Enterprise standard
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP's genuine cloud ERP for the upper midmarket – multi-tenant SaaS on HANA
4,2avg. of 2 portals- Price
- From approx. $1,607/month base fee per tenant, plus approx. $20–$192/month per user depending on user role (2026 estimate, USD; SAP does not publish binding EUR list prices – pricing is available only through SAP partners)
- Company size
- Midsize companies and corporate subsidiaries, typically around 50–1,000 employees (sweet spot roughly 100–500)
- Deployment
- Cloud (pure multi-tenant SaaS, hosted by SAP)
- Hosting
- SAP data centers, European customers primarily in St. Leon-Rot (Germany); audited to ISO 27001 / ISAE 3402
SAP SE · founded Product introduced in 2007 · Walldorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany · SAP SE approximately 109,000–111,000 employees worldwide (2024/2025) employees
Last editorial review: July 2026How we rate
In short
SAP Business ByDesign gives midsize companies and corporate subsidiaries a complete, SAP-hosted cloud ERP for finance, projects, supply chain, CRM, and HR. It excels in services/project business and international multi-entity structures, but is limited in customization and is being strategically phased out in favor of SAP Cloud ERP (S/4HANA Cloud).
What is SAP Business ByDesign?
SAP Business ByDesign is SAP's fully integrated, cloud-native ERP for the upper midmarket. As genuine multi-tenant SaaS, it is operated entirely by SAP in its own data centers (primarily St. Leon-Rot for European customers), runs on the in-memory database SAP HANA, and receives automatic quarterly upgrades. Functionally, it covers finance and accounting, controlling, procurement, supply chain, warehousing, sales/CRM, project management, and HR on a single, continuous data foundation – without customers having to take responsibility for servers or updates themselves.
ByDesign is positioned between SAP Business One (single entities, small businesses) and SAP S/4HANA Cloud (enterprise). Its core strengths lie in project and service business as well as international multi-company scenarios: multiple company codes, currencies, languages, and country-specific compliance are built in natively, with standard localizations available for around 21 countries including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This makes it especially attractive for project-oriented midsize companies and for subsidiaries of large SAP corporate groups that need a lean cloud branch-office solution.
Decisive for the 2026 assessment: SAP is removing Business ByDesign from the price list for new customers as of April 20, 2026. This is explicitly not a hard end-of-life – existing customers continue to receive support, maintenance, and regulatory updates with no end date announced so far. However, SAP is concentrating new innovation and its strategic future on SAP Cloud ERP (S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition), which is set to become the central midmarket platform going forward. For prospective new customers, ByDesign is therefore hardly the right choice anymore.
Who is SAP Business ByDesign for?
Project- and service-oriented midsize companies, as well as subsidiaries of large SAP corporate groups, looking for an SAP-hosted, internationally deployable cloud ERP without their own infrastructure
- Project- and consulting-oriented companies (IT, engineering, consultancies)
- Subsidiaries of large SAP corporate groups needing a lean cloud branch-office solution
- Internationally active midsize companies with multiple entities and currencies
- Companies without their own IT infrastructure team that prefer pure SaaS
Less suited for: New customers seeking a long-term, actively developed SAP cloud solution beyond 2026 (choose S/4HANA Cloud instead) · Small businesses with tight budgets · Businesses with complex discrete manufacturing / in-depth production control needs · Pure e-commerce/marketplace retailers focused on Amazon/eBay/Otto and point-of-sale operations
Suitability profile
How strongly SAP Business ByDesign covers the typical areas of use – our editorial assessment at a glance.
- E-commerce & retail
- basic
- Manufacturing & production
- strong
- Services & projects
- specialist
- International reach
- specialist
- DACH compliance
- strong
Scale 0–3, a curated editorial assessment for selection advice. The ERP finder uses the same axes for your personal match.
Industries & use cases
SAP Business ByDesign is typically used in these industries and areas of application:
Features & modules
Integrations & interfaces
SAP Business ByDesign comes with open, standards-based interfaces and is deeply embedded in the SAP ecosystem. Customer-specific extensions and third-party connections run via web services, the SAP add-on ecosystem, and the Cloud Applications Studio (PDI/SDK).
SAP portfolio
Finance & tax (DACH)
Sales & e-commerce
Extension & technology
Interfaces & API: Open OData and SOAP web service APIs on an HANA basis; customer-specific extensions and custom business objects are built via the SAP Cloud Applications Studio (Partner Development Infrastructure). There is no freely accessible low-code model for end customers – extensions are typically handled through certified partners.
Strengths & weaknesses
Strengths
- Genuine multi-tenant SaaS: SAP hosts, operates, and updates the system (quarterly upgrades) – no infrastructure of your own required
- Very strong integrated finance/accounting and controlling on HANA
- Pronounced project and service management capabilities (time/expense tracking, project billing)
- Native multi-company, multi-currency, and multi-language support for international rollouts
- Standard localization for around 21 countries including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; localization content available for 130+ countries
- Seamless embedding in the SAP ecosystem (Concur, SuccessFactors, Analytics Cloud)
Weaknesses
- SAP is removing ByDesign from the price list for new customers as of April 20, 2026 – no strategic future, no active further development
- Limited customizability compared to on-premise SAP; deep adaptations only via SDK/partners
- Weaknesses in discrete/complex manufacturing (no full-fledged MES/PLM out of the box)
- Smaller partner and add-on ecosystem than Business One or S/4HANA
- Comparatively high entry price level with a fixed base tenant fee
- DATEV connectivity, TSE-compliant cash registers, and e-invoicing are mostly available only via partner add-ons/export rather than natively
User ratings for SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign in comparison
Pick a system to compare it directly with SAP Business ByDesign – from price and company size through the suitability profile to the average rating.
| SAP Business ByDesign | SAP S/4HANA Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | From approx. $1,607/month base fee per tenant, plus approx. $20–$192/month per user depending on user role (2026 estimate, USD; SAP does not publish binding EUR list prices – pricing is available only through SAP partners) | on request (Public reportedly ~$150–180/user) |
| Company size | Midsize companies and corporate subsidiaries, typically around 50–1,000 employees (sweet spot roughly 100–500) | Public (GROW): medium to large companies from ~50–100 employees; Private (RISE): upper mid-market/corporate group |
| Deployment | Cloud (pure multi-tenant SaaS, hosted by SAP) | Cloud (Public/Private) + on-premise variant |
| Hosting | SAP data centers, European customers primarily in St. Leon-Rot (Germany); audited to ISO 27001 / ISAE 3402 | DE/EU (hyperscaler selectable) |
| Origin | Germany (Walldorf) | Germany |
| E-commerce | ||
| Manufacturing | ||
| Services | ||
| International | ||
| DACH compliance | ||
| Avg. rating | 4,2 | 4,3 |
Suitability values 0–3 (curated editorial assessment); rating as the average across linked third-party portals.
What does SAP Business ByDesign cost?
What SAP Business ByDesign ultimately costs depends on edition, billing model, add-on modules and implementation effort – the entry price alone says little about the total cost. The overview below makes both transparent.
Entry price
From approx. $1,607/month base fee per tenant, plus approx. $20–$192/month per user depending on user role (2026 estimate, USD; SAP does not publish binding EUR list prices – pricing is available only through SAP partners)
Subscription (SaaS): monthly base fee per tenant plus user-based licenses across role tiers (Self-Service / Core / Advanced); optional add-on packages such as cross-country localization.
Billing & pricing model
Monthly SaaS subscription: base fee per tenant plus user-based licenses (Self-Service/Core/Advanced role tiers).
Plans & editions
| Plan | Price | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Service User | Approx. $20/month per user (estimate, USD) | Restricted access for occasional self-service tasks (e.g., time, expense, approval processes) |
| Core / Team User | Approx. $106/month per user (estimate, USD) | Operational roles with access to defined business areas/work centers |
| Advanced / Enterprise User | Approx. $192/month per user (estimate, USD) | Full access across all business areas for power users; plus a base tenant fee of approx. $1,607/month |
Further cost factors (TCO)
Beyond the subscription, these items determine the total cost – we have compiled them for SAP Business ByDesign:
- Setup
- Setup/provisioning by SAP; productive configuration is carried out via an SAP partner following the SAP Activate methodology.
- Implementation
- Implementation typically takes 3–6 months; project costs including software and consulting often fall in the mid to high five- or six-figure range (estimate, project-dependent).
- Add-on modules
- Additional costs apply for cross-country localization (approx. $857/month), DATEV/payroll interfaces, e-invoicing, EDI, and industry-specific partner add-ons.
- Note
- Binding prices are available only through SAP partners on request; USD list-price estimates (Self-Service ~$20, Core ~$106, Advanced ~$192 per user/month) and the base tenant fee (~$1,607/month) serve only as general orientation (as of 2026). SAP does not publish official EUR list prices.
Support, contract & operations of SAP Business ByDesign
Whether SAP Business ByDesign proves itself in day-to-day use depends – alongside features and price – heavily on operations, support and the contract model. We have compiled how SAP Business ByDesign is provided, which service levels and support channels apply, under which contract and trial terms you get started, and how far the system scales with your company.
Contract & trial
Before you commit, trial period, term and exit matter: this is how you get started with SAP Business ByDesign – and get out again if in doubt.
- Free trial
- SAP offers/offered trial access; however, as of April 20, 2026, ByDesign will no longer be sold to new customers via the price list.
- Operating model
- Cloud only (multi-tenant SaaS), no on-premise variant.
- Minimum term
- Subscription contract with a minimum term (typically multi-year); specific term available on request via SAP/partners.
- Cancellation
- Governed by the terms of the SaaS subscription agreement; not publicly disclosed as a blanket figure.
Support & service levels
In day-to-day operation, how well you get help matters. SAP Business ByDesign supports its customers through these channels, languages and response times.
- Channels
- SAP cloud support, service requests within the system, plus first-/second-level support from the implementing SAP partner in the DACH region.
- Languages
- German and English (further languages depending on the SAP support region).
- Response time / SLA
- Governed by the contractual SLAs of SAP cloud support or the partner; not publicly disclosed as a blanket figure.
- Training
- Onboarding and training via SAP partners; SAP Learning / Help Portal, community, and documentation; no publicly standardized training prices.
Scalability & limits
An ERP should grow with the company. This is how SAP Business ByDesign behaves with a rising number of users, multiple tenants and at its technical limits.
- Users
- Scales from smaller midsize companies up to roughly 1,000 users/employees per solution.
- Tenants
- Native support for multiple companies/company codes, currencies, and countries within a single tenant.
- Limits
- Limited depth in complex discrete manufacturing; custom extensions only via SDK/partners rather than freely modifiable code.
- Growth path
- SAP's strategic growth/successor path is SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition (SAP Cloud ERP).
SAP Business ByDesign in the DACH region
Compliance requirements differ by country – DATEV/GoBD in Germany, FinanzOnline/RKSV in Austria, VAT/QR invoice in Switzerland. This is how SAP Business ByDesign performs across the three markets:
Hosting & data protection
SAP data centers; European tenants are primarily located in St. Leon-Rot (Germany). Customers can choose the country/data center, but SAP always remains the operator. Certifications: ISO 27001, ISAE 3402, SSAE 16.
DATEV
No native DATEV general-ledger integration; DATEV export and a certified DATEV payroll interface are available via partner add-ons for collaboration with tax advisors.
GoBD
GoBD-relevant requirements (immutable, complete, machine-evaluable record-keeping) are addressed via the system's audit-proof bookkeeping/archiving; binding GoBD procedural documentation depends on the individual project.
E-invoicing (XRechnung / ZUGFeRD)
E-invoicing (XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, Peppol) is available via partner add-ons such as e-invoice4cloud; receiving and automated processing are well established in the DACH region but not fully native.
Language & support
German-language interface and documents; German-speaking SAP and partner support available in the DACH region. Up to 41 languages overall (13 as standard).
Onboarding & implementation
- Duration
- Typically 3–6 months depending on module scope, process complexity, and number of locations.
- Partner
- Implementation via certified SAP partners (in the DACH region, among others Versino, all4cloud, AGILITA, DATA UNIT) following the SAP Activate methodology.
- Cost
- Implementation costs are project-dependent, usually in the five- to six-figure range; not publicly disclosed as a blanket figure.
Standardized best-practice processes shorten implementation; deep custom adaptations extend it.
Switching & migrating to SAP Business ByDesign
SAP is delisting ByDesign for new customers as of April 20, 2026 (not a hard end-of-life – existing customers retain support with no end date announced so far). SAP's own recommended migration path is SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition (SAP Cloud ERP); alternatively, consultancies mention NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, or Acumatica. Migrations typically take 3–6 months.
Verdict: is SAP Business ByDesign worth it?
A technically mature, SAP-operated cloud ERP with a strong foundation in finance, projects, and multi-company management. For new customers in 2026, however, it is no longer a strategic choice, since SAP is no longer actively developing the product and is removing it from the price list.
Frequently asked questions about SAP Business ByDesign
Is SAP Business ByDesign being discontinued?+
Not directly: SAP is removing ByDesign from the price list for new customers as of April 20, 2026. Existing customers retain support, maintenance, and regulatory updates with no end date announced so far – but new strategic development will no longer take place.
What is the recommended successor?+
SAP is strategically steering midsize companies toward SAP Cloud ERP (S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition). This is SAP's recommended migration path; alternatively, consultancies mention NetSuite, Dynamics 365 Business Central, or Acumatica.
What company size is ByDesign suited for?+
For the upper midmarket and corporate subsidiaries, typically around 50–1,000 employees, with a sweet spot of roughly 100–500.
Does ByDesign also run on-premise?+
No. ByDesign is a pure multi-tenant SaaS solution operated exclusively by SAP in the cloud.
What about DATEV and e-invoicing in the DACH region?+
DATEV export and a certified DATEV payroll interface, as well as e-invoicing (XRechnung/ZUGFeRD/Peppol), are available but mostly run via partner add-ons rather than being fully native.
How long does implementation take?+
Typically 3–6 months via an SAP partner following the SAP Activate methodology, depending on module scope, process complexity, and number of locations.
Sources (10)
- https://www.sap.com/germany/products/erp/business-bydesign.html
- https://www.erpresearch.com/en-us/sap-business-bydesign-overview
- https://versino.de/en/products/sap-business-bydesign/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_Business_ByDesign
- https://blog.nbs-us.com/sap-business-bydesign-isnt-going-away-heres-what-existing-customers-need-to-know
- https://www.pikon.com/en/blog/s-4hana-public-cloud-instead-of-sap-business-bydesign-business-one/
- https://www.capterra.co.uk/reviews/77379/sap-business-bydesign
- https://www.g2.com/products/sap-business-bydesign/reviews
- https://community.sap.com/t5/enterprise-resource-planning-blog-posts-by-sap/localization-at-sap-business-bydesign-frequently-asked-questions/ba-p/13371768
- https://www.pressebox.de/pressemitteilung/sap-ag-walldorf/DATEV-Lohnsoftware-erhaelt-Schnittstellen-zu-den-Mittelstandsloesungen-SAP-Business-One-und-SAP-Business-ByDesign/boxid/327038
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