Acumatica vs NetSuite Part 1: Pricing

Acumatica and NetSuite are two of the most robust and well known cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions available, so chances are if you’re considering upgrading to a cloud ERP these two solutions are on your list. Researching business management solutions online often feels like reading a resume, a long list of amazing things that the solutions can do without real context to compare it with. At a surface level, these two cloud ERP solutions offer many of the same things: they’re both true cloud SaaS ERP solutions that integrate Customer Relationship Management (CRM), eCommerce and Business Intelligence (BI).

In order to identify the differences between the two you need to dig deeper, which is exactly what we’re going to do. In this three-part blog series we’re going to discuss different aspects of Acumatica and NetSuite, and how they compare to each other. What gives us the insight in order to do a true comparison? Well, we’ve worked extensively with both NetSuite and Acumatica for many years and have experts that know the ins-and-outs of both solutions.

What’s the first thing most businesses think about when they’re considering a new solution? Cost of ownership. So let’s take a close look at the similarities and differences between Acumatica and NetSuite when it comes to price.

NETSUITE PRICING

Traditional ERP pricing is based on licensing, number of users, industry, customizations and additional products. NetSuite’s price structure doesn’t stray far from that, based on five distinct factors: base subscription, advanced applications/modules, number of users, resources used and support. One of the biggest hurdles businesses have to overcome when considering NetSuite is pricing though—it has a well-known reputation of being a very expensive solution.

NetSuite’s base subscription is offered at three different levels, however the most affordable subscription is rarely sold due to functionality limitations and is only suitable to small businesses whose budget is a far cry from what’s required to run NetSuite. The price increases dramatically when you enter into mid-market and enterprise pricing, and from there the price continues to rise with businesses being charged for each additional user, adding advanced modules (price varies depending on what’s added) and resources.

The cost for resources is based on your service tier, which is split into 7 different levels and determines things like data size limits, maximum number of users, and the amount of concurrent operations an account can perform & transactions that can be completed. Additionally, businesses with heavy transaction volume may be required to purchase more resources through SuiteCloud Plus, with prices having the potential to skyrocket to the hundreds of thousands.

ACUMATICA PRICING

While NetSuite has a reputation for being extremely expensive, the flexibility Acumatica offers with its price structure, where customers are paying for what they use. Acumatica’s price structure has been criticized for being confusing but it’s actually quite straight forward. Its pricing is based on four factors: applications/modules, deployment, licensing and resources consumed.

What continues to set Acumatica apart when compared to other ERP solutions is the ability to have unlimited users. Acumatica does not charge per user license fees and instead focuses on the amount of resources that are consumed based on monthly commercial transactions (i.e. Sales Orders, Shipments, AR Invoices, Customer Payments, etc.), ERP transactions (each time the save button is pushed), and the amount of storage you require (for ERP and media data). Businesses are placed in a License Tier that matches their usage and growth plans so they’re only paying for what they need. Acumatica tiers are measured by the highest of the following 4: Sales Orders, AR invoices, Purchase Orders, or AP invoices.

How is that different from NetSuite’s tier pricing based on resources used? NetSuite’s Service Tier only includes 7 different levels which means that when businesses move to the next tier they experience a significant price jump, as well as incurring extra costs for each additional user they add. Acumatica’s License Tier includes 19 levels which facilitates gradual and manageable upgrade increments and subsequent price increases (and no additional costs for additional users).

When it comes to pricing Acumatica and NetSuite have many similarities in how cost is structured, but the distinct differences in the added costs with NetSuite play a large contributing factor to it being the more expensive cloud ERP solution. Although price is extremely important, it’s not the only factor that you need to take into consideration though. It’s essential to also understand the differences in the features available and compatibility with your needs, which we will review in part 2 & 3 of this blog series.

Don’t miss part 2 to learn about how Acumatica and NetSuite compare when it comes to scalability, licensing (subscription or perpetual), deployment methods (cloud, on-premise, or hybrid), how these things impact cost.