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SAP BW4HANA vs SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

SAP BW4HANA
Ranking in Data Warehouse
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP NetWeaver Business Ware...
Ranking in Data Warehouse
15th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of SAP BW4HANA is 4.5%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse is 0.3%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Csaba Grünblatt - PeerSpot reviewer
Performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities
SAP BW4HANA improved data reporting processes significantly. Performance on HANA database is good. Well-built data models ensure consistent and fast reporting. Reusable models enhance efficiency, even for SaaS services. In-memory computing, especially since HANA, has greatly improved performance in data analysis tasks. It eliminates the need for complex optimizations like creating indexes or aggregates. Queries that once took minutes now run in seconds, enabling real-time reporting, especially for SAP ECC on HANA. SAP BW4HANA's integration capabilities are streamlined with a simplified architecture and more virtual layers. You can directly load data into optimized layers, reducing the need for extra storage. The introduction of Open ODS Views allows for additional logic and master data inclusion, making integration faster and simpler. The learning curve for SAP BW4HANA is much faster now compared to ten years ago, thanks to abundant free resources like documentation, videos, blogs, and learning journeys provided by SAP. It is simpler to learn with these resources available compared to the past when you had to attend courses and rely on books. I would recommend SAP BW4HANA to users looking to implement it, especially if they want to keep their systems on-premise and already have SAP systems. Those with BW on HANA have two choices: BW4HANA or DataSphere, depending on their cloud strategy. If they are advanced in their cloud strategy and want to migrate off-premise, DataSphere is a good choice. However, for a robust solution on-premise or in a private cloud, BW4HANA is an excellent option. Overall, I would rate BW4HANA as a nine out of ten. It performs all necessary data warehouse tasks and offers additional functionalities. We use it traditionally, with complex transformations and models but with less emphasis on real-time processing and third-party sources.
Gebrehiwot Tesfay Gebreslassie - PeerSpot reviewer
Data modeling is a valuable feature but there are some issues with scalability
We are an airline and use the system for data modeling and data warehousing, and we implement it for time performance and feedback analysis. I'm the business intelligence senior developer and we are customers of SAP.  The data modeling is very valuable for us. There are performance issues in…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The processes are the most valuable aspect of this solution."
"The most valuable feature is that it's robust."
"One significant advantage of SAP BW/4HANA is the direct integration with the SAP HANA database, providing seamless access to real-time analytics. Additionally, it enables real-time data integration. We don't need to rely on historical data alone; we can provide reporting and features based on real-time information."
"The solution is easier to maintain than traditional SAP products."
"We benefited from BW/4HANA's ability to utilize predefined content inside. We didn't need to start from scratch."
"Its direct approach is the most valuable. You get more real time and capabilities than BW."
"The most valuable feature is the dashboard."
"We can get good visualization and less redundant data."
"It provides us with proof of data, we can centralize all of the information, check it, and then provide the information to our users."
"The security and audit procedures are the most valuable features."
"Transformation is a valuable feature of SAP NetWeaver. I can transform the data as per my needs or my client's needs. For example, flat tables can be transformed with respect to our requirements to combine multiple modules into one single table, and we can derive analytics."
"It is a robust system."
"It's an excellent over-all tool for managers to analyze their business."
"Data modeling is a valuable feature."
"A robust and efficient product."
 

Cons

"Price wise, this solution is on the higher side."
"The solution is not scalable. It does not have a data streaming feature as well."
"The product needs to improve with more performance and fewer data layers."
"There's one area where the other vendors have an upper edge, which is the data lake. I think SAP is trying to figure out whether to stick with IQ, their own data lake solution, or push customers toward customer-preferred vendors, like Azure Data Lake, AWS, or any other provider."
"It's complicated to use. You need to spend a lot of time learning about it. The interface could be improved. It's not intuitive to build a data model and use their ETL tools."
"The cost of the product might be an area that might introduce some restrictions or limitations to customers, making it one of the aspects where improvements are required."
"In the next release, I would like to see their BI component introduced with a mobile version, as it is not currently present."
"We cannot integrate with third-party tools like Python or advanced integration options. You can't fine-tune tables within BW or generate specific views or reports."
"Connectors are complex, and it is difficult to understand or know which connector should be used. For instance, if I want to connect APIs, I will not be able to do it directly. I would have to go to the portal integration to get the data. Therefore, having simplified connectors will make things much easier."
"The program is difficult to learn to use"
"Design and modeling could be simplified."
"It is difficult when your native language is not English. It is difficult for us to explain our issue and also difficult for the technical team to explain a resolution to us."
"There are performance issues in terms of scalability and availability."
"The product could provide more features."
"I think more integration with other applications would be perfect."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's a little expensive compared to Microsoft Azure."
"SAP BW/4HANA is expensive."
"The product is free if we have the ECC license."
"The cost of ownership is higher. It's resource-intensive, and naturally, that increases costs."
"It is an expensive product."
"Price wise, this solution is on the higher side."
"This is an expensive solution and there are costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"We started as early birds from the SAP side. We got this entire suite for free. I cannot really talk about the price because we didn't have to pay anything."
"The licensing cost is high for SAP NetWeaver compared to that for other products."
"Pricing is based on the number of user IDs and tyhe user ID works across a suite of products."
"All SAP products are expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Retailer
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP BW4HANA?
One significant advantage of SAP BW/4HANA is the direct integration with the SAP HANA database, providing seamless access to real-time analytics. Additionally, it enables real-time data integrati...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP BW4HANA?
We have a broad licensing arrangement, which is expensive but worth it for sizeable businesses.
What needs improvement with SAP BW4HANA?
The interface could be more user-friendly, as we often need to do low-level coding to get things done.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

SAP BW/4HANA
NetWeaver Business Warehouse, NetWeaver BusinessObjects Warehouse
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
EMC Corporation, Takisada-Osaka Co. Ltd., Eldorado, Mozzart, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, Hilti Group, Nissha Printing Company Ltd., Asian Paints, Aareal Bank Group, Magazine zum Globus (Migros Group)
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP BW4HANA vs. SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
847,772 professionals have used our research since 2012.