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Dayforce HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Dayforce HCM is 2.6%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 10.4%, down from 21.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 10.5%, down from 18.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP SuccessFactors10.4%
Workday10.5%
Dayforce HCM2.6%
Other76.5%
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.
Eslam Abo Elnaga - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior people and systems analyst at B_labs & Mylo
Has improved HR process efficiency through intuitive workflows and responsive support
There is something that could be improved in Workday, specifically in the time tracking module. While I am not working on Workday now, I was a regional HRIS working for Egypt, Malta, India, and China. I mention these countries to relate to high population countries and companies. In our company, we use assigned work schedules for our teams. Because we work with the time tracking module, we need to assign shifts. In the manufacturing industry, we might need to change shifts every day or week. Manufacturing teams are huge, approximately 50 to 200 people in one team. If this team has one leader, the leader needs to assign a work schedule for each person individually. While there is mass upload functionality where we can load shifts for all people or specific groups, we need to select multiple people and assign them to a schedule from the interface itself. I have requested this functionality many times. When extracting business processes awaiting actions report, I can select different processes in one box, hit okay, and the report comes up. However, the same functionality does not work for work schedule assigning. If implemented, it would help many people in companies with high populations and big teams.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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."
"The solution's payroll portion is very streamlined."
"Dayforce has transformed how we operate by saving us time, paper, accuracy, money, and the employee/supervisor experience."
"Great time and attendance payroll and benefits administration which has improved our efficiency."
"We used the solution to do a lot of performance management during the review cycle and it helped us alleviate the administrative burden."
"The tool has a unique talent management platform."
"The best features that were working well for us was the Goal Management and Performance Management. They were the most valuable to our organization."
"SF Learning is a key element in making SF a tool with added value for the entire organization."
"SuccessFactors' most valuable feature is performance management."
"I think the advice I'd give is that it's a nice solution."
"SAP SuccessFactors is a very reliable and stable solution."
"The most valuable feature of SAP SuccessFactors is analytics."
"It's a uniform user interface."
"What I appreciate best about Workday is the recruiting component."
"It is a one-stop solution for everything. You can look for information about other employees or you can track your information. There is a directory, so you can search for other employees. You can also see and track your personal details and salary details on the employee profile page."
"Workday is highly intuitive from a customer experience perspective, and it was effortless for us to understand what to do even though we didn't have any related training, making it easy to use without guidance."
"Performance and good usability are the two most valuable features of this solution."
"It is a leading talent management tool, and it has got the largest market share."
"It was more efficient for the agents for their performance reviews, but when it came to HR and the recruitment team, it sometimes worked, and sometimes, it didn't work."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the usability, learning, and compliance tools."
"The interface of Workday is superior; it is easy and clear, everything is organized effectively, and I enjoy using Workday extensively."
 

Cons

"Dayforce has its gaps like every HR system, but nothing comes to mind at the moment."
"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."
"The solution's dashboards and geofencing could be improved."
"One area to be improved is the solution's reporting function, which can be cumbersome."
"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."
"The solution's initial setup was difficult. Also, the solution's initial deployment took around six months."
"User experience for this solution needs to be improved."
"One area of improvement is the time taken to configure changes, such as taxation rules, which can take several months."
"One area for improvement is making SuccessFactors more compatible with other countries, especially in terms of payroll and other functionalities."
"Be prepared for price surprises. It’s quite expensive."
"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."
"We had stability issues very often during the end of the year and after updates."
"Integration between Employee Central and Compensation in SAP SuccessFactors is one area of the solution that has room for improvement."
"LMS, Learning Management Systems, needs improvement because there were some stability problems."
"The UI, UX (user experience) is very bad. It is not very interactive."
"There is so much information floating around Workday that it becomes overwhelming to digest all of it."
"The solution can be improved by speeding up the load time when pulling up information."
"The user interface could be modernized somehow."
"In a future release we could like to have access to asset, supply and treasury management functionalities."
"For time management, it does not have a calendar generator. For example, if you want to have a shift calendar for an entire year, you need to push the entire year's calendar into the system instead of being able to generate it using a time management pattern."
"There is a lot of complexity in the configuration of this solution."
"The security console should be made less complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"Negotiate for everything you want."
"Ceridian continually enhances Dayforce HCM. Some of these enhancements they charge for and some are just straight enhancements with no extra charge."
"We paid for the implementation costs in the first year with the money that we saved by switching to Dayforce HCM."
"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."
"We found the setup costs and pricing to be very reasonable."
"The pricing for SuccessFactors is ridiculously high, and there are costs in addition to the license fee for some features."
"It is not cheap, but it is reasonable."
"So now, SAP charges me 300 Euros for 14,000 employees. I still have to pay 2,000 euros because I'm using SAP on-prem."
"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."
"It is not expensive because it is a complete suite with a module-based cost."
"We have a yearly license. There are no additional costs."
"The price of the solution depends on too many factors to provide an estimate. However, the price of SAP SuccessFactors is competitive."
"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 pricing for this solution is fairly high. It is not affordable for small and mid-sized companies."
"It's very, very expensive."
"I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten."
"I need to pay for a license. It is expensive."
"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."
"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten."
"You have the license fee per module, and then you have a kind of annual training fee, which is a kind of add-on. I wouldn't say it is exhaustive; it is minor. Licensing is pretty transparent for most of the part."
"Its price is pretty high. It is more expensive than what is offered by other competitors in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
University
8%
Healthcare 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 Enterprise69
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise42
 

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 sea...
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 actuall...
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 customizatio...
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 expe...
What do you like most about SAP SuccessFactors?
The tool is easy to use for performance management. We haven't experienced any issues with SAP SuccessFactors for per...
What do you like most about Workday?
I like its UI and UX. When we were using Oracle or SAP, the UI/UX wasn't very user-friendly for the employees.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Workday?
If you go with the launch implementation approach, the solution is generally not very expensive. If you want to add m...
What needs improvement with Workday?
Workday could improve its custom reporting for beginners. While it is very powerful, creating complex reports has a s...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal
SuccessFactors
No data available
 

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
AAA, Allied Global, Avago Technologies Limited, Aviva, Cardinal Health, CareFusion, Chiquita Brands International, Equifax, Flextronics, HP, Life Time Fitness, McKee Foods, MGM Resorts International, Sanofi, ServiceSource International, Symantec, TripAdvisor, Yahoo!
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Workday, Oracle and others in Cloud HCM. Updated: March 2026.
885,444 professionals have used our research since 2012.