Sage Intacct vs. Acumatica: Which do Real Users Prefer—2023 Update

ERPs are the go-to solutions for small and medium sized businesses looking to collaborate, innovate, and scale up more effectively. That means there are many solutions on the market, which can leave the average company weighing a lot of options. Intacct, a popular Sage product, and Acumatica are two ERP solutions that get a good deal of attention. With Sage Intacct vs. Acumatica, which is the real deal? Real users themselves have weighed in, and the results swing mostly towards Acumatica. Let’s look at Acumatica vs Sage more closely, so you can make a more informed decision when choosing between the two.

Survey Results—Sage Intacct vs Acumatica

G2, the world’s leading business software review platform, surveys real business user reviews to provide the information customers need to drive better purchasing decisions for their companies. Its analysts took this approach in assessing Acumatica vs Sage Intacct, polling 1375 and 520 real users of each ERP platform, respectively.

G2 asked these users to rate the products across eight categories:

• Likelihood to Recommend
• Meets Requirements
• Ease of Use
• Ease of Doing Business With
• Quality of Support
• Product Direction
• Ease of Admin
• Ease of Setup

When comparing Acumatica vs Sage Intacct head-to-head, what did these real users report? Acumatica pulled ahead in the first 5 categories, receiving marks in the mid and high-80s. Sage Intacct delivered on the final three categories: Product Direction, Ease of Admin and Ease of Setup.

Driving a Better User Experience—Acumatica

What’s clear from these results is that Acumatica delivers a better user experience. In all categories related to user experience and UI, Acumatica came out ahead. Why? Acumatica puts the power in the users’ hands to customize virtually every screen in the system. Sime drag and drop controls allow you to reorder columns, remove those that are unnecessary and quickly filter data. Sage Intacct users are still waiting for these capabilities. At the time of this writing, the latest Intacct release (2023 R1) only offers these features to a small group of beta testers.

Admin take on Acumatica vs Intacct usability: Sage Intacct garnered more positive results in backend categories, such as Ease of Admin and Setup.

Licensing Choice

Both Acumatica and Sage Intacct are cloud ERP products that can be accessed and used through a public cloud subscription model, also known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). This means that customers can pay a regular fee to access and utilize the software over the internet without needing to install it on their own servers.

However, Acumatica goes a step further by providing additional options to cater to the unique needs of its customers. While both products primarily operate in the cloud, Acumatica offers alternative deployment options that allow businesses to customize their software setup based on their specific requirements.

For example, Acumatica supports hybrid deployments, which means that companies can choose to keep some of their data and applications on their own in-house servers instead of relying entirely on the cloud platform. This gives businesses more control over their data and allows them to address any specific security or compliance concerns they may have.

Industry Flexibility

Acumatica, however, has many other assets in its favor, mainly because of its ability to accommodate different industries. Many ERP solutions provide companies with a “one size fits all” design that doesn’t speak to the specific needs of their niches. Acumatica, in contrast, delivers industry-specific solutions that address the pain points in certain industries, including manufacturing. Sage offers some industry solutions that are very narrow, such as biotech, and focuses on finance sectors. Thus, companies in retail, manufacturing and other industries often find they are missing key features.

Mobile and True Cloud

Acumatica is much more of a true cloud solution and delivers support for all mobile devices. Sage Intacct does not, which perhaps is just one reason it doesn’t impress users in terms of UI or UX.

Deployment and Upgrade Flexibility

Both Acumatica and Sage Intacct are cloud-based products, meaning they can be accessed and used over the internet. However, Acumatica offers an additional option called hybrid deployment, which allows companies to store their sensitive data on their own servers instead of relying entirely on the cloud. This gives businesses more control over their data security.

Another key difference between the two is the upgrade process. With Acumatica, users have the flexibility to choose when they want to upgrade their software. They can schedule upgrades at a time that is convenient for their business operations, ensuring minimal disruption.

On the other hand, Sage Intacct handles upgrades automatically without seeking input from customers. While this may be convenient for some users, it can also lead to unexpected disruptions in their day-to-day operations, as upgrades might introduce changes that users are not prepared for or do not want at that time.

True Cost and Return on Investment

When it comes to pricing, Acumatica and Sage Intacct have different approaches. Acumatica bases its charges on the computing resources that are utilized, rather than charging per user. On the other hand, Sage Intacct charges on a per-user basis, meaning that the costs increase as your company grows and more users need access to the software.

In addition to the user-based pricing, there are other factors that can affect the overall cost of using Sage Intacct. This is because Sage Intacct relies on third-party products to complement its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) portfolio. These additional products may be necessary to fulfill specific functionalities or requirements, and they come with their own costs for licenses, integration, and ongoing maintenance.

In contrast, Acumatica offers a more comprehensive and all-inclusive solution. It natively provides a wide range of ERP software capabilities without the need for additional third-party products. This not only simplifies the implementation process but also helps to minimize costs associated with licenses, integration, and maintenance.

Former Sage Users Share Their Thoughts on Acumatica

“Acumatica is magic. We haven’t found anything we can’t do with Acumatica.” Donna James, Statewide Finance Specialist Cornell Cooperative Extension

“To have 100 percent visibility to everything no matter where we are in the world is invaluable.” Keith Ford, President Eagle Fence Distributing

“Since our implementation of Acumatica, we have acquired two businesses. We brought them on very quickly into our accounting structure, allowing us to visualize reporting, which was a massive benefit for us.” Sean Reuben, Group Chief Financial Officer Incubeta

Hear from others working at small to mid-sized companies who’ ve made the switch. And, if you want to learn more about ERP and what Acumatica can do, visit this webpage.