Trusted by tens of thousands of organizations to handle day-to-day operations including finance, HR, sales, and logistics, NetSuite is inarguably a leader in the enterprise resource planning, CRM, professional services, and e-commerce software verticals.
That doesn’t mean it’s for everyone.
While NetSuite is a good solution for many growing (or established) businesses, its four main suites — NetSuite ERP, NetSuite CRM, NetSuite SuiteCommerce, and NetSuite PSA (formerly OpenAir) — don’t offer a package that makes sense for everyone. Perhaps you need accounting, project management, and fulfillment, but not HR or inventory; if that’s the case, NetSuite ERP won’t make sense. Or maybe you want customer relationship management and sales force automation, but not marketing automation, which would rule out NetSuite CRM+.
Why Not NetSuite?
Though NetSuite offers a number of add-ons and modules, they don’t have something for every use case. They’ll likely make more acquisitions and continue to expand their product line, but your business can’t wait on NetSuite. Since they’ve stopped marketing and selling to smaller businesses, you might be waiting a while. Unless you’re the largest of large enterprises, you probably won’t influence product development or corporate strategy.
Every situation is different. Many existing NetSuite customers are happy with the product, but unsatisfied with the included support and can’t afford the premium SuiteSuccess implementation, training, and consulting the company offers. Others are considering NetSuite, but have existing, superior software investments that NetSuite would duplicate — poorly. For these situations and any others, consider the following NetSuite alternatives.
Top 5 NetSuite Alternatives
Intacct
One of the most frequently recommended NetSuite alternatives by our Technology Advisors, Intacct is a finance-focused solution that’s a great fit for many businesses unsatisfied with NetSuite’s accounting and reporting functionality. Not only does it offer robust financial and operational tools, its open architecture means there are limitless integrations for business areas not served by its core offering. Thanks to the easy Salesforce integration and hundreds of third-party solutions in the Intacct Marketplace, for many businesses, the search for NetSuite alternatives begins and ends with Intacct.
QuickBooks
Another finance-focused option, Intuit QuickBooks is a name that’s been known and trusted by accountants for decades. Thanks to its relative ubiquity in the small business world, like Intacct, there are a wide variety of pre-built integrations and an expansive app marketplace that lets you add functionality as needed. QuickBooks is one of the lowest-cost solutions for businesses that don’t require the full ERP functionality of NetSuite, or for businesses that want a custom solution without the heavy price tag of custom development. Furthermore, Intuit’s Quickbase business process management solution gives businesses the ability to create their own custom workflows and applications that integrate with QuickBooks to manage processes and finance in a single location.
FinancialForce
Built on the Salesforce platform, FinancialForce is another popular alternative to NetSuite — especially for businesses already using Salesforce. Trusted by giants like HP, Blackbaud, and Seagate, it’s also a great solution for smaller businesses looking for a cloud accounting and ERP solution. You don’t have to be a Salesforce customer to use FinancialForce (and some Salesforce customers find other solutions to be a better fit for their unique situation) but FinancialForce’s four main suites — PSA, Accounting, Human Capital Management (HCM), and Supply Chain Management (SCM) — extend the functionality of the world’s most popular CRM to satisfy the business needs of departments beyond sales and marketing.
Salesforce
Since we’ve mentioned it several times already — Salesforce is another NetSuite alternative to consider. As a CRM solution, it’s not a NetSuite replacement, but it can replace most, if not all, of the functionality offered by NetSuite — when you consider the thousands of apps in the Salesforce App Exchange. Their helpful customer support provides real advice and solutions without requiring additional fees for “premium” service. It does take a little wherewithal and time investment to select the third-party add-on modules best suited for your unique situation, but the payoff is a custom solution that exactly fits your needs and runs on one of the most reliable cloud platforms. If CRM is the reason you’re considering NetSuite, you really need to look at Salesforce and some of the options it provides.
Acumatica
Acumatica’s cloud-based ERP + accounting solution is another NetSuite replacement that’s frequently suggested by our Technology Advisors. It’s one of the better options for businesses that need a mobile-optimized business management system, thanks to its native apps for both Android and iOS. Acumatica doesn’t have the wide variety of third-party add-ons offered by platforms like QuickBooks or Salesforce, but its core offering is one of the better finance-focused ERP options on the market. It also offers easy integration with Microsoft products, including Exchange and Office 365, without the need to purchase a third-party connector.
Conclusion
NetSuite is one of the top solutions for comprehensive business management, but if it’s not for you, it can be an expensive mistake. While the list of five solutions outlined above is a great place to start your search, it’s certainly not comprehensive. To get a free software consultation based on your company’s unique challenges, call (or email) one of our unbiased TechnologyAdvisors.
You can also use our Product Selection Tool to get a customized list of recommendations.
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