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Anaplan vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Anaplan
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
26
Ranking in other categories
Business Performance Management (1st), Production Planning (5th), Predictive Analytics (4th)
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Busi...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
ERP (3rd), Activity Based Costing Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Anaplan and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Anaplan is designed for Business Performance Management and holds a mindshare of 13.5%, down 16.3% compared to last year.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, on the other hand, focuses on ERP, holds 6.2% mindshare, down 7.0% since last year.
Business Performance Management
ERP
 

Featured Reviews

Kumaran Singaram - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective machine learning, constantly evolving, but price could improve
If the solution is built correctly there is no maintenance needed. The crucial aspect is to ensure that there are individuals who possess the knowledge to effectively utilize the tool. It is akin to piloting an airplane, where one must first acquire the skills to fly before attempting to operate it. Otherwise, they will crash it. I rate Anaplan a seven out of ten.
StefaanVandesompele - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides end-to-end accounting and finance module at reasonable pricing
365 Business Central integrates with Office 365 to streamline the invoice approval process. This allows businesses to manage and approve invoices efficiently within a unified system. Our organization plans to transition to the Dynamics 365 environment, where various functions will be centralized. We will consolidate everything into one system instead of maintaining multiple databases for each country with local data. Dynamics 365 is fully integrated, which should address many of our challenges when we migrate to this new environment. We look forward to seeing how it performs in practice. The project is progressing well overall, though integrating it with other tools and ensuring Dynamics 365 operates smoothly can be challenging. Dynamics 365 is user-friendly and effective. However, a deeper understanding of its technical capabilities and architecture might be necessary to optimize its use fully. The software landscape is evolving, and achieving the best reporting and functionality with just a click can be complex. A clear vision of what you want to achieve with Dynamics 365 is essential. Proper preparation and configuration are crucial to achieving the desired outcomes. This principle applies not only to Dynamics 365 but to all software packages. Understanding the system's flexibility and adaptability based on your specific business needs is key to its successful implementation. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's highly flexible. If you've got a complex environment with complex calculations, you can build that out. So that's a really good positive."
"The best thing is that it's very intuitive and user-friendly. You don't need coding skills to manipulate the platform."
"I believe Anaplan is a new cloud tool, and from time to time, there's a lot of improvement that the Anaplan company deploys with the system. So, with that improvement, we need to really adapt and know the new system trends."
"The solution works very well for budgeting."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is web-based and easy to use."
"It's real-time connected planning, so the calculations are pretty much seamless as far as your model is connected."
"Anaplan provides 130 GB of cloud storage for organizations to use as part of their license."
"Anaplan's most valuable features are that it's a no-coding platform, everything can be scaled to your other functions, and it's easy to learn and use (especially because Anaplan provides excellent interactive training)."
"The solution's integrations and interface are very good."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is using the Excel sheets on Chrome and other applications."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is cloud accessibility."
"Has good integration with Power BI."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV's most valuable feature is the integration with other Microsoft solutions."
"I have found the flexibility to be very valuable. It's highly flexible, and at least for us, it has been effective. It is also highly functional."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Dynamics NAV is its simplicity of accounting and receiving reports. The solution is similar to Microsoft Excel, and that similarity is good. All the functions of Microsoft Dynamics are user-friendly."
"We use Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central as CRM."
 

Cons

"One area of improvement is conditional formatting. It's not very practical, and you need to specify additional formatting."
"Anaplan is a relatively expensive piece of software."
"Anaplan's workflow component is probably the biggest area for improvement. I'd also like to see Anaplan add an ad hoc reporting tool that allows users to query things. It's going to factor into how you design your data set and your models, but I'd like the ability to create ad hoc queries against the data that's in there."
"The negative is that the higher the flexibility, the higher is the complexity. That can act against you as a negative because it does require a model builder or a coder/developer."
"The integration technique should be a little bit easier."
"The cloud engine slows down when working with a large dataset. It still lacks a powerful engine."
"There are workspace issues, like the limitation on model sizes."
"The visualization tools in the product are limited in comparison to other reporting tools."
"I wouldn't say that Microsoft Dynamics is very scalable."
"They need to improve their processes."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV could be improved in terms of exporting income statements and balance sheets. Currently, there is a feature, but you can only have the last three years. I spent some time trying to improve the KPI portion that exports the data, that already calculates the sub forms or subtotals, but they weren't able to break that up into different dimensions. They've now managed to crowd the separate table and you can export that, but it's only for the last three years. So, they could improve this solution by getting the chart of accounts or the account schedules to be exported, where you can go further than just three years with it."
"The tool needs to work on reporting issues and user interface."
"It could be more stable."
"Microsoft Dynamics NAV could improve the reporting."
"The stability could always be improved."
"There are some aspects of the solution that is complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A value-for-money product and a very reasonable price compared to competitors like SAP or IBM."
"The cost of Anaplan is a challenge for clients, especially if they don't have an ongoing long-term use case for it. It's a $50,000 licensing fee just to get started. Clients need a strong business case to switch from Excel to Anaplan. But if clients have used something similar in the past, such as Hyperion or other solutions, that's not a factor because they know what to expect."
"This is a yearly subscription. So a customer initially buys a workspace and specifies how much GB they want. The minimum starts at around 30 GB. You can buy multiple workspaces."
"The tool’s pricing is reasonable and competitive with other solutions."
"This is an expensive product and if the price were reduced then it would attract more customers."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"Anaplan is a bit pricier compared to its competitors - the license costs about $4,000 per user annually."
"The license is a yearly subscription. There are three licensing tiers: the model builder, planner, and the reporting."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"NAV might be a little pricey for a small or medium-sized company, but all the solutions out there are."
"The tool’s licensing is yearly. The solution is cheaper compared to other ERP products from Oracle or SAP."
"The per user price of $100 a month is better than competitors."
"The price of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is reasonable. We pay monthly for the use of the solution."
"Currently, the product offers a starting price of $70 per user per month, which provides access to the complete ERP engine. It is highly reasonable."
"The deployment cost us $70,000 and we pay around $18,000 annually for support, which we find to be expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
29%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are your main use cases for Anaplan?
Anaplan is an industry-leading cloud-based corporate performance management (CPM) platform that combines business planning and analytics in a single solution. It is designed to assist organizations...
Is Board better than Anaplan as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution?
We've had several FP&A departments include Anaplan in their analytics discussions, and while BI information IS generated, the focus is generally on compiling input from various sources and simu...
Is Anaplan better than SAP ERP?
There are different aspects of both Anaplan and SAP ERP that I like and dislike. Anaplan improves forecast accuracy and drives up the quality of analytics. Rather than spending all of their time co...
What do you like most about Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
The platform offers a robust and comprehensive cycle for supply chain and inventory management, with features like minimum and maximum settings, dynamic monitoring of inventory levels, and integrat...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Dynamics NAV?
Implementing localizations when we use the system for multiple countries can be quite complex. There isn't a single solution available for all countries, and managing these localizations can be cha...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dynamics NAV, MS Dynamics NAV
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

HP, ForeScout, DocuSign, EAT, Pandora, Aviva, Intel Security, Zalora
Harris Farm Markets, Mister Spex GmbH, Bounce Foods, Eurofin Services SA, Medica Medizintechnik, Associated Gaskets, Onduline, Sitka Surfboard Corporation, World Animal Protection
Find out what your peers are saying about Anaplan, Oracle, IBM and others in Business Performance Management. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.