Sage 200 Standard vs Professional: a comparison

Sage 200 comes in two versions: Standard and Professional. If you’re considering moving from small-business finance tools such as Sage 50, Xero or QuickBooks to a more rounded, scalable enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool, Sage 200 is a great choice.

But which version is right for you? Standard or Professional? What do these two versions cover, and how do they differ?

To help your decision-making, let’s compare both versions, and walk through some of the costs associated with them. We’ll also share some helpful resources that you can consult as part of your research.

Sage 200 Standard or Professional? Side-by-side comparison

Sage 200 Standard offers a cloud-native and comprehensive suite of modules from finance to inventory management. Sage 200 Professional takes it further with on-premise, private or public cloud hosting options, manufacturing and project management integrations, and more advanced reporting capabilities.

Let’s compare both versions of Sage 200, side by side.

Sage 200 Standard features

Sage 200 Standard is ideal for businesses which have outgrown their current systems and are looking for a straightforward business management solution without in-depth customisation needs.

Sage 200 Standard’s features include:

• Finance management: In-depth accounting and reporting tools.
• Manufacturing and inventory: Strong warehouse and inventory management, though lacks manufacturing add-ons.
• Sales and customer experience: Good out-of-the-box sales order management features, and limited pricing customisation.
• Real-time reporting: Build custom dashboards and reports using real-time data from across your business.
• Long-term success: Sage 200 Standard comes with a wealth of built-in features and integrations, but lacks industry-specific add-ons and advanced customisation.

Sage 200 Professional overview

Sage 200 Professional is perfect for businesses looking for a robust business management solution which can be fully customised. You’ll likely need Sage 200 Professional if you have manufacturing or project management needs.

Sage 200 Professional includes the same features as Standard, augmented by the following:

• Finance management: Adds project accounting and web-based timesheets and expense management, and in-depth customisation.
• Manufacturing and inventory: Adds batch and serial traceability for advanced compliance needs, supports full bill of materials (BOM) management and in-depth customisation. It also integrates with Sicon for manufacturing and project management.
• Sales and customer experience: Adds in-depth customisation options.
• Real-time reporting: More in-depth data and features for reporting.
• Long-term success: Allows advanced customisation, including:
  • On-premise or private cloud hosting
  • Rich customisation tools for each module
  • Industry-specific add-ons like Sicon Manufacturing suite

Sage 200 Standard and Professional costs

When weighing up the cost of Sage 200 Standard and Professional, there are three aspects to consider: which system you choose, your setup and the ongoing support you’ll require.

1.      Which Sage 200 system will you choose?

Both Sage 200 options, Standard and Professional, include a base platform cost, and licence costs for additional desktop or web users. Both options are around £350 per licence per month as of 2025.

2.      What setup do you need?

Most of your upfront investment into Sage 200 will go into setup costs. These costs break down into the following areas.

Hosting

Sage 200 Standard is cloud native, so your hosting costs are built into the base platform costs.

Sage 200 Professional can be deployed in three ways. On premise has a higher upfront cost, but lower total cost long-term, since you don’t need a subscription. Private cloud hosting – like Thinc Cloud – and public cloud hosting on Microsoft Azure are subscription-based.

Implementation

The Sage 200 partner you buy the solution from should provide a complete implementation service, including:

• Project management and documentation
• Hardware and software configuration
• Change management
• System build
• Platform customisation
• Data migration
• In-depth training

Implementation is usually billed hourly at a rate. This rate depends on the partner and depth of service offered.

3.      What ongoing support will help your people?

To ensure your ERP platform stays healthy and always meets your needs, you’ll need support from a certified partner like Thinc. Your partner’s support services should include:

• Multiple channels for support contact
• Priority-based support for urgent tickets
• Fast response times
• High customer satisfaction rate
• Ongoing platform customisation
• Ongoing training
• Disaster recovery
• Consultancy as needed

Your support contract will include all the above and more depending on your needs and will be billed depending on what’s included. Some partners provide additional managed services and cyber security, should you need support beyond your core business solution.

Of course, your initial outlay is only part of the story – you’ll want to balance this figure against the overall savings your new system will bring to your business. To help you form a picture of the value you could experience, try our simple ROI calculator for Sage 200.

Sage 200 Standard vs Professional – deciding which is best

Choosing between Sage 200 Standard and Professional is no different from any technology investment your business makes. At the start, you may have a broad sense of your budget and business needs, but as you start to look deeper, there are lots of details that go into the right decision.

That’s why we’ve put together our Ultimate Buyer’s Guide to Sage 200 – to guide businesses just like yours through the steps required to plan for, and implement, this leading ERP for SMEs.

Of course, if you’d prefer to begin with a no-obligation chart with one of our friendly consultants, we’d be delighted to help you make sense of your options. As a Sage Business Partner, recognised for service excellence, we’ve helped hundreds of ambitious SMEs achieve their goals with Sage 200. To set up a call, get in touch.