SAP SuccessFactors vs Sage People comparison

Sage and SAP are both solutions in the Cloud HCM category. Sage is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.6, while SAP is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.7. Sage holds a 0.6% mindshare in CHCM, compared to SAP’s 21.2% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of Sage users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SAP users who would recommend it.

Sage People

Read 15 Sage People reviews

438 Views
215 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

SAP SuccessFactors

Read 95 SAP SuccessFactors reviews

10,317 Views
7,306 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Sage People

SAP SuccessFactors

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

SAP SuccessFactors and Sage People compete in the Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS) market. SAP SuccessFactors seems to have the upper hand in enterprise functionality with its AI integration, while Sage People offers robust reporting and flexible pricing favorable for mid-sized enterprises.

Features: SAP SuccessFactors offers comprehensive coverage of the employee lifecycle with modularity and integration capabilities. Its predictive analytics and AI enhance functionality for enterprises, and it integrates with third-party applications. Sage People provides customizable reporting, mobile access, and seamless financial system integration, focusing on data storage and reporting.

Room for Improvement: SAP SuccessFactors requires better analytics, integration, and role-based permissions systems, alongside more intuitive user experiences. Sage People could improve customization, stability, and performance management, with enhancements needed in automation capabilities and user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SAP SuccessFactors mainly operates on the public cloud, necessitating direct support for complex processes, with some users experiencing bureaucratic support. Sage People, on both public and private clouds, is regarded for efficient support, though speed could improve, experiencing fewer escalations than SAP SuccessFactors.

Pricing and ROI: SAP SuccessFactors is higher priced, suitable for large organizations, with user and module-based pricing offering potential ROI through HR process automation. Sage People offers flexible licensing as a more economical option for small to mid-sized enterprises, aligning with market standards for better ROI while streamlining HR functions.

To learn more, read our detailed SAP SuccessFactors vs. Sage People Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SAP SuccessFactors vs. Sage People

April 2025

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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

Sage People

Ranking in Talent Management

10th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

10th

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Benefits Administration (9th), HR Analytics Software (6th)

SAP SuccessFactors

Ranking in Talent Management

1st

Ranking in Cloud HCM

1st

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

2nd

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Global Payroll (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Sage People is 0.6%, down from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 21.2%, down from 22.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud HCM

Featured Reviews

Spencer Gray

People Advisor at Thomas International

Highly customizable, robust, and access to helpful online community

In my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms. While I understand that this system is not solely focused on performance management and is more of a generalist solution, it still lacks the capabilities and features that you can find in other specialized platforms. If we were to switch to a provider solely focused on performance management, we would have access to a wider range of features and capabilities that are not currently available in this system. Sage People offers a wide range of functions that meet most requirements. However, there is still room for improvement. One feature that I would like to see added is the ability to detect and address any failures in the custom processes or functions built within the system. I would like to see a tool that can automatically sense and identify any issues in the system. Currently, when something goes wrong, it's not always immediately obvious and requires a lot of manual troubleshooting. It would be helpful if there was an error message that clearly explained why the system is failing. This would speed up the investigation process and make it ten times faster.

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Marissa Schwan

Founder and Director at a consultancy with 1-10 employees

Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable

SuccessFactors has a best practices model for HR across the board, but there are multiple industries. For example, the pharmaceutical, engineering, and professional services industries may have different processes based on their business requirements and operations. SAP and Workday have one approach across industries. As employee experience becomes increasingly important, the kind of employees appointed in an engineering environment, a pharmaceutical environment, and a professional service environment are very different, meaning their experience touchpoints may differ and require adjustments. SuccessFactors should consider building their best practices around critical industries to help companies become more differentiated in the markets they operate in. As a company, we have 118,000 followers on LinkedIn, and the unemployment rate in South Africa is quite high, at more than 30 percent. When we advertise a job, the number of CVs and applications we receive from people who want to work for us is overwhelming, we can get up to 600 CVs for a single vacancy. To make the process more efficient, we need to use artificial intelligence to identify the key elements of the job profile and match them to the CVs of the applicants. The pre-selection questions are helpful in reducing the number of applicants, but they don't measure the suitability of the CVs and profiles. This is something that needs to be built into the system, but it doesn't currently exist in the market. We have a good pre-selection program, but it doesn't take into account experience, qualifications, professional memberships, work experience, or critical performance indicators. We have enough information from CVs and LinkedIn profiles for the system to match the vacancy profile with the applicant's information and rank them from most suitable to least suitable.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I guess I would say maybe that it is a more robust system."

"The reporting features are also very valuable because, on top of 300+ reports available on the system, you can also customize quite a number of reports."

"The solution's initial setup was straightforward."

"Compared to the other system that we were using, I think Sage is more friendly. As an administrator, Sage's dashboard is visually friendly and many tasks are easier to accomplish. Another feature that we've liked since we started using Sage is the reporting. With the other system, we needed to configure a lot of things manually when it came to reporting, but with Sage the reporting tasks are much simpler."

"The report builder and dashboard builder are very, very good."

"The solution provides the ability to trace back records, is reliable, makes life easy, and is secure."

"Without a doubt, the most valuable aspect of this solution is the reports, as it offers endless possibilities for report customization. You can easily build any report you can imagine with this system."

"Sage makes all the information accessible, like pulling a file because an employee needs something ASAP. It's all in the system. It's easy to find old reports if I need them for payroll purposes. It might take days to do some of this work by hand."

More Sage People pros

"SuccessFactors' most valuable feature is performance management."

"One of the most wonderful features is the ability to customize the modules and workflows. So far, we've done a fair bit of customization and it is helping us a lot and really adds to the value we already get from SuccessFactors."

"The interface is really useful and it's very easy to combine different information. For example, we can easily get reports that we need. It's very easy to create reports."

"Provides an open architecture and an open platform so it can coexist with other systems."

"The solution is stable."

"The best features that were working well for us was the Goal Management and Performance Management. They were the most valuable to our organization."

"The interface is user-friendly. It is very simple and intuitive, so it's good."

"The most valuable features of the solution are GUI and OData API."

More SAP SuccessFactors pros

Cons

"The user interface is not great."

"There were a couple of things that we wanted to customize, but we couldn’t do it ourselves."

"Its technical support could have been better."

"Right now, Sage doesn't seem to have what we are looking for when it comes to managing HR tickets. In my previous experiences with other HR software, we had to buy another solution to obtain this functionality, and it would be a great feature for Sage to consider adding. For an HR system, Sage would do very well to include it."

"The integration with our payroll system could improve. However, it is managed by another company."

"If Sage People were to become a fully cloud-based solution, it could lead to significant improvements. With the COVID pandemic highlighting the benefits of remote work, a complete shift to cloud-based functionality would be a welcome development for users."

"Its stability could be better."

"The budget module does not work. Sage People need to maybe make it more user-friendly."

More Sage People cons

"The integration between the recruitment module and employee central is a big problem."

"They should work on a faster way of locating a proper documentation."

"We lack information regarding how to build a network."

"SuccessFactors feels rigid. It should be more streamlined. Also, the interface design is outdated and needs an upgrade."

"User-friendliness is a major concern for me, which affects my overall experience."

"The solution needs more localization, especially for the Middle East and Russia."

"I find that the website sometimes has problems loading, but I'm unsure if it's an issue with SuccessFactors. After the login, there are some connection issues. We get some errors telling us that it cannot connect to the host."

"Language settings in the solution need to be improved."

More SAP SuccessFactors cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

"Its cost is moderate for a multi-group licensing model."

"I believe we pay licensing on a yearly basis, but I can't comment on the total amount that we pay on licensing."

"We have to purchase the solution's license to use it."

"There is other software on the market that can do similar functions to Sage People that could be better in price. Some solution allows you to do your payroll processes by month or by the process. Small companies could benefit by using another solution."

"The cost of Sage People varies depending on the financial resources of the organization. While it may be affordable for middle-level companies, it may be more challenging for young companies to bear the cost."

"I think it's reasonably priced. But in comparison to other systems, I would choose them over Sage People, regardless of their prices."

"From an SME standpoint, I wouldn't necessarily describe it as expensive. However, for the average startup, it may not be affordable since our current annual expenditure on the system, which supports approximately 210-220 users, amounts to approximately £15,000 to £18,000."

More Sage People pricing and cost advice

"The solution is on the expensive side but is definitely worth the money."

"We don't utilize even half of the licenses because not everyone uses them. With SAP SuccessFactors, though, we're now conducting all our performance evaluations within the system, so I suppose we're making better use of those licenses. As for SAP for employee services and internal benefits processing, we do have licenses for those but don't utilize them."

"Due to the way in which we purchased SuccessFactors as a module along with other SAP modules, we were able to procure it at a slightly better price than usual. I would rate their pricing 5/5 stars."

"We are on an annual subscription to use SAP SuccessFactors. The pricing model is something that they could restructure a bit better. If it was based differently on the type of usage it would help."

"The pricing for SuccessFactors is ridiculously high, and there are costs in addition to the license fee for some features."

"It is not expensive because it is a complete suite with a module-based cost."

"The cost of SAP SuccessFactors is reasonable."

"It could be cheaper."

More SAP SuccessFactors pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

22%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Educational Organization

48%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Sage People?

The report builder and dashboard builder are very, very good.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sage People?

The product is definitely not cheap. However, it's probably not uber-expensive. It is definitely on the higher end. Companies must understand that the more modules they choose, the more expensive t...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sage People?

There were a couple of things that we wanted to customize, but we couldn’t do it ourselves. So, we had to do another project that cost us. The product must improve how absence works.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 performance management, which is great. However, since we're still learning to use ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Workday vs Sage People

Compared 31% of the time

Cegid vs Sage People

Compared 26% of the time

PeopleSoft vs Sage People

Compared 22% of the time

More Sage People Competitors

Workday vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 29% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 16% of the time

SAP HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 15% of the time

PeopleSoft vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 7% of the time

UKG vs SAP SuccessFactors

Compared 4% of the time

More SAP SuccessFactors Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Sage People

April 2025

Download Sage People product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP SuccessFactors

April 2025

Download SAP SuccessFactors product report

Also Known As

Fairsail

SuccessFactors

Overview

Connect teams across borders

Customise communications: Deliver business updates to specific groups and gather feedback with surveys.
Personalise experiences: Create engaging, branded experiences – tailored by group or region.
Connect global teams: Manage your entire workforce, wherever they are. Embed global policies while enforcing local regulations.
Help teams thrive, anywhere: Support wellbeing, provide localised benefits packages, and more.

Get ahead with actionable HR analytics

Make informed decisions: Use People analytics for actionable insights in seconds.
Provide real-time insights: Give up-to-the-minute recommendations so leaders jump on trends and adjust plans.
Customise dashboards: Plan hiring, analyse attrition, manage absence, and more.
Get actionable feedback: Understand the employee experience through surveys, tailored to different groups.

Compete successfully for top talent

Deliver a differentiated, stand-out candidate experience with easy-to-use employer branding themes and options that shows off your culture and company story.
Fill roles faster with skilled talent using our unique, AI-powered, intelligent candidate matching.
Have new employees hit the ground running with seamless remote pre-boarding and onboarding experiences.

Sage

SAP SuccessFactors is a valuable human resource management system (HRMS) solution that streamlines numerous HR tasks and activities, such as payroll, talent management, and people processes, to help make the entire HR process run more smoothly and improve the overall employee experience. It is primarily developed to meet the needs of enterprise-class organizations. SAP SuccessFactors can also help users to boost business processes and achieve desired outcomes.

SAP SuccessFactors is cloud-based and built as a Software as a Service (SaaS) tool. It can integrate seamlessly with any existing ecosystem. This solution can easily be accessed from any web browser, from any location, with any device.

SAP Success Factors Key Features

Improve core HR and payroll process: SAP SuccessFactors can help users improve productivity by simplifying everyday tasks, streamlining processes across the organization, establishing consistent business practices, and improving the bottom line by reducing risk. SuccessFactors core HR tools include time and attendance, payroll management, document management, and additional core HR services to meet regulatory and compliance needs.
Staff planning and HR analytics: SuccessFactors can facilitate an improved DE&I (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) environment using intuitive people data measurements. The solution can help create action plans to ensure that hiring goals are met in a timely manner, preventing critical staffing gaps and ensuring that productivity and profitability goals are consistently being achieved.
Employee welfare management: SuccessFactors allows users to respond in a timely manner to employee needs and concerns, to better understand employee motivations, to keep employees happy and involved, to specify employee dissatisfiers, and to help improve the overall employee experience. The solution will also facilitate employee performance using an intuitive holistic approach, improve employee benefits, and guide and administer the entire employee career growth. SuccessFactors provides valuable opportunities for employee growth through intuitive individualized learning and career development opportunities. It also rewards and recognizes good performance and provides pathways for successful career growth. The solution will help to attract and retain the best available talent in the marketplace.

Succession Planning: The solution can be used to assist with talent sourcing, candidate management, and improving the overall candidate experience to include new hire onboarding, offboarding, and more. SuccessFactors also provides action plans for performance and compensation management, education and career development, talent reviews, leadership planning, and even sales performance management, goal setting, and quotas.

Reviews from Real Users

“We are using it for a lot of things: HR, performance management, and learning management. There are a lot of features embedded in SuccessFactors. We recently implemented a learning platform that employs the individual staff to actually manage their own learning. They can do it at their own pace. SuccessFactors allows you to manage your team, have calibration for promotion, and you can generate reports and see how you're doing.” - Alaba O., IT Asset Management Lead at Dangote Industries Limited

“SuccessFactors Talent Management tools help us in managing the entire employee journey. HR and managers can use the succession and development tool to create career paths and staff development plans. When combined with the learning tool, these development objectives can help employees gain the skills they need to advance their careers within the company.” - Yamen Z., SAP Project Manager at a manufacturing company

SAP

Sample Customers

Rocketship Education, Monitise, u-blox, SolarWinds, Mitsubishi, SmartStream, Canonical, Betfair

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

Buyer's Guide

SAP SuccessFactors vs. Sage People

April 2025

Free Report: SAP SuccessFactors vs. Sage People

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