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Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs SAP BW4HANA comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Companies benefited from Azure Synapse's cost savings, flexibility, and improved efficiency, though financial specifics and satisfaction varied.
Sentiment score
5.8
SAP BW4HANA enhances data management, productivity, and decision-making, offering long-term ROI through centralized data and advanced analytics.
Some of my customers have indeed seen a return on investment with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as they used it for analytics to drive decision-making, improving their processes or increasing revenue.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics support experiences vary, with larger clients generally receiving faster, more knowledgeable assistance.
Sentiment score
5.8
SAP BW4HANA support quality varies; some users experience delays, while others leverage resources for independent issue resolution.
They are slow to respond and not very knowledgeable.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
This is an underestimation of the real impact because we use big data also to monitor the network and the customer.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the support for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as an eight out of ten.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
In the meantime, I found solutions independently and provided two solutions to my client.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
I am satisfied with the response time and quality.
Senior consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its scalability, flexibility, and auto-scaling, despite occasional cost and latency concerns.
Sentiment score
6.9
SAP BW4HANA is scalable, excelling in cloud environments, while on-premise scaling may encounter cost and planning challenges.
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is scalable, offering numerous opportunities for scalability.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
For the scalability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, I would rate it a 10 until you remain in the Azure Cloud scalability framework.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Recovering from such scenarios becomes a bit problematic or time-consuming.
Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its stability, despite occasional minor outages and performance issues with large datasets.
Sentiment score
7.5
SAP BW4HANA is highly reliable and integrates well, though some users mention performance issues with large datasets.
Performance and stability are absolutely fine because Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is a PaaS service.
CTO at New Turn Technologies
I find the service stable as I have not encountered many issues.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
We have never integrated Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics with Databricks, but we have mostly pulled data from on-premises systems into Azure Databricks.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure Synapse needs improvements in integration, pricing, ease of use, setup, and advanced analytics features for better adoption.
SAP BW4HANA is costly and complex, with integration, usability, migration issues, and competition from better cloud solutions.
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks.
CTO at New Turn Technologies
There is a need for better documentation, particularly for customized tasks with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
Databricks is a very rich solution, with numerous open sources and capabilities in terms of extract, transform, load, database query, and so forth.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
SAP is asking us to move to one client approach and suggested moving to data warehouse cloud, which should have been done before HANA, as the cloud solution is better for them due to the lack of hardware maintenance on the client's end.
Consultant at IBM
Integration needs improvement.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
The integration with AI/ML in SAP BW4HANA is currently very limited, which is definitely an area that needs improvement.
Senior consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers flexible pricing but requires careful cost management due to unpredictable expenses and competitive services.
SAP BW/4HANA is costly, with prices varying widely; often affordable for large enterprises and negotiable per customer needs.
The cheapest tier costs about $4,000 to $4,700 a year, while the most expensive tier can reach up to $300,000 a year.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
I think the price of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very expensive, but that's not only for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics—it's for the cloud in general.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I find the pricing of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics reasonable.
Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited
The certification cost for SAP BW4HANA in 2025 is expected to be one lakh forty thousand.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers scalability, integration, and advanced analytics with easy management, data protection, and familiar Microsoft interface.
SAP BW4HANA excels in user-friendly design, advanced analytics, real-time processing, scalability, and seamless integration for informed business decisions.
One of the most valuable features in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the ability to write your own ETL code using Azure Data Factory, which is a component within Synapse.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers significant visibility, which helps us understand our usage more clearly.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
For Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, the integration is the most valuable feature, meaning that whatever you need is fast and easy to use.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
The best features include the ability to create data sources directly on tables, and perform mapping without creating info objects.
SAP Analytics Lead at Miracle Software Systems, Inc
The capability to handle a large amount of data and perform ETL operations is most valuable.
Senior consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
My impression of the stability of SAP BW4HANA is that it is a robust system, scalable, and effective for business reporting as well as combining multiple datasets into a single point of view.
Consultant at IBM
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (6th)
SAP BW4HANA
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (9th)
 

Featured Reviews

AnandTiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at New Turn Technologies
Has consistently supported integration across diverse environments and streamlined deployment processes
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve their pricing structure. They currently have two separate pricing tiers: full log and partial log. I suggest they implement a single price and reduce charges on logs. They could implement a cap with some free tier or price tier based on the GBs of log collected. This would help customers use Azure more effectively. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks, but the log management part is very costly. Regarding future improvements, I would appreciate more application connectors for integration, particularly for on-premise based solutions. Many customers still maintain on-premise infrastructure, so having more integration possibilities for these environments would be beneficial.
Ritesh Durvasha - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Has supported efficient data processing and streamlined reporting for large-scale sales operations
The capability to handle a large amount of data and perform ETL operations is most valuable. Additionally, sending data out of SAP BW4HANA through Open Hub, which is a free service, is another valuable feature. In contrast, many other products charge for sending data out of their systems, such as Data Sphere or BDC, which charge premium service fees. Regarding advanced analytic tools in SAP BW4HANA, users can directly connect to Analysis for Office without additional charges. It's convenient as users don't have to download data into Excel since it's already connected to the system. From an integration capabilities perspective, it's easy to connect to SAP systems, though integration with non-SAP systems presents more challenges.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Construction Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Construction Company
9%
Retailer
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise59
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise30
 

Questions from the Community

How does Amazon Redshift compare with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different dat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
I think the licensing cost for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very high, but I have a local system to support that, so I don't consider that in the near future.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
I am hoping that in the future Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics may have AI support.
What needs improvement with SAP BW4HANA?
The integration with AI/ML in SAP BW4HANA is currently very limited, which is definitely an area that needs improvement. The second area for improvement is integration with third-party systems, whi...
What is your primary use case for SAP BW4HANA?
My client is one of the biggest retail clients, and I'm mostly working in the sales and distribution domain. The client uses SAP BW4HANA to report on sales, deliveries, and invoices. They track how...
 

Also Known As

Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure SQL DW, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, MS Azure Synapse Analytics
SAP BW/4HANA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Toshiba, Carnival, LG Electronics, Jet.com, Adobe, 
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. SAP BW4HANA and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
899,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.