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SAP HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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
1.0
SAP HCM boosts efficiency and decision-making through automation and insights, offering a return in months to years.
Sentiment score
5.0
SAP SuccessFactors offers ROI within years by automating HR, though high costs may reduce perceived financial benefits.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
SAP HCM customer support is praised for quality but needs faster response times and more personalized consultant engagement.
Sentiment score
6.1
SAP SuccessFactors' support experiences vary, with some users satisfied, but others face delays and note limited expertise.
Not all requests are attended to promptly.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
I am totally satisfied with the response time and quality of support.
sap technical lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
We have our own internal team that supports the deployment process.
Global Practice Head Sap HCM/Succeess at Sutherland Global Services
Since they have a lot of understanding about HR metrics and KPIs, they understand what the expectations are.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
SAP HCM offers seamless scalability and flexibility, efficiently supporting diverse organizations and adapting to evolving demands across sectors.
Sentiment score
7.7
SAP SuccessFactors offers scalable solutions with quarterly updates, cloud compatibility, and modular design for diverse organizational needs.
This solution deserves a 10 because we can easily scale and upgrade to new versions.
DevOps Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
SAP HCM is quite scalable.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
SAP SuccessFactors is 100 percent reliable and one of the biggest in the market.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
We have implemented it for 25,000 employees, scaling from 7,000 to 25,000 using the same set of rules, and it was not difficult.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
SAP HCM is stable and reliable, with cloud versions showing improved stability despite isolated initial issues and configuration challenges.
Sentiment score
7.5
SAP SuccessFactors is highly stable, with occasional updates or custom field issues, but generally surpasses other ERP systems in reliability.
I would rate its stability as nine out of ten.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
I would rate the stability of SAP HCM as seven out of ten.
Manager IT at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
I hardly ever encounter any stability issues, as SAP SuccessFactors is very good and stable.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The solution is absolutely stable.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
The expectation from a non-IT representative is high.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
 

Room For Improvement

SAP HCM faces usability, integration, and customization challenges, with high costs, complex payroll, and limited talent modules compared to competitors.
SAP SuccessFactors needs enhanced analytics, integration, user interfaces, customization, localization, cloud features, AI, and improved documentation.
SAP HCM needs to be more customizable to fit unique organizational processes.
Manager IT at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
The organizational management (OM) side needs improvement due to frequent reorganization.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
We are able to optimize a lot of processes but there is always room for improvement.
Global Practice Head Sap HCM/Succeess at Sutherland Global Services
Advisories can only be placed at the bottom, which is less effective as employees may not scroll down to see them.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
The change management process during the initial launch was not effectively handled, leading to a poor user experience.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Workforce analytics is still challenging due to customizations. It does not provide flexibility in terms of analytics, and we have to customize extensively.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
 

Setup Cost

SAP HCM's high, complex pricing often hinders small businesses, with hidden costs and compared unfavorably to cheaper alternatives.
SAP SuccessFactors offers customizable pricing with an annual subscription, though costs vary by company size and additional services.
SAP HCM is quite expensive, but considering solutions like Oracle, they are similar.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
SAP HCM is costly compared to other ERPs like Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle, and I would rate the cost as one out of ten.
Manager IT at a educational organization with 51-200 employees
I would rate pricing for SAP as one because the price is high.
sap technical lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The licensing cost is not expensive now.
Chief Executive Officer at Orane Consulting Pvt Ltd
Pricing is a bit high and on the higher side.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
The licensing costs are quite high, which is a typical scenario for such solutions.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
 

Valuable Features

SAP HCM enhances productivity with integration, payroll management, scalability, user-friendly interfaces, and supports global operations efficiently.
SAP SuccessFactors enhances recruitment, provides seamless integration and customization, increasing employee engagement and satisfaction with robust analytics.
When we face challenges and raise tickets, Red Hat provides support within an hour, fixes bugs, and allows us to move to production after resolving issues.
DevOps Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
The main benefit SAP HCM provides is that we have all the information in one place; it is basically one centralized system with all the information rather than having multiple systems across the organization.
sap technical lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Capturing all the attendances and absences is a huge task that must be completed before running payroll.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
We also created many in-house reports according to our specific requirements with the help of this tool, which was a really big game changer for us.
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
Employees can view their goals, performance, ratings, and employee information, which enhances the employee experience.
Vice President & Group Head- People & Workplace Management at Alorica
SAP SuccessFactors has advantages in providing AI-driven initiatives such as candidate screening and matching features within the recruitment module.
Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP HCM
Ranking in Talent Management
3rd
Ranking in Cloud HCM
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (3rd)
SAP SuccessFactors
Ranking in Talent Management
1st
Ranking in Cloud HCM
1st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
100
Ranking in other categories
Talent Acquisition (1st), Global Payroll (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of SAP HCM is 5.4%, down from 15.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors is 11.3%, down from 22.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP SuccessFactors11.3%
SAP HCM5.4%
Other83.3%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

VD
DevOps Engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
User interface simplifies task management with easy issue identification and quick resolutions
We don't currently need third-party solutions because Red Hat provides security through RH-ACM. This Red Hat product helps us identify vulnerabilities in Pods, YAML files, and other components. When we encounter vulnerability issues, we raise tickets, implement Red Hat's solutions, and close the tickets. OpenShift is predominantly implemented in banking sectors. Banking sectors require Enterprise edition platforms due to RBI guidelines. While small-scale industries might use Kubernetes on AWS platform, major banks such as SBI and Central Bank of India prefer OpenShift for its Enterprise edition status and comprehensive support from Red Hat. IPI setup is straightforward, but air gap environment setup is more challenging as it requires configuring HAProxy, DNS, manual DNS server, creating ignition files, downloading images, and creating separate repositories. Regarding competition, based on my knowledge, OpenShift has limited competitors apart from Red Hat. IBM has acquired Red Hat for OpenShift, and they run OpenShift on their Linux platform, making IBM the primary competitor. This product deserves a rating of 10 out of 10.
SS
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
HR has gained clear analytics for attrition, goals, and appraisals and manages talent efficiently
SAP SuccessFactors has a low error rate. We had many ad hoc reports that we needed to generate, and it was very easy to do so in SAP SuccessFactors. We also created many in-house reports according to our specific requirements with the help of this tool, which was a really big game changer for us. We did not depend on advanced Excel in those cases. We generated a lot of detailed reports whenever we needed them during emergency cases or board meetings. A lot of usefulness and time were saved in those cases. I will also mention that we conducted a comparative study for some recruitment cases. We had a recruitment model where we were looking for a very niche profile. Since the job profile was really different and rare, we had to depend on analytics to understand and shortlist from a large pool of candidates that we already had in our database. Analytics was really helpful in this situation.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud HCM solutions are best for your needs.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Answers from the Community

NC
Content Manager at PeerSpot
Jan 25, 2024
Jan 25, 2024
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 to simplify the process, giving life back to HR systems so that they can be more modern and flexible, and rely more on the heart of HR – the employee. On the other hand, while SF is technically less ...
See 2 answers
YZ
SAP Project Manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 6, 2021
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 to simplify the process, giving life back to HR systems so that they can be more modern and flexible, and rely more on the heart of HR – the employee. On the other hand, while SF is technically less complex than SAP HCM, it also has significantly less capability, particularly when it comes to integration with other SAP modules. For example, while SAP's integration between the SAP Project system and the SAP HCM process is robust, SuccessFactors' integration is limited and still in its early stages. In all circumstances, SAP SF represents the future of HR, with a highly promising road map. I believe that if SAP continues to create more features, SF will have greater functionality than SAP HCM in 5 years.
Kseniia Gravis - PeerSpot reviewer
SEO at a tech company with 201-500 employees
Jan 25, 2024
So are you striving to successfully deploy and utilize SAP systems to centralize data, streamline operations, gain real-time insights and achieve business efficiency? SAP applications are the backbone of every business. We also discuss the best SAP implementation process as an ideal solution for such problems: https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/why-outsource-sap/ 
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise39
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise69
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SAP HCM?
SAP HCM is the one of the best ERP for an organization with a small to large scale business. It has the most efficient payroll functionality. Regards : SAP HR classes in pune
What do you like most about SAP HCM?
HCM is a very important module that each organization should want to use. It will help any organization to calculate and control the cost of their human resources.
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...
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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP SuccessFactors?
The licensing cost is not expensive now. It is much more competitive.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

SAP Human Capital Management
SuccessFactors
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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, Skrill Group Ltd.
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
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,768 professionals have used our research since 2012.