This is an in-memory database. It's designed to leverage the use of new generation, multi-threaded CPU architecture. We are service providers.
Feature-rich with excellent performance and capable of integrating with most applications
Pros and Cons
- "A very feature-rich solution with excellent performance."
- "This is an expensive solution."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
This is a very feature-rich solution with excellent performance. It's capable of integrating with most applications on the market. The stand-out feature of SAP HANA is that all data resides in memory. Processing is significantly faster, and the need and size of databases drop because there is no need to create and maintain tables that hold historical data.
What needs improvement?
As with all electrical products, this is an expensive solution and we'd like to see licensing costs reduced.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using this solution for 10 years.
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SAP HANA
April 2026
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very knowledgeable and provide good service.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup doesn't take more than a few hours. The on-premise version can be installed on public cloud and SAP now have their own version on private cloud. Installation is just a matter of preparing the operating system that has certain prerequisites, patches, and networking requirements that need to fill parameters.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The hardware to run a HANA database requires extremely big servers, makes this an expensive solution.
What other advice do I have?
There aren't many options available and this is a good product. I rate SAP HANA eight out of 10.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Head Of Information Technology at Noratel
Has a simple table structure that makes it a high-performance system for customers
Pros and Cons
- "In comparison with other DMS solutions, it offers good performance."
- "They should develop and improve the solution's data management system."
What needs improvement?
They should develop and improve the solution's data management system. They should also work on the capabilities and features of their mobile and cloud applications.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is highly stable once configured. It requires regular garbage collection activity to function smoothly. Also, it depends on the implementer and vendor's services.
I rate the solution's stability as an eight.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I work with an enterprise business client with 500 users using the solution. Based on the requirement, the solution allows us to scale up our capabilities and business processes.
Thus, it is scalable, and I rate the scalability as an eight.
How was the initial setup?
The solution's initial setup is straightforward, but it requires experience for implementation.
On average, it takes six to eight months for deployment. There are some instances where it takes a year when the client wants to combine two solutions together.
We use SAP's new project management model for deployment. It is a complete infrastructure service where we get the hardware from hyperscaler and implement the application.
What about the implementation team?
Our implementation team includes business, functional, and POD consultants.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution's licensing is expensive for SMEs and large enterprises alike. There are no additional costs included.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend the solution to others and rate it as a nine. In comparison with other DMS solutions, it offers good performance and is excellent in administration management. It has a simple table structure that makes it a high-performance system for customers. I advise others to select an implementer with knowledge and experience in using the solution.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
SAP HANA
April 2026
Learn what your peers think about SAP HANA. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2026.
893,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Data Warehouse Consultant at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Mature and fast with excellent graphical calculation views
Pros and Cons
- "It's very convenient and very innovative."
- "You cannot apply mulit-join inside the calculation views, for example, when you are joining tables."
What is our primary use case?
We have a full landscape for SAP. Currently, my customer is using it. We are using the native HANA for the non-SAP sources.
We have our data nodes for different business domains. The data is coming from non-SAP sources. The data is coming from different systems. We have a database warehouse approach.
What is most valuable?
The solution is very fast in terms of memory. It's very convenient and very innovative. It's very good at handling the input and output of the data. There is no lag.
It has become the base of building graphical calculation views.
It is very convenient when you are working with Postgres or Snowflake. When you have modeled everything correctly, it's easy to translate the model.
With the way native works, it builds a good platform. It's not just a database. It's much more.
It has an inbuilt smart data integrator which you can use for sourcing, researching, and loading the data. It's included in the web IDE version of the web HANA deployment.
This is a very mature product. The performance is very good.
What needs improvement?
I cannot think of any features that are missing at this time.
In the calculation views, the functions that have been provided to build the graphical views should be enhanced and could be made more flexible. There should be more functionality available.
You cannot apply mulit-join inside the calculation views, for example, when you are joining tables. You have to do it in a four-node. You have to join them one by one instead of joining everything together in one step.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The performance is good. It is mature and stable. I've never experienced any issues like crashing or freezing.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is very good. I'd rate it 8.5 out of ten in terms of ease of scaling.
This is a good solution for enterprise solutions.
How was the initial setup?
In terms of the initial setup, I do not know how to install it on the server itself. I don't handle the technical aspects since I am a consultant. I don't directly handle the setup process. Likely, it is installed on Linux.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
While my understanding is the product is likely expensive I do not handle the pricing. I don't know the exact costs.
Smaller companies may not be suitable as the pricing is quite expensive. Even medium-level companies would have trouble affording a full SAP stack. An enterprise would have the budget to take this solution on.
The cloud may be more affordable, however, on-prem would be very expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a consultant.
In terms of relational databases, this is the best option.
If you are going to work with HANA, make sure to use the latest version. It has the latest approaches.
Users should utilize the HANA platform to the fullest extent. Get the most out of it by using all of the tools, as much as possible. Don't just use it as a data model database.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Solutions Architect at EJADA
Simple to maintain, useful modules, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the modeling of the databases."
- "The solution could improve in the handling of backup data and the administration tools."
What is our primary use case?
My clients are using a specific technique called an in-memory database that is used with SAP HANA.
The solution can be deployed on the cloud and on-premises.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of SAP HANA is the modeling of the databases.
What needs improvement?
The solution could improve in the handling of backup data and the administration tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SAP HANA for approximately seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAP HANA is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I have received a good response from the support from SAP HANA. However, the speed of the response could be better.
How was the initial setup?
The standard way to implement the solution does not take a lot of time. However, if you need to use specific deployment options, called distributions, in the replication. It takes a lot of time for the configuration. The maximum time of deployment will be three days.
The steps taken for the implementation of the solution are sizing the resources, cloud or on-premise, and determining what modules will be required. The most important is figuring out the prerequisites and then starting the deployment. We have to check to see if all the licenses are in place, do application appraisals, and review the whole system.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a yearly subscription to use SAP HANA. There is a fee for maintenance.
What other advice do I have?
I have over 50 customers using this solution.
I rate SAP HANA an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Implementer
Analista de sistemas at Audaces
Stable, faster than its competitor, and suitable for ERP
Pros and Cons
- "What I like best about SAP HANA is that it's faster than Microsoft SQL Server."
- "The SAP HANA interface has room for improvement because it takes more work to manage than the Microsoft SQL Server interface."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use SAP HANA for ERP in the manufacturing and delivery industries.
What is most valuable?
What I like best about SAP HANA is that it's faster than Microsoft SQL Server.
What needs improvement?
The SAP HANA interface has room for improvement because it takes more work to manage than the Microsoft SQL Server interface.
Nowadays, you'll see more no-code tools in the market with a drag-and-drop feature, and that's what I want to see in SAP HANA in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using SAP HANA for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a stable product. Its stability is eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SAP HANA is a six out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My company used to work with Oracle Database version 10.2, but migrated to Microsoft SQL Server and now also using SAP HANA because Oracle Database is expensive, plus it requires users with a higher level of experience on Oracle Database.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for SAP HANA is so-so. It's not easy, yet it's not so difficult. I'm rating its setup as six out of ten.
The total time it takes to deploy SAP HANA depends on the type of integration. I have a lot of integrations where one integration gets deployed within thirty minutes, while another takes more than two days to deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing for SAP HANA is high. It was expensive. You have to pay a lot, and it's the highest-priced solution in the local market, though when you compare it to other tools in the global market, the price is similar.
You pay a lot for the license, and you also have to pay for some add-ons.
I'd rate SAP HANA licensing fees as two out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
My company uses SAP HANA.
My company has SAP Business One version 9.3 that integrates with SAP HANA, but I haven't worked much on SAP HANA yet.
I'm a user of SAP HANA, not a partner.
Around thirty people, mostly technicians, work on deploying SAP HANA. The solution requires five to six engineers for maintenance.
My company has eighty-eight SAP HANA licenses used mainly by the end-users, for example, managers.
I'd tell anyone looking into using SAP HANA that it's a good tool but expensive for smaller-scale companies.
On a scale of one to ten, I rate SAP HANA as ten because it's a good tool, and I like its technology.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Application Manager at TBTD
Reliable, stable, scalable, and can be integrated with third parties and other enhancements needed by businesses
Pros and Cons
- "What's most valuable in SAP HANA is that it covers the business process systems of my company. The solution also helps because it makes almost everything automated. Another valuable feature of SAP HANA is that it can be integrated with third parties and other enhancements needed by the company."
- "SAP HANA should cover all and automate your business processes without needing a lot of customizations."
- "What needs improvement in SAP HANA is its automation, in particular, it needs more enhancements in that area."
- "What needs improvement in SAP HANA is its automation, in particular, it needs more enhancements in that area."
What is our primary use case?
We use SAP HANA for our BW system, which is the system we use for our BI tools and BI reports.
What is most valuable?
What's most valuable in SAP HANA is that it covers the business process systems of my company. The solution also helps because it makes almost everything automated. Another valuable feature of SAP HANA is that it can be integrated with third parties and other enhancements needed by the company.
What needs improvement?
What needs improvement in SAP HANA is its automation, in particular, it needs more enhancements in that area.
Right now, what I need is already covered by SAP HANA, so I have no additional features in mind for it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using SAP HANA for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a stable and reliable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SAP HANA is a scalable solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support for SAP HANA is good. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating SAP support five out of five.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup for SAP HANA isn't complex. It would depend on what you need, but it's easy because you just need to define the business process and blueprint, get approval from your business team and technical team, build the structures, get approval, then configure, assign, and get approval again so you can start working on SAP HANA.
The total time it takes to deploy SAP HANA would depend on the gathering of information, checking what prevails, arranging it correctly, getting the approval, then proceeding with the deployment. You should have a plan regarding the timing, the processes, the resource, the budget, etc., for the deployment of SAP HANA.
On a scale of one to five, I'm rating the implementation of SAP HANA as five out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
SAP HANA is more expensive than other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I'm working on data selection, upgrading database engines, and updating database versions. I'm the IT Application Manager, so I assist in those areas.
I'm working on the latest version of SAP HANA.
My company has an SLA contract with SAP for the maintenance of SAP HANA, which means that the SAP team will take care of the maintenance. You also have the option to cover the maintenance yourself if you have a team of SAP HANA consultants and seniors.
In my current organization, a total of five hundred people use SAP HANA.
I would recommend SAP HANA to others, particularly for business process needs. You need to make sure that the solution is already defined for your organization's business process. For example, if you're in the manufacturing industry, then SAP HANA should be defined for manufacturing. You shouldn't have to make many customizations to it. This is what you need to check first. SAP HANA should cover all and automate your business processes without needing a lot of customizations.
My rating for SAP HANA is nine out of ten.
My company is a customer of SAP.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Country Manager - Saudi Arabia at Misr Commercial Services Ltd
Good integration capabilities, easy to implement, and reliable
Pros and Cons
- "When we upgraded, we received more functions or more features."
- "It's made everything faster."
- "The pricing could be better."
- "The pricing could be better. Finding the solution or adding some additional features that are customized for what we need is difficult."
What is our primary use case?
We use it in order-placing and in the IBD integration, integrated business planning for forecast, and demand planning. I'm working in the sales and operation department. I'm not working in finance or production. Maybe the other teams are using it differently, or they're using different modules, however, for us at sales and operation, we are using it to place orders, developer CAST, track reports, and ensure accuracy.
How has it helped my organization?
It's made everything faster. The best thing we have is a faster operation. Even the reports are being generated very fast versus before. Before, we used to have an older version of SAP, and once we migrated or upgraded the old system to the current system, the speed of the work totally changed.
What is most valuable?
The integration is quite good. It's like an add-on in which we add the tools we need, like Excel.
We're not using the interface with SAP HANA itself. However, we're using a remote access link which we access via the web, and we are also using an add-on, which is installed in our Microsoft Excel program. Therefore, we are not particularly using the SAP HANA environment. We don't have this desktop interface in front of us. As far as I know, this is the engine behind all our work.
The setup is easy.
When we upgraded, we received more functions or more features. I am not aware of all of them; however, I've received positive feedback from the users in our company.
It's a stable product.
The solution scales well.
What needs improvement?
The pricing could be better. Finding the solution or adding some additional features that are customized for what we need is difficult. It costs a lot of money. For example, our office has SAP HANA, and the Saudi distributor has SAP, or at least, another version. We are trying now to integrate the two systems together. However, the cost is too much. We'd like to see more integration capabilities.
It does take a while to set up.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is reliable and quite stable. The performance is good. There are no bogs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It can scale.
We have about 2,500 employees. Not everyone is using it. Some are in the factory, and some are in the office. Some are at specific branches. We are an international multinational company, our head office is in Italy, and we have branches worldwide.
How are customer service and support?
We haven't had any critical issues. However, we have received good support overall. We haven't really dealt with any downtime. It's very rare. It might have only happened once.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Currently, we are doing some integration between SAP and some other tools like Power BI and Tableau. We have some customized solutions developed in-house. We used to use an older version of SAP and upgraded it.
When I worked at a different company, I used to work with Dynamic Business Solutions, not SAP HANA.
How was the initial setup?
It was an easy setup. That said, the implementation takes some time. They spent two or three months just developing the requirements and they gathered from us what we need to do. Then they implement it in two or three months. I don't know if this is a long period or a short period, however, that is how long it took for us.
I'm not sure how deployment and maintenance are handled. I'm not sure how many people are involved in those aspects of the product.
What about the implementation team?
We invited a third party to do the implementation.
Our team did the wishlist, the comments, and we shared it with a third party, and this third party came on-site, and they finished the job.
What was our ROI?
I'm not sure of the exact numbers surrounding ROI. They may have done a study and chosen the solution based on ROI. However, I was not a part of that process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are spending about 20,000 to 30,000 euros on the solution. It is a one-time implementation. To integrate everything and do the gap analysis, and then implement all of that as per our requirements, that cost us too much money.
What other advice do I have?
We're a potential SAP partner.
We are using SAP HANA in Italy. We're using the latest version there. That said, in Saudi Arabia, we are not using SAP HANA. They're using the older version.
We have remote access.
I'd recommend the solution to others. SAP is a very powerful tool.
I would rate it nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Sr Regional Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The IBP module was the most useful followed by the FI/CO and CNMM
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very stable."
- "We have an entirely SAP family, which makes it easy to manage and support."
- "The initial setup was pretty complex, considering the enormous amount of data they had from an Oracle ERP."
- "The initial setup was pretty complex, considering the enormous amount of data they had from an Oracle ERP."
What is our primary use case?
The client is using the solution for supply chain management, and at the same time, our enterprise uses it to track the businesses' performance. The rest of our regions are going to be using SAP ECC. We are the first region to go with HANA. We were shortlisted to show them the roadmap and guide them. Supply chain management and tracking raw materials were areas of concern.
What is most valuable?
The IBP module was the most useful followed by the FI/CO and CNMM modules.
What needs improvement?
The product could be improved in several ways.
First, before carrying out a project with this environment size, a POC needs to be carried out, for which you would have access to various environments. And those environments are something that SAP should invest in and others should provide. That would be an improvement.
Second, some good amount of handholding, guidance, or other validation or certification from SAP at different levels.
Third, access to tools for a longer period than the pre-defined trial version license. That's something that we can ask our friends from SAP to extend or make available in a different licensing model at zero cost.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have three years of experience with the solution.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very stable. We would rate its stability as eight out of 10.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We would rate the scalability of the solution as eight-plus on a scale of one to 10.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was pretty complex, considering the enormous amount of data they had from an Oracle ERP. Migration was an especially painful task, but we managed to sail through it thanks to the support of our customer. We delivered it within the timelines. We managed a few escalations. We worked with the customer. We had a weekly stand-up with the customer and various workshops and sessions to educate them and highlight the challenges.
What about the implementation team?
Implementation was completely in-house with a team of around 18 to 22 people and a couple of people from SAP, who looked at the overall program management level, providing guidance plus certifying that best practices were being followed and implemented.
The deployment, moving from Oracle to SAP HANA, took around eight months
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The customer took care of all the SAP license costs. Our scope was primarily implementation and migration support.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Oracle ERP had the flexibility, but it didn't have the functionality that the customer was looking for.
What other advice do I have?
We would give the product an overall rating of nine out of 10.
We have an entirely SAP family, which makes it easy to manage and support. The customer opened its first, and we are doing multiple instances of SAP ECC implementations for the rest of the small countries in APAC, the Middle East, and Africa.
Around 175 to 250 people use the solution at every level of the customer's organization.
We will be providing maintenance for the next five years.
My advice would be to explore and play with the different systems available in the market. But, ultimately, look for a system with a brand, broad user usability, and support. For instance, my customer wanted to explore an open-source ERP. We persuaded him to go with SAP, primarily because they have the expertise. They adhere to the best policies. They offer support, etc.
If you don't have all this, don't explore freebies. Go for a licensed version, recommended globally, and highly rated by Gartner or various research and consulting firms.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Gold Partners
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Updated: April 2026
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