Dayforce HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors comparison

Dayforce and SAP are both solutions in the Cloud HCM category. Dayforce is ranked #12 with an average rating of 6.0, while SAP is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.7. Dayforce holds a 2.6% mindshare in CHCM, compared to SAP’s 9.0% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Dayforce users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Dayforce HCM

Read 15 Dayforce HCM reviews

3,124 Views
2,530 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

SAP SuccessFactors

Read 100 SAP SuccessFactors reviews

12,576 Views
8,803 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Dayforce HCM

SAP SuccessFactors

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

SAP SuccessFactors and Dayforce HCM are major competitors in the human capital management software industry. Dayforce HCM appears to have an upper hand in payroll and compliance, while SAP SuccessFactors thrives on modular HR features and integration capabilities.

Features: SAP SuccessFactors provides modular capabilities for talent management, performance, learning, and analytics within the SAP ecosystem. It offers extensive customization, innovative AI, and third-party integrations. Dayforce HCM highlights robust payroll, time and attendance functionalities, strong compliance features, and real-time data processing with integrated time clock and document management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: SAP SuccessFactors could enhance module integration, analytics, and the user interface to increase usability and customization, improve reporting tools, offer faster localization, and accelerate update rollouts. Dayforce HCM might refine its user interface, reporting, and connectivity options, as well as enhance home screen customization and third-party integrations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP SuccessFactors offers deployment in public cloud, on-premises, and private cloud configurations, yet faces variable technical support quality with responsiveness issues. Dayforce HCM is more often an on-premises solution, praised for its dedicated support team that efficiently resolves issues.

Pricing and ROI: SAP SuccessFactors is considered high-cost, with pricing based on modules and users, potentially restrictive for smaller organizations despite flexible subscription models. Some users find value in its features and integrations. Dayforce HCM is seen as more reasonably priced, especially for large enterprises, offering significant ROI within one to two years due to lower implementation costs and built-in efficiencies, while SuccessFactors shows lower perceived ROI because of high transition costs from other systems.

To learn more, read our detailed Dayforce HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Dayforce HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors

April 2026

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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

18th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

12th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Talent Intelligence (3rd)

SAP SuccessFactors

Ranking in Talent Management

2nd

Ranking in Cloud HCM

2nd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

100

Ranking in other categories

Talent Acquisition (2nd), Global Payroll (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Dayforce HCM is 2.6%, down from 2.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 9.0%, down from 21.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
SAP SuccessFactors	9.0%
Dayforce HCM	2.6%
Other	88.4%

Cloud HCM

Featured Reviews

TracyBritan

Manager, Learning & Development at Ampersand

Frustrating support and difficult customization prevent optimal use of learning system

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 to training courses, making it hard for people to find content. Additionally, there is no way to send a direct link to training if someone asks about it. The reporting is subpar; you can only report by course and not by person unless you go into specific Dayforce reports, which do not match the fields in the learning module. The support is also terrible, with slow response times and a lack of useful knowledge-based articles.

Read full review

Saptak Samadder

Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences

HR has gained clear analytics for attrition, goals, and appraisals and manages talent efficiently

SAP SuccessFactors has a low error rate. We had many ad hoc reports that we needed to generate, and it was very easy to do so in SAP SuccessFactors. We also created many in-house reports according to our specific requirements with the help of this tool, which was a really big game changer for us. We did not depend on advanced Excel in those cases. We generated a lot of detailed reports whenever we needed them during emergency cases or board meetings. A lot of usefulness and time were saved in those cases. I will also mention that we conducted a comparative study for some recruitment cases. We had a recruitment model where we were looking for a very niche profile. Since the job profile was really different and rare, we had to depend on analytics to understand and shortlist from a large pool of candidates that we already had in our database. Analytics was really helpful in this situation.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Our employee benefits enrollment is managed through Ceridian Dayforce, which makes for a limited manual process."

"Reporting I can pull anything out of Dayforce."

"The time capture from time cards to charging to projects has greatly improved because it is now all automated and flows into the GL very easily."

"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."

"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."

"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."

"Employees like being able to see what entitlements/balances that they have for their time away."

"We like being able to hire from the Dayforce recruiting module straight into Dayforce and having the file feeds go to our benefits vendor."

More Dayforce HCM pros

"Provides an open architecture and an open platform so it can coexist with other systems."

"From a general perspective, I think that it's very satisfactory to have a full solution that can cover everything in Human Resources Management."

"It has a global database, and it is globally accessible. By using this solution, we have moved away from paper, which is a big step for us."

"Workday was evaluated with SuccessFactors, but Workday was not able to accommodate some of our customizations, so the company decided to go with SuccessFactors, which gives you more configuration options."

"The initial setup was pretty simple."

"SuccessFactors offers all aspects of Human Resources Management. What I love most about it is that it can be implemented for any company very quickly."

"HR and managers can use the onboarding tool to help new employees prepare for their first day on the job, which can help them acclimate to the company culture and reduce anxiety."

"SAP SuccessFactors is a very reliable and stable solution."

More SAP SuccessFactors pros

Cons

"It would be nice if retro pay calculations were made automatically for salaried payroll, so a calculation and manual entry do not have to be done."

"I would like to see more built-in forms, like government issued forms (T2200). This would save a lot of time during the year-end process."

"Dayforce has its gaps like every HR system, but nothing comes to mind at the moment."

"It would be nice if retro pay calculations were made automatically for salaried payroll, so a calculation and manual entry do not have to be done."

"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 see more built-in forms. This would save a lot of time during the year-end process."

"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 like to continue to see improvements in the Recruiting module. I would like to see this module interact with Calendars, such as Outlook, etc."

More Dayforce HCM cons

"I would like to be able to configure objects from instances, not from import and export files."

"The reporting and cloud integration could be done better in this solution."

"Its overall integration and user experience can be improved. SuccessFactors is a system that is built out of three different systems. The elements part was bought from Plateau, and the original performance dialogue was built by SuccessFactors itself. After that, SAP bought it, and it hasn't improved in the last few years. SuccessFactors is a perfect tool if you use it the way it is meant to be, but if you start building custom sessions and try to use it differently, then it is a total mess. It is not agile. It is like an old Mastodon truck or whatever. We don't have the Employee Central and Competence Management modules. Our company made the choice to not implement the Employee Central module. We also didn't implement the Competence Management module. We use the learning module to do some competence management, but I am not that fond of it. It would have been best to have the whole suite. SAP should never sell this without selling the whole suite because it just doesn't work. The biggest gain for me would be having the possibility of doing strategic personnel planning and managing internal mobility. If it could be used for social purposes, such as creating communities and connecting with media channels, that would be perfect. It should also have the possibilities for local admin and agile product development."

"SAP SuccessFactors could improve the integration. It is not simple to integrate and it needs to be made easier."

"The data management part can be improved in terms of how you can manage data from the HR admin's or HR team's perspective."

"The pricing of SAP is quite high."

"What needs to be improved in this product is the user experience."

"Integration between Employee Central and Compensation in SAP SuccessFactors is one area of the solution that has room for improvement."

More SAP SuccessFactors cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the solution's pricing a seven on a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive."

"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."

"Earlier, the price of the product was reasonable. Under present circumstances, the price or cost of the product has been increased."

"Ceridian continually enhances Dayforce HCM. Some of these enhancements they charge for and some are just straight enhancements with no extra charge."

"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."

"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."

"Negotiate for everything you want."

"We found the setup costs and pricing to be very reasonable."

"The price of the solution is highly expensive."

"Due to the way in which we purchased SuccessFactors as a module along with other SAP modules, we were able to procure it at a slightly better price than usual. I would rate their pricing 5/5 stars."

"I think the pricing is a little better than most solutions out there. There are reasonable prices when it comes to some of the modules such as the Payroll module, and for the remaining modules I believe the pricing is fair in comparison to the rest of the market."

"Probably, it is one of the priciest products, and is very costly to put up and maintain but because it is a good solution end to end, people take it."

"For SAP, the product is pricey, both CAPEX and the OPEX. It's something that could be improved."

"The pricing for SuccessFactors is ridiculously high, and there are costs in addition to the license fee for some features."

"I don't want to comment on the license cost, to be honest. It could be about $1,000 approximately per customer. However, it's very flexible in terms of the licensing costs depending on the volume and depending on the deal of installation."

"We are on an annual subscription to use SAP SuccessFactors. The pricing model is something that they could restructure a bit better. If it was based differently on the type of usage it would help."

More SAP SuccessFactors pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

15%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	69

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Ceridian Dayforce HCM?

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Ceridian Dayforce HCM?

The Learning Module add-on to Dayforce HCM was relatively inexpensive per user compared to other LMS’s.

See all answers

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 customization to suit the purpose." SAP: Multiple functionalities that increase process effi...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

How easy is to maintain Workday, Oracle Cloud, and SuccessFactors?

I implemented Workday in 2024 and without having previous Workday experience, it was very challenging. I spent most of 2025 putting out fires and cleaning up the business processes that came with l...

See all answers

Comparisons

Workday vs Dayforce HCM

Compared 19% of the time

UKG vs Dayforce HCM

Compared 14% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs Dayforce HCM

Compared 7% of the time

ADP Workforce Now vs Dayforce HCM

Compared 5% of the time

PeopleSoft vs Dayforce HCM

Compared 4% of the time

More Dayforce HCM Competitors

Workday vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 21% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 15% of the time

SAP HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 6% of the time

Awardco vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 6% of the time

Eightfold Talent Intelligence Platform vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 1% of the time

More SAP SuccessFactors Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Dayforce HCM

April 2026

Download Dayforce HCM product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP SuccessFactors

April 2026

Download SAP SuccessFactors product report

Also Known As

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal

SuccessFactors

Overview

Dayforce HCM offers an integrated platform that combines timekeeping, payroll, and benefits management, enhancing HR operations with mobile access and transparent pay details across North America.

Dayforce HCM delivers comprehensive HR, payroll, and talent management tools within a cloud-based solution. It simplifies ACA, FMLA, and COBRA compliance while providing mobile and web access to payroll information. Its reporting capabilities are robust, and it features intuitive content management. The platform enhances efficiency with integrated time and attendance management, meeting payroll needs across Canada and the US. However, areas for improvement include retro pay calculations, user-friendliness, reporting, and customer service. Users also highlight the need for advancements in the Recruiting module, calendar integration, custom forms, and addressing import glitches and additional feature costs.

What are the key features?

Integrated Timekeeping: Streamlines payroll by eliminating manual entries.
Benefits Module: Simplifies management of ACA, FMLA, and COBRA.
Mobile and Web Access: Provides transparency in pay details.
Time and Attendance Integration: Boosts administrative efficiency.
Comprehensive Suite: Reduces reliance on multiple software for HR, payroll, and talent management.

Which benefits and ROI should users consider?

Streamlined Payroll: Efficient for companies operating in Canada and the US.
Robust Reporting: Enhances decision-making with comprehensive data analytics.
Intuitive Content Management: Simplifies HR management processes.

Organizations use Dayforce HCM for managing payroll, benefits administration, recruiting, and performance management, integrating HR functionalities on a cloud platform. Industries appreciate its ability to manage HR tasks efficiently, providing analytics and mobile features essential for handling HR processes and reporting.

Dayforce

SAP SuccessFactors is an AI-powered, cloud-based HR suite supporting over 100 countries, providing real-time insights and integrated solutions across core HR, payroll, talent, learning, analytics, and employee experience.

Trusted by over 10,000 organizations, SAP SuccessFactors elevates people processes, decisions, and experiences by empowering employees. It offers AI-driven tools enhancing self-service, learning, performance, and development, unifying people and skills data to align talents with business goals. The platform ensures compliance with legal updates and speeds up results using HR best practices and a robust partner network. Its modular design, seamless integration, and mobile access stand out, supporting global accessibility and talent management. Role-based permissions and automated compliance offer flexibility and security, catering to diverse industries.

What are the most important features of SAP SuccessFactors?

Performance and Goal Management: Facilitates setting and tracking employee objectives.
Employee Lifecycle Management: Streamlines employee processes from recruitment to exit.
Learning Management: Promotes continuous learning and development.
Real-Time Reporting: Provides instant insights into HR data.

What benefits should users look for in SAP SuccessFactors reviews?

Increased Productivity: AI-driven tools enhance workforce agility.
Talent Alignment: Unifying skills data aligns workforce with business priorities.
Compliance Assurance: Regular updates ensure legal and regulatory adherence.
Global Accessibility: Cloud-based platform supports cross-geography management.

Organizations implement SAP SuccessFactors for Performance Management, Talent Acquisition, Learning, and HR core functions, streamlining recruitment, onboarding, records management, goal setting, and performance evaluation. It extends to time management, compensation, and talent development, integrating across geographies for centralized data management, reporting, and analytics, enhancing HR operations and employee engagement.

SAP

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, Skril

Buyer's Guide

Dayforce HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors

April 2026

Free Report: Dayforce HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors

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