Which test management approach fits your team?

aqua and SAP Cloud ALM both cover the core test management workflow, including test preparation, execution, reusable test cycles, execution history, defects, and requirements traceability. SAP Cloud ALM connects these activities closely to SAP implementation processes and lets teams manage manual tests while integrating automated tests from external automation providers.

aqua takes a more dedicated QA approach, bringing requirements, test cases, test scenarios, executions, defects, and automation-related workflows into a test management environment designed for testing teams across different technology stacks. This makes the main difference less about whether the basic testing features exist and more about where each platform puts testing in the wider software lifecycle.

Both platforms connect test management with external tools, but their integration ecosystems reflect different priorities. aqua focuses on QA and development workflows, with integrations for tools such as Jira, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, Selenium, JMeter, SoapUI, and Ranorex, alongside REST API access for custom connections. SAP Cloud ALM is more closely integrated with the SAP ecosystem, while also providing open APIs and support for third-party test automation providers. Automated tests can be triggered from SAP Cloud ALM, but execution itself takes place in the connected automation provider. For teams working across a heterogeneous QA stack, aqua offers a more testing-focused integration approach, while SAP Cloud ALM is particularly suited to organisations whose application lifecycle is centred on SAP.

The pricing models differ significantly. aqua is sold as a standalone test management platform with public, role-based pricing, including lower-cost Test Runner/DEV licences and unlimited free Guest licences for stakeholders who only need read access. aqua Intelligence is included in paid plans without a separate AI add-on. SAP Cloud ALM, by contrast, is not priced as a standalone per-user test management tool. Eligible SAP customers receive usage rights through qualifying SAP support or cloud subscriptions without an additional SAP Cloud ALM licence fee. This can make SAP Cloud ALM cost-effective for organisations already invested in SAP, while aqua can be purchased independently without requiring an existing enterprise software contract.

aqua and SAP Cloud ALM take different approaches to deployment. aqua gives teams a choice between its GDPR-compliant German Cloud, external cloud hosting, including isolated Enterprise Custom Cloud, and full On-Premise deployment on the customer’s own infrastructure. SAP Cloud ALM, by contrast, is a cloud-native SaaS solution operated by SAP and cannot itself be deployed On-Premise. It can, however, connect to and manage supported cloud, hybrid, and On-Premise SAP landscapes. For organisations that need direct control over where their test management platform is hosted, aqua provides greater deployment flexibility.

Both aqua and SAP Cloud ALM provide dashboards for monitoring quality, progress, and operational data. aqua focuses its dashboards on QA, allowing teams to visualise workspace data with configurable charts, filters, and real-time KPI alerts when defined thresholds are exceeded. SAP Cloud ALM provides broader analytics and monitoring dashboards across implementation and operations, including custom dashboards, multiple visualisation types, filters, and cross-project views. SAP Cloud ALM also supports threshold-based alerts in its monitoring capabilities. The main difference is focus: aqua dashboards are built around day-to-day QA and test management, while SAP Cloud ALM dashboards extend across the wider SAP application lifecycle.

aqua provides a fully customisable Report Wizard where teams can build reusable reports from project data, design custom layouts, add text and external images, create pivot tables and diagrams, and use scripts and parametrisation for more advanced reporting. SAP Cloud ALM provides built-in analytics across tests, defects, requirements, tasks, and other lifecycle data, with filtering and historical analysis. Its Analytics APIs also let teams extract and transform data to build custom reports or dashboards in external applications. The key difference is where that flexibility sits: aqua provides a dedicated report designer directly inside the test management platform, while advanced custom reporting with SAP Cloud ALM can rely more heavily on its analytics and API ecosystem.

Both aqua and SAP Cloud ALM provide enterprise-grade user and access management. aqua combines SSO with highly granular QA permissions, allowing administrators to control access across projects, folders, item types, and individual functionality. SAP Cloud ALM uses role collections, global roles, project roles, and authorization restrictions to control what users can access and perform across implementation and operations. The main difference is focus: aqua’s permission model is designed around granular QA workflows, while SAP Cloud ALM’s authorization model covers the broader SAP application lifecycle.

Both platforms extend beyond standalone test management, but they approach ALM from different directions. aqua brings requirements, tests, defects, project activities, and traceability into one QA-centred platform, making it suitable for teams working across different technologies and software products. SAP Cloud ALM covers a broader SAP application lifecycle, combining implementation capabilities with operations, monitoring, and service processes for SAP landscapes. For QA teams, aqua provides a more dedicated environment for managing requirements, testing, and defects together. For organisations managing SAP transformation and ongoing SAP operations, SAP Cloud ALM provides lifecycle capabilities that extend considerably beyond testing.