Brightpearl by Sage vs. NetSuite ERP

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Brightpearl
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Brightpearl’s retail operations platform is designed to handle peak trading, integrates with the full retail tech ecosystem, and is omni-channel native. Additionally, the vendor says their solution is the system of record for key trading data, provides real-time trading insights and is automated so users can stay in control and manage by exception. According to the vendor key differentiators include: Software and Service. Service is an integral part of Brightpearl's offer. The…N/A
NetSuite ERP
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
NetSuite is a suite of ERP and accounting modules which is sold in various editions aimed at different size customers. The multi-country, multi-currency version is an additional module called OneWorld. Netsuite is a SaaS system and is not offered in an on-premise edition.N/A
Pricing
Brightpearl by SageNetSuite ERP
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BrightpearlNetSuite ERP
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsBrightpearl is for merchants trading $1M or above, or those that expect to be in the next 12 months. Pricing is designed to suit the needs of fast-growth and larger merchants.Users subscribe to NetSuite for an annual license fee. The license is made up of three main components: core platform, optional modules and the number of users. There is also a one-time implementation fee for initial setup. New modules and users and can be added as a business grows.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Brightpearl by SageNetSuite ERP
Considered Both Products
Brightpearl
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
We have switched to NetSuite. Customization is superior. System is more stable.
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
We selected Brightpearl because we had experience with them from our other stores. Although they weren't perfect, they were manageable and agile to a certain extent.

With respect to NetSuite, Brightpearl is not nearly as powerful unfortunately. That being said, NetSuite is aimed …
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
It does a great job for small companies with one or two sales channels and minimal change in business processes. NetSuite is more robust for larger businesses but comes with some more headache in initial user experience.
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
I wasn't involved with the selection of Brightpearl.
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
We have considered moving to Xero, which would provide us with all the functionality that we receive from Brightpearl, it also integrates well with our CRM, which is a far better offering than Brightpearl's. It's only due to resource limitations that we have not made this …
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl was slightly cheaper and met my business requirements. That it was really well designed and pretty straight forward made it a no brainer to introduce to my company.
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
Bright Pearl is not as efficient or seamless. We have to also connect directly to our web host and a third party shipping so orders take longer to process. Also since we have to full, save and bill, there is opportunity for error/missed steps.
Chose Brightpearl by Sage
Most entry level ERPs are too simplistic to cover the requirements of many different brands - Brightpearl integrates well and is easy to use, compared to Sage. They have a more advanced concept of a product compared to Unleashed and Sage.
NetSuite ERP

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Brightpearl by SageNetSuite ERP
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
1.1
15 Ratings
147% below category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings1.013 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings1.010 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings1.39 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
9.1
74 Ratings
23% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.264 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings9.547 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
9.2
81 Ratings
12% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.262 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.280 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
9.3
72 Ratings
29% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings9.271 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings9.370 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings9.370 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
7.7
258 Ratings
1% above category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings8.3252 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.3233 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings9.526 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings9.528 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings9.141 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings9.535 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings9.437 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
8.8
48 Ratings
11% above category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings9.847 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings8.628 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings9.335 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
8.8
207 Ratings
12% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings9.253 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings8.1203 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings8.537 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings8.848 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings9.521 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
7.4
199 Ratings
0% below category average
Billing Management00 Ratings8.3188 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management00 Ratings9.427 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management00 Ratings8.631 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting00 Ratings8.527 Ratings
Period Close00 Ratings9.535 Ratings
Project Financial Management
Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
6.4
32 Ratings
17% below category average
Budgeting and Forecasting00 Ratings5.926 Ratings
Project Costing00 Ratings5.923 Ratings
Cost Capture00 Ratings5.922 Ratings
Capital Project Management00 Ratings4.014 Ratings
Customer Contract Compliance00 Ratings9.513 Ratings
Project Revenue Recognition00 Ratings6.722 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
4.1
17 Ratings
50% below category average
Project Planning and Scheduling00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers00 Ratings3.311 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality00 Ratings3.010 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools00 Ratings3.68 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.1
12 Ratings
84% below category average
Award Lifecycle Management00 Ratings3.57 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.3
19 Ratings
71% below category average
Bids Analyzed and Compared00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Contract Authoring00 Ratings2.010 Ratings
Contract Repository00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated00 Ratings3.613 Ratings
Supplier Management00 Ratings9.613 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.1
11 Ratings
71% below category average
Risk Repository00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Control Management00 Ratings2.011 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments00 Ratings3.57 Ratings
Issue Detection00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Remediation and Certification00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.0
17 Ratings
78% below category average
Transportation Planning and Optimization00 Ratings2.89 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management00 Ratings2.88 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management00 Ratings2.88 Ratings
Fulfillment Management00 Ratings9.514 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management00 Ratings2.511 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
9.0
16 Ratings
18% above category average
Production Process Design00 Ratings8.612 Ratings
Production Management00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Configuration Management00 Ratings9.510 Ratings
Work Execution00 Ratings9.512 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
7.9
132 Ratings
9% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings7.817 Ratings
Inventory Planning00 Ratings7.3129 Ratings
Performance Monitoring00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
Brightpearl by Sage
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.8
13 Ratings
63% below category average
Proposal Management00 Ratings2.610 Ratings
Product Master Data Management00 Ratings3.29 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Brightpearl by SageNetSuite ERP
Small Businesses
Lightspeed Retail
Lightspeed Retail
Score 6.2 out of 10
Acumatica
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Epicor Eagle
Epicor Eagle
Score 8.3 out of 10
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.2 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 7.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Brightpearl by SageNetSuite ERP
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(158 ratings)
8.5
(356 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(12 ratings)
9.2
(49 ratings)
Usability
4.7
(8 ratings)
8.6
(231 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(16 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(15 ratings)
Support Rating
8.1
(135 ratings)
7.1
(215 ratings)
In-Person Training
1.0
(1 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Online Training
7.0
(1 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.5
(104 ratings)
6.4
(17 ratings)
Configurability
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.7
(5 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(1 ratings)
7.3
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.9
(5 ratings)
9.0
(8 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
4.8
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Brightpearl by SageNetSuite ERP
Likelihood to Recommend
Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl is very well suited for small-medium companies that are growing quickly and need a way to improve their operational systems and functionality to handle increasing volume of orders. Particularly if you use multiple SKUs, sales channels, and/or warehouses, the features offered by Brightpearl are excellently well suited to handle these types of needs. I don't believe Brightpearl would be very applicable for very small companies with a small number of SKUs, as many of the features offered would be unnecessary and underutilized.
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NetSuite
Really in this hybrid environment, being up in the cloud and being able to securely access the data and work from anywhere, I think it's a real game changer for my team. So I really like the fact that NetSuite keeps up with security features and allows users to access it from anywhere.
Read full review
Pros
Brightpearl by Sage
  • Brightpearl tracks order changes and communications very well. It documents all activity in a feed that anyone can see, including status changes, notes made, emails sent, etc.
  • Brightpearl makes it incredibly easy to find orders fitting certain criteria through the use of statuses that you can customize. For example, as a multichannel seller, we can easily create statuses for each channel that we sell from, where our orders will (oftentimes automatically) land in. We also deal often with things like back ordered items; we can also create statuses for certain brands, so that when we expect a shipment in from that company, our back order specialist can easily sort through her orders that are waiting on that shipment.
  • Brightpearl makes it easy to take orders over the phone. Everything I need is right there on one screen; not often do I find myself needing to deviate to other tabs. The steps I take (from "new order" to finish) are straightforward and understandable, and go in steps that make sense.
Read full review
NetSuite
  • NetSuite does analytics very well.
  • They do reporting very well. I love the ability to have control over how the information flows through my NetSuite, my user roles, and my responsibilities. I can assign certain tasks to certain people, and they do that and then also have the control to approve that and make sure it's done correctly.
  • Just being able to drill down into a particular GL account or into a particular line item and see what really makes that up and what's driving our certain costs.
Read full review
Cons
Brightpearl by Sage
  • Supports only a small number of marketplaces and in a limited way only. When I signed up with Brightpearl they claimed that you could list directly onto eBay from within Brightpearl but this turned out to be untrue as Brightpearl did not support eBay postage policies (eBay's semi literate way of saying shipping tables).
  • Not only can you not list directly onto eBay, you cannot list directly from within Brightpearl to any marketplaces whatsoever. With other software you can list directly to all the marketplaces they integrate with.
  • Brightpearl is abysmal at VAT. Brightpearl calculates VAT on Channel Islands and Canary Islands orders even though there is no Vat in either of them. So when you pay HMRC you will be paying them a bit extra unless you check all your orders which makes the software somewhat redundant.
  • When I signed up they advertised Brightpearl as the software to automate your online selling. But it didn't really do that. A couple of years later at considerable extra cost they released an add-on app called Brightpearl Automation that does seem to deliver on automation. However other software offers that at no extra cost.
  • Brightpearl claims that it integrates with Amazon, but this is only partially true as they have completely ignored the new marketplaces that Amazon have opened. If you list on those marketplaces you have to input the orders manually and Brightpearl will not update the stock, putting you at risk of negative feedback. Other software integrates fully with all Amazon marketplaces.
  • Now that I am leaving it was suggested that I might benefit from read-only access so that we could easily double check things like warranty claims. They offered me a year's read-only access for £10,080 which is more than double my yearly contract for full use of the software. Now, if that isn't taking the mickey, I don't know what is!!!
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NetSuite
  • Honestly, right now, my biggest pain point is kind of our own doing, but I would appreciate a little bit more support and help in the area of performance management and kind of understanding how our application is built, what are the best choices for customizing or solving a problem in terms of performance, because our company is rather large, we have a lot of data coming in and out, and that has been an issue for us recently.
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Likelihood to Renew
Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl has proved to work out for our company and we have no need or intention to let it go. Rather we intend to build on what we've accomplished and it will no doubt help us scale our business and meet our ambitions.
Read full review
NetSuite
NetSuite is able to cover all of our needs, spanning multiple departments and managerial levels. We use it daily for a multitude of functions, including creating promotions, estimating inventory, pulling historical reports, forecasting sales, and more. Overall, we're very satisfied with NetSuite as an ERP solution and recommend it to medium to large businesses.
Read full review
Usability
Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl can be a little confusing to begin with, there are a lot of options to look through and working out the intricacies takes some time depending on what you would like to be able to do on it and what your account is set up to do. It is however very thorough and once you can work your way around it most of the functions are fairly simple to use and very detailed.
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NetSuite
I have given this rating due to below use cases: - Order Management - Advanced Revenue Management - Invoicing - Automated Billing - Inbound and Outbound Integrations with applications such as Salesforce, Zip, Stripe, Mavenlink, Avalara, Floquast - Project management and billing - Training -Customer Support - Knowledge Article Support
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Reliability and Availability
Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl is always easily accessibly anywhere that you can find an internet source. I have checked our stock levels when we have been off site at Ham Rally's at home and on my way home or to work if needs be. That is probably one of the best features of this system.
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NetSuite
It has been very reliable. I can only think of 1-2 times in 4.5 years that we have had issues getting in, and in each case were able to get back in within 1 hour. There has not been a major downtime
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Performance
Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl performs very well and integrates very well with our Metapak packing and despatch system. IT also intergrates very well with Amazon and we have used Ebay although there have been complications with Ebay and stock levels. We use Ebay mostly for second hand items of which we only have one so have skipped using Brighpearl for these products.
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NetSuite
Most of the time the performance is very good. Pages load in a few seconds; financial reports take less than 5 seconds; basic searches take a few seconds. But performance can be sporadic throughout the day and cause the run time to triple.
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Support Rating
Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl was ALWAYS great at responding to us. Their customer service was quick and responsive. Unfortunately, the responses were often that "engineers were working on it" but nothing seemed to ever come of that. I realize that Brightpearl is a large company that a lot of businesses rely on. But when you can't hit "enter" when trying to search in the front-end POS, that type of behavior should be changed very quickly and it never was. Admittedly, small things, but those annoyances tend to ultimately affect the overall experience.
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NetSuite
The account rep changes quite often, which requires restarting. Suite Answers is a very good tool but can be hard to use for somebody who is not fully confident with Netsuite. Asking questions that are not already answered in Suite Answers can be rough. Training is readily available, but most of the time stays on the surface and doesn't answer medium to more advanced questions.
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In-Person Training
Brightpearl by Sage
No in house training was given.
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NetSuite
I had in person training for a day when first got the software. The training was good. The challenge was that there was a large gap between training and when we went live so we forgot quite a lot
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Online Training
Brightpearl by Sage
The online training was very helpful in the areas we were shown and was implemented very well via a Skype call and an presentation done via the internet. However it was not thorough enough for all of our needs in certain areas. More training in person on site would have been very helpful.
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NetSuite
Online training is quite strong. I have used for specific pieces of functionality.However it is not sufficient in all areas.
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Implementation Rating
Brightpearl by Sage
Implementation was generally perfect, but if you are coming across from Sage I personally would recommend doing this as baby steps.
We tried to import our entire Sage history in one batch and that was a bad idea hence the 9/10. That was mainly our fault and nothing on Brightpearl.
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NetSuite
I felt NetSuite Professional Services did an excellent job of guiding us in the implementation. I also felt our internal teams were a little resistant to the change and engagement of new software. Had we performed better engaging and buying into the new software, I would be able to rate the implementation better. Therefore, the lower number should not be viewed as a deficiency with the software or the professional services teams, but as an reminder of how important complete buy-in from the local users is.
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Alternatives Considered
Brightpearl by Sage
Initially we went with Brightpearl because it was an all in one solution. Salesforce CRM capabilities right out of the box far surpass Brightpearl's, but there's no inventory or accounting system pre-built in. We are currently moving away from Brightpearl for both CRM and accounting functions however.
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NetSuite
Well, the reason why I'm with NetSuite is because obviously it beats out those other options quite considerably. It gave us the whole ecosystem that gave us everything we needed. I didn't need a dedicated administrator whose full-time job is to deal with it like our current system would need to really be useful. I can find people or train people how to use it right away. So for us, that really beats it out compared to the Sage and QuickBooks where we were looking at it from a perspective of, yeah, we can find people who are experts in those fields. They don't scale up to the size that we need as we're going to really quickly go from R&D company into doing tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue and activities. So that's where it beats us out over say Sage or QuickBooks is it's got that complete scalability. We can go to multiple subsidiaries, foreign currency, not a problem. It's got that full functionality.
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Scalability
Brightpearl by Sage
Brightpearl's ability to increase or expand its capacity and retain its performance levels to accommodate growth were acceptable but not fantastic. The program was constantly making changes which can be useful, but was also confusing & hard to keep up with since we were never updated that changes were about to be made or had been made.
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NetSuite
We have been able to scale our business 25X without any major overhaul with Netsuite. Its dashboard setup makes onboarding new employees very easy and allows data to be shared across multiple offices. Its cloud setup does not put any pressure on IT to scale servers or other infrastructure. We have been able to become much more efficient in all aspects of the business.
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Return on Investment
Brightpearl by Sage
  • It's really difficult to say. While everything is now in one place, we've spent a ton of time with support and figuring things out on our own.
  • We've also had to spend a ton of money with our CPAs fixing our financials every month.
  • However, the sales piece has streamlined our process for shipping orders out in a timely basis.
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NetSuite
  • Positive impact, again, it's our source of truth, so we are able to not have questions about how much money we have in the bank or do we have enough material to build this job. Being able to know those things immediately is super valuable.
  • I mean it's the grease that skids the wheels that gets us to accomplish the things that we do in our business.
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ScreenShots

Brightpearl Screenshots

Screenshot of Customer timeline giving you insight into pending orders, previous purchases and potential marketing opportunitiesScreenshot of Deep insight in your customers, product and sales channel through Brightpearl's Minubo integrationScreenshot of Fully integrated POS for access to all product inventory information at the tillScreenshot of Managing suppliers and purchasing inventory is quick and easy, says the vendorScreenshot of Provide top-notch service by having access to your customers’ full interaction history and personalize your marketing communication with product-interest tagging.Screenshot of Brightpearl’s flexible inventory management has all of the features you need to stay in control of your inventory and make fast, effective business decisions. Redistribute your staff towards growth strategies and reduce the time spent on costly admin overheads.

NetSuite ERP Screenshots

Screenshot of one view into the most critical business processes.Screenshot of Mobile-friendly design