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SAP ERP vs SAP S/4HANA Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.9
SAP ERP enhances efficiency and saves costs, though ROI varies and full benefits may need extra BI tool analysis.
Sentiment score
4.5
SAP S/4HANA Cloud users saw long-term ROI and efficiency, despite high initial costs and varied experiences.
SAP ERP did provide value for money.
The transcript suggests SAP S4HANA Cloud may offer cost and time savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.2
SAP ERP customer service is generally positive, with prompt issue resolution but varying response times and support quality.
Sentiment score
6.9
SAP S/4HANA Cloud's service is praised for professionalism but criticized for long response times and support channel navigation challenges.
SAP technical support is very good.
It was very quick, and we didn't have many tickets, but every time any issues arose, they were very quickly resolved.
My experience shows that it often requires another level or two to reach someone who can effectively address the problems.
If tickets are raised to the wrong team, it takes considerable time to be routed to the appropriate team.
SAP doesn't typically listen to individual feedback because of their position as the number one product.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
SAP ERP is praised for scalability and flexibility, despite integration challenges, catering well to large enterprises with diverse needs.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is praised for scalability, adaptability, and integration, suiting both large and small enterprises effectively.
It is scalable when moving from one version to another or adding additional components like warehouse management.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
SAP ERP is praised for its reliability, stability, and scalability, with minor issues typically linked to specific configurations.
Sentiment score
7.4
SAP S/4HANA Cloud is praised for stability and performance, though updates and customizations can occasionally affect reliability.
Production processes would be on hold without stability, so it is quite important that the software is very stable.
Stability-wise, SAP ERP is the best product among others.
SAP S_4HANA Cloud is very stable, especially for bigger corporates that are geographically spread out.
It is very flexible and can cater to every industry.
 

Room For Improvement

SAP ERP users seek improved usability, integration, lower costs, better support, and smoother upgrades to enhance overall system performance.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud needs interface, mobile, and user improvements, with cost, integration, and complexity posing challenges for businesses.
SAP ERP could improve by integrating additional components such as digital signatures and barcoding.
We are using version 6.0 and it meets our needs.
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.
This reliance on ETL experts or data engineers is necessary to ensure clean quality data, which is critical for the effective operation of the SAP S_4HANA system.
It should have features or facilities so customers can get audit-related queries resolved independently without requiring ticket-based service.
 

Setup Cost

SAP ERP is costly, with high licensing and implementation fees, yet competitive for large enterprises but challenging for small businesses.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud pricing is modular and expensive, typically more suitable for larger enterprises than smaller businesses.
Small and medium companies can struggle with the pricing.
The pricing for SAP ERP is medium but slightly on the higher side.
 

Valuable Features

SAP ERP integrates departmental functions, offers industry-specific customizations, ensures security, and enhances efficiency for large enterprises.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud enhances business efficiency with integration, real-time analytics, scalability, and global access, supporting diverse platforms.
The consistent integrations and real-time data analytics in SAP ERP significantly enhance the decision-making process by facilitating follow-ups and action points.
SAP ERP has impacted our organization positively because it is highly customizable to build any process we have in our companies and to write programs.
Some of the most important features include data analytics and real-time data analysis capabilities.
The integration between SAP EWM and S4HANA Cloud is seamless.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides integration, controls, efficiency, visibility into business operations, and collaboration, especially for geographically spread operations.
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP ERP
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
ERP (2nd)
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
Cloud ERP (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, they serve different purposes. SAP ERP is designed for ERP and holds a mindshare of 18.5%, down 22.4% compared to last year.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Cloud ERP, holds 16.4% mindshare, up 11.9% since last year.
ERP
Cloud ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Srinivasan Kuppuswamy - PeerSpot reviewer
The amazing, robust framework with unlimited scalability earns its #1 status
The solution is not ready for the current e-commerce environment. Its was built for large enterprises who need to predictably optimize their human, material, and financial resources. ERP has evolved and businesses are changing. There are not many large corporations. Most are small enterprises with the capabilities of large enterprises through networking and platform integration. Some companies promote products but get things done with other enterprises as a network. Companies do not want to create new capacity but want to leverage existing capacity with innovative products. They do not want to spend resources on duplicating capacity or facilities. I do not think any ERP product is ready to support this environment so ERPs as a whole might end up being used for back-office functions only. It is not easy to evolve an ERP product because its intent is to integrate functions and processes within an organization. Whereas, in the new business model, processes are not limited to one's own enterprise but cut across different enterprises. There is no enterprise solution as this point in time for the current e-commerce environment so companies must integrate with many solutions.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
11%
Retailer
7%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
5%
University
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
What do you like most about SAP ERP?
The solution has made the most significant impact on our human resources function, specifically in HR operations and HR analytics. One feature of SAP ERP that I found most valuable is its use of co...
What needs improvement with SAP ERP?
SAP ERP could improve by integrating additional components such as digital signatures and barcoding. Having such features embedded within the ERP would be more beneficial rather than relying on ext...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP S4HANA Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

B&G Manufacturing, Unilever, Life is good Inc., Joy Global Inc., City of Cape Town, Bhopal Municipal, Corporation (BMC), adidas Group, Butcher & Packer Supply Company, Franklin Valve L.P., Evoshield, Prime Meats, a Norsan Group company, EMC Corporation, Varian Medical Systems Inc., FC Bayern Mªnchen AG, AkzoNobel Chemicals B.V., T¾V Rheinland, Pacific Drilling S.A., Fire & Rescue New South Wales, University of Amsterdam, Pa_alon S.A.
La Trobe University, Carrefour Comércio e Indústria Ltda, Delaware Consulting and Corning Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Microsoft, Infor and others in ERP. Updated: July 2025.
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