Daniel Thompson
December 26, 2022
Siemens and Schneider Electric are both massive multinational companies that provide a range of goods and services in the electronics and energy fields among others, but is it fair to say that they are equal competitors? Or is it more of a case of David versus Goliath?
Here we will take a look at the two companies to see which is bigger and better, and to help you decide which might make a better choice for your business requirements.
Who is bigger Siemens or Schneider?
Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and one of the biggest in the world as a whole. With its headquarters in Munich, Germany, it has many other branches abroad and is very much a multinational corporation today.
Siemens employs over 300,000 people all over the world, and brought in over €62 billion, or nearly AUS$100 billion, in the last year alone. There is no doubt that Siemens is a giant in the business world, and it has the manpower and profits to prove it.
Schneider Electric, on the other hand, is a French company that originally sold electronic equipment in the 1830s, before growing to deal in hardware, software and all kinds of services for energy management.
Working in over 100 countries, Schneider nevertheless has around 150,000 employees, half that boasted by Siemens, so in terms of workers, Siemens is definitely the bigger company to Schneider’s smaller business.
Schneider Electric also made around €30 billion, or less than AUS$50 billion, in the last year. This again reflects around half of the revenue that Siemens took in, showing that once again Schneider Electric is the smaller of the two companies.
Is Siemens better than Schneider Electric?
Although Siemens is the larger company by many industry standards, that does not necessarily make it the superior choice to do business with, and it doesn’t make its products necessarily better. There are many criteria that determine whether a company is truly better than another, and here we will look at some of them as we compare Siemens and Schneider Electric.
- Accessibility
Schneider Electric has a clear and comprehensive website that introduces you instantly to the kind of company that they are. They work in countries around the world and have Schneider distributor SQD Groups set up in so many countries like Thailand to ensure that you get the right products quickly and at a great price.
Siemens similarly has sites set up in countries across the globe to showcase their products and help you find what you need, but Schneider’s approach is potentially more effective.
- Cost
In a price-by-price comparison, between fairly similar or even the same products, there is not a huge disparity in prices, though Schneider tends to be slightly cheaper.
One site stated that Siemens offers a free trial that Schneider does not, making that a free and fantastic way to decide if Siemens is the better choice, but many of Schneider’s products do cost less in general than Siemens.
- Quality
Here once again, there is no doubt that Siemens makes quality products, but if you compare, for example, a differential circuit breaker from each company, Siemens Model 5SV3 has a mechanical durability of 10,000 cycles, while Schneider’s Model ISW-NA has 20,000 cycles, yet is 30% cheaper.
That being said, Siemens have many products of great quality that Schneider doesn’t. As a bigger company, there may be goods and services that you can only get from Siemens, or that are superior, and likewise, there are plenty that are unique to Schneider.
- Value for money
When looking at both the respective costs and the quality and durability of the products involved, Schneider appears to be the clear winner in terms of value for money. Many of their products are cheaper and promise to last longer at the same time making them a better investment.
- Staff reviews
One of the best ways to work out which the better company is would be to check what their own employees think and say. While there will always be balanced reports from a variety of employees, both Siemens and Schneider have their share of fantastic and not so glowing reviews.
- Customer reviews
Another excellent measure of how great a company is performing is to see what other customers have to say. When you can see that their products and services have served a similar business to yours well in the past, it can give you the confidence to choose them in the future. Both Siemens and Schneider Electric are very well rated by their former companies, so it may well come down to the specific products that you are interested in.
Is Schneider Electric owned by Siemens?
In terms of several of the criteria mentioned above, Schneider Electric could be considered the better company. Many of its products are cheaper and of the highest quality, and it comes well recommended by both its staff and former customers, but Siemens is a wonderful company as well and also ticks many of these boxes.
What truly sets Schneider Electric apart is its commitment to, and indeed its role as an industry leader in the field of sustainability. Schneider has been pushing for years for smarter energy systems and the rest of the industry is finally catching on. This leadership is what truly makes Schneider the best choice.
Schneider Electric is not owned by Siemens, but was founded in 1836 in France and remained in a similar shape for the next 150 years. In the last few decades, the company has expanded and grown, with many partnerships in several different countries, but it has not made such a deal with Siemens.
Conclusion
Siemens is by far the larger company than Schneider Electric, boasting twice the revenue and staff, yet that does not automatically make it the better choice. In a side-by-side comparison, Schneider Electric scored just as highly, if not higher, than Siemens across the board.
Further, Schneider’s role as an industry leader pushing for future thinking makes it the superior company to partner with if your business is in need of the products and services that Schneider Electric supplies.
