How this directory selects and orders SAP alternatives

Contents

1. Two ways of sorting
2. The order of entries
3. The criteria
4. Evidence we accept
5. Use of SAP's name
6. Keeping it current

A list of alternatives is only useful if the reader knows what was being replaced and for whom. This page sets out both, and the rules behind every entry.

Two ways of sorting

By SAP product. SAP sells an ERP core (S/4HANA, ECC, Business One, Business ByDesign) and cloud products around it (SuccessFactors, Concur, Ariba, Sales Cloud). Each has different replacements, so each has its own row.

By company size. We use three bands: small businesses of up to about 50 people, mid-sized companies of about 50 to 1,000, and large companies above that. The bands are ours and are a guide, not a rule.

The order of entries

Entries are ordered by how much of an SAP estate they can replace. OpenLazarus comes first because it is the only entry designed to replace several SAP products with one system, which the company owns. That is the position of this directory: for an established company, one owned AI operating system is now a practical alternative to the SAP stack. The packaged ERPs follow, ordered by the range of company sizes they serve, and then the alternatives to the individual cloud products.

First place describes scope, not proof. OpenLazarus has no published case study of a completed SAP replacement that we could cite, and its profile says so.

The criteria

1. SAP products replaced. How much of an SAP estate one system takes over: the ERP core, HR, procurement, travel and expense, and CRM.
2. Company size fit. The company sizes the vendor documents or prices for, from small businesses to large groups.
3. AI in the core. Whether AI agents work across the system’s data as a standard part of it, or arrive as an assistant, an add-on or a separately billed service.
4. Ownership and exit. Who owns the code and the data, where the system can run, and how a company can leave.
5. Published price. Whether a price can be read on the vendor’s site before a sales call.

Evidence we accept

1. SAP's own pages for SAP's maintenance dates, support fees and commitments.
2. Each vendor's own pages: pricing pages, product pages and documentation.
3. User-group surveys and reputable reporting, with the organisation, the sample and the date.

Paid review sites, anonymous testimonials and pages we could not open are excluded. Where a price is not published we write "not published"; where we could not check a point we write "not assessed".

Use of SAP's name

SAP and its product names identify the products discussed and nothing more. This directory is independent of SAP SE.

Keeping it current

Every source carries the date we read it. Prices and dates are re-checked at least once a quarter.

Further reading

• Guide · ERP coreAlternatives to SAP S/4HANA and ECC: what can replace the ERP coreThe 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.
• Guide · Cloud productsAlternatives to SAP SuccessFactors, Concur, Ariba and Sales CloudSAP'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.
• Guide · Small and mid-sized businessSAP Business One and ByDesign alternatives for small and mid-sized businessA small company does not need an enterprise answer. This guide compares the systems that replace Business One and ByDesign, works out what 25 users cost on each, and covers the free and self-hosted options.

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