Dayforce HCM vs Workday comparison

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Dayforce HCM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Workday and Dayforce compete in the human capital management (HCM) software category, with Workday having an edge due to its strong integration tools and comprehensive data management.

Features: Workday offers a consolidated system, making navigation seamless and integrating various processes efficiently. Key features include automation, a robust business process framework, and comprehensive reporting capabilities. On the other hand, Dayforce HCM excels in timekeeping and payroll efficiencies, providing real-time earnings review and robust employee engagement modules.

Room for Improvement: Workday faces challenges with global payroll integrations and a complex configuration process. Users also note limitations in customization and reliance on external support for report creation. Dayforce could improve by enhancing user-friendliness and simplifying reporting. Its dashboards need refinement, and geofencing capabilities require improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Workday facilitates deployments across various cloud environments such as public, private, and hybrid, though it might require technical support for custom configurations. A strong community support network allows for troubleshooting. Dayforce operates mainly in public and on-premises environments, with a highly responsive support team recognized for quick response times.

Pricing and ROI: Workday is considered a high-cost solution but offers justification through its rich modules and integration capabilities, providing ROI via streamlined processes. Pricing is based on headcount and licensed modules, often positioning it as a premium option. Dayforce provides a more affordable alternative with lower implementation and ownership costs. Subscription fees and additional charges might be excessive for smaller companies, although the solution balances these costs with functional benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Dayforce HCM vs. Workday Report (Updated: May 2026).

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Dayforce HCM vs. Workday

May 2026

Helped 899,125 peers since 2012

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 (2nd)

Workday

Ranking in Talent Management

2nd

Ranking in Cloud HCM

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (1st), Talent Acquisition (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 Workday is 8.6%, down from 18.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Workday	8.6%
Dayforce HCM	2.5%
Other	88.9%

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

Eslam Abo Elnaga

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.

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

"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."

"Statutory holiday pay is calculated automatically."

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

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

"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."

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

"We have been able to automate many of our manual processes."

"Configuring your HR policies and rules is straightforward."

More Dayforce HCM pros

"I'm happy with the features Workday offers. But in particular, Core HCM is the best."

"The technical support services are excellent."

"It helps the users to enroll for the benefits automatically and update their life events without the involvement of HR individuals or back-office staff. It enables a person to take action on their own. It reduces the administrative burden on HR and puts the ownership on the person that is going through the life event, whether it is having a child, taking a leave of absence, or something else. There are easy ways to integrate Workday with your common benefits. At least in the USA, it can be integrated with common benefits providers such as Fidelity, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, etc. It has got a connector that is able to connect with the vendor or the third party to which you are trying to send the eligibility file. It basically allows us to automate or set up the tool, and the integration with the provider is a lot quicker than competing tools. When it comes to reporting on just eligibility and SLSA, it is a lot more user-intuitive. Depending on the purpose of what you are doing, you can grant security rights or roles, for example, you can control whether someone is a benefits administrator doing an independent audit. Workday makes it very easy to do that. It significantly simplifies the reporting process."

"Overall, this solution provides a good user experience and is very easy to use."

"It is fairly easy to set up"

"Performance and good usability are the two most valuable features of this solution."

"In the process of obtaining representative sites in NaviNet, it assists us in facilitating decision-making and taking action."

"With this solution, it's really nice; all of the learning content is there, it's much easier to consume, and I don't feel like I'm jumping around between different platforms."

More Workday pros

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 solution has a lot of glitches."

"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 product they sell you is not the end product. Many things are presented as though they will be included with the system but then require costly upgrades."

"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."

"Customizing the home screen was difficult; I could not remove certain tabs that were irrelevant to our users."

"The reporting could be improved."

"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."

More Dayforce HCM cons

"They could improve the product areas such as enhancing the interview scheduling module to support more flexible online assessments within the platform."

"Reporting systems should be improved. If you want to report it on paper, if you want something more BI oriented, more high level predictive or more data-driven, it should be improved."

"Workday is an expensive solution."

"Payroll integration is terrible. It has a lot of limitations."

"It is good that much of the development is based on community input but often that can lead to details being ignored and small, nagging issues are ignored."

"There were a lot of issues. There were consistency or accuracy issues with the data we had, and every time we had to pull reports in Workday, it was difficult."

"The cost of Workday is certainly not inexpensive. It's very pricey."

"I would really like to see a more robust timekeeping solution in Workday. Currently, most organizations are using Kronos for timekeeping and Workday for HR data. They then integrate Workday with Dimensions to manage time-related activities and payroll processing."

More Workday cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"With a bigger budget, I would recommend SAP."

"The pricing for this solution is fairly high. It is not affordable for small and mid-sized companies."

"Workday is an expensive solution."

"I need to pay for a license. It is expensive."

"It is on a yearly basis."

"Its price is pretty high. It is more expensive than what is offered by other competitors in the market."

"It has an annual subscription rate, but I'm not sure how it will work."

"By and large, Workday is expensive. It is based on the headcount. I'd probably rate it a three or four out of five in terms of pricing. It'd be like buying a Mercedes or a high-end car. It's expensive, but there's a specific value that you're getting with additional features and things of that nature. Using that metaphor, Workday probably tends to be more of a luxury. There are others like ADP that can do your payroll, your time off, and other things, but they don't do it as well."

More Workday pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud HCM solutions are best for your needs.

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899,125 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

University

Healthcare 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	17
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	43

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Ceridian Dayforce HCM?

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...

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...

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 more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive. The solution is fl...

SAP SuccessFactors vs Dayforce HCM

Comparisons

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Compared 8% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs Dayforce HCM

Compared 8% 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

SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday

Compared 22% of the time

UKG vs Workday

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs Workday

Compared 6% of the time

SAP HCM vs Workday

Compared 6% of the time

PeopleSoft vs Workday

Compared 3% of the time

More Workday Competitors

Product Reports

Download Dayforce HCM product report

Dayforce HCM

June 2026

Download Workday product report

May 2026

Also Known As

Ceridian Dayforce HCM, Ascender Talent Management, Ceridian Ideal

No data available

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

Workday provides a cloud-based platform offering robust human capital management features, emphasizing security, user-friendliness, and operational efficiency through workflow automation.

Workday is utilized by organizations for human capital management, supporting everything from employee recruitment to retirement, payroll processing, and performance tracking. It centralizes HR operations to increase efficiency and manage employee data effectively. Its business process framework allows for drag-and-drop functionality, which along with real-time reporting, enriches the user experience. Workday's modules cover talent, compensation, benefits, and learning, enhancing the workforce management approach. Though integration with external systems can be complex, its usability and flexible configuration support adaptability. Users seek enhancements in customization, reporting, interface usability, and speed, particularly in financial, timekeeping, and payroll modules. Expanding automation, API connectors, language support, and introducing country and industry-specific modules would significantly boost its capabilities. Pricing remains a concern among users.

What are Workday's most important features?

Security: Ensures data protection with robust measures.
User-Friendliness: Intuitive design for ease of use.
Centralized Data Management: Consolidates employee information in one platform.
Real-Time Reporting: Delivers up-to-the-minute insights for decision-making.
Workflow Automation: Streamlines processes to reduce manual tasks.

What benefits should be evaluated when considering Workday?

Operational Efficiency: Automation streamlines HR processes and reduces redundancies.
Enhanced Usability: Integrated modules improve user interaction and efficiency.
Scalability: Adaptable configurations meet diverse business requirements.
Integration Capabilities: Connections with other systems bolster functionality.

Workday is implemented in a range of industries, including finance, healthcare, and technology, offering specialized HR management solutions tailored to each sector's unique requirements. These implementations improve workforce management and align HR strategies with organizational goals, showcasing its adaptability across different business landscapes.

Sample Customers

ACCO Brands

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!