Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision): Overview, Support & Migration

Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision)

Microsoft Dynamics NAV — still widely called Navision — is a legacy on-premise ERP system for small and mid-sized businesses, covering financials, supply chain, manufacturing, projects and service management. Microsoft stopped releasing new NAV versions after Dynamics NAV 2018 and now directs all new customers to Dynamics 365 Business Central, which is built on the same codebase. If you are running NAV today, the practical question is no longer "should I upgrade NAV?" but "when and how do I move to Business Central?"

Updated July 2026

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What Is Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a modular enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for small and mid-sized companies, originally developed in Denmark as Navision and acquired by Microsoft in 2002. It combines financial management, supply chain, manufacturing, project accounting and service management in a single system, deployed on-premise or hosted by a partner.

NAV is a mature, heavily customisable product with a large installed base built up over two decades, concentrated in Europe. Its strength was always depth of functionality relative to price, delivered through a dense network of implementation partners who tailored the system to each customer.

It is, however, a legacy platform. Dynamics NAV 2018 was the final release, and Microsoft's successor product — Dynamics 365 Business Central — is the same lineage rebuilt for the cloud. NAV customers remain supported for a defined lifecycle window, but no new functionality is coming to the product.

PRODUCT INFORMATION:

Vendor: Microsoft

Originally released: 1995 (as Navision Financials)

Final version: Dynamics NAV 2018

Successor: Dynamics 365 Business Central

TYPICAL FIT (ERP Research assessment):

~10–500 Employees

DEPLOYMENT:

✅ On-Premise

✅ Partner-hosted / Azure-hosted

❌ Native cloud SaaS

Navision vs Dynamics NAV vs Business Central: The Naming, Explained

Three names, one product lineage — this is the single most common source of confusion, so it is worth being precise:

In everyday use, "Navision", "MS Navision", "Microsoft NAV" and "Dynamics NAV" all refer to the same system. Business Central is not a different product family — it is where NAV went.

Dynamics NAV Modules & Features

NAV was licensed in functional packs and granules, so two NAV installations can look quite different. The core functional areas are:

Financial Management

The heart of NAV: general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliation, fixed assets, multi-currency, cash flow forecasting, and consolidation across multiple companies.

Supply Chain & Trade

Sales and purchase order processing, inventory management, item tracking (lot and serial numbers), multi-location stock, requisition and planning worksheets, and vendor management.

Manufacturing

Bills of materials, routings, production orders, capacity planning, machine and work centres, demand forecasting, and supply planning — sufficient for small and mid-sized discrete manufacturers.

Jobs & Project Management

Project (job) costing, budgets, work-in-progress calculation, time sheets and resource planning — the basis of NAV's popularity with professional services firms and contractors.

Warehouse Management

Bin setup, put-away and pick, cross-docking, warehouse receipts and shipments, and cycle counting for distributors running a real warehouse operation.

Service Management

Service orders, contracts, dispatching, and service item tracking for field-service and maintenance-led businesses.

Sales & Marketing (Relationship Management)

Contact and opportunity management, campaign tracking and a light CRM layer — commonly replaced or supplemented by a dedicated CRM.

Dynamics NAV vs Business Central: What's the Difference?

Business Central is NAV's designated successor and shares its data model and much of its functional logic — which is why migration is an upgrade path rather than a rip-and-replace to an unrelated product. The differences that matter to a buyer:

The most important structural difference is customisation. NAV customisations were predominantly written in C/AL and often modified base objects directly, which is exactly what made NAV upgrades painful. Business Central's AL extension model keeps customisations separate from the base application, so updates are far less likely to break your code — though extensions still need testing against each release wave. This is also the single biggest driver of migration effort: heavily customised NAV installations require those modifications to be rebuilt as extensions.

For a fuller breakdown, see our Business Central modules list and the Business Central pricing guide.

Dynamics NAV Support & End-of-Life Timeline

NAV is governed by Microsoft's Fixed Lifecycle Policy, and every version has a published end date. Dynamics NAV 2018 — the final release — reached the end of mainstream support on 10 January 2023, and its extended support is scheduled to end on 11 January 2028. Extended support means security updates only: no new features, no design changes, and no free support incidents.

Dynamics NAV 2017 remains in extended support until 11 January 2027. Every NAV version from 2016 and earlier is already out of extended support — NAV 2016's extended support ended on 14 April 2026, NAV 2015's on 14 January 2025, and NAV 2013's on 10 January 2023. In practice this means:

• No new functionality is being added to any NAV version.
• Regulatory and tax updates are not guaranteed on out-of-support versions, which is a live compliance risk for payroll and VAT reporting.
• Security updates for NAV 2018 stop after the extended-support date.

Lifecycle dates can be revised by Microsoft, so confirm the current schedule against Microsoft's official lifecycle documentation or with your implementation partner before you build a migration plan around them.

How to Migrate from Dynamics NAV to Business Central

Moving from NAV to Business Central is a data, code and process project. A typical migration follows these steps:

1. Inventory what you actually use. Catalogue your NAV version, the modules and granules in active use, every customisation, and every integration. Most NAV sites discover a large share of their customisations are obsolete and can simply be dropped.
2. Decide cloud or on-premise. Business Central online (SaaS) is the default and where Microsoft invests; Business Central on-premise exists for genuine data-residency or regulatory constraints. Choose deliberately — it drives licensing and upgrade behaviour.
3. Rebuild customisations as AL extensions. This is usually the largest single work item. C/AL code that modified base objects cannot be lifted over; it must be re-implemented in the extension model, replaced by an AppSource app, or retired.
4. Clean and migrate your data. Microsoft's cloud migration tool does not run directly from Dynamics NAV: per Microsoft's guidance, a NAV database must first be upgraded to Business Central on-premises, and only then switched to Business Central online. Tidy the chart of accounts and master data before you start — a migration is the best opportunity you will get to drop years of accumulated mess.
5. Choose a partner with NAV-to-BC experience. The upgrade path from older NAV versions can require intermediate steps. Select a Microsoft implementation partner who has done your specific version jump before.
6. Pilot, parallel-run, then cut over. Validate Business Central against live NAV data, train users on the new interface, confirm reporting parity, and only then schedule go-live.

Facing the Dynamics NAV end-of-support decision? Get a personalised Business Central pricing estimate, compare it against the alternatives, or connect with a certified implementation partner.

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How Much Does Dynamics NAV Cost?

Microsoft has not sold Dynamics NAV to new customers since Business Central superseded it, so there is no current NAV list price — the relevant number for any NAV site today is what Business Central will cost. (Existing customers on an active enhancement plan have historically been able to add licences to an installed NAV estate; check your own agreement with your partner.)

Historically, NAV was licensed perpetually through a Starter Pack and an Extended Pack, with additional functional granules and concurrent or named user licences on top, plus an annual enhancement plan charged as a percentage of the licence value to entitle you to upgrades and support. Existing customers still carry that annual cost.

Business Central, by contrast, is subscription-priced per named user per month, in Essentials and Premium tiers, with a lower-cost Team Members licence for read-and-approve users. See our Business Central pricing and costs guide and the Dynamics 365 pricing overview for current figures, and factor migration services separately using our ERP implementation cost breakdown. Microsoft has periodically offered promotional migration licensing for customers moving from NAV to Business Central — worth asking your partner about explicitly, because it is not always volunteered.

Industry Fit

NAV's flexibility meant it landed almost everywhere, but its installed base concentrates in:

Wholesale Distribution

Order processing, inventory, item tracking and warehouse management made NAV a natural fit for distributors — still one of the densest pockets of the NAV installed base.

Small & Mid-Sized Manufacturing

Bills of materials, routings and production orders cover discrete manufacturing well, without the cost of a tier-one manufacturing ERP.

Professional Services

The Jobs module — project costing, WIP, time sheets and resource planning — made NAV a common choice for consultancies, agencies and engineering firms.

Retail

NAV became the foundation of several major retail ISV solutions, most notably LS Retail, which is why a large number of retailers ran NAV underneath a retail-specific layer.

History

Navision's origins are in the Danish software house PC&C, founded in the early 1980s; its first accounting product shipped in 1985 and the first product carrying the Navision name in 1987. The first Windows release, Navision Financials, shipped in 1995. Microsoft acquired the Danish developer Navision A/S in 2002, initially selling it as Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision, then bringing it under the new Microsoft Dynamics brand in 2005 as Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

The Dynamics-branded line ran NAV 4.0 and 5.0, then the year-named releases: NAV 2009 (and 2009 R2), 2013 (and 2013 R2), 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Dynamics NAV 2018, released at the end of 2017, was the last. In 2018 Microsoft launched Dynamics 365 Business Central — the NAV codebase re-architected for the cloud with the AL extension model — and NAV development stopped there.

NAV sits alongside the other legacy Microsoft ERP products: Dynamics AX (now Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain Management), Dynamics GP / Great Plains, and Dynamics SL. All are being wound down in favour of Dynamics 365.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a modular on-premise ERP system for small and mid-sized businesses, covering financial management, supply chain, manufacturing, projects, warehousing and service management. It originated as the Danish product Navision, was acquired by Microsoft in 2002, and was renamed Dynamics NAV in 2005. Dynamics NAV 2018 was the final release; Microsoft's successor product is Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Is Navision the same as Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

Yes. Navision is the original name of the product and Microsoft Dynamics NAV is what Microsoft renamed it to in 2005. The terms "Navision", "MS Navision", "Microsoft NAV" and "Dynamics NAV" are used interchangeably in the market to describe the same ERP system. Its modern successor, built on the same codebase, is Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Is Microsoft Dynamics NAV being discontinued?

Dynamics NAV is a legacy product that is no longer being developed. Microsoft released no version after Dynamics NAV 2018 and directs all new customers to Dynamics 365 Business Central. Existing NAV installations continue to run and remain supported until their published lifecycle end dates, but NAV should be treated as an end-of-life platform rather than a long-term investment.

When does support for Dynamics NAV end?

Dynamics NAV 2018, the final version, ended mainstream support on 10 January 2023, and its extended support is scheduled to end on 11 January 2028. Extended support provides security updates only — no new features and no guaranteed regulatory or tax updates. Dynamics NAV 2017 is supported until 11 January 2027; NAV 2016 and every earlier version are already out of extended support. Confirm the current dates with Microsoft's lifecycle documentation, as schedules can change.

What is the difference between Dynamics NAV and Business Central?

Business Central is the cloud-native successor to Dynamics NAV, built on the same codebase. NAV is on-premise or partner-hosted, licensed perpetually, customised predominantly in C/AL — typically by modifying base objects, though later NAV versions added limited extension support — and receives no further updates. Business Central is delivered as SaaS with subscription licensing, updated twice a year, and customised through upgrade-safe AL extensions. Functionally they are closely related, which is why migration is an upgrade path rather than a replacement.

How do you migrate from Dynamics NAV to Business Central?

Inventory your NAV version, active modules, customisations and integrations; decide between Business Central online and on-premises; rebuild C/AL customisations as AL extensions or replace them with AppSource apps; upgrade your NAV database to Business Central on-premises first, then use Microsoft's cloud migration tool to switch to Business Central online — the tool does not run directly from NAV; choose a partner experienced in your specific version jump; then pilot, parallel-run and cut over. Rebuilding customisations is usually the largest work item.

Is Dynamics NAV cloud-based?

Dynamics NAV is not a native cloud product. It is installed on-premise or hosted by a partner, including on Azure infrastructure, which delivers remote access but is still hosting rather than true SaaS. For a native cloud ERP in the Microsoft family, Business Central is the option — it is designed as a multi-tenant cloud service with automatic updates.

What was the last version of Dynamics NAV?

Dynamics NAV 2018 was the final version, released at the end of 2017. There is no NAV 2019 or later. Microsoft's development effort moved to Dynamics 365 Business Central, which launched in 2018 and carries the NAV lineage forward.

What are the alternatives to Dynamics NAV?

Companies leaving NAV most often evaluate Dynamics 365 Business Central as the natural upgrade, alongside other mid-market cloud ERPs such as NetSuite, Acumatica, SAP Business One and Sage Intacct. Because NAV is end-of-life, most NAV users comparing options are effectively choosing a replacement platform, and it is worth running a proper requirements exercise rather than defaulting to the incumbent's successor.

Related Resources

• Dynamics 365 Business Central Overview — NAV's successor, explained in full
• Business Central Pricing & Costs — what the migration will cost to license
• Business Central Modules List — functional mapping from NAV
• Microsoft Dynamics AX — the enterprise-tier legacy Microsoft ERP
• Microsoft Dynamics GP (Great Plains) — the other legacy Microsoft SMB ERP
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP — the modern Dynamics family
• Microsoft Implementation Partners — find a partner with NAV-to-BC migration experience
• ERP Implementation Cost Breakdown — budgeting the migration itself
• Business Central Finance & Accounting — where NAV's financials land in BC
• ERP Functional Requirements — scope the decision before you commit