Sage People vs Workday comparison

Sage and Workday are both solutions in the Cloud HCM category. Sage is ranked #23, while Workday is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.4. Sage holds a 1.4% mindshare in CHCM, compared to Workday’s 10.5% mindshare. Additionally, 81% of Sage users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Workday users who would recommend it.

Sage People

Read 15 Sage People reviews

1,497 Views
763 Comparison Views

81% willing to recommend

Workday

Read 58 Workday reviews

9,682 Views
6,777 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Sage People

Workday

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Workday and Sage People compete in the HR services sector. Workday appears to have the upper hand due to its strong integration capabilities and user-friendly design, whereas Sage People offers robust reporting and better adaptability to organizational needs.

Features: Workday excels in providing comprehensive HR services with a strong emphasis on user experience. Notably, its intuitive business process framework and extensive integration capabilities simplify annual reviews and enhance reporting. Sage People, leveraging Salesforce technology, is recognized for its customizable and powerful reporting capabilities. It facilitates integrated financial system functions and provides support for comprehensive employee information management.

Room for Improvement: Workday users point out analytics limitations, payroll system integration challenges, and configuration complexities. It lacks flexibility in handling global payroll, requiring outside assistance for reporting tweaks. Sage People could enhance performance management and automation areas. Additionally, better HR ticket management and more intuitive error messaging would improve user experience. Customization options in Sage People do not fully meet expectations compared to broader systems.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Workday offers deployment across public, private, and hybrid clouds, with a supportive user community despite occasional support delays. Sage People widely utilizes public and private clouds, with generally prompt direct support. Occasionally, technical support issues arise. Workday benefits from a stronger community support network.

Pricing and ROI: Workday is geared towards larger organizations with significant upfront costs, justified by comprehensive features and integration benefits, improving ROI through streamlined processes. Sage People targets SMEs with flexible licensing options, offering robust HR functionalities at balanced pricing, ensuring affordability and accessibility for mid-sized and growing businesses without incurring premium expenses associated with Workday.

To learn more, read our detailed Sage People vs. Workday Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Sage People vs. Workday

March 2026

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Helped 884,732 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

Sage People

Ranking in Benefits Administration

20th

Ranking in Talent Management

27th

Ranking in Cloud HCM

23rd

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

16th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

HR Analytics Software (9th)

Workday

Ranking in Benefits Administration

1st

Ranking in Talent Management

2nd

Ranking in Cloud HCM

2nd

Ranking in Talent Acquisition

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of Sage People is 1.4%, up from 0.6% 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
Product	Mindshare (%)
Workday	10.5%
Sage People	1.4%
Other	88.1%

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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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

"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."

"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."

"The solution is beneficial overall."

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

"The solution's initial setup was straightforward."

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

"The most valuable feature of Sage People is the integration with our payroll 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."

More Sage People pros

"The solution was very good at reconfiguration and customization of their software. It helped us to meet federal regulations."

"We use this solution to manage financials, payroll and recruiting."

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

"We like the fact that this solution is very user-friendly, with a straightforward user interface."

"The interface of Workday is superior; it is easy and clear, everything is organized effectively, and I enjoy using Workday extensively."

"The most valuable feature of Workday is the ease of use which is overall user-friendly."

"The interface of Workday is superior; it is easy and clear, everything is organized effectively, and I enjoy using Workday extensively."

"In terms of customization, while it may not be fully customizable, you can configure the features based on the foundation that Workday offers. This allows you to take the basic features and tailor them to the specific needs of your company or business. It provides a lot of configuration flexibility."

More Workday pros

Cons

"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."

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

"In my opinion, the performance management module of this system could use improvement as it falls behind compared to other specialized performance management platforms."

"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 user interface is not great."

"Its stability could be better."

"The automation in Sage People could improve. The solution is the best used for data storage but the automation could be better to have more functionality."

More Sage People cons

"It's possible that the way things are integrated could be improved"

"Workday could improve by adding other features, such as messaging to candidates and other recruiting capabilities that other new-age solutions have."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"We would like to see improvement in the mobile app variant of this solution. The time sheet entry and approval, and the geo-tagging features all need to have their functionality updated, in order to be comparable with other products on the market."

"One potential feature that could be added is the ability to streamline business processes through quick tips and guided tours. This would allow for a smoother and more guided experience for colleagues as they navigate through different processes and steps. It would be similar to a guidance system or a step-by-step tutorial that could be added after the business process to guide users through it."

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

"Workday has several helpful features. It has categorized payroll processes into sections, such as CTC separation and pay slips. It also provides detailed information on promotions and salary hikes, showing changes from the previous year to the current year. This includes a clear view of the new CTC and the monthly paycheck breakdown."

"Workday does not support many Korean language features. So, it will be great if they have some development on the Korean language side – then it will be really powerful in our market."

More Workday cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 pricing is reasonable."

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

"The price of the solution is reasonable."

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

"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."

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

"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

"Workday is moderately priced - I'd rate its pricing three out of five."

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

"I would rate the solution’s pricing a six out of ten."

"I rate the product’s pricing a ten out of ten."

"The pricing is good from an HR perspective, although management gets upset after spending $500,000 a year, every year."

"It is on a yearly basis."

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

"It's very, very expensive."

More Workday pricing and cost advice

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884,732 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

14%

Marketing Services Firm

12%

Educational Organization

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

University

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	42

Questions from the Community

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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...

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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.

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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...

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ADP Workforce Now vs Sage People

Compared 6% of the time

ADP Vantage HCM vs Sage People

Compared 5% of the time

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SAP SuccessFactors vs Workday

Compared 23% of the time

Oracle HCM Cloud vs Workday

Compared 8% of the time

UKG vs Workday

Compared 8% of the time

SAP HCM vs Workday

Compared 7% of the time

Dayforce HCM vs Workday

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Sage People

February 2026

Download Sage People product report

Buyer's Guide

Workday

February 2026

Download Workday product report

Also Known As

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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

The Workday Platform is an AI-powered platform that unifies HR, financial, and operational data, enabling seamless planning, execution, and analysis. It improves decision-making, streamlines cross-team processes, and leverages Workday Illuminate™ for advanced AI insights from vast HR and finance datasets. Workday empowers organizations of all sizes to innovate and optimize performance.

Workday

Sample Customers

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

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!

Buyer's Guide

Sage People vs. Workday

March 2026

Free Report: Sage People vs. Workday

Find out what your peers are saying about Sage People vs. Workday and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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884,732 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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