Alternatives to SAP SuccessFactors, Concur, Ariba and Sales Cloud
SAP's HR, travel, procurement and CRM products are separate subscriptions with separate renewals. Each has a direct replacement. The harder question is whether four replacements are better than one system.
Contents
Around the ERP, a typical SAP customer runs several of SAP's cloud products: SuccessFactors for HR, Concur for travel and expenses, Ariba for procurement, and a CRM. Each is a cloud subscription with its own contract, administrator and renewal date.
Why these products get reviewed separately
These subscriptions are easier to leave than the ERP. They hold less custom code, their data models are simpler and their contracts end on fixed dates. They are also where SAP customers have most room to compare, because each product has well-known rivals.
The review usually starts for one of two reasons. A renewal is approaching, or the company wants AI to work across HR, purchasing and sales data and finds that each product keeps its data, and its assistant, to itself. In the DSAG's 2026 survey, 77% of production AI use cases at SAP customers ran on non-SAP technology1.
SuccessFactors: HR, talent and payroll
Workday Human Capital Management lists human resource management, talent management, talent acquisition, workforce management, payroll, analytics and a vendor management system2. Its AI layer, Sana, orchestrates named agents for talent acquisition, payroll, workforce management and organisational development, billed through Flex Credits. Workday publishes no price. Its page reports customer results such as Medtronic automating 80% of HR processes, figures supplied by the vendor2.
Smaller companies have a simpler option: Odoo's single per-user price includes its HR apps alongside finance and sales34. See the Workday profile.
Concur: travel and expenses
Navan combines travel booking and expense management and is unusual in publishing a price. The Business plan is free for companies with up to 300 employees, with no limit on trips; expense is free for the first five expensing users and $15 per user a month after that5. Companies above 300 employees are quoted an Enterprise price. See the Navan profile.
Ariba: sourcing and procurement
Ivalua covers intake, sourcing, contract and supplier management, eProcurement, accounts-payable automation, expenses and payments, with separate modules for direct materials sourcing and supply chain collaboration6. Its agent, IVA, is described as acting within the customer's rules, automatically and transparently. Ivalua publishes no price and no customer count on the page we read. See the Ivalua profile.
A company that used Ariba mainly for purchase requests and approvals may not need a procurement suite at all. The purchasing module of the replacement ERP covers that work.
Sales Cloud and older SAP CRM
Salesforce publishes five Sales Cloud editions: Starter Suite at $25, Pro Suite at $100, Core at $195, Advanced at $395 and Max at $550 per user a month. Agentforce for Sales is included in Max and offered as an add-on from $125 per user a month7. HubSpot's Sales Hub is free for up to two users, with Professional from $90 and Enterprise from $150 per seat a month, plus one-time onboarding fees of $1,500 and $3,5008. See the Salesforce profile.
Four replacements, or one system
| SAP product | Direct replacement | Price published | In one owned system |
|---|---|---|---|
| SuccessFactors | Workday | No | HR records and approvals as apps on the shared data layer; confirm payroll per country |
| Concur | Navan | Yes, Business plan | Expense capture and approval as a workflow |
| Ariba | Ivalua | No | Purchasing and supplier workflows in the ERP module |
| Sales Cloud | Salesforce | Yes | CRM module9 |
Replacing each product with its direct rival solves the renewal and keeps the structure: four vendors, four data stores, four AI assistants that cannot see each other's records, and integrations to maintain between them and the ERP.
The alternative is to bring the work into one system. OpenLazarus supplies prebuilt modules for CRM, ERP, email, messaging, telephony and customer service on a single AI and data layer that the company owns10. People and AI teammates then work from the same records, and an approval in purchasing can draw on the supplier's history, the budget and the correspondence without an interface between products. The company sets what each teammate may do on its own, what needs approval and who approves it.
This route has conditions. Statutory payroll differs by country and should be confirmed in writing or left with a payroll provider. Travel booking depends on supplier content that a travel specialist negotiates. And OpenLazarus has no published SAP replacement case study that we could cite, so the first workflow should be one where the result is easy to check, such as expense approval.
Deciding the order
- Sort the subscriptions by renewal date and by notice period. The nearest date sets the first decision.
- Export a sample of the data from each product before negotiating, to confirm what a move involves.
- Decide per product: direct replacement, absorb into the ERP's module, or build as a workflow in an owned system.
- Move the simplest first. Expense approval and CRM are quicker than payroll.
- Keep payroll stable until the HR records have run in the new system for a full cycle.
The end state is fewer contracts, one place where employee, supplier and customer records meet, and AI that can act on all three.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best alternative to SAP Concur?
Navan covers the same pairing of travel booking and expenses and publishes its price. The Business plan is free for companies of up to 300 employees, with expense free for the first five expensing users and $15 per user a month after that. Larger organisations buy its Enterprise plan by quote.
What is the best alternative to SAP SuccessFactors?
For large organisations, Workday Human Capital Management, which covers HR, talent, recruiting, workforce management and payroll but publishes no price. Smaller companies can use the HR apps included in Odoo's per-user price.
What is the best alternative to SAP Ariba?
Ivalua covers source-to-pay from intake and sourcing to contracts, purchasing, invoices and payments, including direct materials. It does not publish a price. Companies with simple purchasing can use the purchasing module of the ERP that replaces SAP.
What is similar to SAP Sales Cloud?
Salesforce Sales Cloud is the market-standard equivalent, with five published editions from $25 to $550 per user a month. HubSpot Sales Hub is free for up to two users and suits small teams. CRM is also a standard module in Odoo, NetSuite and OpenLazarus.
Sources
- DSAG Investment Report 2026: companies are investing more selectively. DSAG, 26 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Workday Human Capital Management. Workday. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Odoo editions: Community and Enterprise. Odoo. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Odoo pricing. Odoo. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Navan pricing. Navan. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Ivalua: the enterprise AI platform for procurement. Ivalua. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Sales Cloud pricing. Salesforce. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Sales Hub pricing. HubSpot. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Questions about OpenLazarus. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- OpenLazarus: the AI operating system your company owns. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
Updated 11 Nov 2026: First published.