Fed up with doing obsolete, lengthy Undertaking Asset Organizing ERP System structures that don’t assist you in finishing your work? Do you want to partner with the tasks of your business and revamp joint efforts to support, eventually, back adequacy? Look no further! Investigate the top ERP frameworks of 2024, including SAP S/4HANA, and find the upsides and downsides of every choice. Settle on an educated choice for your business with this master’s examination.
One could develop individualized apps for each department. However, implementing them separately and integrating them across teams would be deemed a costly and inefficient method of compartmentalizing departments. A better solution is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software.
I conducted thorough research on ERP software and interviewed individuals who utilize this software regularly. And viewed numerous demos to the point where ERP began to infiltrate my dreams. Based on all that, I whittled down a list of the best ERP software out there.
The 8 Best ERP System Arrangements
- Oracle NetSuite ERP for the best all-around ERP software
- Odoo ERP for custom business processes
- SAP Business One for growing companies
- ERPNext for the best value ERP
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 for dynamic use cases
- Acumatica Cloud ERP for the best user experience
- Katana for inventory management
- Sage Intacct for accounting
What is an enterprise resource planning ERP System?
ERP framework is an extensive stage that interfaces individual groups across an endeavor and gives every client the instruments they need to take care of their responsibilities productively, subsequently working with consistent correspondence and coordination. ERPs can cover a tremendous scope of purpose cases in practically any industry. However consequently smoothing out cross-utilitarian cooperation, which thusly keeps information storehouses from framing. Also, the smoothed-out work processes that ERPs empower, in the meantime, improve the whole cycle.
Here are some common features of the ERP system, categorized by use case:
- Accounting and finance: tax management, general ledger, financial reporting, transaction data
- Inventory and warehousing: inventory tracking, inventory management automation, stock replenishment, wave management, shipping integrations
- Orders and fulfillment: invoicing, reporting, payment processing, order tracking, order validation, dropshipping
- Supply chain: production data, outstanding order tracking, demand analysis, mobile device tracking
- Marketing and sales: client communication, forecasting, customer acquisition cost reporting, workflow management, project analytics
With an ERP system in place, data collected by one department is instantly available to anyone who needs it in any other department.
For instance, a merchandise company may trigger shipments that are already fulfilled in its warehouse through sales orders initiated by its billing team. An ERP system lets the warehouse manager see updated order information being processed by the billing manager, while the accounting department gets brought up to date with all the relevant revenue and expense data.
What makes the best ERP System?
ERP systems have incredibly diverse ranges of utilities and use cases, which makes them tricky to rank objectively. Plus, some have features that cater to niche industries, so a product that’s a perfect match for one enterprise may be off the table entirely for another.
To narrow down the playing field, I assessed each ERP system option according to these core criteria:
- Range of use cases: ERP systems should have wide-ranging capabilities that cover virtually every business process need across an enterprise. Some ERP solutions are accounting software or logistics platforms with moderate additional functionality, for example, while others are equally powerful tools for all teams.
- Client experience: This is perplexing programming with a ton of moving parts, so the client experience is critical. The construction of the product, how coherently planned it is, that it is so like arrangements colleagues as of now use, and how quickly it runs are all UX contemplations.
- Versatility: Some ERP system programming is planned explicitly for SMBs, while others are intended for gigantic ventures, and some can overcome any barrier between the two. This component checks how well an ERP system programming arrangement can develop with an association and keeps addressing its requirements as it develops.
- Customization: Not all ventures work the same way, so customization potential can be gigantic for ERP programming.
In the list below, I rank each ERP system platform on a 1-5 scale for each of these criteria based on consensus user reviews.
Urges perusers to continue to pursue to find the top picks.
I want to be transparent that since the ERP system is so complex, and few (if any) options offer trial access, it’s not possible to test them all individually. To make my assessments, I read information posted on product websites, perused real reviews on software sites like G2 and Capterra, analyzed trends in third-party reviews, watched video demos and guides, and asked real users about their experiences with ERP software. Based on all those inputs, here are my picks for the best ERP software.
The Best ERP System At A Glance
| Key feature | Key limitation | Pricing | |
| Oracle NetSuite ERP | User-friendly access to many features | Implementation can be resource-intensive | Pricing by request |
| Odoo ERP | Open source customization capabilities | Customization and troubleshooting can be expensive or cumbersome for small IT teams | $$ |
| SAP Business One | Flexible, modular deployment for SMBs | The Utility has a ceiling of a few hundred users | Pricing by request |
| ERPNext | Surprisingly feature-rich free software with open source flexibility | Can require a lot of IT resources to implement and customize | $ |
| Microsoft Dynamics 365 | Scalable AI integrations | Requires significant hardware resources to run effectively | $$$$ |
| Acumatica Cloud ERP | Simple interface and good user experience | Customization can be complex | Pricing by request |
| Katana | Robust live inventory management capabilities | Not ideal for industries that don’t rely on physical inventory | $$$$ |
| Sage Intacct | Robust accounting and financial solutions, including intelligent general ledger | Broader ERP functionality can require integrations or custom applications | Pricing |
Best all-around ERP System
Oracle NetSuite ERP System
- Range of use cases: 5/5
- User experience: 4/5
- Scalability: 5/5
- Customization: 4/5
This should come as a pretty cold take—Oracle is a SaaS juggernaut, and its pioneering ERP product is used by tens of thousands of companies across the globe. NetSuite’s LinkedIn profile even claims it became the world’s first cloud company in 1998. In some cases, tech this old can grow stagnant and get surpassed by new companies, but Oracle has used its industry standing to improve the NetSuite product year over year.
The Oracle NetSuite ERP gets the nod here for the best all-around ERP system because it excels on all fronts and is truly an all-in-one business solution. Its applications run the usual gamut of industries like financial services, consumables, healthcare, and IT, but also include more niche applications like campus bookstores and publishing.
This isn’t a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none scenario. Oracle NetSuite performs better than most—if not all—competition in really every category. Users point out that its intuitive custom dashboards offer the rare combination of user-friendliness and complexity, whether it’s being used to handle accounting, supply chains, procurement, or just about any business use in between. As an example, Jeff Clark, CEO and webmaster of AIToolMall, told me that “NetSuite offers excellent reporting and forecasting capabilities, providing valuable insights for strategic decision-making.”
It’s tough to find many faults with Oracle NetSuite ERP, but the most commonly cited issues I’ve seen have to do with implementation and cost. It’s not the cheapest option, and rollout can be a little complex and laborious, so it may not be the best choice for smaller organizations with limited internal IT resources.
Key feature: User-friendly access to many features
Key limitation: Implementation can be resource-intensive
Best ERP for custom business processes
Odoo ERP System
- Range of use cases: 5/5
- User experience: 4/5
- Scalability: 4/5
- Customization: 5/5
As an open-source arrangement, Odoo stands apart as an unmistakable champ as far as customization capacities, which is additionally intensified by its boundless set-up of utilities and plenty of local applications. Also, the open-source engineering of Odoo adds to its uniqueness, taking into consideration its uncommon adaptability. Besides, the accessibility of a free local area rendition just supports Odoo’s situation as one of the more particular ERP contributions available.
Shirtzilla pioneer Vitaliy Kharitonov eagerly lauded Odoo’s stock and request handling highlights, considering them a “distinct advantage” that smoothes out tasks and lifts consumer loyalty, in this way improving the general business experience. Besides, intended to be an exhaustive all-inclusive resource for all business interaction needs, Odoo includes plenty of pre-constructed applications, traversing everything from client relationships the board (CRM) and retail location (PoS) to time off mentioning and cost answering to distributing and live talks. Moreover, whether you’re working in a delivery business, a MedTech organization, or an eatery network, there is probably currently an application that can be sent or redone to suit each fundamental errand inside your association.
Underscores the adaptability of the stage, including the no-code application studio
For the tasks that slip between the cracks, Odoo also has a bustling third-party app marketplace. It even integrates readily with lots of popular third-party applications you may already use, like Microsoft Office, Google Drive, and QuickBooks. You can also integrate Odoo with Zapier, which will let you connect Odoo to thousands of other apps too. Here are some examples.
And if all those options still leave you with an unfulfilled need, Odoo’s no-code app studio lets you create custom mobile apps, reports, workflow automation, screens, and more.
The cost of all this flexibility, however, is that open-source solutions can be tricky to work with on the back end and expensive to troubleshoot. Beyond the general bug and issue help offered by the included support level, users can buy support packs in hourly blocks that can rack up to five figures pretty quickly. If you’ve got a skilled IT team, you may not need much support since the included support and community are still really useful, but this could be a deterrent to smaller, less techy organizations.
If your IT team can handle it, Odoo is fairly affordable (and, again, has a rare free ERP offering), well-designed, and incredibly flexible.
Key feature: Open source customization capabilities
Key limitation: Customization and troubleshooting can be expensive or cumbersome for small IT teams
Best ERP for growing companies
SAP Business One
- Range of use cases: 4/5
- User experience: 4/5
- Scalability: 4/5
- Customization: 5/5
If I had to whittle down all ERP software providers to one Oracle competitor, it’d be SAP. Founded in 1972, parent company SAP SE has been in the business software game even longer than Oracle (1977) and offers five ERP options, including Business One, which is ideal for growing businesses with up to a few hundred employees.
Designed specifically for the SMB market, Business One has a lower price tag than some of the more robust SAP offerings and a quick rollout timeline. But that doesn’t make it light on features—it still packs SAP’s premium functionality into a tool that can handle just about any business process for virtually any SMB. To that end, Josh Snow, CEO of Customer Feedback, calls it “a fantastic, all-inclusive service.”
With over 500 extensions, real-time analytics, flexible plans, a custom software development kit, and both cloud and on-premises deployment options, SAP Business One is designed to grow with SMBs.It’s amazingly adjustable, permitting clients to fabricate applications, mechanize modest errands, make custom dashboards, and truly plan the ERP biological system that works for their remarkable business and industry.
Business One is ideally suited for smaller projects that require a specific, robust solution, but notably, it is not intended to be SAP’s flagship enterprise product. Associations that hope to develop to around 500 clients within a reasonable time frame might need to focus on one more choice in the SAP ERP suite, similar to S/4HANA.
Key element: Adaptable, secluded sending for SMBs
Key limit: Utility has a roof of two or three hundred clients
Best Value ERP
ERPNext
- Range of use cases: 5/5
- User experience: 4/5
- Scalability: 3/5
- Customization: 5/5
A completely free and open-source option, ERPNext comes in as a screaming value for users who can install, host, and operate it locally. Paid, hosted options start at just $50 per month for unlimited users, and education and nonprofit organizations may even qualify for additional discounts. It may not have the kind of out-of-the-box utility premium ERP products promise, but it should still be plenty usable for many SMBs.
ERPNext can handle just about every ERP need imaginable, with tools for processes including CRM, help desk, content management, project management, human resources, payroll, order management, and inventory management. Since it’s an open-source solution designed for low overhead, it just doesn’t offer those tools with the kind of simplicity you’re likely to get out of the box with a bigger player in the ERP space. To help make up for that, it does offer lots of native integrations with common third parties like WooCommerce, Shopify, Google Drive, Amazon, and Stripe.
Indicates that the content is a review of ERPNext
For an open-source platform, ERPNext has an interface that gets high user marks for its user-friendliness, though its design is predictably a little lo-fi. But the applications themselves, once implemented, are rich. ERPNext offers standout features like multi-currency accounting, auto-generated invoices, lead analysis, Kanban and Gantt views, hierarchical bill of materials, real-time help desk insights, and much more. When you enter data in one field, related fields automatically update across datasets, ensuring every user in every module accesses the same information.
Features major areas of strength for the local area information accessible to clients
When it comes time to implement ERPNext, users will find that support and community knowledge are pretty strong. Rollout comes with a consultation call, and there’s even a partner ecosystem to help IT teams format the software to their particular needs. Considering this is free software, it can be well worth the time and effort for SMBs with dedicated IT teams looking for an ERP solution that can keep overhead low.
Key feature: Surprisingly feature-rich free software with open-source flexibility
Key limitation: Can require a lot of IT resources to implement and customize
Best ERP for dynamic use cases
Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Range of use cases: 5/5
- User experience: 3/5
- Scalability: 4/5
- Customization: 4/5
This wouldn’t be a business software list without a Microsoft product, and true to form, its Dynamics 365 ERP offering makes this list for its versatility. Fitness Volt writer and strategist Matthew Magnante told me that its combination of ERP and CRM products “gives companies the ability to see their entire process from beginning to end, automate it, and analyze it to improve their operations, engage their customers, and drive growth.” Hence, dynamic.
Dynamics seamlessly integrates CRM tools alongside its robust operational tools. This makes it very capable of connecting internal business processes like logistics and custom workflows with customer-centric processes like PoS processes and interaction reporting.
And it gets bonus points here for dynamic AI integration. With its Copilot service, Dynamics helps users cut down on repetitive tasks and reduce human error with AI-driven email creation, intelligent work order filling, issue identification, inventory ordering, automated reporting, and much more.
If there’s one drawback I’ve seen mentioned across the internet about Dynamics 365, it’s user experience. Despite the exciting potential of integrated AI, its reporting and forecasting capabilities have been known to be a little clunky and may require third-party integrations for some users. It also comes with pretty hefty resource requirements, so the software itself can be cumbersome for users without top-notch hardware to run it on.
Elements 365: A Consistent Fit for Microsoft Environment Clients
It’s also worth noting that as a Microsoft product, Dynamics 365 is more functional for organizations that already deploy other Microsoft products. It stands to reason that Microsoft prioritizes its native solutions, so even though there are decent third-party integrations available, if you’re used to the MS suite, you’ll have a lower learning curve and a simpler time working with the software overall.
If you use Microsoft Dynamics CRM, you can automate it with Zapier to connect it to thousands of apps outside the Microsoft ecosystem. Discover how to automate Microsoft Dynamics CRM, or begin implementing one of these workflows today.
Key feature: Scalable AI integrations
Key limitation: Requires significant hardware resources to run effectively
Best ERP for user experience
Acumatica Cloud ERP
- Range of use cases: 4/5
- User experience: 5/5
- Scalability: 4/5
- Customization: 3/5
With software as complicated as an ERP system, sometimes user experience can become underrated, but Acumatica Cloud ERP gets consistently high marks for its ease of use.
Acumatica Cloud ERP has a refreshingly intuitive interface that’s easy to onboard—almost to a fault. It’s not overly dynamic, but given the complexity of ERP software in general, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Thanks to drag-and-drop boards and workflows, a logically designed and easily customizable dashboard structure, clean reports, no-frills data logging, and a hybrid no-code/low-code ecosystem, new users should be able to adjust pretty readily to Acumatica Cloud ERP.
For its relative simplicity, Acumatica Cloud ERP has decent AI and automation functionality. Users can easily set up trigger-based sequences to create customized automated workflows. AI is nicely integrated, with standout features like guided reporting, interactive customer support assistance, and the ability to turn photos of receipts into expense reports.
Refers to the product’s measured evaluating structure as an advantage
Acumatica Cloud ERP is positioned mainly as a solution for more traditional ERP fields like construction, manufacturing, and distribution. But since it’s readily customizable and has a modular pricing structure, it’s not a stretch to use it across consumables, education, hospitality, and other industries that have more recently started flooding the ERP software game.
That said, one of the most common user complaints about the software is how complex customization can be. Fitting the software to less standard business processes and niche industries may be trickier with Acumatica than other ERP providers. Its overall accessibility should more than makeup for that shortcoming, though. For example, Bin There Dump That Marketing Manager Luke Hancock told me that “Acumatica’s ability to integrate with other systems and its mobile accessibility are two unique features that enhance its effectiveness as an ERP platform.”
Key feature: Simple interface and clean UX
Key limitation: Customization can be complex
Best ERP for inventory management
Katana
- Range of use cases: 3/5
- User experience: 5/5
- Scalability: 3/5
- Customization: 4/5
Since Katana is an ERP system explicitly designed for SMBs in the manufacturing industry, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that it stands out for inventory management. Just ask EIN Search CMO Anila Lahiri, who told me, “By managing everything from raw materials and inventory to performance analysis and automated manufacturing expenses, Katana’s ERP software helps manufacturers enhance efficiency and profits.”
While it’s technically ERP software that can connect processes across organizational departments, Katana may be a little closer to material requirements planning (MRP) software with ERP functionality. For organizations that rotate around actual stock, a portion of its champion elements incorporates livestock administration devices, omnichannel deals requests from the executives, re-appropriated buy following, programmed stock refactoring, time following, planning, and undertaking prioritization. Katana simplifies it to give buy orders, handle bookkeeping in the cloud, gain bits of knowledge into costs, and remain in front of stock issues across areas.
Features the flexibility of Katana ERP past its customary use in assembling
That doesn’t mean Katana is just helpful for unadulterated creation or transportation enterprises. Its open Programming interface and no-code environment can assist clients across ventures with adjusting the product to their necessities through custom work processes, information synchronization, application building, and outsider reconciliations. Katana’s Zapier integration opens you up to automating work across thousands of apps, so you can do things like create sales orders or customers in Katana based on actions taken in other apps.
Katana even offers generous implementation assistance to help you roll its product out and ensure it’s ready to handle your unique needs.
Katana is also, by all accounts, one of the easiest ERP platforms to use and onboard. It also gets high marks for customer service, making it an easy choice for manufacturing and adjacent industries as well as a strong option even for industries that fall outside of the traditional MRP software market.
Key feature: Robust live inventory management capabilities
Key limitation: Not ideal for industries that don’t rely on physical inventory
Best ERP for accounting
Sage Intacct
- Range of use cases: 3/5
- User experience: 5/5
- Scalability: 4/5
- Customization: 3/5
As an accounting-first ERP solution, Sage Intacct excels at virtually all enterprise-level financial use cases across industries, though it’s somewhat limited as ERP software.
Similar to Katana, Sage Intacct is very strong in its intended use case but may not be the most functional choice for every organization. Sage promotes Intacct as ERP software, which is technically true, but it feels a little more like accounting software with just enough ERP-like functionality to classify as an ERP solution. This is especially true where business processes intersect with financial processes, such as sales order processing, inventory tracking, customer reporting, and accounts payable.
Sage Intacct has some of the industry’s best financial reporting capabilities. Its custom dashboards are sleek and user-friendly, its intelligent general ledger uses AI to streamline data across separate reports, and its reports can be readily adapted to meet the data needs of just about any industry or stakeholder. It even comes with 150 pre-built financial reports that cut out the need to spend time building new reports or retrofitting reports from previous software. The Custom Report Writer is also a nifty addition, allowing users to create interactive reports to display granular advanced analytics.
Sage Intacct: A Strong Bookkeeping Arrangement with ERP Capacities
When applied beyond accounting, Sage Intacct isn’t the most capable ERP system, as it lacks some of the feature-rich applications others have for use cases like sales, customer support, and logistics. Some of its shortcomings can be overcome via more than 350 available third-party integrations, which include tools for features you’d expect from an ERP, like CRM, PoS, eCommerce, tax automation, time tracking, and supply chain management.
For needs not addressed by the app marketplace, the Web Services API can bridge the gap with other integrations. Plus, its Platform Services feature allows users to further customize the software or extend its utility with custom applications and data objects, code-free. This doesn’t make Sage Intacct as customizable as open-source solutions, but it helps it function like other ERP software.
Overall, users who want a truly all-in-one ERP solution will probably want to look elsewhere. But for pure accounting capabilities with decent ERP functionality, Sage Intacct is hard to beat, as Solvid CEO Dmytro Spilka told me: “Sage Intacct’s advanced accounting services has helped me to manage my HR services to employees while keeping on top of expenses in a way that ensures a steady long-term cash flow.”
Key feature: Robust accounting and financial solutions, including intelligent general ledger
Key limitation: Broader ERP functionality can require integrations or custom applications
Make business processes more straightforward via mechanizing your ERP
This is in no way, shape or form a thorough rundown — there are many ERP choices out there. Be that as it may, regardless of whether you pick one of these choices, even the best ERP programming can be upgraded via robotization.
1 thought on “The Best ERP System In 2024 For Business Guidance”