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Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Microsoft Dynamics NAV at a glance
VendorMicrosoft
HeadquartersRedmond, Washington, USA
OwnershipMicrosoft Corporation, publicly traded
DeploymentOn-premises (partner-hosted options)
Support statusLegacy: final version Dynamics NAV 2018; mainstream support ended January 10, 2023; extended support ends January 11, 2028; withdrawn from sale to new customers on April 1, 2019; successor is Dynamics 365 Business Central
Target marketSmall and midsize businesses (existing installations only)
IndustriesWholesale distribution, light and discrete manufacturing, professional services, retail
PricingNo longer sold to new customers; existing customers pay annual enhancement plan and partner support
Websitelearn.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/dynamics-nav-2018

What Dynamics NAV is

Navision under a Microsoft badge. For roughly two decades this was one of the most widely installed business management systems in the American mid-market, bundling financials, supply chain, manufacturing, and projects into a single on-premises package. That era is over. Microsoft stopped selling NAV to new customers in 2019, and the final release, Dynamics NAV 2018, sits in extended support until January 11, 2028. Its designated successor is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Vendor, history, ownership

The product came out of Denmark, where the company later known as Navision Software built its Navigator accounting system in the 1980s and grew it into a full ERP system for small and midsize businesses. Microsoft acquired Navision A/S in 2002 and renamed the product Microsoft Dynamics NAV in 2005. It became the volume seller of the Dynamics family, sold entirely through a partner channel that built thousands of industry add-ons on the C/AL development environment. Dynamics NAV 2018 shipped in December 2017 as the last major version. Business Central launched on the same codebase in 2018, NAV left the price list on April 1, 2019, mainstream support ended January 10, 2023, and extended support runs to January 11, 2028.

Modules and capabilities

Financials cover general ledger, receivables, payables, fixed assets, and cash management, with sales order processing, purchasing, and inventory alongside. Warehouse functions include picks, put-aways, and bin management. The manufacturing granules add production orders, bills of materials, capacity planning, and MRP, while jobs, resource planning, service management, and basic relationship management complete the picture. None of that describes a real installation on its own: deep C/AL customization and ISV add-ons were how NAV actually got deployed.

Who buys it, and how it was sold

The customer profile is small and midsize wholesale distributors, light and discrete manufacturers, professional services firms, and retailers. US installations typically run from a handful of users to a few hundred, usually with substantial vertical customization from the implementing partner. Technically it is a Windows client-server system, on premises, though some partners host it in private clouds. Licensing was perpetual, latterly under the Starter Pack and Extended Pack model with concurrent users. Nothing new is sold. Existing customers pay the annual enhancement plan plus partner support, so the real budget question is not what NAV costs but what leaving it costs; the ERP TCO calculator puts those figures side by side.

Where it wins, where it loses

NAV was a genuinely capable system with an unusually deep partner ecosystem, and many installations still do their job. That is not an argument for keeping it. For US companies still running it, the only open question is timing, and January 2028 marks the boundary after which no security updates arrive. Business Central is the obvious destination, since it shares the data model and comes with license transition programs, but C/AL code has to be rebuilt as AL extensions, which turns a heavily customized system into a re-implementation rather than an upgrade. Code remediation and data migration are the cost drivers, not licenses. Anyone shortlisting ERP today should skip NAV entirely and look at Business Central or a competing current product. A near-vanilla installation with a stable partner can plan calmly; a system with hundreds of custom objects cannot.

What the Microsoft Dynamics NAV website looks like

Current view of the vendor homepage, captured by our editorial team.

Screenshot of the Microsoft Dynamics NAV vendor homepage

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Frequently asked questions

Is Microsoft Dynamics NAV still supported, and what happens after January 2028?

Dynamics NAV 2018, the final version, is in extended support until January 11, 2028, which means security updates only, with no new features and no non-security fixes; mainstream support for that release ended on January 10, 2023. NAV 2016 and NAV 2017 sit under similar extended timelines, and anything older is fully unsupported. Once January 2028 passes, Microsoft ships nothing further, so the system becomes a growing security and compliance liability, especially for internet-facing components. Partner support and ISV updates thin out as the installed base shrinks. Regulated industries and companies with cyber insurance requirements should be finished well before that date.

What is the relationship between Dynamics NAV and Business Central?

Dynamics 365 Business Central is the direct successor and is built on the same application codebase. Microsoft introduced it in 2018 as the cloud-first continuation of the line and now sends all new customers there. Existing NAV customers can transition their licenses through Microsoft programs, in the cloud or on-premises.

Can a company still buy new Dynamics NAV licenses?

No. New licenses have not been available since April 1, 2019, when Microsoft withdrew the product from sale. Existing customers may keep using their perpetual licenses and, with an active enhancement plan, manage users and granules through their partner. Any company evaluating ERP for the first time is pointed to Dynamics 365 Business Central instead.

What does a migration from NAV to Business Central involve?

The core work is moving master data and open transactions and then rebuilding customizations, because classic C/AL code must be rewritten as AL extensions. Heavily customized systems therefore behave like a re-implementation rather than a version upgrade. Partners normally run a code assessment first to size the effort, and third-party add-ons have to be swapped for their Business Central equivalents.