Its harder than SPM in many ways that you are ever imagine. I assume you took accounting for your SPM. That is just a lil tiny small part of it.

ICAEW is harder than ACCA because there is a module that combines all the knowledge you learn eg. finance, accounting, tax etc. into 1 paper, unlike ACCA that separates these modules into different papers.

that's what you needed to consider before taking up the decision on whether to go for a professional qualification or otherwise.
In fact,it's not the $$ that matters the most.Once you fail a paper, you will have to wait another half year to retake.It is really time consuming.
(i don't know much about other professional qualification but i am talking bout ACCA)
If you choose the route of CAT-->ACCA,it only takes around 3 years to complete everything.(provided you didn't fail any of the paper). Which is way faster compared to route of going for a degree etc.
There are people who choose to go for a degree because they want to enjoy their university life,gain some soft skills and such which you would not get if you choose to go for ACCA(ACCA is like going for a tuition class then that's it.All efforts to pass depend on yourself as it is purely exam based).There are also a lot of people who choose to self study for their ACCA as it is completely possible and there are a lot of resources online which make that easier.You can try google around for it.

So here,the decision is back to you on whether you want to complete your studies faster or you want to enjoy your life first.
Please note that once you completed ACCA and start working,your life would be harder.
And for your question,yes,there is a lot of people that passed everything without fail,yet there are quite a number of people that failed a lot of time and ended up to other course(give up).
It's all depend on yourself,although i am currently only at CAT level,I am determined to go all out to make sure i complete my ACCA within the 3 years time frame.
If you choose this route,there will be no return and you will have to discipline yourself in order to pass.

Hope this helps.

Have a nice day

Regards,
Starz

According to Sunway's marketing, Sunway is the only institution to offer CFAB in the world.

Sunway is also the only provider of ICAEW tuition in SEA if I'm not mistaken.