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When implementing or upgrading to Dynamics 365 Business Central, choosing where to host your system is a very important consideration.
To highlight and de-mystify any misconceptions around hosting, we've created this table for you to compare and contrast the options. The table compares various features available between Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and on-premise, including Microsoft Teams integration, Power BI and more. We also look at the general usability of the solution, such as performance options, database limitations and how upgrading works.
| On-prem | SaaS | |
| General | ||
| Environment | Can be local, hosted (Azure), hosted (private). Hardware or hosting required | No hardware required. Microsoft public cloud. Management console to create copies and backups of environments |
| Reporting | Power BI requires data ports. Reporting can be done through SQL | Fully integrated to Power BI, with in app reports. All reporting needs to be done through API's no access to SQL |
| Web Service Limits | Unlimited | Limit of 600 web service calls per minute |
| Database Size Limits | None | Commercial limit applied by Microsoft. 80GB as the base plus 2GB per essentials user, or 3GB per premium user |
| Performance | Dependant on hardware limitations. You are in control of own performance at a cost | Operational limits in place:
|
| .Net Control Add-ins | Can be used with additional modules based on per user, per year pricing starting at $75 (based on user licence numbers). This cost increases year on year | Not available |
| Local File System Access | Can be used with additional modules based on per user, per year pricing starting at $75 (based on user licence numbers). This cost increases year on year | Not available. We can conduct file operations via SFTP |
| Integration | Web services, SQL and CSV | Integration can only be done through web services and CSV, no direct access to SQL |
| Print Operations | Can be used with additional modules based on per user, per year starting at $75 | Needs third-party service or Azure blob storage development. Microsoft Universal Print is integrated with Business Central as standard to enable printing from SaaS, but there is an additional cost |
| Universal Code Initiative | Additional charges for base app modification and non-SaaS targeted extensions. Pricing starts at $75 per user, per year for each additional module required | Not a consideration |
| Upgrades | Upgrades need to be planned and scheduled | Automatically updates every 6 months, plus incremental monthly updates |
| Lifecycle Management | Business Central has a support lifecycle of approx. 560 days. You need to plan upgrades to ensure you are on a Microsoft supported version | You will always be on the latest, supported version |
| SQL Server Access | Ability to directly access SQL | Not able to directly access SQL Server |
| Licensing | Available on perpetual or subscription licensing | Only available on subscription licensing. Hosting and environment management is included in the cost |
| Cost | Can be more expensive: server costs, server and backup management. Cost of regular planned upgrades. No difference in implementation cost | Subscription includes full management of environment including back-ups, hosting and automatic upgrades. No difference in implementation cost |
| AppSource Application | No access to AppSource Applications | Access to AppSource Applications |
| Databases | Within your control. Recommended 1 Production, 1 UAT & 1 Dev | Microsoft give you 1 Production, 3 Sandboxes. Additional production environments can be purchased |
| Development | Only Microsoft AL and VS Code. A developer licence is required | Only Microsoft AL and VS Code. You don't need a developer licence |
| App Insights Telemetry | Available on-prem with the exception of: Authorisation (user sign in attempts), AppSource Submission Validation, page views, permissions | All App Insights Telemetry available |
| Features | ||
| Teams Integration | No | Yes |
| Outlook Integration | Yes | Yes |
| Excel Add-in | Yes | Yes |
| Fully integrated Power BI (Power BI on-prem requires data ports) | No | Yes |
| Read/write data with Excel Add-in | Yes | Yes |
| Late Payment Prediction | No | Yes |
| Sales and Inventory forecasting (requires Azure Machine Learning subscription) | No | Yes |
| In-product Search | No | Yes |
*Note: Setup of new features is easier in SaaS than On-prem as new features can be SaaS targeted. This can mean some features are quicker to implement for SaaS.
If you're interested in learning more about Business Central, whether that's where to host your system or you'd like some general advice, please do get in touch with us. We'd be happy to help.
Learn more about the potential licensing costs with our Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing and licensing page.
We also have a Dynamics 365 Business Central FAQ page to answer all of your queries related to our favourite Enterprise Resource Planning solution.
