Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Paylocity vs SAP SuccessFactors HCM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 10, 2025

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

Paylocity
Ranking in Cloud HCM
31st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (26th), Talent Management (46th)
SAP SuccessFactors HCM
Ranking in Cloud HCM
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

RP
Has a comprehensive and intuitive knowledge base, and time saving payroll administration features
Paylocity is not great at communicating customer support related issues such as account manager changes. They claim to provide concierge level of support, but it has not been great. Some of the Paylocity systems are limited. For example, I can't create custom offer letters. I can create generic offer letters with a logo, but I can't edit them or create sections. It does not read like a MS Word document and needs to be more robust. At present, I can't send attachments, add hyperlinks to videos, or embed questions in videos. Also, the number of notifications regarding benefits needs to be increased so that new employees get reminders more than once.
ManujGupta - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined HR and enhanced user engagement with comprehensive insights and seamless mobile access
The reporting part is quite weak in SAP SuccessFactors HCM because the drill-down capabilities are not what a customer wants compared to what it offers. The dashboard is fine but comes with limitations, especially when combining two or three modules. Employees need to improve their usage of SAP SuccessFactors employee experience management tools, as they largely use it only for leave and attendance functions, desiring more functionality such as downloading their salary slip or seeing full-year tax calculations. The employee app lacks functionalities and needs tremendous improvement across engagement, news boards, and AI. Personalization is not prevalent in AI tools provided, which complicates integration because customers often request combining various systems into one reporting target.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"My favorite feature is payroll administration, which has been awesome. You can import as many batches as you want to and run them synchronously or asynchronously. Since I work in a finance company with commissions, bonuses, and distribution, it's great to be able to do that. I can upload multiple things. Also, I can upload different sets of commission lists into the same payroll batch and upload the time card imports and overtime imports if I want to and separate them. I can create multiple batches around an individual or one one set of audit backing, and then I can approve them or leave them open. The way that Paylocity has set up their payroll system is really good and saves us a lot of time. It's very specific and helpful."
"The employee experience management tools have had a very positive impact on employee satisfaction and well-being within our organization."
"The SAP SuccessFactors HCM tool is a fantastic platform to work with, offering end-to-end employee lifecycle coverage."
"The feature I appreciate the most about this solution is the integration with SAP S/4HANA system."
"SAP SuccessFactors HCM has positively impacted my customer's environment by ensuring they are digital; we promote using DocuSign for document signing and ensuring effective onboarding, and post-implementation we provide hyper-care and digital adoption reports after six months or a year to show how much more paperless and workflow-enabled their organization has become after SAP SuccessFactors HCM implementation."
 

Cons

"Some of the Paylocity systems are limited. For example, I can't create custom offer letters. I can create generic offer letters with a logo, but I can't edit them or create sections. It does not read like a MS Word document and needs to be more robust."
"The pricing of the solution is very high concerning pricing, setup cost, and licensing of this tool."
"The SAP SuccessFactors HCM has room for improvement in terms of product development nimbleness. Additionally, the speed of the application platform occasionally reduces, primarily due to data center related issues."
"The main area for improvement would be implementing a better pricing model. It is expensive, and with people discussing Workday more frequently, SAP needs to compete by becoming more free-flowing and dynamic compared to traditional SAP systems."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud HCM solutions are best for your needs.
870,701 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Construction Company
11%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP SuccessFactors HCM?
The pricing of the solution is very high concerning pricing, setup cost, and licensing of this tool.
What needs improvement with SAP SuccessFactors HCM?
The area of SAP SuccessFactors HCM that has room for improvement is the user interface. We are using performance management and the performance goals module, and its analytics features need to be i...
What is your primary use case for SAP SuccessFactors HCM?
I work with SAP tools, IBM, HP, Microsoft, as we are working with SAP and Microsoft tools. We work with SAP S/4HANA, SAP BW, SAP TDS, SAP IBP, and SuccessFactors, specifically with solutions such a...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

POLYWOOD, University Clinical Healthcare, New England Authentic Eats, Revere Plastics, Stonewall Kitchen, Circuit Transit, Powerhouse Retail, Mountainside Fitness, Crafton Tull, Noble House Hotels & Resorts, Gurley Leep Automotive, Taco Johns
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP, Workday, Oracle and others in Cloud HCM. Updated: September 2025.
870,701 professionals have used our research since 2012.