1,871 Views
1,141 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

SAP Business ByDesign

SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 10, 2024

SAP Business ByDesign and SAP S/4HANA Cloud are both competitive solutions in the ERP sector, offering distinct advantages for various business sizes and requirements. SAP S/4HANA Cloud has the upper hand for larger enterprises due to its scalability and advanced analytics.

Features: SAP Business ByDesign integrates various modules like finance, analytics, and dashboards, providing quick implementation and real-time data reporting. SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers advanced analytics, seamless module integration, and an intuitive interface, making it ideal for global operations.

Room for Improvement: SAP Business ByDesign could benefit from enhanced customization and scalability to better serve larger enterprises. Improving user interface flexibility may also benefit diverse users. SAP S/4HANA Cloud might improve by simplifying its complex deployment, reducing high entry costs, and offering better resource allocation for midsize businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP Business ByDesign excels in faster deployment and user-friendly setup, backed by strong customer service. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, though resource-intensive to deploy, ensures comprehensive support for intricate business needs, suitable for enterprises with complex IT infrastructures.

Pricing and ROI: SAP Business ByDesign offers a lower entry cost with faster ROI for cost-sensitive organizations. SAP S/4HANA Cloud, with its premium pricing model, promises significant long-term returns on investment, aligning with larger firms ready to invest in robust digital infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP Business ByDesign vs. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SAP Business ByDesign vs. SAP S/4HANA Cloud

December 2025

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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

Ranking in Cloud ERP

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Ranking in Cloud ERP

2nd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud ERP category, the mindshare of SAP Business ByDesign is 5.3%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is 9.9%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud ERP Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SAP S/4HANA Cloud	9.9%
SAP Business ByDesign	5.3%
Other	84.8%

Cloud 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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Ramesh Pampana

Manager, SAP Practice at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

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.

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

"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."

"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."

"ByDesign's best features are its speed, real-time data, and reporting."

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

"The standard system is stable."

"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."

"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."

"The most valuable features of Business ByDesign are the integration of its modules, analytics, and dashboards."

More SAP Business ByDesign pros

"Finance aspects of it and transportation management, asset management, and inventory management are valuable."

"SAP S4HANA Cloud has improved the efficiency and visibility of business operations, leading to potential cost and time savings."

"SAP S4HANA Cloud is stable, and its computational power and speed have improved in later versions."

"Both standard and customized integrations work well with no issues."

"We are a well-established enterprise with a century-long history, and we recently transitioned from an older version to the current support system. This move has allowed us to fully leverage the advantages of the new system, facilitating efficient management of our business processes, including those related to manufacturing and other aspects of our operations."

"The technical support team has been responsive and helpful, addressing issues and providing solutions promptly whenever needed."

"The integration between SAP EWM and S4HANA Cloud is seamless."

"S/4HANA Cloud is very stable."

More SAP S/4HANA Cloud pros

Cons

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

"Scalability is difficult."

"The database needs to be more customizable."

"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."

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

"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."

"With SAP S/4HANA, you can design your release strategy and modify it to include as many people as possible, which is missing in SAP Business ByDesign."

More SAP Business ByDesign cons

"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."

"It's not easy to facilitate the solution between us and SAP, so we have had to leave those issues open."

"It is a complicated solution. So it should be easier to use."

"Difficult to install and difficult to test. Testing needs to be improved. Scalability of this solution also needs improvement."

"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."

"Some areas that could improve with the SAP S_4HANA Cloud are related to the challenges of migrating data from legacy systems into SAP S_4HANA Cloud, which is labor-intensive and expensive."

"I would like to see a feature where it allows integration with more platforms."

"SAP promotes the cloud, but customers are worried about the security of their data. SAP suggests they have SAP S4HANA with RISE, which is a private cloud environment, but it is difficult to sell many of the customers on the cloud concept because of the privacy issues."

More SAP S/4HANA Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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 pricing is expensive."

"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."

"The pricing depends on company size. It's cheaper for small companies and more expensive for large ones."

"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 tool's pricing is reasonable."

"The solution is affordable."

"Pricing wise, SAP S4HANA Cloud is very expensive. The licensing cost can be 100,000 euros per year, depending on the number of users in your company."

"The pricing model can be complicated in certain scenarios."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a seven out of ten."

"I don't remember the specifics about the licensing, but it's scaled and modular. You pay for what you use. It's not a one-size-fits-all license. You have a license for every single module. It's similar to Oracle."

"I feel the solution is expensive when it comes to what can be obtained with open source software."

"The price of SAP S/4HANA Cloud is expensive. However, the benefits are good. We did not purchase any upgrades."

More SAP S/4HANA Cloud 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

Computer Software Company

18%

Healthcare Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	24
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	30

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.

See all answers

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 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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SAP S/4HANA Cloud?

The areas for improvement in SAP S_4HANA Cloud could be from the data storage perspective, as we are using it in a limited way and it could be a bit expensive if the data volume increases; that is ...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SAP S/4HANA Cloud?

I work with SAP S_4HANA Cloud solution. We have experience with Cloud ERP as we are using SAP S_4HANA Cloud here in my current organization. We are mainly using SAP S_4HANA Cloud for recording all ...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Infor LX vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 11% of the time

NetSuite ERP vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 9% of the time

Sage Business Cloud Enterprise Management vs SAP Business ByDesign

Compared 9% of the time

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Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Compared 19% of the time

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

Compared 11% of the time

SAP Business One vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

NetSuite ERP vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle E-Business Suite vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud

Compared 8% of the time

More SAP S/4HANA Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

SAP Business ByDesign

January 2026

Download SAP Business ByDesign product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP S/4HANA Cloud

January 2026

Download SAP S/4HANA Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

SAP S4HANA Cloud

Overview

SAP Business ByDesign is a cloud-based business management software that supports everything from finance to CRM – and is available anytime, anywhere, on almost any device. It helps medium-sized businesses seize new opportunities and accelerate growth – and it helps subsidiaries take advantage of head office resources, while keeping their flexibility.

Streamline end-to-end processes and maximize efficiency across your organization
Gain timely business insights with integrated analytics and reporting powered by SAP HANA
Manage your business from anywhere, at any time, with built-in mobile apps
Rely on highly secure data centers that are managed, monitored, and maintained by SAP experts

SAP

SAP S/4HANA stands for SAP Suite 4 HANA. It is a next-generation integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that is designed for businesses of all sizes, in all industries, that require deep and broad functionality combined with a high degree of flexibility. SAP S/4HANA was launched in 2015 and been adopted by more than 3,200 customers over a period of sixteen months. SAP S/4HANA is materially different from anything SAP has done before and represents the company’s biggest innovation since SAP R/3.

SAP S/4HANA is intended to provide a digital core for an organization. It is fully architected for the most advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and is designed on the most modern design principles with the SAP Fiori user experience to create a personalized and simple feel on users’ device of choice (tablet, laptop, mobile). SAP S/4HANA aims to simplify an organizations’ system landscape and reduce total cost of ownership by shrinking the data footprint while at the same time improving productivity levels in the form of higher throughput. Timelines for cloud deployments average around six months.

SAP S/4HANA is designed to drive business innovation by connecting people, devices, and business networks in real time to support the development of new business models. It will also help accelerate the adoption of, and connection to, the Internet of Things and Big Data. SAP S/4HANA can analyze big data at unprecedented speed allowing users to access real-time information from anywhere, any way they’d like and thus help managers make truly insightful decisions. The simplified data model allows customers to reimagine their IT, helping to drive lower costs and deliver IT efficiency. This, coupled with the SAP S/4HANA prediction and simulation capabilities allow it to anticipate the impact of business outcomes. By doing all the above, SAP S/4HANA aims to provide ultimate sophistication in the simplest possible manner.

To learn more about SAP S/4HANA, visit http://go.sap.com/product/enterprise-management/s4hana-erp.html

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

La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.

Buyer's Guide

SAP Business ByDesign vs. SAP S/4HANA Cloud

December 2025

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