Searching for new software is tough. Now that Sage 1000 and Sage Line 500 have officially retired (having ridden into the sunset at the end of 2024), many companies have migrated to replacement solutions.
But new software can also bring new opportunities. It can give businesses a chance to bolster their operations by switching to a more function-rich, coordinated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
Researching new solutions takes time, so if you’re weighing up your options, you’re in the right place. If you’re looking to switch from another system, you feel you’ve outgrown your current accounting packages, you’re sick of juggling separate systems, or you’re eyeing up a more powerful business management solution, NoBlue2 is here to help.
Today, we compare two major players in the ERP market: Sage Intacct and Oracle NetSuite. Contenders, ready!
Oracle NetSuite is an industry-leading, cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning software suite with broad cross-market appeal. It includes fully integrated financials, a CRM, inventory management, a broad suite of analytics capabilities, and can even help you manage e-commerce stores and subscription plans.
All in all, it provides a real-time, at-a-glance, bird’s-eye view of your entire business.
Sage Intacct is a web-based financial management platform aimed at English and French-speaking mid-size organisations. It’s bundled with generous ERP functionality out of the box, with project accounting, contract management, inventory management, global consolidations, and more available through optional add-ons.
Intacct is also available in a “Starter Edition”, which is designed to be more accessible and cost-effective for smaller businesses.
Let the Oracle NetSuite vs. Sage Intacct comparison contest begin…
Though both solutions are rightly marketed as ERPs, Intacct is focused much more squarely on financial and accounting capabilities. NetSuite offers a far broader feature set, as we’ll explore below.
| NetSuite | Sage Intacct | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of customers | 43,000+ | 30,000+ |
| Primary focus | Full ERP bringing together finance, CRM, HR, inventory, ecommerce & more) | Best-in-class financial management & core accounting |
| Database | One single database powers all system functions | Requires add-ons for non-financial functions |
| Native CRM | Fully-integrated | None - though integrates easily with Salesforce |
| Globalisation / localisation | 27+ languages, 190+ currencies & tax compliance for 100+ countries | Core languages supported (English, French, German, Spanish). Multi currency requires an add-on |
| Cloud access | Native, true cloud solution | Native, true cloud solution |
| Native AI | NetSuite Next & Ask Oracle - cross-functional AI (conversational database queries, churn prediction, etc) | Sage Copilot & Sage AI - geared toward accounting & governance, very finance-focused |
| Analytics & reporting | Comprehensive reporting across all business functions | Comprehensive finance-first reporting. Non-finance functions often require add-ons |
| Flexibility & customisation | Highly customisable straight our of the box | Reports are very flexible but further customisation requires add-ons |
| Support & updates | Updated automatically by NetSuite. Support available via NetSuite or your partner | Updated automatically by Sage. Support available via Sage or your partner |
Basic accounting
Both solutions take basic accounting functionality for mid-market companies in their stride, as you might expect! Accounts payable, receivable, general ledger, timesheet management, cash management, fixed assets, and so on are all handled with ease by both platforms.
Subscription & contract management
If you rely on subscriptions and ongoing contracts, then both solutions have all of the tools you need to reduce the costs and complexity associated with recurring billing.
Production & supply chain management
NetSuite provides a lot more functionality here, with the capability to handle product data, planning, quality assurance, barcoding, and Work-in-Progress (WIP). Both solutions include basic procurement and order/inventory management, though NetSuite is better set up for supply chain planning, warehousing and fulfilment and demand planning.
Project accounting
Project accounts is another of Intacct’s optional extras, but it comes natively packaged and immediately present within NetSuite, out of the box. Intacct’s add-on has good functionality, with solid reporting and dashboards – but it comes at an extra cost.
Intacct does not include a CRM, but does have a powerful, native integration with Salesforce, so if you already use Salesforce, that may be a tick in Intacct’s box for you. NetSuite, on the other hand, includes a fully-integrated CRM.
Sage Intacct supports core European languages (English, French, German and Spanish, with specific support for variants such as Canadian French). Its multi-currency functionality is highly robust, but expensive to scale as it requires separate premium modules.
NetSuite, however, is a true global ERP, natively supporting more than 27 languages and variants, and more than 190 currencies, plus tax and reporting standards for over 100 countries.
Sage is widely known for its on-premise software solutions, but refreshingly, Intacct is completely cloud-based and accessed via a web browser. Both Sage Intacct and Oracle NetSuite are completely, natively cloud-based, so there’s no need to install or maintain servers or software yourself.
This means that regardless of which of these two solutions you pick, it will be available through any browser, at any time, wherever you are in the world. And because both solutions are fully updated by Sage and Oracle, respectively, you will always be using the latest version.
Both solutions feature business intelligence and analytics capabilities with a range of pre-built dashboards and reports, offering data and analysis in real-time. Both NetSuite and Sage Intacct also allow users to create custom dashboards, data fields and reports.
NetSuite offers fully unified reporting as all its business functions (CRM, eCommerce, inventory, HR, accounting, etc) are powered by one database straight out of the box. It offers total self-service data probing, backed up by integrated AI, where users can ask for reports, interrogate data and view in-depth analysis, just by asking questions.
On the other hand, Sage Intacct is finance-first, meaning that real-time visibility across non-finance functions can require third-party integrations (such as Salesforce), which can introduce delays as data syncs across, and which obviously come with their own costs.
Compared to other Sage offerings like 200 and X3, Intacct allows for a lot more customisation and automation. Both NetSuite and Intacct let you easily set up custom reports and dashboards; insert custom fields; and create custom workflows. You can also hook up a number of third-party modules to augment that.
However, we still think NetSuite wins this round. NetSuite has so much functionality and customisation options out of the box that the need for additional modules is far less likely for a wider range of industries and sectors.
As both platforms are completely cloud-based and accessed through a web browser, software updates are crafted and released by NetSuite and Sage, and become immediately available to their users upon release.
In either case, when you need support, your first port of call should be your software partner or support contractor. The majority of our customers take out an ongoing NetSuite support contract with us to ensure full post-implementation support after the project hyper care period ends (that’s the ultimate hand-holding experience after go-live). So, no matter how small the question or how large the challenge, our support team is on the other end of a phone or an email during office hours.
Though migration speed is rarely the be-all and end-all when choosing Enterprise Resource Planning software, it certainly plays a factor in the decision. In this particular battle, one of the two solutions is clearly quicker to set up, but we’d argue that good things come to those who wait…
The Sage Intacct website boasts that you can “go live in as little as 60 days with a system tailored to your needs”, though it’s important to note that this is for financials only, not an ERP-wide implementation! A strictly “financials-only” setup within NetSuite would likely take around 60 days, too.
But if we’re talking about a full ERP implementation, depending on the complexity of the company concerned, NetSuite can take from 100 days to 6 months to set up; however, this highlights NetSuite’s more feature-rich nature. More time is needed to get all of the useful features working under the bonnet, so you’ll likely see a much speedier “time to value” once it’s all ready.
NoBlue2 is able to accommodate phased setup and implementation for NetSuite, so you may be able to start using the platform (and seeing that time to value) even sooner.
As with any piece of software, costs and charging structures depend on things like the number of users and additional required functionality. When it comes to setting up an ERP solution, you should expect to pay an initial implementation fee, and then a yearly or monthly licence fee.
Like other Sage tools, Intacct’s pricing can appear a little complex. Intacct customers pay:
This complexity can seem daunting, but there is a silver lining. When you pay separately for each user and element of functionality, you potentially receive more granular control over what you spend.
NetSuite’s pricing, however, is a lot more straightforward:
Though prices will always vary wildly from use case to use case, NetSuite’s feature-rich, full ERP solution is a little pricier than most instances of finance-focused Intacct. This reflects the sheer amount of extra functionality NetSuite users will get out of the box.
If you’re concerned about costs, speak to us about Oracle Finance to spread the cost of our service fees over three years.
NetSuite’s core benefits lie in the sheer breadth of its “out of the box” functionality. Though your partner/provider will help you maximise the specific functionality that you need, NetSuite provides a vast functional territory to explore, all without having to juggle add-ons or extra payments.
And if you’re specifically looking to move away from Sage, or you need a global platform that handles multiple business entities, currencies, and languages with ease, NetSuite wins hands down. NetSuite gets extra marks if you are likely to need up-to-the-second reporting and extensive warehousing and supply chain controls.
Despite NetSuite’s many plus points, there are a few situations where Intacct may be a more sensible choice. If you’re already using a Sage product and Salesforce, and you simply need financial software with a dash of ERP functionality, then switching to Intacct may be the more painless of the two options.
Additionally, if you don’t work in a way where up-to-the-minute figures are needed at the drop of a hat (which is increasingly unusual nowadays), then Intacct is fine.
Though Intacct poses stiff competition, we would declare NetSuite the victor here.
Both are strong ERP offerings, but we’d argue that it would be far easier to “outgrow” Intacct, leading you to have to source and implement a new piece of software from scratch later down the line, or juggle an increasing amount of add-ons as your needs change over time. NetSuite, however, is much more future-proof. With that in mind, if you’re looking to grow – especially internationally – then NetSuite is a must.
NetSuite’s out-of-the-box language, currency, and localisation options are far more generous for a company looking to spread its wings globally, while Intacct’s rely on add-ons.
We also find NetSuite’s supply chain management functionality far more comprehensive and it allows for much more granular data juggling from day one.
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No, Sage Intacct does not feature a built-in CRM. It relies on a pre-built integration with Salesforce (or other third-party CRMs). NetSuite, in contrast, includes a native CRM built onto its database platform, which means no additional integrations are needed.
Generally, yes. Sage Intacct has a lower entry point than NetSuite. However, because it’s finance-first, you have to factor in the additional costs of connecting third-party tools for functions such as CRM, ecommerce, inventory, etc. NetSuite has a higher initial cost, but includes these modules from the start.
NetSuite is generally better for international companies. NetSuite OneWorld is built specifically for this purpose and again uses NetSuite’s single database. Sage Intacct can easily handle multi-entity structures and automated consolidations, but you have to purchase its Global Consolidations module first. So, for multi-country operations, NetSuite is hard to beat.
Yes – Sage Intacct does offer basic procurement and inventory management modules out of the box, however advanced requirements such as WMS and requirements planning usually require third-party integrations. NetSuite includes these functions within its core ERP.
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