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Dayforce HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors 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
18th
Ranking in Cloud HCM
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Talent Intelligence (2nd)
SAP SuccessFactors
Ranking in Talent Management
1st
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (1st), Global Payroll (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Dayforce HCM is 2.5%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 8.5%, down from 20.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP SuccessFactors8.5%
Dayforce HCM2.5%
Other89.0%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

TracyBritan - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
SS
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.

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."
"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."
"Reporting I can pull anything out of Dayforce."
"The tool has improved a lot in the area of its mobile application, especially considering its added security features, like single sign-on capabilities."
"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."
"Ceridian Dayforce HCM is a stable product."
"Dayforce has transformed how we operate by saving us time, paper, accuracy, money, and the employee/supervisor experience."
"Statutory holiday pay is calculated automatically."
"What I like the most is the KPI management formula."
"SuccessFactors is a great product, offering a lot of flexibility, customization, integration and disintegration points as well, which are the most preferred requirements in an optimized solution so you should take a look."
"The interface is really useful and it's very easy to combine different information, for example, we can easily get reports that we need and it's very easy to create reports."
"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."
"The tool's most valuable feature is document generation."
"We can design a quick and dirty solution or very complex services, we can manage small enterprise projects (in our experience 150 users) as the big organization (in our experience 40000 users), all with the same solution, and this is a big saving of time, costs, and team usage optimization."
"Considering the flexibility of the system and its ability to accommodate complex business processes, the product is ready to be used in multiple industries."
"Allow me to highlight that we went live for eight countries in scope for the Payroll HCM, and also went live for more than 12 countries in terms of SuccessFactors employee data."
 

Cons

"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."
"The reporting could be improved."
"One area to be improved is the solution's reporting function, which can be cumbersome."
"The solution's dashboards and geofencing could be improved."
"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."
"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 the solution to improve its customer service communication."
"The solution has a lot of glitches."
"SAP SuccessFactors needs to improve the LMS and performance management."
"Visual representations, in the form of graphs and charts, can be added. This is beneficial for both management and employees. Upon accessing the system, they should generate graphical representations on their dashboard. These visuals illustrate aspects such as company-wide training progress and current company training status. The information encompasses both company-related data and personal profiles. This approach makes it convenient to grasp the company's profile along with individual information."
"SuccessFactors' experience management is not so user-friendly."
"There's room for improvement in SAP SuccessFactors, particularly in terms of innovation. I'd like more flexibility in its functionality and more customization. In terms of what additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the product, it depends on the module because you have various modules in SAP SuccessFactors, so it's easier to go module by module and understand what features you have in each module. The product has a lot of features coming up, but the product being more mobile, or having mobile features would be nice."
"SAP needs to add more power to its built-in analytics capability as part of the product."
"EC Payroll and Time Management should provide more functionalities and flexibility, there is still a big gap between the SAP HCM On Premise System and Employee Central."
"LMS, the admin tool, is quite complex and requires a lot of admin work."
"Be prepared for price surprises. It’s quite expensive."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Negotiate for everything you want."
"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 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."
"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."
"Earlier, the price of the product was reasonable. Under present circumstances, the price or cost of the product has been increased."
"I rate the solution's pricing a seven on a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive."
"We found the setup costs and pricing to be very reasonable."
"The product is expensive. The product is worth the money you pay for it."
"We don't utilize even half of the licenses because not everyone uses them. With SAP SuccessFactors, though, we're now conducting all our performance evaluations within the system, so I suppose we're making better use of those licenses. As for SAP for employee services and internal benefits processing, we do have licenses for those but don't utilize them."
"The cost of SAP SuccessFactors is reasonable."
"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."
"The pricing for SuccessFactors is ridiculously high, and there are costs in addition to the license fee for some features."
"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."
"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."
"It is not expensive because it is a complete suite with a module-based cost."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Construction Company
6%
 

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 Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise70
 

Questions from the Community

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 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.
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...
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...
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal
SuccessFactors
 

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, Skril
Find out what your peers are saying about Dayforce HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.