The verdict in three sentences
For an Amsterdam distributor running Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central or Finance and Operations, Sana Commerce offers native ERP integration for a license of roughly 25,000 to 60,000 EUR per year plus integration, while custom B2B e-commerce requires 60,000 to 140,000 EUR excl. VAT upfront. Over 5 years, total costs often converge: the difference lies in vendor dependency, functional freedom and your team's ability to maintain clean code. The timeline, 4 to 7 months, is similar either way.
What Sana Commerce offers
Sana Commerce is a B2B e-commerce platform built to live inside the ERP: items, customer net prices, discounts, stock, orders and invoices are read and written directly in Dynamics or SAP, with no intermediate database. For a CIO, the argument is strong: no sync to maintain, prices always right, a deployment run by a certified partner. Unsurprisingly, Sana is popular in the Netherlands, where the vendor was founded.
The trade-off is an annual subscription tied to your configuration, a feature scope defined by the vendor and customization that is possible but bounded. Unusual needs, such as a complex product configurator, a returnable packaging logic or a dedicated flow for installers, quickly become expensive development.
| Criterion | Sana Commerce | Custom B2B e-commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost (2026 order of magnitude) | 30,000 to 80,000 EUR integration | 60,000 to 140,000 EUR |
| Annual recurring cost | 25,000 to 60,000 EUR license | 15,000 to 35,000 EUR maintenance and hosting |
| Stock and price sync | Native, real time | Real time via API or event queue |
| Time to production | 4 to 6 months | 5 to 7 months |
| Functional freedom | Bounded by vendor | Full |
| Code ownership | No | Yes |
| Dependency | Vendor and certified partner | Supplier, reversible if code is documented |
Real-time sync, the hard part of custom
The main risk of custom work is sync. An Amsterdam distributor of electrical, plumbing or industrial supplies often manages 20,000 to 80,000 items, thousands of customer price lists and stock across warehouses in Westpoort, Schiphol or Almere. The portal must show net price and true availability to the second.
A robust architecture combines ERP API calls for price and stock at add-to-cart, a short cache of a few minutes for browsing and an event queue for orders, so that an ERP outage never blocks sales. This foundation usually represents 25 to 35 % of the custom budget, but you own it. Dutch buyers also expect iDEAL and invoice payment on account, which both routes support.
Total cost over 5 years
| 5-year item (2026 order of magnitude) | Sana Commerce | Custom |
|---|---|---|
| Upfront investment | 60,000 EUR | 110,000 EUR |
| License or corrective maintenance | 40,000 × 5 = 200,000 EUR | 18,000 × 5 = 90,000 EUR |
| Hosting | Included | 6,000 × 5 = 30,000 EUR |
| Feature evolutions | 10,000 × 5 = 50,000 EUR | 15,000 × 5 = 75,000 EUR |
| 5-year total | 310,000 EUR | 305,000 EUR |
| Residual value | None, license | Code and intellectual property |
The totals are close. Sana wins with a standard catalog, a small IT team and a well-kept Dynamics instance. Custom wins when your sales processes are a differentiator, when you plan several brands or countries, or when you want to own the code ahead of a future sale of the business.
Mini case study
Pieter, CIO of an industrial supplies distributor in Amsterdam on Dynamics 365 Business Central, manages 35,000 items and 4,200 business customers. His in-house team has two developers.
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He compares: Sana at 45,000 EUR annual license and 65,000 EUR integration, so 65,000 + 225,000 = 290,000 EUR over 5 years before evolutions; custom at 120,000 EUR plus 22,000 EUR per year for maintenance and hosting, so 120,000 + 110,000 = 230,000 EUR. His two developers can take over part of the evolutions on the custom build, saving about 8,000 EUR a year in external services. The 5-year gap then reaches about 100,000 EUR in favor of custom, at the cost of one extra month of delivery.
FAQ
How much does Sana Commerce cost in 2026?
As a 2026 order of magnitude, the license runs 25,000 to 60,000 EUR per year depending on ERP and modules, plus 30,000 to 80,000 EUR integration. Exact pricing is negotiated with the vendor.
How much does custom B2B e-commerce connected to Dynamics cost?
Plan 60,000 to 140,000 EUR excl. VAT depending on item count, pricing complexity and features, over 4 to 7 months. Real-time sync weighs 25 to 35 % of the budget.
Can a custom build show real-time prices and stock?
Yes, with ERP API calls at add-to-cart and a few minutes of cache for browsing. Response times stay under 500 milliseconds with a sound architecture.
What happens if we change ERP?
With Sana, check that the new ERP is supported. With custom, only the connector layer changes, roughly 15 to 25 % of the initial budget as an order of magnitude.
Which option suits a multi-country group?
Beyond 3 countries or brands, custom offers more flexibility for catalogs and tax rules. Sana handles multi-site, but each local specificity raises integration cost.
Let's scope your project. Describe your ERP, catalog and pricing rules, and we will cost both scenarios over 5 years with a 4 to 7 month plan. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
