Acumatica vs. Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Acumatica delivers a set of cloud-based business software applications with dashboards, reporting tools, integrated document management, centralized security, and customization tools.
$1,000
per year
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations (or Dynamics AX) was an ERP product in the Dynamics family. It has been split into separate Dynamics 365 products to provide more flexibility to customers, allowing users to pay only for the functionality they need. Microsoft Dynamics AX will reach end of support in 2021, and end of extended support in 2023. Financial tracking and budgeting features are now found in the newly launchedN/A
Pricing
AcumaticaMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AcumaticaMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing is always consumption-based with no five-year lock-ins or termination penalties. The Acumatica ERP pricing structure allows adding casual users, suppliers, and customers without paying for additional licenses. The cost is based on the features and resources utilized, not on the number of users who access the system. An Acumatica partner works with users to understand specific requirements, determine the proper resources and modules for the company, and presents a price for the license.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AcumaticaMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Considered Both Products
Acumatica
Chose Acumatica
We chose Acumatica. For us it best suited our business and how we do things. When taking in account ease of administration and ease of use for our employees it beat out all. The pricing model is also a great addition for us since we can shrink or grow as much as we need to.
Chose Acumatica
Better in some ways, others not so much. Easier to learn and use than SAP, but IQMS has better real-time machine monitoring.
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AcumaticaMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
7.9
108 Ratings
10% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.8
8 Ratings
20% above category average
Pay calculation6.894 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Benefit plan administration6.071 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Direct deposit files6.994 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.3
312 Ratings
9% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
7.0
13 Ratings
8% below category average
API for custom integration8.3293 Ratings5.013 Ratings
Plug-ins8.2266 Ratings8.912 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.4
386 Ratings
3% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
6.0
14 Ratings
30% below category average
Single sign-on capability8.7318 Ratings5.013 Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.1379 Ratings7.014 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.0
394 Ratings
10% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.3
14 Ratings
14% above category average
Dashboards8.3369 Ratings9.012 Ratings
Standard reports7.7387 Ratings7.014 Ratings
Custom reports8.2377 Ratings9.014 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.7
659 Ratings
12% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.2
15 Ratings
6% above category average
Accounts payable8.6639 Ratings7.015 Ratings
Accounts receivable8.5529 Ratings7.014 Ratings
Global Financial Support7.9230 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers8.2318 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations8.5503 Ratings7.010 Ratings
Configurable Accounting8.2360 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Standardized Processes8.5401 Ratings8.99 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.3
415 Ratings
5% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
13 Ratings
10% above category average
Inventory tracking8.2407 Ratings8.013 Ratings
Automatic reordering7.5204 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Location management8.2271 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.6
424 Ratings
9% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
7.6
13 Ratings
3% below category average
Pricing7.9365 Ratings8.012 Ratings
Order entry8.5378 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Credit card processing8.1259 Ratings3.09 Ratings
Cost of goods sold7.9353 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Order Orchestration7.8194 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.8
493 Ratings
16% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
10 Ratings
15% above category average
Billing Management8.3332 Ratings8.99 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management8.3443 Ratings8.010 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management7.6238 Ratings8.97 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting8.2253 Ratings8.97 Ratings
Period Close8.6358 Ratings8.07 Ratings
Project Financial Management
Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
9.9
4 Ratings
26% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.9
7 Ratings
16% above category average
Budgeting and Forecasting9.64 Ratings9.06 Ratings
Project Costing9.93 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Cost Capture9.93 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Capital Project Management10.02 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Customer Contract Compliance10.02 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Project Revenue Recognition9.93 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
7.7
172 Ratings
11% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.8
5 Ratings
24% above category average
Project Planning and Scheduling7.2154 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers7.6151 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality7.4130 Ratings6.04 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools7.388 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.1
68 Ratings
9% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
4 Ratings
17% above category average
Award Lifecycle Management8.368 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
7.4
253 Ratings
7% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.7
7 Ratings
23% above category average
Bids Analyzed and Compared7.896 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Contract Authoring7.472 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated7.9207 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Supplier Management7.7143 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Contract Repository00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
7.9
106 Ratings
18% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.8
2 Ratings
29% above category average
Risk Repository8.074 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Control Management8.094 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments8.079 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Issue Detection7.981 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Remediation and Certification7.565 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.6
131 Ratings
25% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
8.5
6 Ratings
24% above category average
Transportation Planning and Optimization7.197 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management7.894 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management6.971 Ratings8.95 Ratings
Fulfillment Management8.0104 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management7.3100 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.8
150 Ratings
17% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
7.7
6 Ratings
4% above category average
Production Process Design7.6126 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Production Management8.0138 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Configuration Management7.9124 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Work Execution8.0116 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs8.0132 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.1
177 Ratings
13% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
9.2
6 Ratings
26% above category average
Forecasting7.2148 Ratings9.95 Ratings
Inventory Planning7.4166 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Performance Monitoring7.7145 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
Acumatica
8.4
100 Ratings
16% above category average
Microsoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
9.0
3 Ratings
23% above category average
Proposal Management7.884 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Product Master Data Management7.895 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AcumaticaMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Small Businesses
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Score 8.6 out of 10
Acumatica
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
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Score 7.4 out of 10
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Infor VISUAL
Score 7.4 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 8.5 out of 10
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Score 8.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
AcumaticaMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(743 ratings)
8.0
(19 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(61 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
7.8
(35 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Availability
8.5
(4 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
7.9
(3 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.1
(27 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.5
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.5
(3 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(17 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
7.2
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.3
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AcumaticaMicrosoft Dynamics AX, discontinued
Likelihood to Recommend
Acumatica
It is well suited because it appears to have been designed to work across multiple industries, and we've kind of seen that it works well for the construction industry. Still, we've been here at the Acumatica Summit and have seen a lot of other industries being able to use the same product, so they have designed it well.
Read full review
Microsoft
It integrates fully with the other Microsoft software we use daily, and this coordination speeds up our work and gives us the agility to run easily. For example, in a purchase inquiry, the customer, after submitting a request, identifies the teams that should work on the project, and if they need further review by other people, they are added to the process, and everything is managed seamlessly rather than the sales process. Get the result as fast as possible.
Read full review
Pros
Acumatica
  • Banking reconciliation: Quick, easy to understand and easy to follow to see where you left off
  • Clearly displaying just enough data to answer questions without forcing us to work through copious amounts of detail or extracting data into other programs to get answers
  • Billing and payment receipt is particularly helpful in the way that the data transfers into the banking section and is exported
Read full review
Microsoft
  • Microsoft Dynamics AX's scalability to meet our regional office needs provide flexibility to the team's requirements.
  • Combined with Citrix Xenapp, the application offers seamless access for users on high latency unreliable network connection to the application.
  • Application maintenance and updates are easy which makes it possible for us to manage remotely considering the servers are located in a remote Asia site.
Read full review
Cons
Acumatica
  • Remittance advices don't work.
  • NACHA file to bank doesn't include vendor reference # which is the vendor invoice number.
  • You can't do offsets between AR & AP when vendors are also customers to net the balances due to/from if agreed upon with the vendor/customer.
Read full review
Microsoft
  • MRP can be slow to adapt to changes in actual production or supply chain transactions.
  • Setting up number sequences seems a trivial matter, but these numbers ID transactions once they are in the ledger and are key--easy to miss this point in the implementation process.
  • Bank rec being easily automated and able to quickly plug into a bank back end to get data is not the best.
  • Payment processing can be 'clunky' based on checks, ACH, Wires...as some of these items are not triggered out of the box in AX, bur are easily added --talking ACH and Wires specifically.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Acumatica
I gave this 10 rating because Acumatica ERP is the backbone of the organization, next to the IT Team. We use this software for many different parts of our business. For example our Retail service stations that utilize the inventory, billing, and financials. Our Distribution company that uses it for Field services, CRM, Sales, Accounts and Financial consolidation of all company financials.
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Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics continues to evolve by bringing more functionality to the customer. Also there are several independent software providers that offer a wide range of solutions for vertical markets.
Read full review
Usability
Acumatica
I give it an 8 because it is very intuitive and easy to use for day to day work. I find it more difficult to create general inquiries and financial statements than it seems that it should be. It's not very intuitive in those areas.
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Microsoft
Overall the product does what we need it to do in order for us to function as a company. While there are some concerns over ongoing costs, the belief is, once we have it fully acclimated to our business the cost should settle into alignment with our original expectations. The new features that are consistently being added do add value to the product as they are usually customer request directed.
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Reliability and Availability
Acumatica
It's always available.
Read full review
Microsoft
Some integration and high volume ramping challenges, particularly with BizTalk and SQL Server, but getting sorted out. Outages over time appeared to be more dependent on integration complexity than AX MES.
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Performance
Acumatica
there have been some performance issues
Read full review
Microsoft
Some integration and high volume ramping challenges, particularly with BizTalk and SQL Server, but getting sorted out. Outages over time appeared to be more dependent on integration complexity than AX MES.
Read full review
Support Rating
Acumatica
We used Acumatica Support directly for the first year or so. Overall it's pretty good, but sometimes the support staff wasn't educated on the customizations we had, nor was I as the Customer as I couldn't remember which things were customized and which things were out of the box, so when there was an error, there were some misunderstandings.
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Microsoft
We use a 3rd-party Microsoft Partner for the system. They are responsive and very knowledgeable. While costs have been mentioned several times in this review they are very aware of costs and have developers who are more economical they use to help offset the level of work required to meet our changes and fix our issues.
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In-Person Training
Acumatica
It was on General Inquiries and it's just a complex topic.
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Microsoft
It took a lot of work, but Microsoft ultimately did a good job with in-person training, including being onsite in multiple global locations for extended periods.
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Online Training
Acumatica
Most of the trainers are amazing, but there were a couple who simply read the training guide
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Microsoft
Our solution deviated from a number of key out-of-the-box standards that were included in Online training. We just used that for introduction to the general functionality.
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Implementation Rating
Acumatica
I'd say the partner selection is critically important. I think the software is very easy to implement. It's very customizable to your business. Finding a partner that will work with you to understand your business and your needs is the critical piece to make sure that the system goes along with it.
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Microsoft
Some rough spots, but ultimately worked out. The contract didn't appear to be structured to support the level of overlapping facility deployments required to meet timeline commitments. Merging cultures on the program was also challenging. Overall, not an easy implementation by any stretch. Everyone did the best they could.
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Alternatives Considered
Acumatica
Acumatica's sales process was much better than that of NetSuites. The NetAtWork team spent much more time with us and showed us how Acumatica really could do everything that we needed it to do, with examples using our data.
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Microsoft
I was not part of the decision making process to select Microsoft Dynamics AX, however, I do know that an exhaustive search was done and many options were considered alongside Microsoft Dynamics AX and I feel that the right decision was made in choosing this solution.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Acumatica
No, annual invoices are fine. I do like that unlimited users are included.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Acumatica
From my understanding, the P.O. module is not very robust, at least the last time I inquired about it. At the time, it had a one-to-one match, with one invoice for one P.O. and that isn't practical for many businesses. I don't believe it would be an easy system to use for sending out invoices, if we had thousands of retail utility customers. We do a small number of invoices because we sell wholesale power, not retail, so we only Invoice the municipality. Not each utility customer.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Acumatica
They are very responsive and knowledgeable about the product. If the rep doesn't have the ability to solve the issue, they quickly get someone else involved to assist us.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Acumatica
  • We were able to work in one system with customizations we needed in inventory and add all our grants in the same system
  • Direct mail invoices was moved to an automated PO system saving time and allowing better financial tracking
  • The grant module can be cumbersome requiring flip flopping to program partners etc during set up
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Microsoft
  • With the robust built-in reporting we were able to drop an external reporting platform that costed about $40,000.
  • API integrations have saved manual entry and reduced having to hire 2-3 people to manage data.
  • Several administrators and developers are required for this which costs about 200-300 thousand in employee costs.
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ScreenShots

Acumatica Screenshots

Screenshot of Acumatica Cloud ERP - Device SupportScreenshot of Acumatica Cloud ERP - Production Manager DashboardScreenshot of Acumatica Cloud ERP - Production Schedule BoardScreenshot of Acumatica Cloud ERP -Warehouse Manager DashboardScreenshot of Acumatica Cloud ERP - Purchasing Manager DashboardScreenshot of Acumatica Cloud ERP - Sales Manager Dashboard