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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 (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
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP SuccessFactors9.0%
Dayforce HCM2.6%
Other88.4%
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

"Reporting I can pull anything out of Dayforce."
"Ceridian Dayforce HCM is a stable product."
"It provides real-time information with great reports."
"The initial setup is easy."
"We used the solution to do a lot of performance management during the review cycle and it helped us alleviate the administrative burden."
"The implementation was through a team assigned to us by Ceridian. They were extremely knowledgeable and it made the implementation go very smoothly."
"The tool has improved a lot in the area of its mobile application, especially considering its added security features, like single sign-on capabilities."
"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."
"I think the advice I'd give is that it's a nice solution."
"We found SAP SuccessFactors to be more promising with reference to functionality and from an implementation perspective."
"What I like most about SAP SuccessFactors are its recruiting and compensation features."
"SAP SuccessFactors is 100 percent reliable and one of the biggest in the market."
"SAP SuccessFactors, in my opinion, is the best cloud-based HR solution tool for any size business."
"From a user perspective, everything is straightforward; after login, we can easily navigate to any of the pages we need, and the organization structure, salary details, and training records are all available as drop-downs on the home page."
"SAP SuccessFactors is a very reliable and stable solution."
"The self-service part is most valuable. Employees and managers can do a lot of things on their own, and they are not dependent on the HR organization."
 

Cons

"Many things are presented as though they will be included with the system but then require costly upgrades."
"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."
"Management and reporting of the GL costing could be improved."
"The solution has a lot of glitches."
"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."
"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."
"Dayforce has its gaps like every HR system, but nothing comes to mind at the moment."
"I would like to see more built-in forms. This would save a lot of time during the year-end process."
"What needs to be improved in this product is the user experience."
"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."
"We have many interruptions and disconnection points into processes, which is why we are looking to another solution. We are not so happy with the system. We believe we have in the market better solution, so we are looking for alternatives but so far the system has been used a lot."
"The organization is planning to move to Darwinbox from SAP SuccessFactors, primarily due to pricing considerations."
"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."
"One area for improvement is making SuccessFactors more compatible with other countries, especially in terms of payroll and other functionalities."
"I would like to be able to configure objects from instances, not from import and export files."
"There is an area of improvement in integrating SuccessFactors with different platforms."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"We found the setup costs and pricing to be very reasonable."
"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."
"For SAP, the product is pricey, both CAPEX and the OPEX. It's something that could be improved."
"We have a yearly license. There are no additional costs."
"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."
"The price of the solution depends on too many factors to provide an estimate. However, the price of SAP SuccessFactors is competitive."
"It is not cheap, but it is reasonable."
"The cost of SAP SuccessFactors is reasonable."
"The solution is on the expensive side but is definitely worth the money."
"The product is expensive. The product is worth the money you pay for it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Construction Company
5%
 

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...
 

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: May 2026.
895,891 professionals have used our research since 2012.