IBM Public Cloud vs SAP Cloud Platform comparison

IBM and SAP are both solutions in the PaaS Clouds category. IBM is ranked #14 with an average rating of 6.3, while SAP is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.1. IBM holds a 3.2% mindshare in PSP, compared to SAP’s 8.2% mindshare. Additionally, 86% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of SAP users who would recommend it.

IBM Public Cloud

Read 17 IBM Public Cloud reviews

4,665 Views
3,181 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

SAP Cloud Platform

Read 45 SAP Cloud Platform reviews

7,428 Views
5,881 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

IBM Public Cloud

SAP Cloud Platform

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

IBM Public Cloud and SAP Cloud Platform are competing products in the cloud space. IBM Public Cloud seems to have the upper hand with pricing and support, whereas SAP Cloud Platform stands out for its features justifying the investment.

Features: IBM Public Cloud is praised for its robust infrastructure, AI capabilities, and flexibility in creating serverless functions. SAP Cloud Platform is known for its strong integration capabilities, scalability, and comprehensive suite of enterprise-grade applications.

Room for Improvement: IBM Public Cloud can improve in offering a more streamlined deployment process, enhance integration with non-IBM systems, and reduce complexity in pricing models. SAP Cloud Platform could enhance its maturity to match competitors, improve usability for non-SAP products, and address initial setup costs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP Cloud Platform offers a streamlined deployment process with good integration into business environments, supported by agile customer service. IBM Public Cloud provides technical deployment with strong support and broad compatibility, catering well to technical customization.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Public Cloud provides competitive initial setup costs, focusing on broad resource offerings at general value. SAP Cloud Platform may have a higher initial investment, but it delivers long-term ROI through business efficiency gains and process optimization. The choice between them often depends on the company’s financial flexibility and strategic goals.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Public Cloud vs. SAP Cloud Platform Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud vs. SAP Cloud Platform

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

IBM Public Cloud

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

14th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

IoT Platforms (7th)

SAP Cloud Platform

Ranking in PaaS Clouds

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the PaaS Clouds category, the mindshare of IBM Public Cloud is 3.2%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Cloud Platform is 8.2%, up from 7.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

PaaS Clouds

Featured Reviews

Shivakumar Kuppannan

Founder & CEO at Star Systems India Private Limited

No hidden charges, 100% stable, and allows us to have bare metal servers for dedicated workload

It pretty much has all the features. There are many applications and features, and because of that, we need to walk through or study all the material and do hands-on. We need clear documentation or support for using IBM Public Cloud. The UI is fine, and everything else in terms of usability and configuring the cloud is also fine. The only thing is that when we're stuck or get an error, we need some technical support. Normally, for any cloud, we get a lot of information on the web, but that is missing in the case of IBM Public Cloud. We need some technical support documents. That is the only thing missing in IBM Public Cloud.

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PinakiGhosh

COO at Data Core Systems

The implementation cycle has been reduced significantly but has room for integration enhancements

Our existing customers who are on ECC are on-premises. They are migrating to SAP Cloud Platform, specifically on S4HANA. One of our clients was on SAP ECC on-premises, and they are moving to the cloud on S4HANA on the public cloud system. We are supporting about 15 customers, mostly small to…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the features that I really like about IBM Cloud is the flexibility where you can order your own hardware."

"This product is very good because it is accessible in remote locations, and anyone can deploy from any place."

"What I like most in IBM Public Cloud is how easy it is to create serverless functions. They are called IBM functions, but in AWS, they are called Lambda functions. Those are pretty standard, and another thing I like the most is that you have fewer restrictions on the amount of data you can transfer across those functions. IBM Public Cloud is way more flexible than AWS. I also like that IBM Public Cloud is pretty straightforward to integrate. As long as you have all the tools IBM provides you, getting everything up and running is straightforward."

"This is a predictable and dependable service."

"It is easy to deploy what you need for the initial setup"

"The price of IBM Cloud is most valuable for us. The service is personable and gives us a good rapport. I can't say it's the best, but it was enough for our needs."

"There is no installation for this product because it is a cloud product."

"An advantage of IBM Public Cloud is the bare metal server. We can take the bare metal server. It's not shared with anyone. We can deploy our applications without sharing them with anyone. That is an advantage of IBM Public Cloud."

More IBM Public Cloud pros

"One of the most valuable features I have found is that the solution is secure."

"The solution is scalable."

"The features I found most valuable are the integration options."

"The product is very stable."

"SAP Cloud Platform's performance is much faster than the on-premises solution because of continuous fine-tuning by their team."

"The dashboard provides pretty good clarity."

"The tool's most valuable aspects are the niche technologies and the latest editions. The way these updates are rolled out makes it easy to manage because clients and customers are not responsible for keeping everything up to date. It's SAP's responsibility, which makes it much easier to take advantage of the new features they roll out every month."

"Cloud Platform's stability is great."

More SAP Cloud Platform pros

Cons

"It could be more secure."

"I would like to see a more user-friendly deployment process in the next release of this solution."

"Maybe performance enhancers and reports could be better improved. If they do so, it would be better. Of all the drawbacks I saw, this would be the biggest enhancement."

"They could improve on customizing reporting capabilities."

"The product should offer more computing, similar to Amazon."

"The solution’s pricing could be improved."

"Recently, we just faced some issues with the operating system due to the end of life of CentOS 6...So, then the client wanted to try it out under AWS instead of IBM. In short, it has some complexities."

"The deployment can be a bit of a pain. There are a lot of packages and a lot of options and it can require complex configuration to get it right."

More IBM Public Cloud cons

"I want to see better pricing from the SAP Cloud Platform in the future. I also want more security and scalability from it."

"When I started looking at the client's IT architecture, I started by doing a study of their services, DVM, data volume, and management services. According to the results, they could be a lot better at this."

"Better connectivity to on-premise systems would help us to support older systems that are migrating to the cloud."

"SAP Cloud Platform's installation is not straightforward. You need a person with knowledge to handle it."

"I would like to see more and better support for data transformations."

"Planning features are limited to the finance module."

"Speaking about the public cloud, it's a very rigid system. So, there is not a lot of customization possible in a public cloud environment."

"What I would like to see improved is the learning curve."

More SAP Cloud Platform cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM has a lesser price compared to other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a nine out of ten."

"The licensing fees are straightforward and predictable."

"IBM Public Cloud is pretty cheap. They have an ongoing free tier that basically won't expire, so as long as your solution is small enough, you can have a test set that you can use for demos, which will cost you almost nothing."

"We are using the trial version of this solution, so we have not paid anything."

"In order to be competitive, you have to commit to a contract for at least one year, but you pay a fixed monthly fee."

"It pretty much has a standard price. There is no hidden price with IBM Public Cloud."

"Pricing is not as fair as Amazon or Azure."

More IBM Public Cloud pricing and cost advice

"SAP Cloud Platform is expensive. It can be quite costly."

"I discovered that the SAP Cloud Platform is affordable, contrary to the impression that it's expensive. The pricing for extra packages or messages is quite reasonable, especially for things like message throughput and processing."

"Licensing costs for this solution are based on the number of users and the bandwidth."

"Cost-wise, I'm unsure of how expensive the SAP Cloud Platform is."

"The tool could get too pricey...Small enterprises that want to leverage the tool's features will have difficulty in utilizing the solution."

"The price of the solution depends on the package that is purchased. There are many packages to choose from. The packages are not overly expensive."

"SAP offers yearly, subscription-based, and pay-as-you-use licensing."

"The solution is worth the money."

More SAP Cloud Platform pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

University

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

17%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Energy/Utilities Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is preferable - IBM Public Cloud or Microsoft Azure?

IBM Public Cloud is IBM’s Platform-as-a-Service. It aims to provide organizations with a secure cloud environment to manage data and applications. One of the features we like is the cloud activity ...

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What needs improvement with IBM Cloud?

The front end is not pervasive, so it is very difficult get the status of your current services or account from a mobile device.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Public Cloud?

The most valuable feature of IBM Public Cloud is the AI integrations.

See all answers

Which is better - SAP Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure?

One of the best features of SAP Cloud Platform is that it is web-based and you can log in from anywhere in the world. SAP Cloud Platform is suitable for companies of any size; it works well with bo...

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How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS?

How is SAP Cloud Platform different than Amazon AWS? Amazon AWS offers options both in terms of upgrading and expanding capabilities as well as acquiring greater storage space. These upgrades can ...

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What do you like most about SAP Cloud Platform?

The product improved our company's business operations since we got value out of it.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 36% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 33% of the time

Amazon AWS vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

Dell ECS vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

Google Cloud vs IBM Public Cloud

Compared 3% of the time

More IBM Public Cloud Competitors

Amazon AWS vs SAP Cloud Platform

Compared 29% of the time

Microsoft Azure vs SAP Cloud Platform

Compared 28% of the time

Google Cloud vs SAP Cloud Platform

Compared 7% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs SAP Cloud Platform

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Integration Cloud Service vs SAP Cloud Platform

Compared 5% of the time

More SAP Cloud Platform Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud

March 2025

Download IBM Public Cloud product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Cloud Platform

March 2025

Download SAP Cloud Platform product report

Also Known As

IBM Bluemix

SAP HANA Cloud Platform

Overview

IBM Cloud is a full-stack cloud platform that spans public, private and hybrid environments. Build with a robust suite of advanced data and AI tools, and draw on deep industry expertise to help you on your journey to the cloud.

IBM

SAP Cloud Platform is an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and PaaS cloud tool. It powers applications that deliver real-time insights to contribute to more effective and timely decision-making. Customers all over the world from different-sized companies use SAP Cloud Platform to build application extensions, integrate landscapes, or extend existing enterprise applications in the cloud.

The platform incorporates innovative technologies, including big data, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML). SAP Cloud Platform supports native services and products by SAP, as well as partners with popular platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Amazon AWS, and Alibaba Cloud.

Users of the product can extend, integrate, and develop applications on premises and in the cloud. The product offers flexibility, agility, and scalability, as it enables easy integration and connection of different applications within the platform. The solution is based on open standards and provides a wide range of development tools.

SAP has announced that they are removing SAP Cloud Platform as a brand name and moving its capabilities within SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). The features of SAP Cloud Platform will be integrated into SAP BTP to assist with data management and analytics, alongside other components of the platform. Existing customers of SAP Cloud Platform will continue to benefit from its products under SAP Integration Suite and SAP Extension Suite.

SAP Cloud Platform Capabilities

The solution offers a wide variety of tools, application capabilities, services, and application programming interface (API). These can be categorized in the following ways:

Enterprise extensions: The features of SAP Cloud Platform in this category include SAP Localization Hub, Tax Service, Data Enrichment for SAP S/4HANA, SAP Data Quality Management, SAP Business Application Studio, ABAP environment, and SAP Web IDE.
Intelligent BPM: This set of features includes SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Process Visibility, Business Rules, and Workflow.
Integration Suite: The features of SAP Cloud Platform in this category include Open Connectors, OData Provisioning, API Management, Cloud Integration, and Smart Data Integration.
Digital experience: Features in this category include SAP Conversational AI, Mobile Services, Document Service, Portal, SAP Build, SAPUI5, and SAP Fiori Cloud.
Data-driven insights: This category of capabilities includes SAP Leonardo Internet of Things, SAP Data Intelligence, SAP Edge Services, IoT, SAP HANA Cloud, SAP Web Analytics, SAP Streaming Analytics, SAP ASE Service, and SAP Analytics Cloud.
Platform foundation: Alert Notification, Application Logging, Data Retention Manager, Job Scheduler, Java Server, and Transport Management are included in this group of capabilities.

SAP Cloud Platform Benefits

The platform has many benefits which improve their client’s workflows. They include the following:

SAP Cloud Platform facilitates the seamless integration of existing solutions and hybrid system landscapes.
The solution assists companies to deliver tailored end-to-end interfaces for improved user experience through software development kits (SDKs).
It simplifies application interface management through the option of building apps in the Kubernetes environment.
SAP Cloud Platform simplifies the development of native business applications through the various development tools and capabilities it offers.
It provides companies with a wide range of pre-configured business services.
Companies are offered the possibility to streamline the integration of new apps with a lowered overall cost of ownership.
The product can reduce costs for organizations, as it does not require an up-front investment in software or hardware.
The solution can increase productivity for developers through its supported open programming standards.

Reviews from Real Users

Shylaraj AK, a senior architect at a construction company, describes SAP Cloud Platform as easy to maintain, great features, and helpful support, which attributes to his high rating for the product.

Ehab-El H., chief executive officer at Asis, likes SAP Cloud Platform because it is easy to use with a fast deployment and straightforward setup.

SAP

Sample Customers

Uvionics Tech, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Alpha Modus, Inventive, Web Business Consulting, FindBrok, SilverHook Powerboats, United Way of Allegheny County

Siemens, Shell & Volkswagen, Still, EarlySense, Roche, National Football League, Heidelberg University Hospital, In Mind Computing, The Timken Company, OPAL, EnterpriseJungle, Groupe Danone, Accenture, T-Systems, Sailing Team Germany, Sloan Valve

Buyer's Guide

IBM Public Cloud vs. SAP Cloud Platform

March 2025

Free Report: IBM Public Cloud vs. SAP Cloud Platform

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Public Cloud vs. SAP Cloud Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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