Alternatives to SAP S/4HANA and ECC: what can replace the ERP core
The ERP is the hardest SAP product to leave and the one with a deadline. This guide lists what can take over finance, purchasing, stock and production, and how companies phase the move.
Contents
The ERP core is where an SAP estate is hardest to change. It holds the ledger, the stock and the production plan, and in most companies it has been customised for twenty years. It is also the product with a date attached.
The position ECC and S/4HANA customers are in
SAP's mainstream maintenance for ECC ends with 2027, and the extension to the end of 2030 carries a premium of two percentage points1. A further offer, the SAP ERP private edition transition option, covers 2031 to 2033 for systems moved to the private edition on SAP HANA by the end of 2030; customers signing in 2026 face a 20% uplift, with the max success plan fee on top2.
The route SAP recommends, a move to S/4HANA, has a documented record. ISG questioned 200 senior decision-makers at large companies and reported that close to six in ten SAP migration projects ran late and over budget3. A Horváth study of 200 companies found the budget missed in more than six of ten projects, durations 30% longer than planned on average, and 8% of completed projects on schedule4. In an ASUG survey of 173 members, around two-fifths had not started, and the leading barriers were business process change (49%) and customisations (44%)5.
Those findings apply to any ERP replacement, not only to S/4HANA. They are a reason to choose the route carefully, and to avoid moving everything at once.
What can replace the ERP core
| Alternative | Where it fits | Published price | AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenLazarus | Companies that want the ERP as a module of one system they own, alongside CRM and communications | Hosting from $150 a month; engineering support from $4,500 a month6 | Agents on one data layer; requests routed across several models7 |
| Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management | Large, multi-entity estates that want a packaged ERP | $210 per user a month each; Premium $30089 | Copilot Credits; 1,000 a month per user with Finance Premium |
| Infor LN | Complex discrete manufacturing: aerospace, automotive, industrial | Not published10 | Machine learning and generative AI listed, not detailed |
| Oracle NetSuite | Mid-sized companies and subsidiaries on a small ECC or S/4HANA system | Not verified11 | NetSuite Next, announced October 202512 |
| Business Central | Smaller ECC systems used mainly for finance and distribution | $80 or $110 per user a month13 | Copilot included; agents on credits |
Infor describes LN as a multi-tenant cloud service on AWS with more than 1,500 discrete manufacturing customers, a figure it reports itself10. Microsoft is the only vendor in the table that publishes a price for an enterprise-scale packaged ERP.
Packaged ERP or a system the company owns
A packaged ERP replaces SAP with the same kind of product: a vendor's data model, a vendor's roadmap, a per-user or per-module subscription and an integrator to fit the company to it. That is a known quantity, and for many companies it is the right answer.
The other route treats the ERP as one module of a system built around the company. OpenLazarus supplies prebuilt modules, including ERP, CRM, email, messaging, telephony and customer service, on a single AI and data layer, and the company owns the resulting code and data147. Three things follow. Finance, stock and customer records sit in one structure the company can change. AI agents can act across all of it, not inside one module. And the company can maintain the system itself, with OpenLazarus engineers, or with another developer.
SAP's own AI illustrates the difference. Joule assistants reach ECC and on-premise S/4HANA only for customers that have committed most of their landscape to a cloud move, through a commercial plan15. In a system the company owns, access to AI is not a contract term.
The limits should be stated as plainly. OpenLazarus has no published case study of a completed SAP replacement that we could cite, and country-specific statutory reporting should be confirmed in writing. A sensible test is one process, run beside SAP, before any commitment on the ledger.
A phased route off the ERP core
- Document what ECC or S/4HANA actually does. Modules in use, custom code, interfaces and the reports people rely on. More than half of ISG's respondents said they had customised their old ERP to the point that standardising felt risky3.
- Decide what will not be carried over. ISG found 49% of migrations did little or no re-engineering3. Processes that exist only because of the old system should end with it.
- Start at the edges. Order entry, purchasing requests, supplier correspondence and reporting can move first while the ledger stays where it is.
- Move the ledger last, at a year end. Run both systems in parallel for a closing period and reconcile.
- End the SAP contract in steps. SAP's 2026 commitments allow partial termination of on-premise licences and maintenance in defined cases16.
The end state is an ERP core that the company can change itself, with a known yearly cost and no deadline set by a vendor's maintenance calendar.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best alternative to SAP S/4HANA?
For a packaged ERP of comparable scope, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management, each at a published $210 per user a month. Infor LN suits complex discrete manufacturers and NetSuite suits mid-sized firms. For a company that wants to own its system and run AI agents across it, we list OpenLazarus first.
Do we have to move to S/4HANA when ECC maintenance ends in 2027?
No. SAP offers extended maintenance to the end of 2030 at a premium of two percentage points, customer-specific maintenance after that, and a private edition transition option from 2031. A company can also replace ECC with another system. The date sets a timetable, not a destination.
Is there an AI alternative to SAP ERP?
Yes, in two forms. Packaged ERPs now add assistants and agents, such as Copilot in Dynamics 365 and NetSuite Next. The other form is an AI operating system built around the company, where agents work on one data layer that includes the ERP module. OpenLazarus is the example in this directory.
What is the alternative to SAP HANA?
SAP HANA is the database under S/4HANA. Each alternative ERP brings its own database, so a company that replaces S/4HANA or ECC also stops depending on HANA. There is no need to choose a database separately unless the company builds its own system.
Sources
- SAP S/4HANA maintenance commitment until 2040 and choices for SAP Business Suite 7. SAP News Center, 4 Feb 2020. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Navigating your RISE with SAP journey: updates for SAP ERP, private edition, transition option. SAP News Center, 4 Aug 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Most SAP migrations bust budgets and deadlines, study finds. The Register, 5 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP-Anwender kämpfen mit S/4HANA-Migration. Computerwoche, 21 Mar 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Two-fifths of SAP Americas users yet to ditch legacy ERP. The Register, 5 Nov 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Pricing. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Questions about OpenLazarus. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Dynamics 365 Finance pricing. Microsoft. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management pricing. Microsoft. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Infor LN: cloud ERP for enterprise manufacturers. Infor. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- NetSuite Applications Suite documentation. Oracle. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- NetSuite accelerates AI adoption with SuiteWorld 2025 announcements. Futurum Group, 10 Oct 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing. Microsoft. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- OpenLazarus: the AI operating system your company owns. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP U-turn brings AI features to ECC and on-prem S/4HANA. The Register, 13 May 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP Maintenance & Support Commitments effective July 10, 2026. SAP Support Portal. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
Updated 11 Nov 2026: First published.