SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public vs Private Edition Statistics (2026)

Public Edition and Private Edition now sit at the center of most SAP cloud ERP decisions, but the usage figures are spread across user-group surveys, SAP's own financials and analyst estimates. This roundup collects them with the year, population and publisher for each figure, and it flags where sources disagree rather than choosing a winner.

Key takeaways

Edition split: who runs which S/4HANA

The most recent comparable survey of the installed base comes from DSAG, the German-speaking SAP user group. Its 2025 investment report polled 243 companies between January 20 and February 14, 2025, and it found the cloud editions growing fast from a small base.

• 51% still ran SAP ERP or the older Business Suite, according to DSAG's 2025 congress release.
• 42% ran S/4HANA on-premises, a slight slip from 44% the year before.
• 33% ran S/4HANA Private Cloud, up from 11% in 2024.
• 13% ran S/4HANA Public Cloud, up from 6% in 2024 (DSAG Investment Report 2025).
• 68% said they planned to invest in S/4HANA Cloud, either private or public, against 42% for on-premises and 23% for SAP ERP (IBsolution summary of DSAG 2025).

Source: DSAG Annual Congress 2025 release, DSAG, 2025 (DSAG Investment Report 2025 data, DACH-region respondents)

Private Cloud's share rose faster than Public Cloud's across the last three DSAG reports. The 2023 starting points come from the earlier DSAG 2024 investment report (German).

Source: DSAG Investment Reports 2024 and 2025, DSAG, 2024-2025 (S/4HANA Private Cloud share of respondents)

Source: DSAG Investment Reports 2024 and 2025, DSAG, 2024-2025 (S/4HANA Public Cloud share of respondents)

DSAG also flagged limits on its own numbers. Its members noted that the survey design and a higher share of large enterprises likely pushed the results up (Constellation Research on DSAG 2025). Sentiment also moved: 38% of respondents rated SAP's S/4HANA cloud strategy positively in 2025, against 13% a year earlier. The 2024 report had said many members did not see the public cloud as a real option.

Conflicting figures. A joint CIO and COMPUTERWOCHE study on SAP S/4HANA cloud ERP trends, as quoted by PIKON (secondary), reported the reverse split: 61% of respondents used Public Edition and 38% Private Edition. That study is from 2024 and its population differs from DSAG's DACH-weighted sample, so the two should not be merged. A SAPinsider benchmark of 122 SAP professionals, cited secondhand by Quantumrun (secondary), found 30% fully live on Private Edition in 2025, up from 19% a year earlier. We could not confirm that benchmark from SAPinsider directly.

SAP's own signals point toward the public cloud for new business. On the Q1 2026 earnings call, SAP's CEO said public cloud order entry made up over 70% of quarterly volume (Investing.com transcript, April 2026). In Q3 2026, SAP reported Cloud ERP Suite revenue of €5,924 million, up 29% (28% at constant currencies), and a current cloud backlog of €24.1 billion, up 28% (SAP Quarterly Statement Q3 2026, SEC Form 6-K, October 2026). These are order and revenue measures, not installed-base counts, so they describe momentum, not the share of customers live on each edition. A Quantumrun summary also says public cloud orders grew five times faster than private cloud in 2025; we could not verify that ratio in SAP's statements, so treat it as unconfirmed.

Migration progress: how far the ECC base has moved

Four sources give four different pictures of the ECC base. They measure different things, so compare them by definition rather than by headline.

• ASUG's 2026 Pulse found 56% of customers were live on S/4HANA or had begun migrating, up from 45% in 2024. The share planning to wait more than two years fell from 22% in 2023 to 9% in 2025 (CIO on ASUG 2026 Pulse).
• A separate ASUG report summarized by diginomica put the share live or moving at 68%, from 194 members (diginomica on ASUG research). That is a 12-point gap from the Pulse figure, which we attribute to different questions and samples.
• Precisely and ASUG reported in November 2025 that 64% of organizations expected to be fully live or in migration by the end of 2025 (Precisely release, November 2025). A later Precisely/ASUG survey, as summarized by Orpington Tech (secondary), put 59% as fully or partially live, up 13 points from 2024.

Source: CIO on ASUG 2026 Pulse of the SAP Customer, 2026

The ECC backlog. Gartner's estimate, as relayed by Assima Solutions (secondary), put the share of roughly 35,000 ECC customers that had started the move at about 39% by the end of 2024. The same estimate projected about 17,000 holdouts at the 2027 deadline and about 13,000 still on ECC in 2030. An October 2024 analysis from H.L. found about 15% of ECC customers had completed migration and around 30,000 still had to convert (H.L. SAP industry overview, October 2024, historical). "Started" and "completed" are different thresholds, so those figures are not in conflict.

Source: Assima Solutions citing Gartner, 2025 (secondary)

Panorama Consulting's July 2026 analysis reached a similar conclusion, writing that half of customers have still not moved and that a full migration typically takes 18 to 36 months (Panorama Consulting Group, July 2026). Older SAPinsider analysis, which predates the current cloud push, put about 20,000 customers as licensed and 13,000 to 14,000 as running S/4HANA (SAPinsider, historical).

Timelines and deadlines

• SAP ECC mainstream maintenance ends on December 31, 2027, according to Panorama's 2026 analysis.
• SAP's CEO said extended maintenance begins in 2028 and ends at the close of 2030. After that, he described the SAP ERP Private Edition transition as the remaining route and called it quite costly (SAP Q1 2026 earnings call transcript).
• In ASUG's 2024 research of 208 members, average migrations took 1.5 years, slightly less than the 1.7 years members had planned (ASUG, 2024).
• ASUG's 2025 research, summarized by Orpington Tech, gives the same average of about 1.5 years and a value-realization time of 4.4 months for recent newcomers (Orpington Tech on ASUG 2025, secondary).
• In the 2026 ASUG research on 194 members, 61% reported on-time go-lives, up from 56% in 2025. Brownfield conversions were the choice for 47% and averaged 15.8 months (diginomica on ASUG research).

Cost and budget

ASUG's 2026 research found that migration spend is concentrated in a few places. Partners and systems integrators absorb the largest share, which matters for any Public versus Private decision because Private Edition migrations usually involve more partner effort.

Source: diginomica on ASUG research, 2026 (share of migration budget)

• ASUG's 2026 Pulse named budget constraints as the top challenge for 61% of respondents, seven points higher than the prior year. ASUG attributed much of that pressure to S/4HANA projects themselves (CIO on ASUG 2026 Pulse).
• In the Precisely/ASUG 2025 survey, 30% said their SAP migration projects were delayed or over budget (Enterprise Times on Precisely/ASUG, November 2025).
• DSAG's 2025 members were split on spending. 47% said they were increasing SAP budgets, up from 46% a year earlier (Constellation Research on DSAG 2025).

We did not include per-user or total-cost ranges for Public versus Private Edition. The ones we found came from vendor and consultant blogs without a traceable primary study.

Risk and complexity

The Precisely and ASUG survey, released in November 2025, ranked the obstacles that most often slow migrations. Process complexity has overtaken integration as the top challenge.

Source: Precisely and ASUG, November 4, 2025

Gartner's estimate of holdouts skews toward larger and more heavily customized enterprises, according to Assima's summary (secondary). That matters for Private Edition planning, because a heavily customized estate is the case the Public Edition's standard processes are designed to avoid.

Testing and quality

The World Quality Report 2025-26, published by Capgemini, Sogeti and OpenText, gives the most current view of how enterprise testing teams are working. Its ERP-specific numbers are the most useful for SAP test managers.

• 60% of organizations said they struggle with secure, scalable test data, and 58% cited challenges adopting AI-powered testing tools (Capgemini, World Quality Report 2025-26).
• Average automation coverage was 33% of test cases. 47% of organizations were moving toward an enterprise automation strategy, 14% were still planning one, and only 8% had a fully established, KPI-driven strategy (PMWares summary of World Quality Report 2026, secondary).
• Synthetic data use in testing rose from 14% in 2024 to an average of 25% in 2025 (Capgemini, World Quality Report 2025-26).
• Across all enterprise testing, 89% of organizations were piloting or deploying generative AI workflows, 37% were in production, and the average reported productivity gain was 19%. One third reported minimal gains (Sogeti newsroom, World Quality Report 2025).

Source: PMWares summary of World Quality Report 2026 (automation coverage), secondary; Capgemini, World Quality Report 2025-26 (synthetic data)

The ERP-specific generative AI picture is narrower. Sogeti's own report states that only 6% of enterprises use generative AI in ERP testing (World Quality Report 2025-26 (Sogeti PDF)). A breakdown of enterprise digital solutions testing from the 2026 summary shows where everyone else sits:

Source: PMWares summary of World Quality Report 2026, secondary (enterprise digital solutions testing)

People and skills

• 50% of organizations said they lacked AI and ML expertise. That figure was unchanged from 2024 (Software Testing Magazine on World Quality Report 2025).
• In an ASUG and Prometheus Group study of utilities, 50% of respondents named S/4HANA expertise as a critical skill deficit. This is a sector-specific, historical figure (ASUG and Prometheus Group, historical).

AI in the migration

• Only 10% of ASUG's 2026 respondents had achieved an enterprise-scale AI rollout (CIO on ASUG 2026 Pulse).
• 68% of DSAG 2025 respondents rated AI as highly or moderately relevant to them (DSAG Annual Congress 2025 release).
• DSAG notes that many AI-supported functions are available only in the cloud, which links the AI question to the edition question (DSAG Jahreskongress 2025 release, German).

Outlook

• SAP expects constant-currency total revenue growth in 2026 to stay near 2025's 10.6% and to accelerate in 2027 (SAP Q3 2026 results presentation).
• DSAG is asking for one standardized operating model across public and private cloud, citing the added licensing complexity of two-tier scenarios (DSAG Annual Congress 2025 release).
• For historical context, H.L. counted more than 6,000 RISE with SAP adopters in October 2024 (H.L., October 2024, historical). We did not find a current, primary RISE customer count in SAP's 2026 releases.

What this means for your sign-off

• Confirm the edition before you plan the test scope. A Public Edition program tests SAP's standard processes plus extensions. A Private Edition program carries the full custom code estate. The DSAG split shows both are common enough to be on your desk.
• Budget for partner-heavy effort. Partners took 37% of migration spend in ASUG's 2026 data. Make sure the test plan has named owners on both sides of that split.
• Plan on 18 to 36 months, and verify your own dates. The ASUG average of 1.5 years and Panorama's range are both useful benchmarks, but your complexity and your ECC maintenance date should drive the schedule. See our ECC to S/4HANA migration testing plan for a phase-by-phase structure.
• Treat test data as a critical path item. With 60% of testers struggling with secure, scalable test data, data masking and refresh belong in the sign-off criteria, not in a later sprint.
• Build the upgrade regression plan before go-live. Private Edition customers control their upgrade windows, and Public Edition customers receive them on SAP's schedule. Either way you need repeatable regression evidence. Our guide to S/4HANA upgrade cadence and regression covers the mechanics, and the template library includes an SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition upgrade regression plan.
• Assess the RISE responsibility split. Under RISE with SAP, testing ownership does not transfer with the subscription. Read RISE with SAP: what it includes and who owns testing before you assume SAP covers it.

Frequently asked questions

What share of SAP customers run S/4HANA Private Cloud versus Public Cloud?

In DSAG's 2025 investment report, 33% of 243 respondents ran S/4HANA Private Cloud and 13% ran Public Cloud. A 2024 CIO/COMPUTERWOCHE study reported the reverse split, 61% Public and 38% Private, so the answer depends on the population and the year.

How long does an ECC to S/4HANA migration take?

ASUG's 2024 members averaged 1.5 years, and Panorama's July 2026 analysis says a full migration typically takes 18 to 36 months. Brownfield conversions averaged 15.8 months in ASUG's 2026 data.

When does SAP ECC maintenance end?

Mainstream maintenance for SAP ECC ends on December 31, 2027. SAP's CEO has described extended maintenance running from 2028 to the end of 2030.

How many ECC customers had started their S/4HANA move?

Gartner estimated about 39% of roughly 35,000 ECC customers had started by the end of 2024, as relayed by Assima. Panorama's 2026 analysis says half of customers still have not moved, which is a broadly consistent picture under a different threshold.

Where does migration budget go?

In ASUG's 2026 data, partners and systems integrators took 37% of migration budgets, licensing 28%, hosting 20% and building the business case 15%.

How much of ERP testing uses generative AI today?

According to the World Quality Report 2025-26, 6% of enterprises use generative AI in ERP testing. A further 20% have finished pilots and plan to scale, and 44% are still piloting.

Sources

1. DSAG Investment Report 2025, press release, DSAG, 2025
2. DSAG Annual Congress 2025 press release, DSAG, September 2025
3. DSAG-Investitionsreport 2024 (German), DSAG, 2024
4. DSAG Investment Report 2025: Companies invest in cloud solutions, IBsolution, March 2025
5. SAP S/4HANA Cloud strategy makes headway, says DSAG, Constellation Research, September 2025
6. SAP Quarterly Statement Q3 2026, SAP SE, October 2026
7. SAP Q3 2026 results presentation, SAP SE, October 2026
8. Earnings call transcript: SAP Q1 2026, Investing.com, April 2026
9. SAP S/4HANA Cloud: Public Edition vs. Private Edition, PIKON (citing CIO/COMPUTERWOCHE 2024), 2024-2026 (secondary)
10. SAP Statistics 2026, Quantumrun (citing SAPinsider), 2026 (secondary)
11. 18 Months to the SAP ECC Cliff, Panorama Consulting Group, July 2026
12. SAP customers say migration is eating their budgets, CIO, reporting ASUG 2026 Pulse, 2026
13. How are ERP customers faring with AI readiness?, diginomica on ASUG research, 2026
14. The State of SAP S/4HANA Adoption: Trends, Successes, and Challenges, ASUG, 2024
15. New Research Reveals SAP S/4HANA Migration Momentum, Precisely and ASUG, November 2025
16. Precisely and ASUG see S/4HANA migrations surge as automation stalls, Enterprise Times, November 2025
17. What ASUG's Latest Survey Reveals About Real-World Migrations, Orpington Tech, 2025-2026 (secondary)
18. The SAP S/4HANA 2027 Deadline: Don't Rush the Move, Assima Solutions (citing Gartner), 2025 (secondary)
19. SAP Industry Overview and Insights October 2024, H.L., October 2024 (historical)
20. Is SAP S/4HANA Adoption Accelerating?, SAPinsider, historical
21. World Quality Report 2025-26, Capgemini, 2025
22. World Quality Report 2025, Sogeti newsroom, Sogeti, 2025
23. World Quality Report 17th Edition 2025-26 (sector excerpt PDF), Capgemini and Sogeti, 2025
24. World Quality & Testing Report 2026, PMWares summary, 2026 (secondary)
25. World Quality Report 2025: Quality Engineering AI Adoption, Software Testing Magazine, 2025
26. ASUG & Prometheus Group Research for Utility S/4HANA Migration, Prometheus Group and ASUG, historical

Last updated: November 1, 2026. Statistics are refreshed as new research is published.

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