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SAP BW4HANA vs SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 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 BW4HANA
Ranking in Data Warehouse
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP NetWeaver Business Ware...
Ranking in Data Warehouse
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of SAP BW4HANA is 4.5%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse is 0.3%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Csaba Grünblatt - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities
SAP BW4HANA improved data reporting processes significantly. Performance on HANA database is good. Well-built data models ensure consistent and fast reporting. Reusable models enhance efficiency, even for SaaS services. In-memory computing, especially since HANA, has greatly improved performance in data analysis tasks. It eliminates the need for complex optimizations like creating indexes or aggregates. Queries that once took minutes now run in seconds, enabling real-time reporting, especially for SAP ECC on HANA. SAP BW4HANA's integration capabilities are streamlined with a simplified architecture and more virtual layers. You can directly load data into optimized layers, reducing the need for extra storage. The introduction of Open ODS Views allows for additional logic and master data inclusion, making integration faster and simpler. The learning curve for SAP BW4HANA is much faster now compared to ten years ago, thanks to abundant free resources like documentation, videos, blogs, and learning journeys provided by SAP. It is simpler to learn with these resources available compared to the past when you had to attend courses and rely on books. I would recommend SAP BW4HANA to users looking to implement it, especially if they want to keep their systems on-premise and already have SAP systems. Those with BW on HANA have two choices: BW4HANA or DataSphere, depending on their cloud strategy. If they are advanced in their cloud strategy and want to migrate off-premise, DataSphere is a good choice. However, for a robust solution on-premise or in a private cloud, BW4HANA is an excellent option. Overall, I would rate BW4HANA as a nine out of ten. It performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities. We use it traditionally, with complex transformations and models but with less emphasis on real-time processing and third-party sources.
Gebrehiwot Tesfay Gebreslassie - PeerSpot reviewer
Data modeling is a valuable feature but there are some issues with scalability
We are an airline and use the system for data modeling and data warehousing, and we implement it for time performance and feedback analysis. I'm the business intelligence senior developer and we are customers of SAP.  The data modeling is very valuable for us. There are performance issues in…

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 feature is that it's robust."
"The ability to instantly pull data is the most valuable feature."
"The solution's performance is really good. Also, it's easy to operate, easy to administer, and relatively simple to install."
"We benefited from BW/4HANA's ability to utilize predefined content inside. We didn't need to start from scratch."
"One significant advantage of SAP BW/4HANA is the direct integration with the SAP HANA database, providing seamless access to real-time analytics. Additionally, it enables real-time data integration. We don't need to rely on historical data alone; we can provide reporting and features based on real-time information."
"It's quite scalable."
"The processes are the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"The UI is completely new, beautiful, and user-friendly. There are some other helpful features like global filters and advanced tools. We can perform custom calculations easily From a technical perspective, the performance has been enhanced and optimized for a limited number of flows. The content settings are more advanced, and there are so many other features that I can't name them all."
"A robust and efficient product."
"It is a robust system."
"The security and audit procedures are the most valuable features."
"Data modeling is a valuable feature."
"Transformation is a valuable feature of SAP NetWeaver. I can transform the data as per my needs or my client's needs. For example, flat tables can be transformed with respect to our requirements to combine multiple modules into one single table, and we can derive analytics."
"It provides us with proof of data, we can centralize all of the information, check it, and then provide the information to our users."
"It's an excellent over-all tool for managers to analyze their business."
 

Cons

"There should be a direct pipeline from Azure to SAP."
"Support could be more reliable."
"The problem is the expensive pricing of technical support, making it an area where improvements are required."
"Other competitors provide better solutions that are more up to date with current technology."
"Pricing would be a good improvement. A lot of customers think that it's very expensive and especially support is very expensive."
"BW/4HANA could improve query optimization. For example, there could be an error message that pops up when you hover over it if any query fails. That would make it easier to find out what went gone wrong. Guided SAP help tools would make it easier for us to go forward."
"The tool is not easy to use for an end user."
"It takes too long to escalate problems from the first level of support."
"The product could provide more features."
"The program is difficult to learn to use"
"It is difficult when your native language is not English. It is difficult for us to explain our issue and also difficult for the technical team to explain a resolution to us."
"I think more integration with other applications would be perfect."
"There are performance issues in terms of scalability and availability."
"Design and modeling could be simplified."
"Connectors are complex, and it is difficult to understand or know which connector should be used. For instance, if I want to connect APIs, I will not be able to do it directly. I would have to go to the portal integration to get the data. Therefore, having simplified connectors will make things much easier."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As an investment, the solution is very expensive."
"The product is free if we have the ECC license."
"The solution is expensive."
"The cost of ownership is higher. It's resource-intensive, and naturally, that increases costs."
"It's a little expensive compared to Microsoft Azure."
"The price is high and currently only affordable for large organizations."
"For some, the rates offered by SAP can be costly while for others it may seem cheap. The price ultimately depends on how you have negotiated your contract with SAP."
"We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses."
"The licensing cost is high for SAP NetWeaver compared to that for other products."
"All SAP products are expensive."
"Pricing is based on the number of user IDs and tyhe user ID works across a suite of products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
9%
Retailer
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP BW4HANA?
One significant advantage of SAP BW/4HANA is the direct integration with the SAP HANA database, providing seamless access to real-time analytics. Additionally, it enables real-time data integrati...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BW4HANA?
We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses.
What needs improvement with SAP BW4HANA?
The interface could be more user-friendly, as we often need to do low-level coding to get things done.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

SAP BW/4HANA
NetWeaver Business Warehouse, NetWeaver BusinessObjects Warehouse
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
EMC Corporation, Takisada-Osaka Co. Ltd., Eldorado, Mozzart, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, Hilti Group, Nissha Printing Company Ltd., Asian Paints, Aareal Bank Group, Magazine zum Globus (Migros Group)
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP BW4HANA vs. SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.