Häufig gestellte Fragen
What are the best alternatives to SAP?
In the DACH mid-market, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite, Sage 100 and Sage X3, Infor M3 and ProAlpha are considered the most established SAP alternatives, while Odoo, Weclapp and Xentral are options primarily for smaller companies, commerce and e-commerce. Which solution fits depends less on the brand name than on industry, company size, depth of manufacturing and the desired cloud strategy. For complex manufacturing or corporate group structures, systems with deep industry functionality such as Infor or ProAlpha are well suited, while cloud-native systems play to their strengths with standardised processes. A structured requirements comparison based on a requirements document is therefore more useful than a pure product comparison.
When is switching away from SAP worthwhile?
A switch can pay off when licence and implementation costs are out of proportion to the functionality actually used, when only a fraction of the SAP modules is in productive use, or when a true SaaS strategy is preferred over complex hybrid setups. The trigger is often a migration that is due anyway — for example from SAP ECC, whose mainstream maintenance expires at the end of 2027 and for which SAP offers only time-limited extended maintenance at a surcharge. For deeply integrated, stably running SAP landscapes with high process coverage, a switch is rarely economical, because migration and training effort quickly eat up the savings. What matters is an honest total-cost-of-ownership analysis over several years rather than a pure licence price comparison.
Is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central a good SAP alternative?
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is considered SAP's most common competitor in the mid-market and primarily targets companies with roughly 20 to 500 employees. It scores with a cloud-first architecture with automatic updates, lower entry costs than SAP, a broad DACH partner network and close integration with Microsoft 365 and the Power Platform. With annual billing, list prices are currently around 69 euros per user per month for the Essentials licence and around 95 euros for Premium, with implementation and add-ons charged separately and prices having been raised as of November 2025. For very complex production planning or pronounced industry specifics, however, you should check whether Business Central covers these requirements adequately with extensions.
Are there low-cost or open-source alternatives to SAP?
Yes — with Odoo, Weclapp and Xentral there are systems with significantly lower licence costs than SAP, which are particularly suitable for small and medium-sized companies, commerce and e-commerce. The Odoo Community Edition is licence-free as open source but offers no official commercial support, so many companies choose the paid Enterprise variant with prices starting at around 20 to 25 euros per user per month; Weclapp starts at roughly 39 to 69 euros per user per month depending on the package. Importantly, hosting, implementation by a partner, third-party add-ons and ongoing support can significantly exceed the pure licence costs. Moreover, with complex manufacturing, international group structures or high compliance requirements, these lower-cost systems reach functional limits sooner than the large suites.
How do you switch from SAP to an alternative in a structured way?
A switch should proceed in a structured way via a requirements analysis, a requirements document, a systematic vendor selection and a detailed data migration plan. A proven approach is to migrate only operational and currently needed master and transaction data and to keep historical data in an audit-proof archive outside the new system, as this noticeably reduces the migration scope and testing effort. Critical success factors are an implementation partner with demonstrable migration experience, sufficient test runs before go-live and a realistic TCO analysis over several years. Depending on company size and process complexity, expect a project duration of several months to over a year.
What does the end of SAP ECC maintenance mean for the search for alternatives?
For SAP ECC and Business Suite 7, mainstream maintenance ends on 31 December 2027; extended maintenance is available until the end of 2030 for a maintenance surcharge, and eligible customers can continue operations until 2033 via a private-edition transition option. This deadline forces many companies into a fundamental decision anyway and is therefore a natural moment to seriously evaluate alternatives alongside the standard path to S/4HANA. At the same time, SAP has made an innovation commitment for the current S/4HANA line until 2040, so remaining in the SAP ecosystem is not a dead end. Anyone wanting to switch should start the selection early, because a complete ERP project including migration takes several months to over a year.