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SAP HCM vs SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 22, 2026

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

SAP HCM
Ranking in Cloud HCM
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Benefits Administration (2nd), Talent Management (5th)
SAP SuccessFactors Employee...
Ranking in Cloud HCM
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
3.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Cloud HCM category, the mindshare of SAP HCM is 3.0%, down from 8.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is 1.0%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud HCM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP HCM3.0%
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central1.0%
Other96.0%
Cloud HCM
 

Featured Reviews

SS
Assistant Manager at Kashiv Biosciences
Centralized global HR data has improved expense control and supports secure employee management
The features of SAP HCM are valued by me as it had a clear idea about what was expected from the user point. The person or the application has a lot of features and it had actually all the information needed from our part. That aspect is nice. Apart from that, the T-codes are really helpful to understand which particular option we need when we put the T-code in the search box. The stability and reliability of SAP HCM product are really nice, very helpful, and secured. It has no point of leakage and is mostly reliable, as most companies and organizations prefer SAP over many tools. As for security, it's already secured from the beginning itself, and that is the only reason our organization relies on it. Since it's very useful at a global scale, it is a very useful tool and is very easy to access and handle.
SajidFarooq - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Comprehensive payroll and reporting have improved HR insights but still require reduced duplication
There are some activities that we perform in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and similar activities that we must also perform in Employee Central Payroll. If information has been entered in Employee Central, why is there a need to add the same information in another module of SAP SuccessFactors? This duplication of activities is a concern we have faced. One thing is opened in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, and the same activity must be performed in Employee Central Payroll as well. If the product is the same and contains two to three modules, why does SAP require us to perform duplication of work under the same product? The pricing is very high. There is significant competition in the market, and we face challenges in selling the product due to the high prices that SAP is offering. SAP needs to reconsider their pricing strategy.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It simplifies everything for human capital management, and all users can do self-enrollment for leaves and those kinds of things. The employee self-service feature is quite a powerful feature for me. You can install it on your mobile phone or iPad and do your employee service activity there."
"The stability of the solution is good."
"The payroll suite is very valuable."
"The tool's best feature is SAP SuccessFactors."
"When you maintain your data in SAP, you can generate any kind of HR report with one click."
"I like the talent, recruitment, and learning features the most."
"It has the best data management features."
"The setup was straightforward."
"I find SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central to be user-friendly, with a good UI, accessible through Fiori, making it easy to navigate without using T-codes."
"SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is cloud-based, eliminating the need for any infrastructure with readily available data centers, and it is very user-friendly and integrates seamlessly with the Employee Central Payroll and all other talent modules."
"With just a single click, you can retrieve comprehensive information about an employee, such as their current profile, where they work, how many organizations they have changed, their years of experience, and their capacities and capabilities."
 

Cons

"SAP is not ready to sell the license on time and delays the progress of projects."
"Reports need to be added on the time management side."
"It takes a long time to apply an update patch to the system."
"SAP is not a last generation system. Users experience the use of the system as it was in 1998."
"SAP HCM could improve by having more resources and making it more user-friendly. It is complex."
"I would like it to move more towards a single data space, a single data source. SAP as a platform relies on multiple data sources because traditionally, it's been bolted together by the acquisition of other products rather than a single database. That's why there are lots of points of failure and lots of required points of integration. They need a single integration point."
"As a product, SAP is very complicated and complex to use."
"I'm currently working for a state-owned government company, and we need to follow some standards and regulations. We also have a strategy to be followed. Sometimes the template and the format are not available in the SAP HCM, so we have to work around this limitation. The tax also sometimes changes in my country, and we have to redo everything to change the payroll calculations, benefits, and things like that. The talent management feature can be improved. It is currently very simple in SAP HCM. SAP is also very hard to integrate. In terms of monitoring, there are no monitoring tools, but as long as we take care of the disk capacity, there is no problem."
"There are some activities that we perform in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and similar activities that we must also perform in Employee Central Payroll. If information has been entered in Employee Central, why is there a need to add the same information in another module of SAP SuccessFactors?"
"SAP can improve RDP and reports by making them more user-friendly, as there are complex processes in understanding and handling them."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is not reasonable at all."
"The solution is a little expensive and we are charged per user for the license. The solution can be paid monthly or annually."
"SAP is extremely expensive. The integration costs and customization costs are also a lot."
"The solution is cheap."
"The product is expensive."
"Be careful and guard against future changes in licensing."
"I believe HCM is a little expensive, but I don't know the exact price because I'm involved with the sales team. However, I think the price must be reasonable because many organizations are migrating their current ERPs to SAP. It's excellent software, and the price is competitive."
"We purchase the product's yearly license."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
16%
Construction Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
27%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Insurance Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise41
No data available
 

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 needs improvement with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?
There are some activities that we perform in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and similar activities that we must also perform in Employee Central Payroll. If information has been entered in Emp...
What is your primary use case for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?
SAP Business One targets small to medium-sized enterprises, while SAP Cloud ERP targets large enterprises. There is a clear difference between the target markets for these two products. I am curren...
What advice do you have for others considering SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central?
SAP Cloud ERP, previously called Grow with SAP, had its name changed last year in 2025. It is a complete SaaS model ERP with more modules included, such as sales, purchase, production, after-sales ...
 

Also Known As

SAP Human Capital Management
No data available
 

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.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP HCM vs. SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
921,714 professionals have used our research since 2012.