ADP Workforce Now vs PeopleSoft vs Workday comparison

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ADP Workforce Now

PeopleSoft

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between ADP Workforce Now, PeopleSoft, and Workday based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Workday, Oracle, SAP and others in Benefits Administration.

To learn more, read our detailed Benefits Administration Report (Updated: October 2025).

Benefits Administration

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Helped 870,697 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of ADP Workforce Now is 3.3%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of PeopleSoft is 7.0%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 17.4%, down from 20.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Benefits Administration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Workday	17.4%
PeopleSoft	7.0%
ADP Workforce Now	3.3%
Other	72.3%

Benefits Administration

Featured Reviews

Vineeth John

Director, People & Culture at a agriculture with 201-500 employees

Custom reporting tool with field grabber, easy modules for recruitment and provides numerous options for integration

The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key features you can possibly think of. If it isn't there, there's always a third-party vendor you can integrate that way. But the only issue is that because it's complex, there needs to be some sort of system, at least on the back end, for the admins to understand what leads to what. We expect AI to improve multiple things with HR processes. The most obvious and common one would be the self-service function for employees, like a chatbot to help with FAQs. We are also building an AI tool that can possibly help managers make better talent management decisions. This tool will pull from the performance management tool, the talent profile, and the reports that we generally have to score employees across all different dimensions.

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UshaKatyal

Owner at Kaydex Systems Ltd.

A mature solution that needs right implementation

I think PeopleSoft HR is pretty good and very mature. The people who built PeopleSoft now work on Workday. Workday has asked me to join them as an employee a few times, but I don't take anyone's employment because Workday isn't very user-friendly. With PeopleSoft, you can do a lot. Oracle now bundles PeopleSoft and calls it Oracle Cloud, but the programs are the same. Recruiters often don't know this and say you're not qualified if you don't have Oracle Cloud experience. However, Oracle has just put PeopleSoft in the cloud and packaged it as Oracle Cloud. Overall, if the solution is implemented correctly, it runs very smoothly. I think people shouldn't customize it. They should use it as is and try to adapt to it. Many people didn't understand PeopleSoft at first. For example, during COVID, some companies hired offshore people who didn't know what they were doing and messed everything up. You need to know the rules and regulations of the country where you're implementing the tool because every country has different rules for HR, benefits, and payroll. Canadian payroll differs from US payroll, but they're on the same platform in the solution. It's a very mature system, but people prefer newer options like Oracle Cloud. I was also involved with SAP S/4HANA. I don't think it's good for the government sector because government workers are a bit lazy about technical things. I understand S/4HANA because I have a technical background. It has a different structure, while PeopleSoft has more of a file and table structure, which is easier. If the tables are set up wrong, things go wrong. But if you know how to set it up correctly, it runs smoothly, and you can adjust it if needed. The problem is that companies are hiring big consulting firms that want money. They hire offshore people who don't know the country's rules and do programming. If you buy a package and still have to do custom programming, why buy the package at all? These days, I'm doing a lot of business process reengineering for people because they don't know how to implement it correctly. If you implement it right, you can reduce manual work. However, it depends on change management and how senior management handles it. It works fine if you implement the tool on-site or hybrid, not cloud and do it correctly. But in a cloud situation, there are problems. Many countries change their payroll and benefits rules often. With the cloud, you can't easily change things. You have to ask the company to make changes, which costs much money. People who don't want an IT department go for the cloud. But I've seen many companies fail with the cloud. The cloud is just everything packaged together. Your data sits in someone else's cloud, and you must accept whatever they do. Payroll is very sensitive. If payroll is wrong, the whole company suffers. I've worked on the financial and school sides, too. I'm comfortable with the tool if it's implemented correctly. But many companies don't implement it right, which is why they might say it is too much. I did a big project for an oil and gas company. I was a program control manager with 51 people under me. We used Oracle, but Oracle isn't as good as PeopleSoft for payroll. If the solution is implemented correctly, it's fine. But you need the right implementer. Big consulting firms often give wrong information and use inexperienced people. For maintenance, PeopleSoft sends updated rules to new tables at year-end. You compile the new tables and start the new year. But you need to know which changes apply to your country. I talk to many senior PeopleSoft people and always get LinkedIn messages about business opportunities. I now help about 50 clients when they have problems, but I'm not traveling. If you know the HR and payroll business well, you can implement anything - PeopleSoft, Oracle, or S/4HANA. I've done all of these. S/4HANA is more complicated and technical. It's similar to an old software called IDMS. You have to be very technical, and if you don't do it right, it won't work. I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.

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Eslam Abo Elnaga

Senior people and systems analyst at B_labs & Mylo

Has improved HR process efficiency through intuitive workflows and responsive support

There is something that could be improved in Workday, specifically in the time tracking module. While I am not working on Workday now, I was a regional HRIS working for Egypt, Malta, India, and China. I mention these countries to relate to high population countries and companies. In our company, we use assigned work schedules for our teams. Because we work with the time tracking module, we need to assign shifts. In the manufacturing industry, we might need to change shifts every day or week. Manufacturing teams are huge, approximately 50 to 200 people in one team. If this team has one leader, the leader needs to assign a work schedule for each person individually. While there is mass upload functionality where we can load shifts for all people or specific groups, we need to select multiple people and assign them to a schedule from the interface itself. I have requested this functionality many times. When extracting business processes awaiting actions report, I can select different processes in one box, hit okay, and the report comes up. However, the same functionality does not work for work schedule assigning. If implemented, it would help many people in companies with high populations and big teams.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It is a scalable solution."

"The platform is on a private cloud that is fully secure with no way for hacker penetration."

"The most valuable feature to me is performance management because we just started using that."

"The way that ADP helped us improve our organization is by making the payroll process clean and efficient because if you make a mistake there, you're in big trouble."

"The most valuable features are the reporting and benefits piece."

"In my day-to-day work, attendance tracking would be most important. That's because I have a really diverse group of employees, and I have a subset of younger folks who are struggling with their attendance. So, that's the thing that I'm most involved with currently."

"The most interesting feature for me on ADP is the custom reporting tool. It's got something called a field grabber, which makes it so much easier to generate your own custom reports simply by pulling tabs from any feature."

"Peoplesoft is the best payroll software in the market."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"It is a very stable ERP solution. It is also supported on Oracle Cloud and provides extensive features."

"The solution is easy to scale, expand and make bigger."

"Job data is a valuable feature."

"The customization and catering to our specific needs have helped."

"It's very fully featured. It has more features and more configurability than SAP."

"PeopleSoft allows you to schedule upgrades and inform users beforehand. This gives your IT team time to manage the implementation and minimize disruption."

More PeopleSoft pros

"It's actually a cloud-native solution and based on the community for development. It is a very good open architecture and able to interconnect with other systems. And it is very stable and very fast in terms of response."

"Workday is a secure product."

"We like the fact that this solution is very user-friendly, with a straightforward user interface."

"It is a one-stop solution for everything. You can look for information about other employees or you can track your information. There is a directory, so you can search for other employees. You can also see and track your personal details and salary details on the employee profile page."

"The most valuable feature of Workday is the ease of use which is overall user-friendly."

"The software is easy to learn and use. When compared to SAP HR and SAP HCM, the tool is easy to access and understand. We have a hierarchy and structural connectivity in Workday. There is a certification for the solution and when we do it, we become the certified partners of the company"

"We use the platform for tasks, including applying for leaves, communication, and adhering to our organization's policies through efficient goal setting and reviews."

"The solution is stable."

More Workday pros

Cons

"The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP ."

"Its benefits portal could be user-friendly."

"The report functionality is not as good as competitive products."

"When I'm not working with the implementation team and I'm just talking to customer service or something, they're just not a lot of help. They don't understand how it works. They'll tell you to do something that I know would affect something else. So, it's less about the software and more about just training their folks to a higher level."

"The ease of developing and creating reports could definitely use some improvement."

"I would like to see the payroll side improved and there are a few kinks that need to be worked out."

"I would like to see improvement in the UI."

"I think the inventory part it should be simplified. There is the GR, or good receipt note, which is the time that the materials comes in, and the work days, etc. There is a lot of shuffling through pages, which creates a lot of problems for our users. They don't know which page to go to, where to create a GR, or where to create a stock entry. In other words, all the information is very daunting. It's very easy for people to understand and get a better clarity over it."

"I would like to see it become available again in Mexico."

"The solution needs to work on its mobile technology. We're hoping in the next version we're working on implementing, 9.2, will have more of this."

"Areas that need improvement are the add-ons to the fluid pages and additional features in SCM and finance, both functionally and technically."

"The area that could be improved is the upgrade process, it's not the easiest. Oracle stopped supporting our version. So we have to move either to the cloud or work in a non-supported situation. That was certainly a disadvantage. That's also the reason why we decided not to stay with Oracle. Now we are moving to SAP."

"The Work Center feature in PeopleSoft is a step in the right direction in consolidating someone's role-based interaction with the system. This enhanced functionality streamlines workflows and improves efficiency."

"The UI and user experience are not great, and it's not as feature-rich as today's systems. Furthermore, our implementation does not include all the components we need, like payroll or some other functions."

More PeopleSoft cons

"The UI, UX (user experience) is very bad. It is not very interactive."

"For time management, it does not have a calendar generator. For example, if you want to have a shift calendar for an entire year, you need to push the entire year's calendar into the system instead of being able to generate it using a time management pattern."

"In terms of reporting, we have to rely on a consultant to do the report customization. The most important thing is to be able to do your own reporting, which it can't do. We rely so much on our consultant to customize reports for us."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"Workday could improve by adding other features, such as messaging to candidates and other recruiting capabilities that other new-age solutions have."

"There were a lot of issues. There were consistency or accuracy issues with the data we had, and every time we had to pull reports in Workday, it was difficult."

"The security console should be made less complex."

"It is good that much of the development is based on community input but often that can lead to details being ignored and small, nagging issues are ignored."

More Workday cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive and everyone complains about the price."

"The pricing is expensive and I would say it is below average for the value it provides based on the high cost."

"I give the pricing a seven out of ten."

"The solution is expensive."

"I know some of what we're currently paying. Most customers would say it's too high, but I don't have a comparison to know that."

"It is expensive."

"The product's cost depends on the number of people in your company or the number of paychecks processed. They charge based on these factors, plus a maintenance fee. I'm not sure about current pricing since Oracle took over."

"Check all options before a decision is made."

"One of the cheapest solutions available and also one of the best."

"The expenses related to the solution are nominal."

"The tool is expensive."

"I would rate the pricing an eight out of ten, with ten being expensive."

"We are a University and the cost and license are negotiated privately."

"There are no additional costs for licensing."

More PeopleSoft pricing and cost advice

"With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."

"The pricing is good from an HR perspective, although management gets upset after spending $500,000 a year, every year."

"It is on a yearly basis."

"By and large, Workday is expensive. It is based on the headcount. I'd probably rate it a three or four out of five in terms of pricing. It'd be like buying a Mercedes or a high-end car. It's expensive, but there's a specific value that you're getting with additional features and things of that nature. Using that metaphor, Workday probably tends to be more of a luxury. There are others like ADP that can do your payroll, your time off, and other things, but they don't do it as well."

"Its price is pretty high. It is more expensive than what is offered by other competitors in the market."

"Workday is an expensive solution."

"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."

"I need to pay for a license. It is expensive."

More Workday pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

University

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	4

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	27
Midsize Enterprise	16
Large Enterprise	50

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	41

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ADP Workforce Now?

The licensing is on the pricer side, given that there aren't a lot of other tools out there that are applicable, we j...

What needs improvement with ADP Workforce Now?

The complexity is the key challenge with a tool like ADP because it has all the bells and whistles and all the key fe...

What advice do you have for others considering ADP Workforce Now?

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. It's got a lot of features. The reason I'm not giving it a fu...

What are the differences between Oracle HCM Cloud and PeopleSoft?

Although both are solutions to manage HR, their differences make each one suitable for different companies. Oracle C...

What do you like most about PeopleSoft?

I use the reporting feature occasionally to check for potential improvements in timesheets. We have integrated it wit...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for PeopleSoft?

The solution is priced per module.

What are the biggest differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors?

Differences between Workday, Oracle Cloud,w and SAP SuccessFactors:w Oracle: "simple interface and deep customizatio...

What do you like most about Workday?

I like its UI and UX. When we were using Oracle or SAP, the UI/UX wasn't very user-friendly for the employees.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Workday?

If you go with the launch implementation approach, the solution is generally not very expensive. If you want to add m...

ADP GlobalView Payroll vs ADP Workforce Now

Comparisons

UKG vs ADP Workforce Now

Compared 12% of the time

Compared 12% of the time

SAP SuccessFactors vs ADP Workforce Now

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs ADP Workforce Now

Compared 8% of the time

ADP TotalSource vs ADP Workforce Now

Compared 8% of the time

More ADP Workforce Now Competitors

SAP SuccessFactors vs PeopleSoft

Compared 15% of the time

Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP vs PeopleSoft

Compared 8% of the time

SAP ERP vs PeopleSoft

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle E-Business Suite vs PeopleSoft

Compared 7% of the time

Dayforce HCM vs PeopleSoft

Compared 2% of the time

More PeopleSoft Competitors

SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday

Compared 26% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs Workday

Compared 12% of the time

SAP HCM vs Workday

Compared 8% of the time

UKG vs Workday

Compared 8% of the time

DarwinBox vs Workday

Compared 1% of the time

More Workday Competitors

Product Reports

ADP Workforce Now

Download ADP Workforce Now product report

PeopleSoft

Download PeopleSoft product report

Download Workday product report

September 2025

Overview

ADP Workforce Now is a web-based, complete HR suite that integrates the essential payroll and human resource management procedures into a single database-driven platform. This safe and simple solution gives you everything you need to maximize your workforce and communicate with your staff.

ADP Workforce Now is designed specifically for your company's needs. As a result, the menus and menu selections you see will differ depending on your function and the services your firm uses. As a portal administrator, you customize the site and control what employees can view and do. You can design your site's theme, set approval and notification processes, and manage security groups.

ADP Workforce Now includes these useful capabilities:

Payroll computation and tax filing
Performance regulation
Compensation handling
Talent acquisition
Time and labor logistics
Benefits governance
Analytics
Total management of human resources

ADP Workforce Now Features

ADP Workforce Now has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Single dashboard, single database: Manage your whole workforce from a single dashboard, which is powered by a single database, ensuring that the relevant data is always available when you need it.
- Get a complete HR suite that includes payroll, time, HR, talent, and benefits all in one place.
- Enter data once and it will function across all workflows
- With proactive error detection and can't-miss alerts, you can cut down on mistakes.
- Protect your business with enterprise-grade data security privacy procedures and extensive compliance experience.

Powerful analytics and reporting: With a single database that connects your entire firm, you can access all of your data in one location.
- Create better reports in less time, without ever leaving the page you're on.
- Make use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to help you make confident decisions based on personalized information.

Robust management of HR: Spend less time on paperwork and more time on managing and improving your employees.
- Workflows can be customized, and documents can be stored online.
- Self-service functionalities enable employees and supervisors to be more productive and collaborative.
Customized service and implementation: ADP Workforce Now offers community and chat support and a dedicated implementation team.

In-house implementation by a team of professionals who understand how to optimize the solution for your industry.
For all your questions, ADP Workforce Now offers quick response support, training, and in-product resources.
Client-service specialists with years of experience offer deep knowledge and skills to assist, secure, and support your business.
Flexible service choices can assist your company in navigating strategic and tactical changes, as well as continual system optimization.

ADP

PeopleSoft is an ERP solution that provides businesses with tools for managing their entire workforce including human resources and financial operations, such as payroll, benefits, talent management, and supply chain management. Originally developed by PeopleSoft, Inc., and later acquired by Oracle Corporation, the software helps address talent management needs and maximize employee productivity and efficiency.

PeopleSoft Features

PeopleSoft has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Simple and intuitive: PeopleSoft HCM delivers a clean, consistent, and user-friendly design, resulting in greater user satisfaction that leads to higher adoption without the high cost of training employees.

Anywhere, anytime mobility: With mobile devices being such an integral part of today’s modern work life, PeopleSoft offers today’s mobile and wireless managers and employees an effective and secure method for accessing the information they need, with the ability to effectively execute HR transactions from anywhere, at any time.

Flexible and configurable: PeopleSoft enables you to leverage a single application optimized for all form factors that works on any mobile device – no need for separate applications for mobile and desktop.

Robust: Because the solution is robust, you can use it to increase retention and improve employee engagement.

Powerful and actionable, embedded analytics: PeopleSoft’s actionable, embedded analytics help you spend less time gathering data and more time analyzing and executing employee data.

PeopleSoft Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing PeopleSoft. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Greater employee satisfaction: Users will find PeopleSoft’s software easy to use, leading to better productivity levels and also increased employee satisfaction.

Manage dynamic workforce: The solution provides secure access to employee information so users can manage essential HR functions effectively.

Increased administrator productivity: PeopleSoft empowers employees and managers by enabling them to execute common HR tasks so administrators can focus on other top priorities.

Quickly make informed decisions: By using PeopleSoft’s embedded, real-time, multidimensional analysis capabilities, users can make more informed business decisions.

Reviews from Real Users

PeopleSoft is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has a lot of functionality and is customizable.

A Regional Director at a tech services company mentions, “The most valuable feature is that it's wide and broad and it does about everything anybody needs in a major organization from a back-office systems point of view.”

"PeopleSoft is a good core system. It has a lot of functionality. "They frequently update the solution and recently they have added some good enhancement features for higher education. We just switched to the new fluid interface and that is working very well for us. It is very good," says another reviewer who is an HR/Pay Systems Administrator/Director at a university.

A Senior Manager for DevOps Infrastructure at a financial services firm, explains why he finds the solution so beneficial: "It is a customizable product. We can customize it based on our needs, which is one of the features that I like about PeopleSoft. As far as financial accounting is concerned, the user interface is very good. You can also configure a Chart of Accounts for all performance insights."

Oracle

Workday is a cloud-based software solution that specializes in developing applications for capital and finance management applications. The system is built to work in global workforces and is adaptable. The global system ensures that users are up to date and can manage internal career-related information, and everyday business problems like timesheets, payrolls, and time off.

“A Pioneer in Software-as-a-Service”

Workday Human Capital Management tool is designed to simplify and streamline your work. It leverages machine learning to adapt capital management to a changing environment.

The Workday model is based on delivering a single system that uses a single source of data and a single security model to deliver a unique user experience. The system is user-friendly and ensures that employees and management can use it from any and all devices. Workday HCM integrates into a central system that includes financial management, payroll, recruiting, learning, and planning. Managers and employees can provide feedback to one another, too.

Workday’s features include:

Flexible framework that lets you organize your staff according to different criteria. You can group employees by function, hierarchy, or department.
Personalized career guidance: Knowledge management and career guidance that can be easily customized for each staff member and also done at scale.
Augmented reporting and analytics: Configure, change, update, and publish reports, scorecards, and dashboards. The system centralizes the transactional and analytical data so you can act on the data from anywhere.
Compensation tools: Compensatio, payroll, and time tracking are automated and simplified.
Workforce planning allows you to uncover and address talent gaps and get visibility of your staff.
Mobile-first ensign approach: Users can access all resources from any device, and they are always in sync.
Machine learning capabilities enable personalized enterprise experiences and faster business processes.

Workday smart platform consists of the following modules:

Human resource management
Business process management
Reporting and analytics
Benefits administration
Compensation management
Talent management
Survey framework
Employee and management self-service

Reviews from Real Users

Many organizations choose Workday because it provides an all-in-one modular solution for human capital and finance management. Our users say they like the ease of use for time-off requests, career and development segments, and overall HR management. The records and reporting capabilities are another popular feature.

"The solution was very good at reconfiguration and customization of their software. It helped us to meet federal regulations," said one user. Another said that the best feature is the optimization of the work day experience with a unified platform that can be applied across different business units. “You will never find a use case that cannot be covered," said a third.

Sample Customers

Lawrence and Schiller, The Children's Center, The Kansas City Royals

BMI Healthcare, Lone Star College System, Jefferson County Public Schools, Griffith University, Los Rios Community College District, Tervita Corporation, INFRA S.A. de C.V., ICF Habitat, Central Washington University, Tech Mahindra Limited, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Stanford Childrens Health

AAA, Allied Global, Avago Technologies Limited, Aviva, Cardinal Health, CareFusion, Chiquita Brands International, Equifax, Flextronics, HP, Life Time Fitness, McKee Foods, MGM Resorts International, Sanofi, ServiceSource International, Symantec, TripAdvisor, Yahoo!

Benefits Administration