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Dayforce HCM vs SAP HCM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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

Dayforce HCM
Ranking in Talent Management
11th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Talent Intelligence (2nd)
SAP HCM
Ranking in Talent Management
3rd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2025, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Dayforce HCM is 3.1%, up from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP HCM is 6.9%, down from 16.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP HCM6.9%
Dayforce HCM3.1%
Other90.0%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

Thomas Noorkah - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Enterprise Financial Systems at City of Columbus
Greatly improved our efficiency with its integrated time and attendance module
Dayforce has given us near to real-time access to time sheets and clockings since it has an integrated time and attendance module. Within six minutes of someone clocking in, we can see them on the timesheets. Dayforce has enabled us to smooth out our payroll system so not everything is happening at the end of the payroll cycle. We can see the impacts during the week and make it a lot more manageable. It's also been helpful for benefits administration with employees being able to file life and work events online. They can access their pay stubs, request leave, change their address, update their direct deposit details, and other things. We've become much more efficient, and much less paper driven.
VD
DevOps Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
User interface simplifies task management with easy issue identification and quick resolutions
We don't currently need third-party solutions because Red Hat provides security through RH-ACM. This Red Hat product helps us identify vulnerabilities in Pods, YAML files, and other components. When we encounter vulnerability issues, we raise tickets, implement Red Hat's solutions, and close the tickets. OpenShift is predominantly implemented in banking sectors. Banking sectors require Enterprise edition platforms due to RBI guidelines. While small-scale industries might use Kubernetes on AWS platform, major banks such as SBI and Central Bank of India prefer OpenShift for its Enterprise edition status and comprehensive support from Red Hat. IPI setup is straightforward, but air gap environment setup is more challenging as it requires configuring HAProxy, DNS, manual DNS server, creating ignition files, downloading images, and creating separate repositories. Regarding competition, based on my knowledge, OpenShift has limited competitors apart from Red Hat. IBM has acquired Red Hat for OpenShift, and they run OpenShift on their Linux platform, making IBM the primary competitor. This product deserves a rating of 10 out of 10.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I have not encountered many bugs, and in the rare instances where problems occurred, Ceridian Dayforce HCM promptly fixed them. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"The product has a pretty clean look."
"The fact that the time and attendance system is built into the HRIS is very valuable because, in the past, we had to use two different systems."
"It has created efficiencies in HR and Payroll by eliminating double entry into two systems, implementing a time clock feature for hourly employees, and by having a downloadable general ledger (G/L) constructing journal entering for payroll."
"The initial setup is easy."
"Employees like being able to see what entitlements/balances that they have for their time away."
"The solution's payroll portion is very streamlined."
"Configuring your HR policies and rules is straightforward."
"The setup was straightforward."
"The valuable features of SAP HCM include managing employee data from hiring to retirement."
"SAP HCM has valuable features for analytics data management."
"Scalability is excellent, and I would rate it ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature, in my view, is the level of exceptions or error messages that come back when something goes wrong."
"Payroll is always the central area the tool focuses on. It needs to ensure things are flowing, employees are paid on time, and there are no issues related to location, pay, or hiring. SAP HCM helps observe all the work, from hiring to paying paychecks every month. It's a system that depends on the data you input. You don't want to work with bad data and expect miracles. If the data isn't clean, it's more work."
"Recently, the localization versions for different countries were increased, and that added value to the solution."
"The feature I like most in SAP HCM is its effectiveness for talent management."
 

Cons

"Our current software program offers a home page with important company documents and a place for company announcements. Unfortunately, Ceridian Dayfoce does not offer this."
"I would also like to see some improvement in standard reports. A standard report should be available to pull the required information for Affirmative Action Plans. I do not think I should have to build or create one."
"I would like to continue to see improvements in the Recruiting module. I would like to see this module interact with Calendars, such as Outlook, etc."
"The solution has a lot of glitches."
"The solution's dashboards and geofencing could be improved."
"I would like the solution to improve its customer service communication."
"An area for improvement could be a little more testing before implementing hotfixes to make sure they do not interfere with any active customized products."
"The solution's initial setup was difficult. Also, the solution's initial deployment took around six months."
"The extensibility of the integration could be improved."
"It is a bit tedious and manual to work with."
"SAP HCM is costly compared to other ERPs like Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle, and I would rate the cost as one out of ten."
"The setup process for SAP HCM is a bit complex; it is not simple."
"SAP HCM needs to improve its UI."
"System usability is a challenge."
"There are already success factors for the cloud solution which cannot be integrated into S/4 HANA."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."
"Ceridian continually enhances Dayforce HCM. Some of these enhancements they charge for and some are just straight enhancements with no extra charge."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven on a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive."
"Negotiate for everything you want."
"Earlier, the price of the product was reasonable. Under present circumstances, the price or cost of the product has been increased."
"The XOXO program associated with Dayforce allows you to earn credits towards registration and accommodations at their annual Insight Conferences, which can be a real savings to the company when sending employees to the conference."
"We found the setup costs and pricing to be very reasonable."
"In terms of pricing, the product is expensive. However, it is crucial to take into account the manner in which the solution will be utilized and the availability of other alternatives."
"We have an annual license for this solution, and the price depends on the number of users."
"SAP is extremely expensive. The integration costs and customization costs are also a lot."
"The pricing depends upon the specific model and number of user accounts included in a bundle."
"The solution is cheap."
"You pay per license. There not any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"Licensing fees are paid yearly."
"HCM is cheaper than SuccessFactors."
"The terms on which you buy licenses might change due to the way they license in a particular product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Non Profit
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise39
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
The solution's payroll portion is very streamlined.
What needs improvement with Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
Customizing the home screen was difficult; I could not remove certain tabs that were irrelevant to our users. The search functionality is poor as there's no way for administrators to tag keywords t...
What is your primary use case for Ceridian Dayforce HCM?
We have used Dayforce HCM for our HR functionalities and for the learning module over the last five years. We actually just migrated to a new learning management system.
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

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal
SAP Human Capital Management
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ACCO Brands
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 Dayforce HCM vs. SAP HCM and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.