SAP S/4HANA Adoption Statistics (2026): 39 Sourced Numbers on Where ECC Customers Really Stand

How far the SAP base has moved to S/4HANA depends on who you ask. Analyst counts of licenses tell one story, user-group surveys tell another, and SAP's earnings tell a third. This page puts the 2026 numbers side by side, with the year, the group surveyed and a link for each one. That way you can see which figure fits the decision in front of you.

Key takeaways

How many ECC customers have moved? The analyst view

Gartner's estimates are still the most-cited baseline. They count license purchases or subscriptions, not go-lives. That makes them the strictest measure, and the slowest to move.

• Gartner puts the SAP ECC installed base at about 35,000 customers. By the end of 2024, about 39% of them (about 14,000) had made the move (CIO, 2025).
• A definitions conflict to note: CIO calls that 39% "migrated." The Register describes the same Gartner figure as customers that had bought or subscribed to S/4HANA licenses to start their transition (The Register, March 2025). Treat it as "licensed," not "live."
• Growth has been slow. In Gartner's tracking, 34% of ECC customers had licensed S/4HANA in Q2 2023, 37% in Q2 2024 and 39% in Q4 2024 (The Register, March 2025).
• Gartner also estimated that over 60% of SAP customers were still on ECC6 on-premises with no decision yet to move (The Register, February 2025).

Source: Gartner via The Register, March 2025. Share of the roughly 35,000 ECC customers that had licensed S/4HANA. The intervals are uneven.

Gartner's outlook is just as cautious. It expects nearly half of ECC customers may still be on the legacy ERP after 2027 (CIO, 2025). It also expects four in ten of today's ECC customers to still use ECC in key business areas in 2030 (The Register, February 2025).

A vendor model that disagrees (vendor data): Basis Technologies used historic SAP and Gartner data to estimate that about 28% of the original 35,000 ECC customers were live at the end of 2023. It projects 57% will have finished by the end of 2027 and 80% by the end of 2030 (Basis Technologies, 2025). That is more optimistic than Gartner's "nearly half remaining" view, and it comes from a vendor that sells S/4HANA delivery tooling.

Where customers say they are: user-group and community surveys

Surveys of active user-group members show much higher progress than Gartner's base-wide license count. That is partly because engaged members tend to be further along, and partly because "live or in process" counts projects that have started but not finished.

• ASUG (North America), 2026: 68% of 194 members surveyed are live on S/4HANA or moving from ECC (Diginomica, October 2026).
• ASUG, 2025: 56% were live or had begun, up from 45% in 2024 (CIO, 2026). The 2025 study surveyed 168 members (ASUG, 2025).
• Fewer are waiting: the share of ASUG respondents planning to wait more than two years fell from 22% in 2023 to 9% in 2025 (CIO, 2026).
• A small conflict: ASUG's separate 2024 Pulse survey put the 2024 figure at 47% using or starting S/4HANA, not 45%. In that survey, 69% expected to have implemented it within two years (ASUG Pulse, 2024). They are different studies with different samples.
• Precisely and ASUG, 2025 survey of 173 ASUG members (vendor co-sponsored): 59% are fully or partially live on S/4HANA, up 13 percentage points from 2024 (Precisely, November 2025). In the same survey, 64% expected to be fully live or migrating by the end of 2025 (Process Excellence Network, 2025).

Source: ASUG via CIO, 2026 (2024–2025); ASUG via Diginomica, October 2026 (2026). ASUG members live on S/4HANA or in the process of moving.

SAPinsider's 2026 benchmark separates "deployed" from "done." It surveyed 296 community members between December 2025 and March 2026 (SAPinsider, 2026), and the report was supported by SAP and T-Systems. A record 55% have deployed S/4HANA or S/4HANA Cloud, but only 34% have fully completed the transition (SAPinsider, 2026). Another 36% are still implementing, evaluating or building a business case, 4% are on hold and 5% have no plans (SAPinsider, March 2026).

Source: SAPinsider Benchmark Research, ERP Migration and Transformation 2026, March 2026 (296 respondents)

The 34% "completed" figure has not changed between SAPinsider's 2025 and 2026 research. In 2025, 34% had completed their move and another 41% planned to move before the end of 2027 (SAPinsider, 2026). More organizations have started, but the number crossing the finish line has stayed flat.

Deployment choices: on-premises, private cloud, public cloud

SAP is pushing cloud. In SAP's home region, on-premises S/4HANA still leads. The DSAG 2026 investment report covers Germany, Austria and Switzerland:

• For the first time, S/4HANA on-premises is the most common ERP deployment, at 56% (up from 44% in 2024). Legacy SAP ECC is at 54% (Security Storage und Channel Germany, March 2026).
• S/4HANA Private Cloud rose to 17% from 11%, and Public Cloud held at 5% (same source).

Source: DSAG Investment Report 2026 via Security Storage und Channel Germany, March 2026. ERP systems in use among DACH respondents. Many run more than one, so the shares add up to more than 100%.

A methodology conflict to note: DSAG's 2025 report showed much higher cloud use: 51% still on SAP ERP or the old Business Suite, 42% on S/4HANA on-premises, 33% on private cloud and 13% on public cloud (DSAG, 2025). SAP, not DSAG, ran the 2025 survey and got fewer responses from large companies. DSAG ran the 2026 survey again, which brought in more large enterprises and a heavy public-sector share (Constellation Research, February 2026). Don't read the drop in cloud share from 2025 to 2026 as a real decline.

Investment plans for 2026 point the same way:

Source: DSAG Investitionsreport 2026 press release, February 26, 2026. Share of respondents planning high or medium 2026 investment in each ERP option.

Outside the DACH region, the split is closer. In SAPinsider's 2026 global benchmark, S/4HANA Cloud use (26%) is nearly level with traditional S/4HANA deployments (29%) for the first time in its tracking (SAPinsider, 2026). SAP's own 2025 order data leans further toward public cloud (vendor data). Nearly half of SAP's 2025 cloud order entry was for public cloud, and public cloud customer uptake grew five times faster than private cloud (ASUG, 2026). SAP's order mix includes net-new customers, so it does not show what existing ECC customers are choosing.

RISE with SAP had passed 8,500 customers worldwide by mid-2025, about 1,400 of them added in the prior year. These are SAP figures from Sapphire 2025 (UpperEdge, July 2025).

Timelines and the 2027, 2030 and 2033 deadlines

Most planning data points to the extended-maintenance window, not the end of mainstream maintenance in 2027.

• Among DSAG respondents, 49% plan to buy extended ECC maintenance and finish the S/4HANA move by 2030. Only 37% plan to migrate by 2027 (Constellation Research, February 2026).
• Extended maintenance after 2027 costs a 2% premium on support fees, and SAP has said it ends in 2030 (The Register, February 2025).
• In SAPinsider's 2026 benchmark, 35% of respondents intend to switch to S/4HANA before the end of 2026 (SAPinsider, 2026). If they all do, delivery capacity will be squeezed in the same window.

Source: DSAG Investment Report 2026 via Constellation Research, February 2026 (DACH respondents)

Project length and delivery reliability are improving among ASUG members. In 2026, the average go-live took about 1.4 years, and ROI arrived in just under 7 months. Go-lives on time rose to 61% from 56% in 2025 (Diginomica, October 2026). ASUG's 2025 study reported an average of one and a half years (ASUG, 2025).

Source: ASUG "Navigating SAP S/4HANA" research via Diginomica, October 2026

Most of the live base is new to S/4HANA. In 2026, 62% of ASUG respondents had been on it for less than three years (Diginomica, October 2026). In 2025, just 13% had been live for more than five years (ASUG, 2025). For most teams, then, the first major upgrade and regression cycle after go-live is still ahead.

Cost and budget pressure

• Budget constraints are now the top challenge for SAP customers. 61% of respondents named them in ASUG's 2026 Pulse survey, 7 points more than the year before, and ASUG links the pressure to the migrations themselves (CIO, 2026).
• In ASUG's 2024 S/4HANA study of 208 members, costs matched expectations for only 23% of respondents, down 13% from the prior year's results. Another 24% were unsure, and 4% came in under budget. Consulting fees were the main source of unexpected cost, up 20% since 2023 (ASUG, 2024).
• Vendor data: In a Rimini Street survey of 455 organizations, nine in ten SAP customers were concerned about rising, unpredictable subscription costs. Nearly half did not plan to run S/4HANA in the cloud five years from now, and nearly a quarter planned to stay on on-premises ECC (CIO, 2025). Rimini Street sells third-party support for ECC, so read these figures with that in mind.

Source: ASUG S/4HANA adoption research, 2024 (208 members). ASUG's public summary does not give the share whose costs exceeded expectations, so we have not shown one.

Delivery risk and quality signals

We found no recent independent survey that measures S/4HANA test coverage or defect rates directly, so this section doesn't make up those numbers. The barrier data below does point to where test effort concentrates.

• In the Precisely and ASUG survey (173 ASUG members, 2025, vendor co-sponsored), the top migration barriers were business process change (49%), customizations (44%) and organizational resistance (37%) (Process Excellence Network, 2025).
• Process automation adoption in the same survey stalled at 57% as migration work pulled resources away (same source).
• The gap between SAPinsider's 55% deployed and 34% fully transitioned reflects organizations running old and new systems in parallel and migrating in phases (SAPinsider, 2026). In practice, that means many programs are testing integrations between ECC and S/4HANA over several releases, not doing a single cutover.
• About four in ten ASUG go-lives in 2026 were not on time: 61% were on schedule (Diginomica, October 2026).

Source: Precisely and ASUG via Process Excellence Network, November 2025. Top barriers to S/4HANA migration.

People and skills

In ASUG's 2026 Pulse research, 36% of member organizations said keeping the internal skills to manage new technology is a significant challenge. Another 22% struggle to keep knowledgeable staff through turnover. 59% named S/4HANA expertise as the most important skill for their organization's success (ASUG, 2026).

Source: ASUG Pulse of the SAP Customer Research 2026, via ASUG, 2026

AI and the S/4HANA decision

• SAP's AI announcements have overtaken the 2027 deadline as the top external factor shaping ERP strategy. 43% of SAPinsider respondents cite AI, compared with 39% for the deadline (SAPinsider, 2026).
• Only 10% of ASUG respondents have rolled AI out at enterprise scale (CIO, 2026). ASUG also found that almost a third of SAP customers are discussing AI without a meaningful strategy behind it (Diginomica, October 2026).
• In DSAG's 2025 report, 68% of respondents considered AI highly or moderately relevant, 48% saw very high or high potential benefit from AI in SAP's portfolio, and 45% planned to weigh AI heavily in investment decisions (DSAG, 2025).
• Vendor data: More than two-thirds of SAP's Q4 2025 cloud orders included Business AI, and Joule adoption grew ninefold during 2025 (ASUG, 2026).

Source: SAPinsider ERP Migration and Transformation 2026 benchmark, via SAPinsider, 2026. Top external factors shaping ERP strategy.

SAP's own numbers (vendor data)

SAP no longer reports a single S/4HANA customer count in its quarterly statements. Cloud ERP revenue and backlog are the closest official signals of migration activity. They include more than S/4HANA: SAP's Cloud ERP Suite also covers BTP, spend management, supply chain, core HCM and other products.

• Cloud ERP Suite revenue was €18.12 billion in FY2025, up 28% (32% at constant currencies), compared with €14.17 billion in FY2024 (SAP Quarterly Statement Q4 2025, January 2026).
• Current cloud backlog was €21.1 billion at the end of 2025 (ASUG, 2026) and €22.9 billion by Q2 2026, up 27% (26% at constant currencies). Q2 2026 Cloud ERP Suite revenue rose 25% (27% at constant currencies) (SAP Quarterly Statement Q2 2026, July 2026).
• Cloud ERP Suite now accounts for 88% of SAP's cloud revenue. Software license revenue fell 32% in Q2 2026 as on-premises licensing keeps shrinking (Yahoo Finance, July 2026).

Source: SAP Quarterly Statement Q4 2025, January 29, 2026. Bars are scaled to the FY2025 value.

What this means for your sign-off

• Plan for a phased, parallel-running program. 55% have deployed but only 34% have fully transitioned (SAPinsider). Expect ECC and S/4HANA to run side by side across several releases, and budget for regression and integration testing on both sides of the interface. The phase-by-phase ECC to S/4HANA testing plan covers how to scope each wave.
• Test where the barriers are. Process change (49%) and customizations (44%) top the barrier list. Business-process testing and checks on custom code you have kept, removed or replaced should get the most effort, more than technical conversion checks. Start with the Business Process Test Scope Matrix in our template library.
• Treat 2030 as the real deadline, and still book capacity now. Half of DSAG respondents plan to finish by 2030 on paid extended maintenance. Meanwhile, 35% of SAPinsider respondents aim to switch before the end of 2026, which tightens the market for experienced testers and SIs. What each date means contractually is covered in ECC end of maintenance: 2027, 2030 and 2033.
• Plan for the second year, not just go-live. 62% of live ASUG respondents have run S/4HANA for under three years. Most teams have not yet been through a full upgrade cycle. Build the regression suite and clean-core rules before the first upgrade lands. See life after go-live: upgrade cadence and regression strategy.
• Use the cost data in your test budget case. Costs met expectations for only 23% of ASUG respondents, and consulting fees were the biggest unexpected cost. A funded internal test capability is one of the few levers that cuts dependency on outside consultants.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of SAP ECC customers have moved to S/4HANA?

By Gartner's strictest measure, about 39% of ECC customers had licensed S/4HANA by Q4 2024 (The Register, 2025). User-group surveys show more progress among their members: 68% of ASUG members are live or in process (Diginomica, 2026), but only 34% of SAPinsider respondents have fully transitioned (SAPinsider, 2026).

How many SAP ECC customers are there?

Gartner puts the installed base at about 35,000 ECC customers (CIO, 2025).

How long does an S/4HANA migration take?

Among ASUG members, the average go-live took about 1.4 years in 2026 (Diginomica, 2026), compared with about one and a half years in ASUG's 2025 study (ASUG, 2025). Large multi-instance landscapes often take longer because systems run in parallel.

Are companies choosing cloud or on-premises S/4HANA?

It depends on the region and the source. In the DACH region, 56% run S/4HANA on-premises, against 17% on private cloud and 5% on public cloud (DSAG 2026). Globally, SAPinsider found cloud (26%) nearly level with traditional deployments (29%) (SAPinsider, 2026).

Will most companies finish before mainstream maintenance ends in 2027?

No. Only 37% of DSAG respondents plan to migrate by 2027, while 49% will pay for extended maintenance and finish by 2030 (Constellation Research, 2026). Gartner expects nearly half of ECC customers may still be on ECC beyond 2027 (CIO, 2025).

How many customers use RISE with SAP?

SAP reported more than 8,500 RISE with SAP customers worldwide around Sapphire 2025, including about 1,400 added in the prior year (UpperEdge, 2025). This is vendor-reported data.

Sources

1. Nearly half of SAP ECC customers may stick with legacy ERP beyond 2027, CIO (reporting Gartner), 2025
2. SAP legacy ERP customers still in no rush to adopt latest platform, The Register (reporting Gartner), March 20, 2025
3. Why SAP may be mulling 2030 end of maintenance for legacy ERP, The Register (reporting Gartner), February 12, 2025
4. DSAG-Investitionsreport 2026: Unternehmen investieren gezielter, DSAG, February 26, 2026
5. SAP Investments 2026: Targeted Spending, Security Storage und Channel Germany, March 26, 2026
6. DSAG: SAP customer spending selective, AI drags, Constellation Research, February 26, 2026
7. DSAG Annual Congress 2025: Cloud, AI and data, DSAG, 2025
8. How are ERP customers faring with AI readiness? ASUG research reveals S/4HANA migrations are accelerating, Diginomica, October 2026
9. ASUG Research: SAP S/4HANA Adoption Trends, Insights, and Advice, ASUG, 2025
10. SAP customers say migration is eating their budgets, and AI is next in line, CIO (reporting ASUG 2026 Pulse), May 2026
11. ASUG Campus Connect Brings Career Opportunities to University Students and SAP Talent to Organizations, ASUG, 2026
12. 2024 Pulse of the SAP Customer Research, ASUG, 2024
13. The State of SAP S/4HANA Adoption: Trends, Successes, and Challenges, ASUG, 2024
14. New Research Reveals SAP S/4HANA Migration Momentum, Despite Ongoing Automation Challenges, Precisely (vendor) with ASUG, November 2025
15. SAP S/4HANA migration accelerates despite automation challenges, Process Excellence Network, November 2025
16. SAPinsider Benchmark Research: ERP Migration and Transformation 2026, SAPinsider, March 31, 2026
17. 2026 ERP Migration Realities: Cloud, AI, and the Looming Transition Bottleneck, SAPinsider, April 2026
18. Abacus Maps the SAP ECC to S/4HANA Decision as AI Reshapes Migration Priorities, SAPinsider, July 2026
19. SAP Quarterly Statement Q4 2025, SAP SE, January 29, 2026
20. SAP Quarterly Statement Q2 2026 (Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1), SAP SE, July 23, 2026
21. SAP Q2 Earnings Call Highlights, Yahoo Finance, July 2026
22. Q4 and FY 2025: SAP Delivers Record Cloud Growth as Business AI Fuels Momentum, ASUG, January 2026
23. RISE, Repricing, and Risk: What SAP's Q2 Results Mean for Customers, UpperEdge, July 2025
24. SAP customers not sold on S/4HANA ROI, CIO (reporting Rimini Street vendor survey), November 2025
25. The True State of S/4HANA 2025, Basis Technologies (vendor), 2025

Last updated: October 12, 2026. Statistics are refreshed as new research is published.