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PeopleSoft 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Organizations achieved 100% ROI with PeopleSoft due to early implementation and low costs, unlike Oracle and SAP.
Sentiment score
5.3
SAP SuccessFactors offers process automation and flexibility but has high licensing costs and varied ROI perceptions over time.
Sentiment score
7.3
Workday boosts employee engagement, saves 40% time, enhances interaction, and positively impacts ROI with reasonable pricing and streamlined processes.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.7
PeopleSoft's customer service is satisfactory but criticized for slow responses, mixed technical support, and limited custom solution support.
Sentiment score
6.2
SAP SuccessFactors support receives mixed reviews; effectiveness varies by model, with premium services praised and responsiveness needing improvement.
Sentiment score
6.9
Workday customer service is responsive and knowledgeable but desires improvements in response times and regional expertise, especially for Koreans.
If a customer designs custom applications and encounters issues, PeopleSoft will not provide service for those custom applications.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
PeopleSoft is scalable, seamlessly integrates new features, and adapts to organizational growth while maintaining performance across diverse business processes.
Sentiment score
7.8
SAP SuccessFactors scales efficiently for global growth but requires careful module selection to optimize performance across various users.
Sentiment score
7.9
Workday's cloud-based, flexible, scalable system supports diverse roles, excelling in growing medium to large enterprises efficiently.
This rating reflects the limitation that custom applications do not receive support.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
PeopleSoft is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues and strong user confidence despite occasional peak usage challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
SAP SuccessFactors is stable but experiences occasional challenges, including integration issues and performance problems, varying by region.
Sentiment score
8.1
Workday is generally stable and reliable, with occasional minor issues like slowness or login disruptions, rated highly by users.
Small issues take maximum one to two hours to resolve, while major issues take up to 12 hours.
I hardly ever encounter any stability issues, as SAP SuccessFactors is very good and stable.
 

Room For Improvement

PeopleSoft needs improvements in mobile functionality, user interface, performance, scalability, technical support, and user experience to rival modern platforms.
SAP SuccessFactors needs better integration, analytics, customization, streamlined management, and enhanced user experience to improve adoption and functionality.
Workday struggles with data integration, user interface inflexibility, and limited mobile utility, affecting user experience and international functionality.
Professionals are transitioning due to challenges in availability, scalability, and resource allocation.
The change management process during the initial launch was not effectively handled, leading to a poor user experience.
Advisories can only be placed at the bottom, which is less effective as employees may not scroll down to see them.
The ease of use is notable because seeing all the videos and demos, the user interface is quite simple to use.
 

Setup Cost

PeopleSoft pricing is costly, especially in HCM, requiring negotiation and expert management for flexible licensing and quality benefits.
SAP SuccessFactors' pricing varies by users and modules, with higher costs but valued for its business impact.
Workday's pricing is high, based on headcount and modules, offering value in reduced HR complexities and integration.
The licensing costs are quite high, which is a typical scenario for such solutions.
 

Valuable Features

PeopleSoft excels in customization, integration, and functionality; offering adaptability, efficient enterprise management, and robust analytics with minimal coding needed.
SAP SuccessFactors offers comprehensive HR management with scalability, user-friendly interface, and robust integration, enhancing performance and decision-making.
Workday excels with its intuitive interface, powerful integrations, customizable functions, and strong security, enhancing HR efficiency and reducing costs.
It aids me from an auditing perspective, as it's all system-driven, and cannot be altered.
It provides the easiest way to integrate with third-party applications for data exchange between systems.
Employees can view their goals, performance, ratings, and employee information, which enhances the employee experience.
SAP SuccessFactors has advantages in providing AI-driven initiatives such as candidate screening and matching features within the recruitment module.
What I appreciate best about Workday is the recruiting component.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Talent Management category, the mindshare of PeopleSoft is 5.9%, down from 8.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 19.9%, up from 19.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Workday is 17.9%, up from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Talent Management
 

Q&A Highlights

SS
Feb 04, 2020
 

Featured Reviews

UshaKatyal - PeerSpot reviewer
A mature solution that needs right implementation
I think PeopleSoft HR is pretty good and very mature. The people who built PeopleSoft now work on Workday. Workday has asked me to join them as an employee a few times, but I don't take anyone's employment because Workday isn't very user-friendly. With PeopleSoft, you can do a lot. Oracle now bundles PeopleSoft and calls it Oracle Cloud, but the programs are the same. Recruiters often don't know this and say you're not qualified if you don't have Oracle Cloud experience. However, Oracle has just put PeopleSoft in the cloud and packaged it as Oracle Cloud. Overall, if the solution is implemented correctly, it runs very smoothly. I think people shouldn't customize it. They should use it as is and try to adapt to it. Many people didn't understand PeopleSoft at first. For example, during COVID, some companies hired offshore people who didn't know what they were doing and messed everything up. You need to know the rules and regulations of the country where you're implementing the tool because every country has different rules for HR, benefits, and payroll. Canadian payroll differs from US payroll, but they're on the same platform in the solution. It's a very mature system, but people prefer newer options like Oracle Cloud. I was also involved with SAP S/4HANA. I don't think it's good for the government sector because government workers are a bit lazy about technical things. I understand S/4HANA because I have a technical background. It has a different structure, while PeopleSoft has more of a file and table structure, which is easier. If the tables are set up wrong, things go wrong. But if you know how to set it up correctly, it runs smoothly, and you can adjust it if needed. The problem is that companies are hiring big consulting firms that want money. They hire offshore people who don't know the country's rules and do programming. If you buy a package and still have to do custom programming, why buy the package at all? These days, I'm doing a lot of business process reengineering for people because they don't know how to implement it correctly. If you implement it right, you can reduce manual work. However, it depends on change management and how senior management handles it. It works fine if you implement the tool on-site or hybrid, not cloud and do it correctly. But in a cloud situation, there are problems. Many countries change their payroll and benefits rules often. With the cloud, you can't easily change things. You have to ask the company to make changes, which costs much money. People who don't want an IT department go for the cloud. But I've seen many companies fail with the cloud. The cloud is just everything packaged together. Your data sits in someone else's cloud, and you must accept whatever they do. Payroll is very sensitive. If payroll is wrong, the whole company suffers. I've worked on the financial and school sides, too. I'm comfortable with the tool if it's implemented correctly. But many companies don't implement it right, which is why they might say it is too much. I did a big project for an oil and gas company. I was a program control manager with 51 people under me. We used Oracle, but Oracle isn't as good as PeopleSoft for payroll. If the solution is implemented correctly, it's fine. But you need the right implementer. Big consulting firms often give wrong information and use inexperienced people. For maintenance, PeopleSoft sends updated rules to new tables at year-end. You compile the new tables and start the new year. But you need to know which changes apply to your country. I talk to many senior PeopleSoft people and always get LinkedIn messages about business opportunities. I now help about 50 clients when they have problems, but I'm not traveling. If you know the HR and payroll business well, you can implement anything - PeopleSoft, Oracle, or S/4HANA. I've done all of these. S/4HANA is more complicated and technical. It's similar to an old software called IDMS. You have to be very technical, and if you don't do it right, it won't work. I rate the overall solution a seven out of ten.
SandeepKumar7 - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful to manage employee life cycle management but is not very easy to implement
There are quite a few things, like goal management, in terms of transferring goals from manager to subordinates, which is probably not one of the best ways to look at SAP SuccessFactors, making it an area that could have been done better. Route management and template management are pretty good areas. The reporting in the tool is not as great as I would want it to be from a PMGM internal management perspective. I just hope that SAP SuccessFactors comes up with a payroll tool that suits India. I don't see it as one of the best tools for the Indian scenario. I would love to see much better document management in the system, like onboarding. Onboarding has document management, but if I want to report through it, there is not much that I can do about it. DMS in SAP would be great since, in most places, DMS is maintained outside the system. I would have loved to see better DMS in SAP SuccessFactors. In terms of the reporting, I understand that since everything is moving to SAP SAC. Even without SAP SAC, it would be great if we could have better analytics within SAP SuccessFactors.
Sarvesh Kumar Jha - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to use and provides great flexibility and security
Implementing the solution is generally not easy because it depends on our client's landscape. In the last one and a half years, Workday has started a new implementation approach called launch implementation. This approach allows you, as a client organization, to implement Workday in a shorter amount of time, given that you fulfill certain criteria. It depends on the number of subsidiaries and employees you have and their compensation structure. If it's not too complex, Workday provides its clients with this new approach called launch, where they can quickly onboard with the Workday without many complex requirements. The general implementation for Fortune 500 companies is always complex.
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Answers from the Community

SS
Feb 4, 2020
Feb 4, 2020
Check out our comparison page of Workday vs PeopleSoft vs SAP SuccessFactors: https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/comparisons/peoplesoft_vs_sap-successfactors_vs_workday
2 out of 5 answers
RA
Feb 2, 2020
Check out our comparison page of Workday vs PeopleSoft vs SAP SuccessFactors: https://www.itcentralstation.com/products/comparisons/peoplesoft_vs_sap-successfactors_vs_workday
US
Feb 3, 2020
Workday is excellent for global implementations where you want to have employees from different geographies on the same HCM platform. Workday gives you the comfort of end to end global implementation on the same platform. SAP SuccessFactors has strength in PMS and learning. India payroll is not so strong. PeopleSoft (Oracle HCM) has strength in core HR data management, time and attendance, and recruitment, but their learning module is quite average. I’m sharing my experience based on the evaluation I had conducted two years back.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Educational Organization
35%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
16%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What are the differences between Oracle HCM Cloud and PeopleSoft?
Although both are solutions to manage HR, their differences make each one suitable for different companies. Oracle C...
What do you like most about PeopleSoft?
I use the reporting feature occasionally to check for potential improvements in timesheets. We have integrated it wit...
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?
If you want to add more features to your subscription, Workday becomes expensive.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
SuccessFactors
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

BMI Healthcare, Lone Star College System, Jefferson County Public Schools, Griffith University, Los Rios Community College District, Tervita Corporation, INFRA S.A. de C.V., ICF Habitat, Central Washington University, Tech Mahindra Limited, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Stanford Childrens Health
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 Workday, SAP, Oracle and others in Talent Management. Updated: May 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.