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Cornerstone Learning vs SAP HCM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Cornerstone Learning
Ranking in Talent Management
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Learning Management Systems (LMS) (7th), Virtual Training (4th)
SAP HCM
Ranking in Talent Management
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (3rd), Cloud HCM (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Talent Management category, the mindshare of Cornerstone Learning is 2.8%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HCM is 9.0%, down from 12.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Talent Management
 

Featured Reviews

Vibha  Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined compliance training and efficient session creation empower diverse industries
Creating a session requires just one click, which makes data ready efficiently. Reporting-wise, Cornerstone is the best. It allows internal content management, playlist creation, using external links for learning, and supports various AI training. All the compliance training, code of conduct, and audits are handled through Cornerstone, making it beneficial.
Renelia Villanueva - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient payroll processing with comprehensive attendance management
I am currently heading the payroll benefits and HRIS team here in Manila. We are using SAP HCM on-premises, and we implemented SuccessFactors focusing on Employee Central and GMPM SAP HCM has helped a lot due to the always changing government regulations pertaining to taxation, social security…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I like the most about Cornerstone is that it is agile. It has good built-in processes and the implementation is rapid."
"The most valuable features of Cornerstone Learning are the welcome page and the learner's home. It is user-friendly and graphically appealing."
"Combining everything together, our on-time completions have gone from the mid-sixty percentile to over 99% on-time completion."
"Its user-friendly interface is most valuable. You can configure your welcome page and design it the way you want on your own."
"Their integration features with other platforms are valuable. It is also relatively easy to use. Their library of training modules is fairly robust as well."
"Cornerstone Learning's most valuable features are the keyword search, filters, and add-to-favorites option."
"Stability and scalability are good. They have four releases every year of which learning is a big portion of that. They're constantly refining and defining and they're embedding a lot of new technology into it all the time."
"The most valuable features are the Playlists, Learning Assignment Tool, Earner Experience Platform, Machine Learning, and Reporting 2.0."
"Recently, the localization versions for different countries were increased, and that added value to the solution."
"Sometimes, employees may have pending requests that need approval, so you should check those and clear any errors to ensure smooth processing."
"We are satisfied with the reporting by SAP HCM."
"The stability of the solution is good."
"The valuable features of SAP HCM include managing employee data from hiring to retirement."
"The platform is simple to use and has a user-friendly dashboard and integration features."
"We've found that the solution has the capability to scale."
"The integration provided by SAP between different modules is very good."
 

Cons

"Cornerstone Learning's initial setup was complex, but I don't see that as a downside. It was complex because there is a lot of customizing and a lot of settings that can be done in the setup."
"Even though the system has a number of features, design wise the user interface is a little bit complicated. It is hard for the user to navigate properly. Because the system has so many features, it has a lot of tabs and links. Sometimes, people get confused as to where to go and search."
"The support for this solution could be improved."
"Cornerstone needs to be more adaptable by generating content by just giving keywords, similar to other LMS in the market."
"Cornerstone Learning can improve reporting. If they had a harmonization of the administration UIs it would be great."
"The automated ticketing system for technical support often has a response time that is quite long, which is something that should be improved."
"There is a need for quite a bit of improvement. The reporting side of things definitely needs a lot of improvement. At the moment, it gives you a data dump. You have to open it up in Excel and filter out the bits that you don't want and need."
"In the next release, I would like to see a Hybrid architecture and to be able to customize the look and feel."
"It would be very helpful for our company if a new version was released with the ability to contain all of the things that we have newly introduced in our company."
"There needs to be a renovation of the interface and functionalities of the talent management modules."
"I'm currently working for a state-owned government company, and we need to follow some standards and regulations. We also have a strategy to be followed. Sometimes the template and the format are not available in the SAP HCM, so we have to work around this limitation. The tax also sometimes changes in my country, and we have to redo everything to change the payroll calculations, benefits, and things like that. The talent management feature can be improved. It is currently very simple in SAP HCM. SAP is also very hard to integrate. In terms of monitoring, there are no monitoring tools, but as long as we take care of the disk capacity, there is no problem."
"The product's license is very expensive."
"This solution needs to be more configurable and user-friendly."
"It needs a lot of end user training as it is not intuitive at all."
"SAP HCM is costly compared to other ERPs like Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle, and I would rate the cost as one out of ten."
"SAP is not ready to sell the license on time and delays the progress of projects. It's better to work with a competitor like Oracle. Those that are selling the product just go through powerpoints and don't have the knowledge necessary to sell. They can't answer any questions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate the price at four on a scale from one to five because it's a very expensive product."
"I rate the price of Cornerstone Learning a four out of five. There are not any additional costs other than the standard licensing fees"
"The price of Cornerstone Learning depends on many factors, such as size and negotiations."
"This solution offers competitive pricing."
"This is a cost-effective solution."
"The solution's pricing depends on the specific requirements."
"The solution cost approximately $47,000 annually."
"The pricing of Cornerstone Learning is reasonable, but my knowledge of the cost is limited. I've had some discussions about licenses. I suppose we've had to push them a little bit to be more flexible about the licensing. For example, someone said they could only give us licenses in a batch of 500, but we found out that it wasn't true. We were able to negotiate a different amount."
"The terms on which you buy licenses might change due to the way they license in a particular product."
"For implementation, SAP offers little support unless you buy SAP Safeguarding from SAP Consulting."
"The pricing is really high."
"Be careful and guard against future changes in licensing."
"Licensing is pretty complex. SAP does not have a straight forward way of licensing, and it differs from client to client."
"In my view, this product is a waste of money for SMB because there are much better products available and licensing is an issue."
"The pricing is not reasonable at all."
"HCM is cheaper than SuccessFactors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
57%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Is Cornerstone Learning reliable for content organization?
I think the organizational management of Cornerstone Learning is great. My organization uses this learning software and the way different content types are managed is very useful for our training ...
Does Cornerstone Learning provide you with good reports?
Cornerstone Learning provides great reports for your training programs and the performance of your employees on them. What's more, you get skills graphs which my company finds the most valuable for...
Why would you recommend Cornerstone as a platform for virtual training?
Hello, I think that Cornerstone is more than suitable for virtual training. For one, it gives you a really big array of tools and customizations to be able to deliver your employees high-quality t...
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
SAP HCM is the one of the best ERP for an organization with a small to large scale business. It has the most efficient payroll functionality. Regards : SAP HR classes in pune
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
HCM is a very important module that each organization should want to use. It will help any organization to calculate and control the cost of their human resources.
What is better, SAP HCM or SAP SuccessFactors?
When it comes to user experience, SuccessFactors is unquestionably superior, as it provides end users with a new experience and an advanced user interface. Additionally, the entire concept of SF is...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Cornerstone Learning Suite, Saba Cloud
SAP Human Capital Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Advantage Sales and Marketing
City of Cape Town, ADAMA Agricultural Solutions Ltd., TransAlta Corporation, Keolis, PT XL Axiata Tbk, National Football League (NFL), Plan International, Yoh, A Day & Zimmermann Company, China Talent Group (CTG TMO), Umicore S.A., Butterfield Bank, Skrill Group Ltd.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cornerstone Learning vs. SAP HCM and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.